God the Father is your father. If you are a Christian, this is true. What’s interesting is how overlooked He is. As Christians we believe in the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. In many doctrinal statements there is no section explaining God the Father – ours included! Many doctrinal statements begin first with explaining the Bible, then God “generally,” but then from there going on to explain the Son, then the Spirit and so on. God the Father, specifically, is missing!
I don’t want God the Father to be missing in our daily faith, and in our daily seeing life. Now I begin with God the Father today, because it puts our faith in and our relationship with God as Christians on a family footing. So much about our faith is described as a family. God the Father is our Father. The Apostles called believers their “children.” Paul told the Corinthians, “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the Gospel.”
And in Galatians 4 we are presented again with the language of “family.” Here, however, we are taught who our “mother” is, spiritually. Our mother is Sarah, the free mother, and we are among the “promised” children.
Last week we explored the history Paul was explaining. He references Genesis and summarizes how Abraham had two wives, one free and one who was a slave, and he had two sons, one from each woman. One son was a slave like his mother, and the other was free like his mother. One son was born naturally, the other was born by the power of God.
Summarizing this section would be that Paul explains the covenant of the Law through Moses, given at Mt Sinai, given to the Jews, is a covenant that produces slavery. While Jews are physical descendents of the free woman Sarah, they are nonetheless slaves spiritually and therefore the spiritual children of the slave woman. The purpose of this section is like everything Paul has written so far in this letter and that is to prevent the Galatian Christians from submitting themselves to the law of Moses. The law is for spiritual slaves and Christians are not slaves. This why the very next verse, 5:1 opens with those famous words (words often misappropriated), “It is for freedom Christ has set you free, therefore do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” That is do not be burdened again by slavery to the law of Moses.
THE ANALOGY (24a)
Paul says that he is using these things as an analogy. Verse 24 says, “….” A lot of print goes into what Paul means here.
- Does he mean that these two women and their sons weren’t real historically and they were mere stories that point to the greater lesson Paul is going to talk about? No. That’s dumb, and it denies the real history the Bible tells us.
- Or, is this a type and anti-type instance? This is the preferred Reformed interpretation of things that OT people, places and things were mere shadows of something greater that would come later, and those things would find their ultimate fulfillment in those greater realities coming later? There are those – you can think of the Ark as a type that foreshadowed Christ. You can think of Jonah in the whale as a type that foreshadowed Christ buried 3 days. Jesus did say in John 5, “These are the scriptures that speak of me” indicating how the whole OT pointed to Christ.
- Maybe its a type/anti-type moment here, where the two women are foreshadows of future covenants. But I don’t think so. I think its much simpler than that – I think Paul is just taking something from the OT and using it as an analogy to make a point. Kind of like I use illustrations and stories at times – the content of an illustration parallels with some biblical point I want to make and there is usually something in common between them to show how one thing is like another. Jesus did this all the time, you know as you read the Gospels how often He said “The kingdom of heaven is like….” An analogy shows likeness, and it helps teach a point by using something else that is similar and familiar.
So what is his analogy? His analogy is that the two women represent two covenants. And the children represent the followers of each covenant. The free woman corresponds with Christians who are free from the Law in Christ, whereas the slave woman corresponds with Law-followers (Jew or Gentile) who are slaves under the Law. The analogy highlights the free vs slave paradigm. He wants the Galatians to see how one woman was a slave and those who follow the law of Moses are like her – they are slaves. He wants the Galatians to see how the other woman is free and by faith in Jesus Christ they are like her – they are free. So the women represent two covenants. Are you seeing what’s missing in the passage? I’ll come back to that in a moment and you if you guessed what’s missing accurately then you will get an extra 1,000 sermon bonus points. Lets get into the details
THE SLAVE MOTHER (24b-25)
Since Paul begins by explaining the slave woman first lets explore her first. Read verses 24b-25, “…..”
The first woman is Hagar, the slave woman. And Paul makes the outrageous, and controversial statement that the slave woman Hagar corresponds with the present city of Jerusalem. Paul says that Jerusalem is in slavery and so are her children, which is a reference to the Jews. But they are not slaves simply for being Jewish. What he means is that Jerusalem – as the epicenter of global Jewish life – its Jewish leaders, and the majority of the Jewish population there and around the world, – as they live following the Law of Moses they are all enslaved by the Law of Moses. They are spiritual slaves living in bondage to the Law, ignorant of and not experiencing the freedom in Christ.
Paul mentions how Hagar corresponds to Mt Sinai – that is the mountain where God gave the law through Moses to the nation of Israel and where He entered into covenant with them. So Paul is making it crystal clear that that Law and the Covenant through Moses is the system that enslaves, and everyone following that system is a spiritual slave. We have covered this so extensively, but I would say like the Apostle Peter it is good to remind you of these things, so that you have it firmly in your hearts that the Law of Moses is not for Christians. It is for slaves. Look again at the following verses
- Galatians 3:23-25 and then v26
- Galatians 4:3-7
- We could revisit all the passages negating a Christian’s obligation to the Mosiac Law and go to Romans 4, 6, 7 and 2 Corinthians 3…but you can go there later yourselves to meditate
The reason this is so outrageous of a statement was that it was outrageous for a Jew who followed Moses to hear it. It was outrageous to tell a Jew that they were the children of Hagar! Physically they were the children of Sarah, the free woman. But ljust like Jesus spoke of spiritual realities that often confused the Jews because they only thought of physical realities (“how can I go back into my mother’s womb to be born again?”) – so too Paul is speaking of their spiritual reality – they were spiritual slaves! And that spiritual slavery is what made them correspond with Hagar – the slave woman whom Paul said was their spiritual mother.
