October 27, 2024

Galatians 4:21-31: The Freedom Found in Christ

Preacher: Josh Tancordo Series: Galatians Topic: Default Scripture: Galatians 4:21–31

Galatians 4:21-31: The Freedom Found in Christ

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and today the next passage we come to is Galatians 4:21-31. It says,

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. 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. 27 For it is written, “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.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But 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.  

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, we come to you with all kinds of needs this morning. But we believe that, by your Spirit and through your Word, you can minister to every need we have. So please do that and, above all, draw us into a deeper relationship with you. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

It’s not uncommon in Christian circles to hear warnings about the dangers of legalism. Yet, in reality, there are actually several different kinds of legalism we should be aware of.

The first kind involves focusing excessively on external obedience. It’s possible for those of us who are Christians to focus so much on the various behaviors God calls us to embrace that we forget the spirit in which God calls us to embrace them. For this reason, I’ve heard this kind of legalism referred to before as having a legalistic spirit rather than actually advocating a legalistic doctrine. I’ve also heard it described as focusing so much on God’s law that we forget about his love and how it’s his love that should motivate us to want to keep his law.

Someone who embraces this kind of legalism might emphasize our duties to obey God and to serve God so much that they never actually get around to worshiping God or delighting in God or communing with God. So, they’re doing the right things, but they don’t have the right heart. Obedience to God has sort of become an end in itself rather than a manifestation of their love for God.

Think about it this way. Let’s say that I bought my wife flowers for our anniversary. But when she told me how beautiful they were and how much she appreciated them, imagine that I said, “Don’t worry about it, honey. I’m just doing my duty.” How well do you think that response would go over with her? Probably not very well. My wife loves getting flowers for our anniversary but only insofar as those flowers are an expression of my love for her and delight in her.

So, that’s one kind of legalism—an excessive focus on external obedience. Then, another kind of legalism involves creating rules for Christians to follow that aren’t found in the Bible. Usually, the way it works is that a well-meaning Christian develops convictions about certain behaviors that they believe are best to avoid and then insists that other Christians need to avoid those behaviors as well. The only problem is that the Bible never actually says we need to avoid those behaviors. So, these Christians who do this are essentially elevating their own personal convictions and their own personal applications of Scripture to the status of being universal mandates for everybody.

Just to give a few quick examples of this, there are Christians who would say that certain behaviors are always sinful such as listening to secular music, consuming alcohol even in moderation, taking out a loan to purchase a car, sending your children to public school, doing house chores on Sunday, and on and on we could go. And it’s important to note that it might be wise in some cases to avoid some of these things. However, we have to be clear that these aren’t binding prohibitions that every Christian needs to observe. And the reason we know that is because none of these prohibitions is specifically taught in the Bible.

Yet there’s also a third kind of legalism that’s far more serious than either of these two kinds I’ve mentioned so far. In fact, this third variety of legalism is so serious that I’m convinced it’s utterly incompatible with the most basic teachings of Christianity. Legalism, in this third sense, involves someone trying to earn entrance into heaven through their obedience to the law—that is, through their own moral accomplishments and religious observances.

And it’s this third kind of legalism that the Christians of Galatia were in danger of falling into—as we can see here in our main passage of Galatians 4:21-31. And I believe it’s important for us to grasp what Paul’s saying here so that we can make sure that not even the slightest trace of this legalistic mentality finds its way into our hearts. So, let’s walk through this passage verse by verse.

In verse 21, Paul writes, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” Now, understand that when Paul talks about being “under the law” here and in other places in his writings, he’s not referring merely to following the moral teachings of the law. After all, it’s good and right to follow the moral teachings of the law—such as those we find in the Ten Commandments, for example. But that’s not what Paul’s talking about here. Instead, when Paul speaks of being “under the law,” he’s talking about relying on obedience to the Old Testament law in order to be right with God and gain entrance into heaven. That’s what the Galatians were starting to do.

And the reason they were starting to do that is because false teachers—known as Judaizers—had infiltrated the Galatian churches and were doing everything they could to spread that heretical teaching. They were telling the Galatians that the only way their Christian faith could be valid is if they also observed things like the Old Testament food laws, the various festivals required in the Old Testament, and—perhaps most importantly—the Old Testament ritual of circumcision. And the Galatians were starting to wonder whether the Judaizers might actually be right. That’s why Paul describes the Galatians in verse 21 as those “who desire to be under the law.”

And he turns it back around on them. He says, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” In other words, you’re acting like you want to be under the law, yet you’re ignoring some of the most important teachings that are found in the law.

