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. (Galatians 4:21–26)
A Genesis Story Paul Uses as an Illustration (21-26)
At this point in Galatians, Paul decided to cap his scriptural defense of the gospel of grace with a story from Scripture. [1] Paul was shocked that some in the Galatian church contemplated living under the law, after receiving Christ’s gospel (21). They were not listening to the demanding nature of the law (21). And Paul could not understand why they wanted to rely on it for their standing with God. So Paul went back to Genesis and retold the story of Hagar, Sarah, and the birth of each of their sons. Paul had already utilized Abraham’s life in Galatians as foundational to the Christian faith, so it made sense that he would draw from Father Abraham’s story again. Paul used a well-known portion of Abraham’s life to illustrate two ways to relate to Abraham. He had, after all, two prominent sons, Ishmael and Isaac (22). The portion Paul chose is one of the more disturbing parts of Abraham’s biography, but Paul used the story to show there are two ways to become a son of Abraham. The story itself shows God’s grace comes by promise and faith, not personal righteousness and works because it is not a passage that glorifies Abraham’s life, decisions, or morality in any way. Some elements of it are painful to read—still, God chose Abraham. In the story, years after Abraham had believed God’s promise that through him, one would come who would bless the whole world, Abraham and Sarah remained childless. So Sarah concocted a plan that, to their credit, was culturally acceptable in their day—though it is abhorrent in ours, and God certainly did not condone it. Sarah told Abraham to impregnate a household servant named Hagar, which he did, and Hagar then had a son named Ishmael. For years, Abraham thought Ishmael was his heir, but years later, God announced that he was not the line he would work through but that Sarah would have a son of her own. Even though Abraham and Sarah were very old (according to Romans, their bodies were as good as dead!), God fulfilled his promise, and a miracle baby, Isaac, was born (Rom. 4:19). Then, in a masterstroke, Paul played off the differences between these two sons of Abraham when he said he would interpret their story allegorically (24). Paul isn’t introducing a new style of biblical interpretation—wild allegory!—but is admitting that he is going to use the Genesis story as a potent illustration of the struggle between law and grace. [2] This is noteworthy, especially since Hagar and Ishmael are used negatively to describe legalists. In the Genesis account, Hagar and Ishmael are spoken of tenderly and with great honor—God saw them, valued them, and ultimately blessed them. But Paul’s usage of their story here is a symbolic illustration of the ongoing battle between grace and works. [3] This argument was important because, by the first century, many in Judaism thought they were right with God by a mere ancestral claim to Abraham and through law-keeping. And this thought was creeping into the predominantly non-Jewish Galatian church: Maybe we need to become Jewish and adopt Jewish customs to lay claim to being children of Abraham and, therefore, children of God. And this thought can make its way into our minds as well: Maybe my morality or views or personal righteousness are what approve me before God. Paul wasn’t the first New Testament figure to deal with this problem. John the Baptist had warned the crowds by saying, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matt. 3:9). And Jesus, in a long interchange with the religious leaders, said that while they were biological offspring of Abraham, they were not acting like Abraham, but more like their “father the devil” because they would not acknowledge the truth about Jesus (John 8:39-47). John, Jesus, and Paul agreed that a claim to Abraham does not come through mere biology or keeping a legal code delivered to Abraham’s descendants over four centuries after his death. It comes by faith in God’s gracious promise. Not works, but faith. Not law, but grace. Not effort, but promise. As an illustration, Paul was careful to detail the differences between the births of these boys. One’s mother was a slave, while the other’s was free (22). One was born because of human planning (the flesh), while the other was born because of God’s promise (23). In his illustration, Hagar represented the covenant instituted on Mount Sinai, where the law was delivered, while Sarah was represented by Mount Calvary, where grace flowed down (25). Hagar represented present-day Jerusalem, a place Paul was very familiar with, a place filled with people who, at that time, were trying to earn their standing before God (25). Sarah, however, represented the Jerusalem above, which is spoken of in Scripture as the “city of the living God,” the eternal and future home of all God’s children (25, see Heb. 12:22, Rev. 21:2). By calling it “the Jerusalem above” and not “the future Jerusalem,” Paul hints that though this city will be revealed in the future, it can be accessed right now by simple faith in Jesus. The passage is not meant to leave you perplexed. Though the biblical world Paul referred to with Abraham’s story confuses some, Paul intended to illuminate the radical truth of the gospel with his illustration. To Paul—and the Spirit—this is a capstone consideration. By faith in Jesus, we become children of promise, born into freedom and part of God’s forever kingdom. Every part of this illustration is meant to contrast law and grace, works and faith, legalists and true Spirit-filled Christians. If you are in Christ, (1) you belong to Sarah because you were born into freedom, (2) you are part of Calvary’s New Covenant, and (3) you are a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem that is and is coming. In our following two Galatians posts, we’ll see how Paul applies his illustration for the Galatians to see the struggle between law and grace.
[1] Barker, Kenneth L., and John R. Kohlenberger III. 2019. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary the Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Old & New Testaments. USA: Zondervan Academic. [2] Rydelnik, Michael, and Michael Vanlaningham, eds. 2014. The Moody Bible Commentary. Chicago, IL: Moody Press. [3] Keller, Timothy. 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company.