Paul did this with the topic of circumcision and the slur of calling someone a “dog.” Even though the Jews were identified as the circumcision because they were physically circumcised, Paul called Christians – including Gentiles who were not physically circumcised – the true circumcision, because theirs is a spiritual circumcision done not in the flesh by the hands of men, but in the heart by the Spirit of God (Rom 2). Another example of Paul flipping the physical reality on the Jews and speaking of spiritual realities was the slur of calling Gentiles “dogs,” a term denoting them as unclean, outcasts. In Philippians 3 he calls Judaizers who tried to get people to follow Moses “dogs” – something that was just as outrageous as calling them children of Hagar and not being truly (spiritually) circumcised. This was a pattern with Paul, and he got it from Jesus.
The point here in Galatians 4 is that Jews in Jerusalem and around the world who followed Jerusalem are all in slavery. They are slaves while they are under the Mosaic covenant, which was given at Mount Sinai. So long as they follow the Law of Moses and are living under that covenant, they are slaves and they have no inheritance. They will be cast out. Gentiles who follow Moses will have the same slave status, and be denied the inheritance just the same, and have the ultimate fate of being cast out as well.
But Jews and Gentiles who have faith in Christ are set free from bondage to the Law of Moses, and are not slaves, and instead are sons of the free woman, and so they are heirs.
THE FREE MOTHER (26-27)
Paul now shifts to discuss the free mother, read verse 26, “….” So lets notice some things about Paul’s thought flow.
First, Paul shifts and says our mother is a heavenly city, not an ancient woman married to Abraham. Notice he says the Jerusalem that is above (in heaven) is our mother. A city is our mother. A city in heaven. Now this is in contrast with the city on earth he just mentioned – the earthly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is enslaved, whereas the heavenly Jerusalem is free.
The heavenly Jerusalem is mentioned in Hebrews 12:22, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” The thing to notice about this heavenly Jerusalem in Hebrews is right before in verses 18-21 he describes the scene at Mt Sinai where God spoke to the Israelites and gave them the Law and entered into a covenant with them. Then to show the contrast between that old Mosaic covenant, and the new relationship believers have with God, verse 22 begins with, “BUT you have come to Mount Zion (NOT Mt Sinai), to the city of the living God (not the earthly city of Jerusalem that is spiritually dead), the heavenly Jerusalem (as opposed to the earthly Jerusalem which cannot enliven or emancipate anyone!). This heavenly Jerusalem is free, and so any of her “children” are free also. To be her child you must be spiritually like her. Perhaps this touches on the biblical term born again, which can also mean “born from above.”
APPLICATION: You must be born again. You must be born from above. You must have the life that is only given from above. You cannot get it down here. You must get it from up there. You can’t go up there and get it, you can only admit your inability to earn it, and be worthy of it, and ask for it. You must confess your sins, which keep you in spiritual death, and receive forgiveness from the One who reigns from above, and He will look on you with mercy, forgive you all your sins and give you eternal life.
Second, the free mother is desolate but destined to have many children. Look at verse 27 as Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1, “…..” Paul quotes Isaiah here because the barren woman there is Jerusalem, being desolate and having no children, and Paul is evoking the image of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who was barren and had no children. Paul wants to show how she in her barrenness corresponds to Jerusalem during its desolation and emptiness. But he also is showing how that barrenness was going to be supernaturally overcome, and just like the city would be filled again with citizen-children, so too Sarah was going to have many children – starting with Isaac and then all her descendents through him. The point is this: the woman like the city was empty, but by God’s promise and power both became mothers and had children. By God’s power and by God’s promise. Which is why verse 28 helps understand why Paul quotes this, “Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of the promise.” That is Paul’s point. Believers in Jesus Christ are children of the desolate woman who was promised children from God, and was enabled by God’s supernatural power to have children.
What is interesting is two things are not mentioned – the name of Sarah, and the other covenant. Two mothers are mentioned, but only one is named (Hagar). Two covenants are mentioned, but only one is specifically identified (Mosaic). The other mother would be Sarah, and in the final verses she is certainly in view as our mother (28-31). But what is the other covenant? There are only two possible: the New Covenant or the Abrahamic. Many point to the New Covenant, and point out how the Old and New are contrasted in 2 Corinthians 3. I think the New Covenant is related to this passage, because the New Covenant is the means by which God fulfills the Abrahamic Covenant. But I don’t think it is the covenant that is front and center in Paul’s mind. I think the Abrahamic covenant is the focus he has here and it is the Abrahamic covenant that he is contrasting with the Mosaic covenant. Let me explain why
- Paul has specifically talked about the Abrahamic covenant in 3:15-17 and 19. He has not specifically talked about the New Covenant. So as Paul is making his argument with the Galatians about rejecting the Mosaic Law, he has already explained the Abrahamic covenant in that argumentation. This indicates that this is the covenant he has in his mind throughout this whole letter.
- When we look at specific elements of this “other” covenant, we see they are the same elements he discussed when talking about the Abrahamic covenant in chapter 3. The promise and inheritance are both core to the Abrahamic covenant as Paul explained in chapter 3, and they are the main features of this other covenant he is describing here in chapter 4 (28 promise, 30 inheritance). Throughout Galatians believers are being connected with the Abrahamic covenant, with Abraham as his children, and as heirs along with Abraham of all God promised in the Abrahamic covenant.
CONCLUSION:
If Jesus is your Savior, then God the Father is your father. Abraham is your father. And Sarah is your mother. You are a child of the heavenly Jerusalem, you are free, you are a child of promise, and an heir. If Jesus is not your Savior, then none of that is true for you. Today is the day of Salvation, be saved today. Jesus is the only name that can save you. Believe in His name today.