SONS OF SARAH VS. SONS OF HAGAR (GAL 4:21-31)

SERIES: FREE AT LAST, PART 16

GCEFC: FEBRUARY 21, 2010

INTRODUCTION

1. This next section of Galatians is considered by many to be the most difficult passage of the entire book. But I’m confident we can work our way through it and learn from it.

2. Besides, it just didn’t feel right to skip it. So what do you say we give it a shot?

3. The Galatian Christians have not quite yet defected from the gospel—but they’re close.

4. They’re thinking seriously about abandoning the gospel of grace—and exchanging it for a life of legalism and life under the Old Testament law.

5. So Paul’s saying to them: Now—before you make that final break with the gospel of grace—let me give you something to think about.

6. He says to them in V21: Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? He’s using the term law here to refer to more than just the Law of Moses. So he takes us back to the book of Genesis, where it all started.

A. THE OPPOSING ARGUMENT

1. You’ll recall that the false teachers in Galatia, known as Judaizers, believed that the doorway to God’s blessings was through one’s Jewishness.

2. To be Jewish placed you within the realm of God’s blessing. To be a Gentile put you outside God’s blessing and his salvation.

3. They believed that as Jews, God’s chosen people, they were the only people God chose to bless with his plan of redemption.

4. They traced their roots to Abraham, the father of their people. Abraham had a son named Isaac, who had a son named Jacob, who had 12 sons that became the Jewish nation.

5. The fact that God rejected the Gentiles shouldn’t seem unfair to us. Even God’s blessing on his “chosen people” was an act of infinite kindness, compassion, and grace.

6. So the false teaching Judaizers would have seen their Jewishness as the door to God’s blessing. They believed there was no other door.

7. It’s likely they would have used the story of Abraham as proof that Gentiles had to become Jewish to become Christians and inherit God’s blessing.

8. Here’s how the false teachers would have seen it.

a. Abraham had 2 sons—Ishmael and Isaac. God’s chosen people came through the line of Isaac—while God rejected the people who came through Ishmael.

b. God didn’t choose Isaac because he was special—Isaac was special because God chose him. Chosen long before he was even born.

c. Ishmael became the father of the Arab people—Gentiles in a broader sense—literally “the nations.”

d. After God delivered his people from Egyptian slavery, he gives them the law from Mount Sinai. God gave Gentiles no formal laws.

e. It’s like the Gentiles were somebody else’s kids. God was concerned for his children—not for the neighborhood kids.

f. The Gentiles would remain in the dark for a long time, steeped in paganism, idolatry, and sin. As I’ve said before—Gentiles were stateless, hopeless, Christless, friendless, Godless, and clueless.

g. The only hope was to be born Jewish or become Jewish. This was through circumcision for males, and conformity to the law for everyone.

h. As we’ve seen, for the Judaizers, faith in Christ was required for salvation—it just wasn’t enough. You must be Jewish too.

i. So the key to a relationship with God was your relationship to Abraham. Even Paul had said that if you’re the seed of Abraham, you’re an heir to the promise of God.

B. PAUL’S OVERVIEW

1. So Paul gives a little history lesson starting in V22: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

2. A little background.

a. When Abraham was 75 years old, he received a call from God telling him to leave his pagan homeland and travel to a distant land—that land was Canaan.

b. So Abraham obeys and sets out for the promised land. Abraham and his wife Sarah had wanted children, but Sarah was unable to conceive so they had none.

c. But God promised Abraham not only would he have a son, but his offspring would be innumerable. And one descendant would be a blessing to the whole world.

d. But Abraham was now 85 years old and still no son. So his wife, Sarah, comes up with an idea. She’d give her household slave, Hagar, to Abraham, and through her they could have their child.

e. Sarah’s life verse was: God helps those who help themselves. So thinking God needed their help, Sarah came up with this plan.

f. So when Abraham is 86, the slave/servant Hagar becomes pregnant. The plan seems to be working perfectly—God’s promise would be fulfilled after all.