He then continues in verse 22: “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.” This is a reference to the record of Abraham’s life we find in the book of Genesis. Genesis tells us about God promising Abraham that he’d be the father of many nations with descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky. Yet there was only one problem. Abraham and his wife Sarah didn’t have any kids at that point—and were well past the age when Sarah would have been able to conceive. So, after waiting a long time for God to fulfill his promise, Abraham eventually grew tired of waiting. And unfortunately, he decided to take matters into his own hands. By the way, that never goes well in the Bible.

The way Abraham took matters into his own hands was by sleeping with Hagar, his wife’s slave, and having a son through her. Lamentably, this was a commonly accepted practice in the culture of that day, yet it was absolutely contrary to God’s will. And that son Abraham had through Hagar was named Ishmael. Yet Ishmael wasn’t the son God had promised to Abraham. God had promised him a son specifically through Sarah. And eventually, God did what he had promised. When Sarah was 90 years old, God miraculously enabled her to conceive and bear a son who was named Isaac. So, Abraham ended up with two sons: Isaac through his wife Sarah, and Ishmael through his wife’s slave Hagar. That’s the backstory being referenced here in verse 22, where Paul says, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.

Paul then continues in verse 23, “But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.” So, Ishmael was born to the slave Hagar “according to the flesh,” Paul says. This means he was born as the result of misguided human ideas and human action that was independent of God’s will. Remember, Abraham had grown tired of waiting for God to fulfill his promise and decided to take matters into his own hands. Paul then says that, by contrast, Isaac, “the son of the free woman was born through promise.” Isaac’s birth was the true fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and also came about through God’s supernatural intervention. So, we might say that Ishmael’s birth was result of Abraham’s plan, while Isaac’s birth was the result of God’s plan.

Then, after that in our main passage, Paul’s interaction with the narrative of Abrahan’s life in Genesis takes a rather interesting turn. This is apparent from the very beginning of verse 24, where Paul writes, “Now this may be interpreted allegorically.” Typically, allegory isn’t an advisable way to interpret the Bible at all.

In case you need a refresher on what allegorical interpretation is, it involves going beyond the literal meaning of a biblical passage in order to supposedly “discover” a deeper or hidden meaning—usually by claiming that many of the various elements of a narrative symbolize “deeper” spiritual truths. The main problem, though, is that there’s usually no indication in the biblical passage that the original author of that passage ever intended to communicate any deeper meaning.

Now, sometimes, an author might set out to write an allegory. A great example of this is the book Pilgrim’s Progress, where it’s obvious that John Bunyan intended the book to be allegorical. So, in cases like that, it would obviously be very legitimate to interpret it allegorically. However, there aren’t really many passages like that in the Bible. So, typically, allegorical interpretation involves reading meaning into a passage of the bible that the original author of that passage never intended to be there. And that’s a big problem—because proper interpretation of the Bible hinges on determining—to the best of our ability—the original author’s intended meaning.

This is actually the proper way to interpret not just the Bible but any kind of communication. For example, if you run a stop sign and a police officer pulls you over, I suppose you could try to explain to him that you were simply interpreting that stop sign to mean something other than the meaning people often attribute to it. But I’m pretty sure that police officer isn’t going to care very much about your alternate interpretation—because the meaning of that stop sign is derived from what the governmental authority that installed the stop sign intended it to mean. So, the only legitimate way to interpret that stop sign is according to original author’s intended meaning.

And it’s the same way with the Bible. So, unless there’s an indication that the author of a biblical passage intended that passage to be an allegory, it’s wrong to interpret it allegorically—because you’d be reading ideas into that passage that the author never intended to communicate.

So, then, what should we make of Paul saying here in verse 24 that the material in Genesis about Abraham can be interpreted “allegorically”? Well, as we continue on and read what Paul says after this statement, it becomes evident that he’s not actually claiming that there’s a deeper or secret meaning hidden within the account of Abraham’s life in Genesis. Instead, Paul seems to be using the story of Abraham’s two sons simply as an illustration of a truth that Paul’s seeking to convey. In other words, Paul’s simply making a comparison between the truth he’s seeking to teach and the story of Abraham’s two sons in Genesis. He’s not saying Genesis is telling us this information about Abraham in order to teach this truth but is simply saying that the story of Abraham in Genesis can be used as a helpful illustration of this truth.

It would be similar to me using a movie in order to illustrate a truth from the Bible. You know, if I talked about the D-Day scene from Saving Private Ryan and pointed out how that’s similar to the way we need to attack sin in our lives, let’s say, I imagine you’d understand that I wasn’t suggesting that as an interpretation of that movie or a claim that the producers of the movie were intending to teach that spiritual lesson. Instead, I’d just be using the D-Day scene as a convenient illustration of the biblical truth I was trying to teach.

And I believe that’s the way in which Paul’s using the narrative of Abraham’s life. Also, by the way, commentators agree that the original Greek word translated as “allegorically” here in verse 24 is broad enough to allow for what I’m suggesting—that Paul’s simply using the story of Abraham as an illustration.

