This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in the
Bible called the book of Galatians. Yesterday, we saw a man named Paul share
the story of Sarah and Hagar. Instead
of waiting and trusting in God and His promises, Abraham and Sarah decided that
they would help God out by doing something for God, which resulted in the birth
of a son named Ishmael. Instead of trusting God, Abraham and Sarah decided to
do for themselves what God had promised that He would do for them. However, even
though they had attempted to do for God what God promised to do for them
through Abraham’s activity with Sarah’s slave, God is a promise maker and God
is a promise keeper.
And a little later in the
story, we read that Abraham, who was 99 and Sarah, who was 90 and on the other
side of menopause, acted with confident trust in God and His promises that
demonstrated their faith. And God, just as He had promised, graciously
intervened in a supernatural way to provide for them a son, named Isaac. Unlike
Ishmael, who was the result of their attempts to do something for God, Isaac
was the result of them placing their confident trust in God to do what only God
could do.
Today, we will see Paul transition from this story to the
situation in the churches of Galatia in verse 24:
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. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds
to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
Now to understand what Paul is communicating here, we
first need to define some terms. When Paul states that this is allegorically
speaking, he is letting the members of the churches of Galatia know that he is
going to use the story of Sarah and Hagar as an analogy to express a truth that
he wanted to convey to them. You see, when people ask me if I take the Bible
literally, my response is that I take the parts of the Bible literally that are
meant to be taken literally. The Bible is composed of many different types of
literary genres and here Paul is making an allegorical analogy to reveal a
truth.
First, Paul states that these women serve as an analogy
to two covenants. Now a covenant refers to a decree from God that establishes a
relationship between God and humanity. One covenant, Paul explains, is
represented by Hagar and proceeds from Mount Sinai bearing children who are
slaves. Here Paul is referring to the covenant that God made with Moses and the
Jewish people that is recorded for us in the second letter in our Bibles,
called the book of Exodus, in Exodus 19-24.
In Exodus 19-24, we see Moses go up to meet with God on
Mount Sinai, where he was given the Law, which contained the list of
commandments that revealed to the Jewish people God’s nature, God’s character,
and the type of nature, character, and conduct that humanity would need to
possess and display in order to live in a right relationship with God. It was
the Law that formed the Jewish religious system. And it was the Law which Paul
refers to as bearing children who are to be slaves. But what does that mean?
Paul here is revealing the reality that attempting to do
things for God in order to be in a right relationship with God by keeping a
list of religious rules for God, in this case the Law produced people that were
enslaved by the religion of legalism. Just as Hagar was a slave, attempting to
do things for God in order to be right with God instead of trusting in God and
the promises of God results in slavery to the religion of legalism that can
only reveal the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God.
Paul then makes application of his analogy by explaining
in verse 25 that Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present
Jerusalem. Paul’s point here was that just as Hagar was a slave, the Jewish
people who attempted to do things for God in order to be right with God, by
keeping the commandments of the Law were enslaved by the religion of legalism.
Paul wanted the members of the churches of Galatia to clearly understand that
the Jewish people were enslaved by the religion of legalism and separated from
God. Paul then transitions to talk about the second covenant in verse 26:
But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. 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." And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of
promise.
Here we see Paul contrast the Jewish people that
attempted to do things for God in order to be right with God and were enslaved
by the religion of legalism with the Jerusalem above. You see, the present
earthly Jerusalem served as the center for the Jewish religious system that
represented the covenant that God made with Moses on Mount Sinai.
However, the Jewish people took that covenant and
responded by becoming enslaved in the religion of legalism. By contrast, the
Jerusalem above was a place of freedom from the slavery that comes from
attempting to do things for God by keeping a list of religious rules for God through
the religion of legalism. But, this morning, where is this Jerusalem above?
What is Paul referring to here?
When Paul refers to the Jerusalem above, he is referring
to the covenant relationship that God offers to all humanity through Jesus
life, death, and resurrection. Paul is reminding the members of the churches of
Galatia, and us here this morning that the spiritual and eternal kingdom of
Heaven first arrived when Jesus entered into humanity and will come in its
fullest sense when Jesus returns to earth to defeat selfishness, sin, and
death.
Paul’s point here is that the claims of Christ and the
message of the gospel provide us the opportunity to be freed from the slavery
of the religion of legalism so that we can experience that forgiveness and freedom
that comes when we live in the relationship with God that we were created for
as a part of the family of God. Paul uses the analogy of this Jerusalem above
as our mother to reveal that we become a child of God by trusting in what God
has done for us, not in what we do for God.
Paul then quotes from a section of the Old Testament
letter the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 54:1, the prophet Isaiah predicted and
proclaimed that there would be a future day when Jerusalem would be restored
from captivity and be blessed with fruitfulness and children that would make up
for those that were lost as a result of God’s right and just response to their
selfishness and rebellion. Paul then takes this Old Testament quotes and
applies it to reveal that God’s new covenant through Jesus life, death, and
resurrection would result in a fruitfulness and blessing of people becoming a
part of the family of God through faith in Christ.
Just as Sarah rejoiced with joy at the birth of Isaac,
who was the result of them placing their confident trust in God to do what only
God could do; just as Sarah’s children were more numerous than those of Hagar,
who were the result of their attempts to do something for God; followers of
Jesus who have placed their confident trust in what God has done for us through
Jesus life, death, and resurrection have the freedom and the victory over the
slavery of the religion of legalism.
Paul then reinforces this
reality in verse 28. Like Isaac, those who place their confident trust in the
claims of Christ and the message of the gospel are a part of the family of God.
Paul is asking the members of the churches of Galatia: “After having the
opportunity the experience the freedom and forgiveness and comes through
placing your confident trust in what God has done through Jesus, why would you
then go back to the religion of legalism that only enslaves you once again and
separates you from God?”
Friday, we will see Paul transition
to address a situation that was occurring between those who embraced a gospel
centered life and those who embraced a religious centered life…
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