We Are the Children of Promise
Good morning, Cities Church. Great to be here with you this morning. Over the last several weeks we have been traveling through the book of Galatians. And we’ve seen that the Galatians had abandoned the true gospel.
There had been this group of false teachers, we call them the Judaizers, and they preached a false gospel. Rather than preaching the true gospel, that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus, they proclaimed that belief in Jesus was not enough—maybe it was a good start, but that they needed to do more to be saved. These Judaizers claimed that the Galatians needed to follow the Old Testament law to be saved.
But Paul makes it clear in this letter, no, you are not saved by obeying the law… and not only can you not be saved by following the law… the reality is that no one has ever been saved by obeying the law.
The law was never designed to save. That’s been a big part of Paul’s arguments thus far. And as a part of making these arguments Paul uses Abraham to make his point. Paul leverages Abraham is Galatians 3 and then does so again here in Galatians 4.
God established a covenant with Abraham, a friendship, and he says, “Abraham, I’m gonna bless you. Abraham. I’m gonna have a covenant with you. Your family is gonna be my family.” So, being in the family of Abraham is a big deal because that’s the family that God has chosen. That’s the family that God has an agreement with. And Paul has been making the point, “Y’all want to be in Abraham’s family, but you’re going about it all wrong.”
Abraham didn’t earn his way into God’s family by obeying the law. No! Abraham was called a friend of God because he believed. It’s by faith, not by works. We are justified by faith, we are forgiven of our sins by our faith in Jesus, not by our good behavior.
Abraham didn’t earn a ticket into heaven. He didn’t earn a spot in God’s family, no, so why would you think that you could earn it?
That’s what Paul has been saying thus far in this letter. Then, Paul points out a moment in Abraham’s life when he didn’t rely on faith, where he did actually try to take matters into his own hands, and Paul shows the result, and it’s not good. Look at Galatians 4:21:
“Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?”
22 “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.
23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.”
Now, many of you surely are familiar with this episode from the life of Abraham. If you’re not, quick synopsis. When Abraham was 75 years old… and his wife was 65. God promised that Abraham would be blessed, and God said that he would make Abraham into the father of many nations. Well, presumably if you’re gonna be the father of many nations, then you’re gonna need to have some children, but Abraham and wife could never have children. Well, several years go by and Abraham and Sarah, they’re trusting in God, they’re believing in him. But eventually they take matters into their own hands.
They assume they need to do something to make this happen. It’s up to them and their ability to push this forward. So, Sarah says to Abraham, “Why don’t you take my slave girl Hagar? Why don’t you go to bed with her? You can have a child with her. And that could be the child through whom the promise of God is fulfilled.” And that’s what Abraham does. Abraham has a child with Hager.
It’s like they said to themselves, “We’re gonna have to take matters into our own hands; we’re going to need to manipulate this or manufacture this; they basically took it upon themselves to do what they could do to bring about the thing God promised. And the child is born, and his name is Ishmael. At this point Abraham was 86 years old and Sarah was 76 years old. And they think it’s all good. They made it happen. But God says, “No, that’s not the right way.”
Look at what Paul says here, look at verse 23, Paul says… “the son of the slave was born according to the flesh.” The son of the slave… the slave is Hagar and the son is Ismael… he was born the flesh, this is not a supernatural thing. This thing you guys concocted, this was the handiwork of human hands, not supernatural intervention, the promise of God cannot be manufactured and cannot be brought about by human efforts. No.
Ishmael, he ain’t it. And the way you conspired to make this happen, that ain’t the way! But then, 14 years later, when Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 years old, Sarah gives birth to a child: Isaac. Finally, after years of waiting, 25 years of waiting, the promised child is born. Abraham was 75 when God told him he’d be the father of many nations, he was 86 when Ismael was born, and now he’s 100 years old when Isaac was born. And Sarah is 90 years old.
Remember, she was 65 when God told them that Abraham would be the father of many nations, she was 76 when Ismael was born, but here she was at the ripe old age of 90, giving birth to Isaac. This is supernatural. This is a miracle. I don’t know if you know this, but women don’t typically have children at age 90. Uhhh, that’s not normal, right?
God had promised that he would do something supernatural, and then, he did it, he did the supernatural thing. And Isaac is the result of God’s supernatural work. Look at the second half verse 23… “the son of the free woman was born through promise.” Now in verse 24, the apostle Paul will make a statement about how we are to view these two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. Look at verse 24, Paul says: “Now this may be interpreted allegorically.”
Two very important side notes.
First, Paul says that we can learn something from these two women, we can see this as an allegory or metaphor.
However, it’s very important to know that Paul does not merely believe that this story, that’s the first side note.