So, with that understanding, let’s look at what Paul says in verses 24-27: 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. 27 For it is written, “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.”

So, Paul’s point here is that the slave Hagar might be compared to the Old Testament law—or, more accurately, to the heretical teachings of the Judaizers and their legalistic approach to the law, claiming that obedience to the law is a means of entrance into heaven. That legalistic mentality enslaves people. And everyone who embraces such legalism is, like Ishmael, a child of slavery.

This is because it’s impossible to keep the law well enough to earn a place in heaven. In order to do that, you’d have to keep the law perfectly—and nobody except Jesus is even close to perfect. So, everyone who relies on their own attempts to keep the law in order to gain entrance into heaven has placed themselves into an impossible situation from which there's no escape, humanly speaking. Essentially, they’re enslaved. Since they have no way of ever obtaining the spiritual status they're so desperately seeking, they're spiritually enslaved. They're slaves to sin and to the eternal punishment their sins deserve. And, by the way, that goes not just for people in the first century who were relying on their obedience to the Old Testament law to get to heaven but also for anyone today who relies on their own moral accomplishments or religious observances to get to heaven.

However, Paul says in verse 26, “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” Paul’s just spoken of “the present Jerusalem” in order to refer to the legalistic mentality of most of the Jewish people of his day. Yet he now speaks of “the Jerusalem above,” which is a reference to the heavenly paradise to which all true Christians belong. So, in contrast to the slavery of those who adopt a legalistic mentality, those who understand that we’re made right with God by grace and through faith enjoy a wonderful freedom. As Paul says, “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mothe

And that’s the main idea of this passage: Christians are children of freedom rather than children of slavery. Again, Christians are children of freedom rather than children of slavery.  

You see, when we had no way to make ourselves right with God and were helpless to escape the punishment our sins deserved, God came to our rescue. In a stunning display of mercy, God the Father sent Jesus his Son to this earth in order to rescue us. Jesus existed as God from all eternity yet came to this earth as a man, lived a perfectly sinless life, and voluntarily allowed himself to be crucified in order to pay for our sins. Even though we deserved to suffer for our sins forever in hell, Jesus suffered the penalty for our sins as our substitute on the cross. He was then triumphantly raised from the dead. This is the message of the gospel.

And the reason the gospel is such wonderful news is that Jesus now offers to rescue everyone who puts their trust in him. This involves renouncing all of our misguided attempts to earn a right standing with God through our own efforts and instead directing our confidence to Jesus alone as our only hope of being right with God. That’s how we can be children of freedom rather than children of slavery.

So, just to clarify, those who have a legalistic mentality of earning a right standing with God through their obedience to the law are, like Hagar’s son Ishmael, children of slavery. By contrast, those who put their confidence in Jesus for salvation are, like Sarah’s son Isaac, children of freedom. That’s the comparison Paul’s making in this passage.

After that, Paul continues his comparison in verse 28. He writes, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” So, just like Isaac was born as the result of God’s “promise” and, we might say, God’s supernatural intervention, those of us who are Christians have likewise become what we are not by human effort or human ability but rather through God’s grace. Just as God miraculously enabled Sarah to conceive even at the age of 90 years old, he’s likewise brought about our spiritual rebirth in a miraculous way as well. In addition, we’re also “children of promise” in the sense that we’re heirs the glorious inheritance God promised to Abraham—which, as we now understand, is nothing less than eternal life.

Paul then writes in verses 29-30, 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But 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.” So, it’s our duty, Paul says, to “Cast out the slave woman and her son.” In other words, cast out of the church those who are spreading legalistic teaching. Stop tolerating them or giving them any platform to disseminate their heretical ideas. Instead, rid the church and rid yourselves of every last trace of legalism.

We then arrive at Paul’s conclusion that sort of ties everything together in verse 31: “So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.” As I said, the main idea of this passage is that Christians are children of freedom rather than children of slavery.

And very briefly, there are three primary ways in which I believe that’s the case—three ways in which the gospel brings freedom. The first is freedom from condemnation. Those who rely on their own moral accomplishments to be right with God are under God’s condemnation—because, try as they might, they won’t ever be able to be good enough or perform well enough for a God of such holiness to accept them. But when we put our trust in Jesus to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, we’re free from the penalty our sins deserve. All of our sins are entirely and eternally forgiven, and all of our guilt is wiped away. As Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

In addition, the gospel brings freedom from fear. It’s impossible for someone who’s relying on their own moral accomplishments to ever have confidence about where they’ll spend eternity—because how can they ever be sure that they’ve done enough? How can they ever be sure they’ve been holy enough, or done enough good things, or demonstrated enough virtue? They can’t. So, they have no choice but to live in fear of one day standing before God and being found to be lacking. By contrast, those who have put their trust in Jesus can be free from fear and have wonderful confidence that their future is secure—because their hope for the future is based on not on them being good enough but on Jesus being good enough in their place.

