Bob Josey - The Letter to the Galatians Part 18 - Feb 9, 2025
The Letter to the Galatians
Part 18
(Galatians 4:21-31)
Introduction
Today we will discuss part of Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia that includes the biblical characters of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael. In this narrative, Paul employs a figure of speech known as an allegory. I will explain what an allegory is later.
The method of biblical interpretation used by conservative Christians when interpreting the Bible is called literal or normal interpretation. The Golden Rule of Interpretation states, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense.” We know that in languages figures of speech exist. They are used for the sake of emphasizing something. Jesus called Herod an old fox. We know Herod was not a literal fox, but Jesus called him that to emphasize that he was sly and cunning.
Before discussing Paul's correct use of allegory in Galatians 4, let's review how this method is used today, especially in liberal churches where it is called allegorizing Scripture and spiritualizing Scripture. Here are some examples of such interpretations.
Noah’s ark is seen as a representation of the church, with Noah symbolizing Christ. Rebekah drawing water signifies our need to engage with Scriptures daily to encounter Christ. In Jesus’ triumphal entry, the donkey represents the Old Testament, its colt the New Testament, and the two apostles the moral and mystic senses of Scripture. Historically, except for the Second Coming of Christ, prophecies such as the Rapture, the Seven Years of Tribulation, the regathering of Israel into their own land, and Jesus' 1000-year reign are spiritualized or not taken literally. Also, they believe Satan is currently bound and unable to tempt believers.
Many biblical stories are considered allegories by liberals to include Adam and Eve's, Jonah's ordeal, life of Abraham, etc. These stories are seen as non-literal tales meant to convey moral lessons. Today we will study a true story about biblical characters that Paul uses in an allegory. It is an illustration demonstrating that justification is received by faith, not by observing the Mosaic Law.
2. A Biblical Illustration (4:21-31)
a. The historical facts (4:21–23)
Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?
“Tell me“ is not a gentle request to the Judaizers by Paul. I believe it is a rhetorical question that Paul and the Judaizers already know the answer. Basically, what he is saying is “Don’t you know what the Law says about justification being by faith instead of by observing the Mosaic Law. The answer is they do not know. If they did know, they were blatantly disregarding the truth. Either way, they are going down a path that does not lead to heaven.
As Paul writes this story about Isaac and Ishmael, he knows that this story could be the theological seed that would bear fruit in the situations of the Judaizers and the Galatian unbelievers. Paul is praying that the Judaizers and their followers will change their position that justification is received belief in Jesus and keeping the commandments of the Mosaic Law. He is praying that the following story will force the Galatians to realize their present beliefs are untenable, as we shall see. Now let’s look at the story.
Galatians 4:22-23
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman
23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.
In verses 22 & 23 Paul gives the historical background. The phrase "for it is written" explains why the Judaizers and Galatian believers should heed this true story about justification by faith, not works. Abraham had more than two sons, but the others are irrelevant here. Ishmael was born to Hagar—a bondwoman—and Isaac was born to Sarah—a free woman. A child’s status of being free or a slave was determined by their mother’s status. Thus, Isaac was a free son, while Ishmael was not a free son but a slave’s son.
In verse 23 we see a second important contrast in the two sons. Ishmael was conceived by natural or normal means, whereas Isaac was conceived by a miracle from God in a old woman past her childbearing years.
b. The allegorical interpretation (4:24– 27)
Paul will now use the historical facts he just presented and will make an allegory out of them. Note at the beginning of verse 24 that Paul calls the story an allegory. The word allegory means literally “to say something else.” Therefore, an allegorical interpretation is one that finds a second meaning.
In this allegory, Paul’s intention was to emphasize the contrast between Law and grace. He took a narrative from the Old Testament history and interpreted it in terms of new covenant realities. As we work through this allegory, please note that Paul did not in any sense deny the literal meaning of the story.
This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
The two women, Hagar and Sarah, represent two covenants. Hagar represents the Mosaic Covenant and Sarah represents the Abrahamic Covenant. Hagar is said to have come from Mount Sinai. This is the mountain where God revealed Himself to Moses and where God gave the Law to Moses to give to Israel. It is also called Mount Horeb in Exodus 33:6. The area around Mt. Sinai is barren area south of the Dead Sea and north of the Arabian Peninsula. In keeping with his allegorical explanation, he ties Hagar, and her son Ishmael, and Mount Sinai with Arabia, the home of the Ishmaelites, the descendants of Ishmael.
Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
Hagar was the Egyptian handmaid slave of Sarah who Paul says bears children that are in slavery. Paul also ties her with Mount Sinai, and by implication, the Mosaic Covenant that was given to Moses and Israel there. In Paul’s allegory, Hagar is a slave and so were her children, Israel, who were slaves of the Mosaic Covenant.
Concerning Jerusalem, Paul is emphasizing the religious significance of the city. Jerusalem during the time of Paul was the center of Jewish religion that revered the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jews, and the observance of the Mosaic Law as the way to be justified to God. In this allegory, Paul is connecting the present religious system of works headquartered in Jerusalem and its adherents, including the Judaizers, with the slave woman. Hagar and her son, Ishmael, a son of slavery, born according the flesh,” are also associated with the Mosaic Covenant established at Mount Sinai. With the use of this allegory Paul was stating “the present Jerusalem” in his day and its inhabitants, which corresponds to Hagar and her offspring, are in slavery.
