Galatians 4
21Listen to me, you who want to live under the law. Do you know what the law really says? 22The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave-wife and one from his freeborn wife. 23The son of the slave-wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.
24Now these two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. Hagar, the slave-wife, represents Mount Sinai where people first became enslaved to the law. 25And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery. 26But Sarah, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. And she is our mother. 27That is what Isaiah meant when he prophesied,
“Rejoice, O childless woman!
Break forth into loud and joyful song,
even though you never gave birth to a child.
For the woman who could bear no children
now has more than all the other women!”
28And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. 29And we who are born of the Holy Spirit are persecuted by those who want us to keep the law, just as Isaac, the child of promise, was persecuted by Ishmael, the son of the slave-wife.
30But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the family inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, obligated to the law. We are children of the free woman, acceptable to God because of our faith.
(Galatians 4:21-31, NLT)
The Daily DAVEotional
What do you think is required to get into heaven? How does God decide?
I’ve asked this question thousands of times as I’ve shared the message of Christ with people over the years.
What I’ve found is that people overwhelmingly think that getting into heaven when you die is a matter of being a “good” person. The prevailing view is that God will evaluate us based on what we’ve done and how we’ve lived our life. In other words, our HUMAN EFFORT.
I think that one aspect of our sinful nature is that we intrinsically want to make our eternal destiny about us. We become the central figures in our own story instead of God being the central figure as He should be.
This was the issue in the Galatian church. They started off strong, believing the message of the gospel that Paul preached and trusting in Jesus to pay for their sins, provide forgiveness and ultimately, eternal life.
But something happened along the way. Very quickly after placing their faith in Christ, these Galatian believers reverted back to their old way of life which emphasized adherence and obedience to the Law.
Paul is so surprised by their sudden spiritual shift that he asks them “who bewitched you?” I wrote about this previously in my post entitled, “I Put a Spell on You” and also, my post entitled, “Have you been Scammed?”
Paul tells the Galatians that if you want to live under the law, you’re voluntarily making yourself a slave again, which makes no sense.
He then gives an illustration from the Old Testament regarding Abraham and his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, whose births are recorded in Genesis 16 and 21 respectively.
You may recall that Abraham was given a promise by God that he would be made into a great nation, through whom all the nations would be blessed.
This promise to Abraham was given in Genesis 12, was reaffirmed in Genesis 15 and is commonly referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant.
There was only one problem. Abraham didn’t have any children and he and Sarah were both getting very advanced in age. From a human perspective, it was difficult to see how this promise could come to be as Abraham had no heir.
So in their haste to bring about God’s promise, Sarah concocted a plan that would give Abraham an heir. She allowed Abraham to sleep with her servant Hagar, who conceived and bore him his first son, Ishmael.
Though this seemed like a reasonable course that would ensure the preservation of Abraham’s family line, it actually bypassed God’s promise, which was not only to Abraham but to Sarah as well.
So Ishmael was indeed Abraham’s son but he was not the son through whom God would deliver His promise to make Abraham into a great nation. This is because Ishmael was not Sarah’s son, he was the son born of a slave woman.
Paul’s point in this passage is that Abraham’s two sons represent two different approaches to receiving God’s promise. Ishmael was born out of Abraham and Sarah’s human effort to bring about God’s promise by creating a scenario where Abraham would have an heir.
Isaac, on the other hand, was born out of God’s sovereign and divine intervention which provided an heir to Abraham AND Sarah.
So Ishmael represents human effort to bring about God’s promise, whereas Isaac represents God’s promise being delivered solely by His divine power.
Paul says that Ishmael represents Mount Sinai while Isaac represents the New Jerusalem.
What exactly does that mean?
Remember that Mount Sinai was where Moses met God and received the Law. It was this divine encounter that instituted the Mosaic Law by which every Jew from Moses onward lived their life.
The Law represented a covenant that emphasized human effort to live righteously, according to God’s explicit standards. There were lots of rules and regulations and various processes for receiving forgiveness and atonement. The law demonstrated that man was sinful and wholly incapable of living up to God’s perfect standard.
Isaac, on the other hand, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. This is not an earthly city but a heavenly reality. Isaac, who was born from Abraham and Sarah well beyond their child-bearing years, was conceived and born completely because God Himself brought it about. His birth was not brought about through human effort but via God’s divine intervention.
In the same way, coming to Christ, receiving forgiveness and eternal life, is completely a work of God. There is no human effort involved. Those who accept Jesus become a part of God’s heavenly family with the promise of living forever with him in a heavenly Jerusalem. Isaac represents this group because just as he was born as a result of God’s divine provision, those of us who belong to God’s family were born into that family only because of what God has done, not because of anything we have done.
Ishmael was born of a slave-woman and he represents those who want to live under the law, which is a system of slavery.
Isaac was born of a free-woman and he represents those who want to live in freedom from slavery.
Given these two choices, Paul wonders why anyone would consciously and purposefully decide to go back to a system that enslaves them. It is better to remain free.
The reality is that many Christians do exactly what the Galatians were doing. After accepting Christ, receiving forgiveness and entering into a new relationship with God as His adopted child. we resort to living our lives under some impossible religious standard that essentially enslaves us.
We have a choice when it comes to how we approach God’s promise of eternal life. We can do what Sarah and Abraham did and seek to make our own path by our human efforts. This is the Ishmael approach which leads to being enslaved to a religious system.
The alternative is the Isaac approach, which is simply placing our trust in God to provide His promise providentially. This approach leads to freedom because it’s not based on our performance but on God’s power to deliver on His promise.
Which choice are you currently making?
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Reflection
Paul says that those who have “faith” are acceptable to God. Have you placed your faith in Jesus to pay for your sin and give you eternal life? If so, what were the circumstances that led to that decision?
Any Christian who has placed their faith in Jesus can revert to a rules-based religious lifestyle, just as the Galatians did. In what ways do you tend to live by rules and religion instead of faith?
Why do you think so many people choose to live in slavery instead of freedom? What are some of the reasons in your opinion?
What are some common ways you see Christians living in legalism and rules-based Christianity?
What are some things you can do to keep you from straying or drifting into a rules-based religious system?
Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash
The Lowedown 