Today, we are going to look at Galatians 4:21-28 to continue to answer this question on whether we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone or are we saved by good deeds, because Paul continues to press into this issue. More specifically, the question that the Scriptures would like us to ponder this morning is this: are you free or are you a slave? In this passage what you will see is Paul using the story of Genesis 16 where Abraham & Hagar have a son named Ishmael, and the story of Genesis 21 where Abraham & Sarah have a son named Isaac, to make this point: you are belonging to one of two covenants, either a covenant that relies on works to inherit salvation or the covenant that relies on faith to inherit salvation, but you cannot belong to both.
Point 1: Paul continues to address this topic about salvation by faith versus good works with a question.
In Galatians 4:21 Paul asks , “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? What law does Paul refer to? The Ten Commandments. What are the Ten Commandments? 1) You shall have no other God before me. 2) Do not commit idolatry. 3) Do not use the name of the LORD in vain. 4) Keep the Sabbath day holy. 5)Honor your mother and your father. 6) You shall not murder. 7) You shall not commit adultery. 8)You shall not steal. 9) You shall not lie. 10) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, his wife, or his other possessions. However, the Ten Commandments are more than just commands given, these are God’s standard of morality. They are God’s standard of goodness. So, if you want to be a good person, you must live according to the Ten Commandments. If you want to get into heaven by good works, you must live according to the Ten Commandments. If you want to be made right with God, acceptable unto God by the system of good deeds, you must live according to the Ten Commandments.
However, Paul is also referring to Jewish religious law. This law was given by God to Abraham in Genesis 17:10-13. It requires that every Jewish male must be circumcised. And according to the false teachers infiltrating the Galatian churches, Christians needed to abide by the Ten Commandments and they needed to be circumcised or else they could not be made right with God.
What Paul is asking the Galatians here in verse 21 is this: you guys who want to live under the law, do you even know what the law actually says? Those of you who wish to try to be made right with God by law-keeping, do you understand what the law says? Those of you who wish to be made acceptable unto God by obedience to the law, have you ever heard with your own ears what the law actually says?
Do you understand that, if you wish to be made right with God by good works, that you have to be circumcised and you must perfectly keep every command of the Ten Commandments, and the moment you don’t, you lose your salvation. The moment you don’t keep one commandment, you are right back where you started. The moment you disobey one commandment, you are worthy of condemnation. If you are relying on good works to get you into heaven, the moment you lie or covet or steal or murder (anger) or dishonoer your mother or father or you look at another person with lust in your heart, that you stand condemned before God. (imagine a staircase)
What’s the problem with that? As we have said many times, the problem with the logic of good works is this: we cannot keep the commands of God. We are in bondage to it, enslaved by it, and held captive by it, because we cannot perfectly obey it. We are law-breakers, and we are good at law-breaking. There is not a day that goes by that we can perfectly keep the commands of God, which is why, even as saved creatures, we continue to need the gospel everyday. There is not a day that goes by that you can afford to go without God’s grace and favor.
Point 2: Now what Paul wants to do, in verses 22-28, is show the difference between those who are enslaved to the law from those who are free from the law.
Paul continues in verse 22, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.” Notice Paul speaks of two women (a slave woman and a free woman) and speaks of two sons (one son born from each woman). Who is the slave woman and her son? In Genesis 16:5, Moses records that Abraham had a son with a woman named Hagar who was an Egyptian servant to Sarah, and from Hagar was born Ishmael. Who is the free woman and her son? In Genesis 21:1-7, Moses records that Abraham had a son with his wife, Sarah, and his name was Isaac.
Next Paul writes 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.” Now, if you know your Bible then you know Abraham and Sarah were childless, but God had promised He would give them a child. However, much time had passed, they were still childless, Sarah grew inpatient, she took matters into her own hands, gave Abraham her servant Hagar in an attempt to bring about what God promised Abraham, and the result of that was Ishmael. So, when Paul writes “the son of the slave was born according to the flesh”, what Paul means is that Ismael represents human desires, principles, and the sin that contaminates us.
Now eventually, God’s word to Abraham came to pass, and Sarah and Abraham had a child – Isaac. If Ishmael represents the sin that contaminates us then, Isaac represents the “promise” that Paul is referring to. What promise is that? In Genesis 12 God made a promise to Abraham, and that promise is this: “that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.” That non-Jewish men and women, could be made right with God, be made acceptable unto God, and have their sins forgiven by faith alone in Christ alone. We call this the gospel. So, Isaac represents the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12, that God would multiply Abraham into this great nation which is present-day Israel, from this nation would come the Messiah whose name is Jesus Christ, and that God would save sinners by faith alone in Christ alone. Isaac represents the gospel.
As I have said before, and what Paul is wanting us to see, is that God’s plan of saving sinful men, since Genesis 12, has always been, and always will be by faith. The law enslaves us, faith alone in Christ alone free’s us. That’s what Ishmael & Isaac represent.