g. But when Abraham is 99, God speaks to him again. He says: Hey, what’s the deal with Ishmael? I said that you and SARAH would have a son!

h. Abraham and Sarah have a good laugh. They thought it hysterical that they were going to have a child at 99 and 89!

i. But when Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90—their son is born. They name him Isaac, which means “laughter.”

j. Eventually the Abraham household begins to unravel. Ishmael is nearly a grown man by now and he mocks Isaac and makes life unbearable for him and his mom.

k. Eventually the slave woman and her son have to be sent away. It’s just not going to work to have the two sons and the two moms under the same roof.

C. PAUL’S EXPLANATION

1. In V23, Paul says: His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

2. Actually, Ishmael and Isaac were both born in the “ordinary way” in that they were both natural births.

3. What was different about them was their conceptions. Ishmael was simply the result of sexual relations between Abraham and the slave woman. As natural as it gets.

4. But Isaac was the result of a miraculous intervention of God that allowed for Sarah to conceive. Not only had she never conceived before—she was now 89 years old!

5. God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son. Isaac was the one through whom God’s blessing would flow in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham years before.

6. Then, starting in V24, Paul gives the biblical perspective on the history. This would have been jaw dropping when the Galatian false teachers read it.

7. V24: These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.

a. Literally Paul says these things may be taken allegorically. Which has caused no end of confusion.

b. This is because of what is usually understood by the term allegory. An allegory is typically understood to be a story that has a hidden meaning.

c. That meaning must be interpreted. Which is fine when it’s understood to be only a literary device. Like a parable, or a metaphor, or an analogy, or an illustration.

d. The novel Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory. So is Moby Dick.

e. Paul’s not suggesting that the events of GAL 4 are a story. That they didn’t actually occur. He’s saying there’s deeper meaning to the events that’s not so apparent.

f. The problem is that some interpreters have taken allegory to the point that they claim all of the Bible is an allegory—that none of it is historical.

g. So, Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 is an allegory about sharing what we have with those who don’t have. Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead is an allegory of how a person’s life can change drastically through faith.

h. That Jesus didn’t literally rise from the dead. His resurrection is just an allegory.

i. So you can see the problem. Paul is not saying that the events surrounding Abraham and Sarah did not really happen.

j. He’s saying they illustrate a deeper spiritual meaning than is apparent on the surface. But they are no less true events just because he uses them to teach a deeper lesson.

8. So what’s the allegory? What’s the illustration?

a. From these events Paul draws several contrasting truths.

b. V24: for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

c. So Hagar, the slave woman, has a son. That son is Ishmael. Her son is destined to be a slave. Why? Because his mother is a slave.

d. In the ancient world, a son’s status was determined by the status of his mother. Hagar was a slave—so her children are slaves.

e. V25: Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

f. Hagar represents Mt. Sinai. This is because Sinai is where the law was given. Mt. Sinai represents the law. And Paul has been arguing for 4 chapters that the law is a form of slavery from which we cannot escape.

g. The law doesn’t give life. The law only condemns. It only shows us that we fall short of God’s standard. Remember—it’s our tutor, our guardian, our paidagogos.

h. Hagar also corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem. How so? Because Jerusalem was under the yoke of Roman rule. It was a puppet city. Enslaved like Hagar’s son.

i. And it was the seat of Judaism, where the law was foremost and where the law ruled.

9. So what’s the point? The point is that these two women represent two different covenants that bring about two different results.

a. We begin with Abraham. Who had a son by Hagar, the slave woman—Ishmael.

b. Ishmael was born through presumptuous disobedience. Through lack of faith in God’s promise. It produced the Arab people, a source of contention with Jews ever since.

c. But Abraham also had a son by Sarah—the free woman. Abraham’s legal wife. This son was named Isaac.

d. Isaac was born through God’s supernatural intervention that confirmed his promise. It eventually resulted in the entire world being blessed through Christ, Abraham’s seed.

e. Hagar and Ishmael represent the Old Covenant. The covenant of law. The covenant of bondage and enslavement. The covenant that results in guilt and judgment.

f. Sarah and Isaac represent the New Covenant. The covenant of promise. The covenant of grace and freedom. The covenant that results in redemption and life.

