The Question, v.21. You who are trying to live under the law, do you listen to the law? Don’t you hear what is it saying? In what is similar to sarcasm, Paul’s point is basically: …“you can’t have read the law and understood what it is saying, because it says not to be relying on the law! Paul does not mean obeying the law here. To be “under the law” means relying on the law for your standing with God.” (Keller) Remember, the letter to the Galatians was written to deal with an issue. A group of Jewish-Christian missionaries had arrived in Galatia to “correct” Paul’s gospel. We’ve been referring to these men, who came from Jerusalem, as “the Judaizers.” They preached a legalistic form of Christianity. They wanted Gentiles to become Jews in order to be good Christians. Thus they were trying to add the law of Moses on top of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Will you not listen to what the law itself teaches? Are you not able to see a meaning in the incidents it records? Will you only learn one part of its teaching, and shut your ears to the rest? He then makes his case from the book of Genesis. The Facts, v.22-23. Abraham had two sons. (22) One born by Hagar, the slave. (Ishmael) The other born by Sarah, his wife. (Isaac) Two ways. (23) God had promised Abraham a line of sons, though he had no son. This was their covenant. Finally, once there was no more chance of human effort bringing the son into being, God kept His promise and Abraham and Sarah were given Isaac. Sarah is the “freewoman” and her son Isaac was born “by promise.” Hagar the bondwoman, gave birth to Ishmael through intercourse with Abraham (he was born “after the flesh”). Isaac, born of the free woman, Sarah, represents grace. Ishmael, born of the slave woman, Hagar, represents the law. The birth of Ishmael was an ordinary birth to Abraham and his slave. The birth of Isaac was a supernatural birth because Abraham and Sarah were very old. It was a birth of promise in that Isaac was the child God promised to give to Abraham (Gen. 12). The Allegory, v.24-26. Paul, using these biblical facts, makes a spiritual application for the church in Galatia. He says, “these things are an allegory.” (24) In such, the people and their actions represent hidden meanings so that the narrative can be read in 2 levels: The literal and the symbolic. I do not take Paul to mean that the story of Abraham in Genesis is only symbolic. I take Paul to mean that his use here of that factual story from Genesis is symbolic. This is not allegorical interpretation. Paul is not interpreting Genesis in these verses. He is using facts from history, listed in Genesis to make an illustration for the church in Galatia. From this statement, Paul lays out his “two covenants” — contrasting Sarah and Hagar. Paul uses the two mothers, their two sons, and two locations as a further illustration of two covenants. From Hagar the covenant of bondage (law, works). From Sarah the covenant of freedom (grace, liberty). Bondage. (24b-25) First, he uses Mt. Sinai and Jerusalem. This is a “skip ahead” in the story as he references the place where God gave His people the law in Exodus 19-34. Then is physical Jerusalem — the place most commonly associated with the living out the law. The place where, “In both Paul’s day and our own, most Jews remain, like all unbelievers, in slavery to sin and under the law’s curse revealed at Sinai.” (Sproul) “The law was given at Sinai and received its highest expression in the temple worship at Jerusalem.” (MacArthur) Next is Hagar. Hagar was part of this situation due to Abraham’s doubt. If you read Genesis 16, you find that she was an Egyptian. What was Abraham doing in Egypt? (Doubting God) Had he never gone to Egypt, Hagar would’ve never been an option. Nevertheless, Hagar was not intended to be a wife. She never ought to have been anything but a handmaid to Sarah. Can you begin to follow Paul’s line of thinking? When man follows works of the flesh, the result is bondage. When man, by faith, follows God, the result is freedom! “The law was never intended to save; it was only designed to be a handmaid to the covenant of grace.” (Spurgeon) Finally, we have the son. Ishmael, though born through Abraham, was the son of a slave and remained a slave. Thus, those under the law, remain enslaved to the law. As Hagar “is” Mt. Sinai. And those under the law are “sons” of the law. (Offspring, descendants) Free. (26) Already Paul has said that Sarah is the freewoman. (23) Her son, Isaac, the son of the promise (covenant) born free. Supernaturally…once Sarah is past the time of childbearing. Now he makes her what he calls “Jerusalem above”. What does this bring to mind? (Heaven, presence of God) On Earth, the tabernacle and then Temple in physical Jerusalem were always representative of the actual presence of God. “Jerusalem was the city where God had set His name, the place of His dwelling in the midst of His people (Ps. 78:68, 69). The reality of God’s dwelling with us was accomplished in Christ, the true temple (John 2:19). The true Jerusalem is in heaven where He is (Heb. 12:22; Rev. 21:2).” (Sproul) Sarah, Jerusalem above, with son Isaac (promised one) stand in stark contrast to: Hagar, Mt. Sinai, Ishmael. And Paul concludes, “is the mother of us all.” All of who believe in Christ Jesus. “We are born of the free woman, not of the slave woman; not born of the covenant of works, and in the strength of the creature, but born of the covenant of grace, in the power of God, according to promise.” (Spurgeon) The Application, v.27-31. “For it is written”, Paul uses Isaiah 54:1 for v.27. (27) “This quotation … is a prediction that the children of the heavenly city will be more numerous than those of earthly Jerusalem.” (MacDonald) “Sarah (grace) was initially barren, but she ended up with innumerable spiritual children because of the Abrahamic Covenant.” (Anders) The intended comparison was between the growth of Christianity (grace) and the stagnation of Judaism (law) in the first century. Paul is challenging the Galatians to choose Christ (grace) and be a part of what God was doing in their day. Certainly we’ve lived to see a time when those under grace out-number those choosing to remain under the law. Children of the Promise. (28) Paul, the Galatians, NT Church are “children of the promise”. Born of faith (promise, supernaturally), not of works. See John 3:1-7. How it is now. (29) Just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac… Gen. 21:9-10, “And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” Paul is telling the Galatians that the legalistic judaizers are doing just this to them (children of the promise) now. A 2nd Question. (30) Paul began asking, “Do you not hear (listen to) the law?” Now he asks, “What does the scripture say?” We just read it in Gen. 21:10. Cast out the bondwoman and her son. The son of the bondwoman will not be heir with the son of the free. Law and grace do not mix. cf.v.21 - do you “now” hear the law? (Still want to be under it?) The Result. (31) We are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Neither Paul, nor the Galatians had become part of Jerusalem above by works of the flesh. It was by the promise. This is how they then and we, the church now, must live. (The just shall live by faith!)