This story, from the book of Genesis, it is not merely an allegory. That’s an important point. Paul did not see the Old Testament as merely myths or fables, with good life lessons. There are some modern scholars that would want you to believe that the Old Testament is nothing more than illustrations.
But, when we examine how the apostle Paul talks about Abraham, in Galatians 3 and Galatians 4, it is clear that he believes Abraham was a real person. He’s not saying, “Hey, that was an allegory.” No, he’s saying Abraham was a real person. Hagar was a real person. Sarah was a real person. These are historical events. And, in addition to that, these events also serve to teach us spiritual truths; they point to greater realities.
But at no point should we think Abraham and Sarah are fictional characters in Jewish mythology. It’s also clear that Paul believed Abraham was a real person when we examine how Paul talked about Abraham in Romans 4. He believes that Abraham was a real person. The apostle Paul often harkens back to the Old Testament, and in 100% of those cases, it’s abundantly clear that the apostle Paul believed the people in the Old Testament were real people, that the Old Testament is accurate in its accounting of history.
We see Paul doing this in Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 11 and 15, in Ephesians 5, and 1 Timothy 2, and 1 Corinthians 11, in those passages he’s mentioning Adam and Eve and creation, it’s abundantly clear, he believes Adam and Ever were real people, and if Paul believed it, so should we. If you’re here and you have any questions about that, maybe you’re a skeptic, I’d love to talk to you after the service, feel free to come on up. Let’s talk about it.
Christians, you can trust the Bible. We can trust the veracity and the accuracy and the historicity of both the Old and New Testaments!
Okay, second major side note, in addition to being historical events, these events were orchestrated by God to teach us key doctrines, there are components of these Old Testament narratives that point toward New Testament concepts, and this is NOT by accident. God, in his tremendous providence, he specifically orchestrated these events throughout history to serve as fantastic illustrations for us, to give us insights into greater realities and greater spiritual truths.
We can learn a lot by peering back into the Old Testament and looking for how those events point toward the things revealed in the New Testament. These moments in the Old Testament are often referred to as “types” and studying them is often referred to as “typology.” That’s what us theology nerds call it… typology.
And there are some very clear examples of this in the New Testament. In Matthew 12, Jesus explicitly tells us that Jonah is a type, Jonah being swallowed by a large fish, he appears to have been defeated by death. However, on the third day, Jonah is given new life and comes back to herald the message of repentance, likewise, Jesus was seemingly defeated by death, but on the third day he rises, and he preaches a message of repentance. Jonah is a type.
Now, again, Jonah, and the whale, it actually happened. It’s a true story. It’s a matter of history, but it’s simultaneously a metaphor, an allegory for us. There are other examples in the New Testament. The apostle Peter talks about Noah’s flood being a type that points toward Christian baptism. In the book of Hebrews, we see the writer of Hebrews talking about the tabernacle as a type, all of the interior components of the tabernacle, the design, the structures, the furniture, all of those things were types, they pointed forward to some greater realities.
We should be looking for types in the Old Testament. Jesus expects us to look for him in the Old Testament. There are a few passages that teach us this but I think the clearest comes from John 5:39. In that passage, in John 5:39, Jesus was rebuking some Jewish leaders, these guys were not apostles, they were regular peeps, just like you and I, and he’s rebuking them for not seeing Jesus in the Scriptures. Jesus says to them, “you search the scriptures because you think in them that you have eternal life. And it is, they, that bear witness about me.”
Jesus is like, you guys are studying the Old Testament. You’re studying it. You’re getting in there. But you’re missing the main point. He’s like, you think it’s the scriptures that give life, but no, it’s not the scriptures that give you life; the Scriptures point you to the person that gives you life, that’s Jesus. Jesus was expecting them to see the Messiah on the pages of the Old Testament. And he certainly expects us to do the same. So, when we read the Old Testament, we should look for Jesus, we should look for types.
And that’s precisely what the apostle Paul is doing here in Galatians 4. He is reading an historical event. And he’s highlighting how that Old Testament event points toward a glorious New Testament doctrine. Let’s look at how Paul uses verse 24:
Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.
25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
Hagar and Sarah represent two distinct covenants. Hagar is Mount Sinai, that’s where the law was given. Hagar represents the old covenant, the law of Moses, the law that the Galatians were trusting in.
But Sarah represents the New Covenant and she is the mother of those who embrace the New Covenant. So, Paul is saying, “you who trust in Mt. Sinai, your mother is Hagar, and you’re not in the lineage of Isaac, you’re in the lineage of Ishmael.” Paul continues, he says that Hagar is the present Jerusalem, here on earth, which is enslaved—enslaved politically to the Romans and enslaved spiritually to sin.