10. So what about the section beginning in V27? Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.

a. This quote is from ISA 54. It was originally written to encourage the Jewish exiles held captive in Babylon.

b. He’s saying that eventually God is going to free his people and bless them even more than before. Paul applies these words to Sarah, who had been unable to conceive.

c. But now she’d be more fruitful than imagined—providing freedom and blessing through her offspring.

D. THE SOLUTION

1. So Paul begins with the historical. Then he moves to the allegorical. Now he concludes with the personal in V28: Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

2. Which is what he’s been telling the Galatians all along. You aren’t slaves anymore. You aren’t under legalistic bondage anymore. You’re not under the yoke of law keeping.

3. You haven’t been saved by your good works, nor will you be sanctified by your good works. You’re free in Christ. He’s done the work FOR YOU.

4. You’re not the sons of Hagar—you’re the sons of SARAH! You aren’t the sons of a slave woman—born through of sinful disobedience and lack of faith.

5. Sons that think you’re commended to God because of what you do. Rather than being declared righteous because of what God does for you.

6. Remember, Abraham believed God. It was Abraham’s belief, his faith, that caused God to declare him righteous. And his son Isaac continued the line of that promise.

7. And Isaac’s line continued all the way to Christ, the promised seed of Abraham. It’s through your faith in him that brings you forgiveness.

8. The line of Ishmael is the line of condemnation. The line of rebellion. The line of works righteousness. The line of the Judaizers. The line of the false teachers.

9. So what’s the solution? V30: But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.’ He’s quoted GEN 21.

a. It means that law and grace cannot peacefully coexist. It means that law and grace are incompatible. They’re a contradiction to each other.

b. The two sons cannot and will not share in the inheritance that’s meant for the legal heir—the free son.

c. God has only one plan of salvation. It started with Abraham. It was based on faith. It was based on belief in the promise of God.

d. It’s still based on belief in the promise of God. Law is in opposition to grace. We cannot be saved by law. We cannot be saved by law and grace.

e. We can only be saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. There’s no other means by which we can be saved. No other means by which we are sanctified.

10. So the slave woman and the slave son had to go. God’s promise was not to Abraham through Ishmael. His promise was to Abraham through Isaac.

11. That’s because the promise to Abraham was a promise through grace alone. God was not giving Abraham and his descendants something that they had to earn or work for.

12. That may be our plan. But it’s not God’s plan. God is about grace. He’s about doing what he alone can do. And about receiving the glory for what he alone has done.

13. No son of Hagar will ever receive an inheritance. No follower of legalism will ever receive an inheritance.

14. Only sons of Sarah will receive an inheritance. Because the sons of Sarah receive it by grace through faith. God gets all of the glory. The sons get none of the glory.

E. PERSONAL APPLICATION

1. V31: Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

2. So the Word of God has simply chosen another way of saying that the true children of God are not those who are the physical descendants of Abraham—but the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

3. Those who don’t have a drop of Isaac’s blood in their veins are still Abraham’s seed. Because their relationship to Abraham is not by blood but by Spirit.

4. As those related to Abraham not by natural birth but by supernatural birth—we are the children of God—we are the heirs according to the promise.

5. I do hope this includes you. I sure would hate for you to miss it. The bottom line is to know who you are. To know whose spiritual son or daughter you are.

6. We may all be children of Abraham in that we’re either Jews or Gentiles. But to be true spiritual brothers and sisters we must have the same mother. Not Hagar the slave woman, but Sarah the free woman.

7. Are you the child of the slave woman or the child of the free woman?