And lastly, not only does the gospel bring freedom from condemnation and freedom from fear, it also brings freedom from sin. Instead of being slaves to the sinful desires of our hearts, we can be free from sin’s power over us. You see, when someone puts their trust in Jesus, the Bible says they experience a radical inward transformation. And from that moment on, they have the Holy Spirit living within them and empowering them to follow God and walk in his ways. They now have an ability to live for God that they never had before and are, in that sense, free from the dominance sin once had over them.

So, as we consider the striking contrast Paul brings to light in Galatians 4 between those who are children of freedom and those who are children of slavery, let me encourage you to ask yourself, which category are you in? Have you experienced the freedom found in the gospel, or are you still in bondage to your sins as one who’s trying to earn your way into heaven through your own moral accomplishments?

I love the parable Jesus shares in Luke 15 that’s commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son. Basically, there was a rich man who had two sons. One day, the younger son did something very unusual. He actually asked his father for his share of the father’s inheritance while the father was still alive. Even though this was a very disrespectful request, the father granted the younger son’s request and gave him his share of the inheritance. The son then used that money to move far away and indulged in a life extravagant spending, wild partying, and flagrant immorality.

Not surprisingly, though, he eventually ran out of his father’s money and hit rock bottom. So, at that point, he had no choice but to get a job feeding pigs. And he was so impoverished that he was actually tempted to eat the slop that he was feeding to the pigs. But then, he got an idea: perhaps he could go back to his father and tell his father how sorry he was and beg his father to hire him as a servant. If he did that, he reasoned, he’d be way better off than he was now.

So, this young man embarked on the long journey back home. Yet when his father saw him coming in the distance, his father—contrary to all expectation—was elated. And his father ran out to him, embraced him, and threw a huge feast to celebrate the return of his son. And that’s often recognized as a beautiful picture of the way God embraces and accepts rebellious sinners who turn to him. And that’s very true.

However, that’s not the end of the parable. Jesus goes on to explain how the older son responded to the father receiving the younger son in that manner. Jesus says in Luke 15:28-30, 28 But he [the older son] was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!”

So, this older son had lived an exemplary life—at least, on the outside. And because of that, he thought he deserved way more recognition than he was receiving and was indignant that the father threw such a lavish celebration for the younger son, who had been so rebellious. And we have to ask ourselves, “Why did Jesus end his parable by talking about this older son?”

It’s because Jesus wants us to understand that it’s not just the rebellious who need a Savior but the religious as well. As I said, the older son had lived a life that was exemplary in many ways—on the outside. Yet, the way he reacts to the younger son’s return reveals that the older son was filled with pride and self-righteousness. He thought he deserved the father’s favor. Essentially, he had the same attitude that characterizes people today who are what I’ll call “religious.”

Religious people think very highly of themselves for their moral accomplishments and take great pride in all of the sins they don’t commit. And they imagine God will reward them with eternal life one day because of how good they are. Yet the point of Jesus’s parable is that it wasn’t just the younger son who needed a Savior but the older son as well. We might say that religious people need a Savior just as much as rebellious people do.

So, are you a “religious” person? Are you relying in any way or to even the slightest degree on your own goodness or your own moral accomplishments to make you right with God? Do you consider yourself to be morally superior to others and think that God will accept you because of that? If so, you’re in for a very rude awakening in the future. God’s going to respond to what you view as your moral accomplishments not by rewarding you but by condemning you. Unless you’ve put your total confidence in Jesus and him alone to rescue you from your sins, you’re still in your sins and will one day receive the punishment your sins deserve. 

In reality, there’s only one way we can escape from eternal punishment—and it’s not through rebellion or through religion but rather through repentance. In order to be saved, we have to repent not only of our sins but of our self-righteousness and put our trust in Jesus alone to save us. That’s repentance. So, if you’ve merely replaced rebellion with religion, you’re still under God’s wrath. People who rely on religion will one day be condemned just as surely as people who engage in rebellion. Only those who turn to Jesus in repentance will be saved.

And for those who have already come to repentance, let’s remember that, as Paul says back in verse 31 of our main passage, we’re children not of the slave but of the free woman. You see, the legalistic mentality of the Judaizers that Paul’s addressing in Galatians 4 is essentially the same as the self-righteous mentality of the older brother in Jesus’s parable. It’s a mentality that’s based on human accomplishments and human achievements. So, let’s make sure that not even the slightest trace of that mentality finds its way into our hearts and that we instead experience every bit of the freedom that’s found in the gospel of grace.

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Oct 13

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