Just because someone quotes or refers to the Bible in an argument does not necessarily mean that he has understood it correctly or is interpreting it accurately. The question is always: have they really attended to what Scripture actually says? Paul now raises this issue with the false teachers in Galatia. We now consider Galatians 4:21-31 True spiritual freedom
1. The history
To the Judaizers, who set such great value on keeping the law, Paul asks, ‘are you not aware of what the law says?’ – they should be listening more attentively to the law (by which Paul means the first 5 books of the OT). Paul shows that the law actually supports him, not the Judaizers. He takes them back to Genesis 16 and 21, the account of Abraham’s two sons (v22), Ishmael and Isaac. Paul sees in the contrast between the sons the same contrast as that between those who want to live on the basis of law-keeping and those who live on the basis of faith. The Judaizers pride themselves on being Abraham’s children, but ‘it is written that Abraham had two sons’. The crucial differences between the sons teach profound spiritual lessons. Ishmael was born to Hagar, the slave woman, whilst Isaac was born to Sarah, the free woman. Ishmael was born in the normal way, Isaac ‘as a result of a promise’ – that is, by divine activity. The contrast is between what man can do by his own strength and what God alone can give in his covenant love.
2. The allegory
Paul draws a lesson from these historical events for the present theological controversy in Galatia: ‘these things may be taken figuratively (v 24, ESV ‘interpreted allegorically’). Paul uses the two sons of Abraham as an illustration of a vital principle of God’s dealings with mankind. Note ‘the women represent two covenants’:
(i). Law: ‘One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves’ (v24). There was grace at Sinai (God had delivered undeserving Israel from Egyptian bondage) but the Sinai covenant also set out God’ law as a guide for life (not as a means of salvation). To seek salvation by law-keeping was nothing but slavery. This ‘corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem’ (v25) – the Jews seeking salvation in the law are ‘in slavery’.
Promise: Sarah represents the Covenant of Grace and ‘the Jerusalem that is above is free’, a spiritual city, the covenant people of God. This city is built by grace, the antithesis of law-keeping. Paul supports this by citing Isaiah 54:1 ‘Be glad, O barren woman…’ (v27). The text is fulfilled in the abundant gathering in of believers in Christ, by faith, as ‘Abraham’s seed’ (3:29).
3. The application
Which son are we? Believers ‘like Isaac, are children of promise’, owing our spiritual life to the gracious work of God. God’s promise takes us to Christ as our hope. To bring anyone under the yoke of legalism is to deny the work of grace and pervert the gospel (as the Judaizers did). As v29 reminds us, there is a spiritual war evident throughout history. The inheritance of salvation belongs to believers, who are ‘children…of the free woman’ (v31).