Home -- English -- Galatians - 022 (The two sons of Abraham represent those who are born according to the flesh and are slaves of the law, and those born of the Spirit according to the promise of God)
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GALATIANS - I Have Been Crucified With Christ
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Galatians
PART 3: THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE GOSPEL, THEIR INTENTION AND THEIR RESULTS (Galatians 3:1 – 4:31)
7. The two sons of Abraham represent those who are born according to the flesh and are slaves of the law, and those born of the Spirit according to the promise of God (Galatians 4:21-31)
GALATIANS 4:21-25
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children
Abraham had two sons by two different women. Ishmael, the elder was born of Hagar, the slave, for his legitimate wife was barren. He, instead of waiting for God to fulfill his promise, sought to solve his problem by himself, and had a child by Hagar. However, his impatience brought misfortune to him and to his sons. Would that we wait for the time of God at all times, and make no provision for ourselves, causing misery and trouble.
Isaac, the second son was born through the word of promise, when Abraham and his wife became unable to give birth to a child. This newborn child was miraculous and chosen; for God had designed that Christ should come to the world from his seed. Abraham had to drive away the son of the slave, though he had loved him a lot. Observe what trouble came into the world through Abraham and Ishamel!
Paul likens Hagar and her son to the covenant of the Law, the mountain of the Law, and the city of spiritual bondage, as if he says, “The Law cannot bring spiritual beloved children, but it brings slaves closed by the law while they are sinful. The old covenant could not give birth to a spiritual man, for the law is dead and it causes death. As the word, Hagar indicates farness from home in the desert, so the apostle referred the Galatians to the legalistic agitators who had stony hearts having been trained in the Torah and Talmud, and not in the Gospel, except the prophecy related to the coming Christ.
As the covenant founded on the Law and the pressing mountain found their example in Hagar, the slave, so her name symbolized the city of Jerusalem, which was, at the time of Paul, still the center of the lawyers who did not truly submit to the gospel of salvation. Paul, himself was a disciple in the traditions and teachings of this city, and he knew that it could give birth only to fanatic slaves, bound to the opinions of the law, and not to open-minded free in the fullness of the gospel.
How strange that the majority of the Jews who were called to the covenant of grace remained slaves of the law, while the multitudes of the Gentiles, out of whom were the sons of Ishmael, who were according to the flesh descendants of the slave, heard the good news of grace, believed it, and became free, as Christ said: “many who are first will be last, and the last first”. May the Lord keeps us in the zeal of preaching and brokenness of the soul that we may not rely on our own power, but only on grace.
PRAYER: O Lord Jesus, I was a slave of sin, son of slaves of sin, but you delivered me, and granted everyone who believed in you the free life that we might serve you joyfully. Help us to stand fast free in love, and not to submit once again to weak rules.
QUESTION:
- To whom did Paul liken Hagar, the mother of Ishmael?