But Jerusalem is free; she is our mother.
The “but” that begins this verse shows a contrast from the earthly Jerusalem in Paul’s day from the eternal heavenly Jerusalem. The gospel being advocated and propagated by Judaizers was as different as earthly Jerusalem with its inhabitants from heavenly Jerusalem with its inhabitants.
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament anticipate the future heavenly Jerusalem, also called the New Jerusalem which indicates the completion of God’s comprehensive redemptive plan and the full realization of His sovereign rule over all His creation.
Galatians 4:27
For it is written, “REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR;
BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR;
FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE
THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.”
Paul used the phrase “It is written” to introduce a scriptural quotation, this one from Isaiah 54:1. This famous passage of Scripture compares the city of Jerusalem to a barren widow sitting at the gates of Jerusalem. She is covered in sackcloth and ashes because her husband has been carried away into captivity to Babylon and she has no children to care for her in her old age. In the midst of this desperate situation, the voice of God breaks in: “Be happy, you childless woman! Shout and cry with joy, you who never felt the pains of childbirth! For the woman who was deserted will have more children than the woman whose children never left her. With those words Isaiah had assured Israel that their bondage in Babylon would not last forever, that they would one day return to the land of Israel and become more numerous than before.
Paul brings the promise of this great reversal, originally given to Sarah and the city of Jerusalem when those in exile return, to the Galatians. The original condition of the Gentiles—being outsiders to God’s covenant with the Jews—has been reversed. Through God’s grace, justification and freedom are now available to them by faith.
This great reversal envisaged by Isaiah—from barrenness to fruitfulness, from despair to joy, from desolation to blessing—can only be accomplished by the intervention of God himself. Again, Paul was pointing to God’s gracious sovereignty and infinite love that is the foundation of our justification, freedom, and hope. Paul applied this passage in this context to Sarah, who though previously barren, was later blessed with a child, and who would ultimately enjoy a greater progeny than Hagar to include Gentiles.
c. The personal application (4:28–31)
From what Paul wrote in his allegory, he made three comparisons. The first is in Galatians 4:28.
And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
Like the Galatians, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are a child a free woman, Sarah. You are a child of promise (4:28). Just as Isaac was supernaturally born as a result of God’s promise, so all believes in Jesus the Messiah are supernaturally “born again” as a result of God’s promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham (Gen. 22:18). Since believers in Jesus are in a distinct category of being born again, because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we should not live as children of bondage. The second comparison is in Galatians 4:29,
But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
Paul compared Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac to the false teachers, the Judaizers, who opposed Paul’s teaching about justification by faith. In Genesis 21:8-9 Abraham had a celebration banquet for Isaac’s weaning. At that banquet Ishmael mocked and ridiculed him as his younger brother. Ishmael assumed he would be the heir of his father’s estate. Apparently, Ishmael did not know that the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant would go through Isaac not him.
We know that this early event against Isaac would lay the groundwork for the animosity and hatred between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael that is seen in Psalm 83:1-8. The Ishmaelites and Edomites made a covenant with each other and other nations with the purpose of destroying Israel.
The point of this is that the Judaizers had been pressuring and harassing these Gentile believers basically to put themselves under the bondage to the Mosaic Covenant. He stressed in this verse that believers in Jesus are born again with the power of the Holy Spirit. They are to be led by the Holy Spirit, not by the Law of Moses. The third comparison is found in Galatians 4:30.
But what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”
Paul compared Abrahams fulfilling Sarah’s request to expel Hagar and Ishmael because he harassed Isaac at the banquet to the Galatian believers need to expel the Judaizers for their harassing and pressuring these new Gentile believers. Those in the churches who had accepted this false doctrine should also be expelled. This should have gotten the attention of the Judaizers concerning their belief that justification includes keeping parts of the Mosaic Law. Just as Ishmael and Isaac could not reside together, neither could Law and grace. They do not mix. This means that people who believe in justification by faith alone and people who do not believe that justification is by faith alone but must include keeping parts of the Mosaic Law are not compatible. These unbelievers should be excommunicated.
So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.
By Paul using the words “so then” he is giving a summery and the conclusion of the allegory he just presented. The brothers Paul is referring to are the men and women in the churches of Galatia who believed in justification by faith alone. He did not include the Judaizers and those unbelievers who followed their teaching. These brothers and sisters in Christ were free and did not need to keep any of the Mosaic commands to be justified or to mature in Christ.
Application
Linda and I were part of a church that had people in the church who were legalistic. Some had strong beliefs in things that were not biblical. These beliefs were not heretical, however. They had nothing to do with doctrine, but everything to do with day-to-day living. Some were pushy about their beliefs but there was never any type of persecution like the Judaizers were doing.
One thing that we appreciate about this church is that believers have freedom in Christ. If you have never experienced legalism, you don’t know what you missed. Those of us who are children of Abraham and Sarah and free should thank the Lord every day that we were exposed to the truth of justification by faith and are free in Christ. We should be thankful to the Lord that we belong to a connect group and a church that believes in justification by faith and that we are free in Christ. The best way to put it is that we are free in Christ because we are saved by grace alone, through faith, in Christ alone.