But Sarah, she is the Jerusalem above, the new Jerusalem. Then he contrasts the two sons. Ishmael is born of the flesh, born through natural means. Isaac is the child of the promise, born because God miraculously opened Sarah’s womb. Ishmael was not the true heir. Isaac is the true heir. And, if you try to take matters into your own hands, if you start your faith journey by believing in Jesus, and trusting that you would be saved by faith, but then you turn around and then try to manufacture circumstances, you try to do it on your own, if you think you can bring forth the promise of God by your own efforts… then you are doing what Abraham did when he slept with Hagar, and what resulted from that was a child who’s mother was a slave, and in the same way, when you trust your own ability to save yourself, when you look to the law to save you rather than trusting in Christ to save you, then your result shall also be slavery, a spiritual slavery.
This would’ve been startling to Paul’s audience in the first century. They would’ve been absolutely shocked by this. Let me give you a silly example. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were watching a movie recently where a wealthy man died. And, after he died, all of his family got together at his estate to hear the family attorney read the will. There are hundreds of millions of dollars on the line here.
So the family attorney’s there and the whole family is there and the attorney opens the letter and then he tells them that all of them have been cut out of the will… hundreds of millions of dollars are going to someone outside of the family.
Everyone is shocked, then they’re angry, and then chaos ensues. They thought they were in, they thought they were in line to inherit all of the wealth, but they discovered that they’re on the outside looking in. I imagine, this is how many of Paul’s audience, the people reading this section in this letter, that’s probably how they felt.
In the minds of many people in the first century, they assumed that if you’re someone who has committed to the law, then you are in the family, you are in Abraham’s downline, you’re in the will, and you’re in-line to inherit the promise of Abraham!
They knew that the promise of God to Abraham would then be carried out through to Isaac, and then to Jacob, and then to Jacob’s children, and then to their children, and their children’s children, all the way down the line. The people in the first century committed to following the law would have seen themselves as being descendants of Isaac, they would have looked to Sarah as their mother.
But Paul’s implies that for those who trust in the law for salvation, Sarah is not their mother, they’re actually in Hagar’s family, that’s your mother.
Hagar represents taking matters into your own hands, she represents trying to manufacture the promise of God, on your own, based on your own efforts, and that’s what the Galatians were doing with their salvation, they had stopped trusting in Christ alone for salvation.
No, at this point, there’s no doubt, Paul knows that he has totally messed with their heads. He has totally thrown them for a loop. They cannot believe what he’s saying, and they’re thinking, but weren’t the Jews the ones God was faithful to for centuries, and weren’t they the ones that followed the law?
Paul anticipates this sentiment and he proactively addressed this sentiment by quoting from Isaiah 54:
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more,
than those of the one who has a husband.”
Over and over again throughout the Old Testament, God speaks to Jews as being their husband, and over and over again, throughout the Old Testament, God speaks of the Jewish people as being unfaithful to him. They continually flirted with other gods. He calls Israel a harlot.
The ones who had a husband were the Jews, they were the ones that had been given the law, but they were unfaithful, so God is declaring, through the prophet Isaiah that there’s going to be a group of people that have been seen as desolate, they didn’t have God as their husband for centuries, but they are going to become greater than the ones who did have a husband.
Paul’s point is that the Gentiles were called desolate by the Jews, but they believed in Jesus, and that unites them to God.
Paul is implying that God is the husband to the Galatians, through Christ. To them Paul says, “you are in covenant with God through trusting Christ… but if you turn away from Christ and your turn toward the law, you’re turning you’re back on your husband. Don’t do that!” And then Paul explains why they ought not do this. Look at verses 30-31 with me:
“What does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.”
31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.”
The apostle Paul points out that Ishmael and his mother are eventually cast out of Abraham’s house, in the same way, those who insist on trusting in the law for salvation, they too shall be cast out. They will suffer the same judgment. When Abraham tried to do it on his own, the result was someone being born to a slave mother. When Abraham trusted God, the result was God fulfilling his promise.
The same is true for us… when we try to do this on our own, slavery will be our mother. But if we trust Christ the result will be the same as when Abraham trusted God, we will see God fulfill his promises. And this was made possible, by Jesus, at the cross. We are all sinners, by nature and by choice, we deserve to be cast out, we deserve to be condemned. But Jesus took on the punishment we deserved, and he made it possible for us to be saved.
If we trust in Jesus, if we wholeheartedly believe on him, we then are counted members of God’s family. As Paul said to the Galatians, Cities Church, I say to you… We are not children of the slave women, but we are children of the free woman, and we are now in the family. And that is worth celebrating!