Now, Paul presses this issue further by dealing with the moms of these two sons – Hagar & Sara. Paul writes in verse 24-27, “Now this may be interpreted allegorically (spiritual representation through material means; think of it like an illustration): these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinari in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 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.”
What is Paul talking about? What’s all this business about two women, a mountain called Mt. Sinai, a city called Jerusalem, and two covenants? What we have are two women – Sarah & Hagar – and they serve as illustrations of God’s two covenants. One covenant, represented by Hagar, represents Mt. Sinai and the present Jerusalem. What happened at Mt. Sinai? This is where the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, received the moral law that enslaved them, and the present Jerusalem, the worldly Jerusalem, continues to be enslaved, because it continues to rely on the Ten Commandments & Jewish ceremonial law to be made right with God.
Now, If Hagar represents Mt. Sinai and the present Jerusalem, the worldly Jerusalem, then, Sarah represents the new and heavenly Jerusalem. Revelations 21 & 22 speaks of a new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. In this new Jerusalem, there is a great high wall made out of every kind of jewel. In this new Jerusalem there is no temple, because the temple is the Lord God Almighty. In this new Jerusalem there is no need for the sun or moon, because the glory of God gives the light. In this new Jerusalem there will be no more night. In this new Jerusalem there is a river of life flowing from the throne of God through the middle of the street. In this new Jerusalem there is the tree of life with twelve kinds of fruit. In this new Jerusalem people will see the face of Jesus Christ. In this new Jerusalem God will wipe away every tear, there will be no sickness, no more pain, and no more death. And in this new Jerusalem, nothing unclean will be allowed to enter it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false; not liars, the sexually immoral, murderers, drunkards, homosexuals, adulterers, or idolaters, cannot enter. Only those whose name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. Only those who rely on Jesus to save them and not their good deeds. Sarah represents the covenant or promise that God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12, to save Gentiles by faith. She represents all those who no longer depend on works of the law to be made with God, who no longer depend on being a good person to be made acceptable unto God, but depend on faith in Jesus Christ to save them.
Then Paul writes to Galatians in verse 28, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” Notice Paul refers to the Galatians as “brothers”, which means, Paul is addressing them as saved people. This also means, just because they are beginning to question salvation by works or through Jesus, doesn’t mean they are not saved. However, they are in danger of completely turning their backs on Jesus for a system that will do nothing but hold them in bondage and lead them to hell. That’s the purpose of this letter. To keep them from turning their backs on the one Person that can set them free from the bondage of sin.
But for now, Paul addresses them as “children of promise.” According to Romans 9:8, those who rely on good works to save them, are children of the flesh. They are children of Hagar. They are children of a covenant that holds them in bondage. They are children of a covenant that shall lead them to an eternity in hell. Those who try to get into the Kingdom of God by being a good person will not inherit God’s Kingdom, they will unfortunately inherit a lifetime in hell with Satan and his demons.
But those who rely on faith in Jesus Christ to save them, they are children of Sarah. They are the children of the promise. They are children of a promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12 to set free from the bondage of the law by faith alone in Christ alone.
Point 3: I want to close by asking a question: Are you a son of the slave woman or a son of the free woman?
The son of the slave woman – Hagar, continues to live by the law. They continue to attempt to win God’s forgiveness by human effort. They are still trying to gain their way into the Kingdom of God by attempting to be a good, moral person.
On the other hand, the son of the free woman – Sarah, no longer relies on their human effort to save them. They no longer set their hope on what they are able to do. They no longer try to win God’s favor by being a good person. The son of Sarah now puts all their hope on Jesus. They rely on what Jesus did on the cross over 2,000 years ago to save them. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They believe that Jesus died, was buried, and was raised from the grave for the forgiveness of their sins. They have repented of their sins. They have believed upon Jesus. And they have committed the rest of their life to following Jesus Christ.
What Paul wants us to see is this: we belong to one of the two covenants, but we cannot belong to both. We either are sons of the slave woman, Hagar, or sons of the free woman, Sarah. We are either trying to gain our salvation from sin by works, which enslaves us, or we are trying to gain our salvation from sin by faith in Jesus Christ, which sets us free. We are either enslaved by the law or set free from the law. But you can’t have it both ways. You are either relying on good works for salvation or relying on Jesus for salvation. Charles Spurgeon once said, “There cannot be a greater difference in the world between two things that there is between law and grace….Yet people…seek to blend the two when God has positively kept them separate.” So, who do you rely on? Are you relying on works of the law to save you (good deeds) or are you relying on grace alone that comes by faith alone in Christ alone?
Depending which you are relying on will determine which Jerusalem you will inherit. If you are relying on your good works to save you, the Jerusalem you will inherit leads to a lifetime of hell. If you are completely, totally, and absolutely, relying and trusting Jesus and what He did on the cross to save you, then you will inherit the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. But you cannot inherit both. You will receive one or the other.