Gospel=Grace to the Barren 13 th July 2014 1 Please keep your Bibles handy at Galatians chapter 4 from verse 21 through to verse 31. There s an outline in the bulletin for you to take some notes if that helps you concentrate. Let me pray for God to help us in our understanding of His Word this morning! Intro Any idea what this picture means? [Powerpoint 1 Picture paints 1000 words] Yes a picture paints a 1000 words And that s what the apostle Paul is doing in this section of the book of Galatians He s already used Abraham from the Old Testament as an example of faith He now uses a picture story of Abraham s family to illustrate his point that there are 2 ways of living out our lives One way is to live relying on the law of the OT And the other way is to live by faith Under the Law? Listen to the Law! (4:21-22) So picking up from v21 and 22 of chapter 4 Paul begins by saying okay - you Galatians who want to rely on the law And let s be clear when Paul talks about the law here he means the Old Testament as a whole. He says okay law lovers listen to what the law says Page 1 of 12
Then see if you really want to rely on it. 2 And he reminds them of the OT story - that Abraham had 2 sons one by a slave woman Hagar and the other by his wife the free woman Sarah So there are 2 ways to be related to Abraham one right way and one wrong way! So let s use a picture ourselves and leave that on the screen to help explain Paul s reasoning in this section [Powerpoint 2 Abraham s family] Paul s argument is brilliant. He argues that the basic point of the false teachers who were trying to deceive the Galatians was Yes it s good you believe in Jesus, but you will have to obey the whole law of the OT before you can be considered the children of Abraham. Whereas Paul s basic point is: The moment you believed in Jesus, you were the children of Abraham and heirs to all the promises of God! And the moment you start thinking you have to obey the whole law, you are not the children of Abraham at all. Two women, two sons and two covenants (v24-26) So let s briefly remind ourselves of the OT story. Abraham had 2 sons, Ishmael and Isaac, by 2 different women. And they were born in very different circumstances, which are crucial for understanding Paul s reasoning. Page 2 of 12
God had promised that He would provide Abraham with an heir to live in the land 3 that God would show Abraham (Gen 12:1-4; 15:4-5). But Abraham was old, his wife Sarah was barren, and he had lived in the land for a decade without children. So Sarah suggested that Abraham sleep with her maidservant (slave) Hagar, so they could build a family through her (Gen 16:1-2). And Abraham agreed, Hagar conceived and Ishmael was born. Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born Then 14 years later, when Abraham was 100 years old Sarah did have a son, called Isaac. Paul s point is that the son by the slave woman Hagar was born in the ordinary way; but the son born by the free woman Sarah was born in a divine way through a promise from God see v23 Paul s using the 2 births to contrast 2 ways of living: We can live in the flesh and rely on our own human efforts as Sarah and Abraham did when they didn t believe God and didn t wait on His promise but took it upon themselves to help God and use their own efforts plus those of Hagar to have a son Whereas the birth of Isaac totally relied on God s promise and God s supernatural action. What are we helping God with in our lives? (pause) He doesn t need our help does he? Are we waiting on God and living by faith? Page 3 of 12
Or are we self-reliant pushing God out of the way to make things happen 4 ourselves? (pause) Then from v24-25 Paul gets controversial. Jews saw themselves as children of Abraham, descended from him through Isaac and heirs of God s promises. Their ancestors received God s law at Mount Sinai through Moses; and their nation was centered on Jerusalem and its temple. But Paul turns that upside down in v24-25! He says that the 2 women Hagar and Sarah - represent 2 covenants (agreements) And look who he aligns the slave woman, Hagar, with? He says Hagar and her son, Ishmael represent the OT law given at Mt Sinai and they represent the earthly city of Jerusalem which by and large consists of people who have not accepted Jesus yet. And these people are in slavery. Slavery in the sense that they are relying on the law to make them right with God when they can t keep all the rules of the law perfectly anyway! By sleeping with Hagar, Abraham was acting in faith, but the faith he had was in himself as he own saviour. The immediate result was disaster. Sarah became terribly jealous of Hagar and the family was plagued with division and sadness (Gen 16:4-14; 21:8-21) Abraham did not rely on God s grace through His supernatural action in history, but rather on his own ability. We must take heed of the warning here. Page 4 of 12
When we fail to rest in God and instead seek to be our own saviour the result is havoc and disintegration spiritually, psychologically and relationally 5 And Paul s argument continues that even though God looked after Hagar and Ishmael (Gen 16:7-12; 21:17-18) He never directed His promise through Abraham s son, Ishmael. Abraham s bid for self-salvation failed. As history went on, strife and warfare between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac continued (even to this day). Ishmael is traditionally the father of the Arab peoples so Paul refers to Mount Sinai in Arabia in v25 who Paul says - are people who rely on the law and are still slaves and outside of God s people. Whereas traditionally Isaac is the father of the Jews. Even though the false teachers proudly consider themselves related to Abraham by Sarah and Isaac, Paul says that they are spiritually descended from the slave woman, Hagar, the outcast. Their hearts and approach to God is like Abraham with Hagar and the fruit in their lives is like Ishmael s- just more slavery! Even though racially the false teachers are from Sarah, in their soul and heart they are more like the descendants of Ishmael, the people they hate! They rely on their own ability rather than the supernatural grace of God. The most religious people can be the furthest from freedom. Page 5 of 12
Picture of the Gospel (v24-31) 6 Paul also uses the story of Hagar and Sarah as a picture of the Gospel. Hagar having Ishmael represents salvation by works Whereas Sarah having Isaac represents salvation by grace The true Gospel is that we do not try to gain righteousness that our abilities can develop But rather we are to receive righteousness provided by the supernatural acts of God in history Like - the miraculous birth of Jesus to be our saviour Like - Jesus sin-bearing death on the cross to give us forgiveness And like - Jesus death defying resurrection to give us the hope of everlasting life Paul s point is that the Galatians (And US) need to look back to Jesus saving work rather than at their own efforts! So Sarah, the free woman whose son was born as a result of a promise has nothing to do with the earthly, grace-rejecting present city of Jerusalem but instead represents the Jerusalem that is above and that is free! This heavenly Jerusalem stands for those who have learned to stop trying to earn salvation and have learned to allow God to save them. This heavenly Jerusalem, Paul says in v26 is our mother. Culturally your mother city is the place where you are at home, as a citizen with all the rights. Page 6 of 12
7 For Christians, our mother city is the heavenly Jerusalem that s our home right now we are already citizens of heaven that s Paul s argument. So why work for something you already have! And yet there is still more to this picture of the Gospel from the story of Hagar and Sarah. Paul now shows the Gospel of grace to the barren And it s this grace to the barren that is a theme in the Bible as a whole. In v27 Paul quotes from Isaiah 54:1 more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband Isaiah s words were originally to the Jewish exiles in Babylon some 1200 years after Abraham and 600 years before Paul The remaining exiles in Babylon felt like failures and thought they would never return home or have a country again. But God says to them through Isaiah: Now that you are helpless, you will see that it is the weak in whose lives my grace works! The strong are too busy relying on themselves. See how I will make you numerous and great again! And Isaiah s prophecy looks back to the story of Hagar and Sarah. Where God looks down on 2 women one beautiful and fertile that s Hagar, - the other old and barren that s Sarah. And God chooses to save the world through the barren one - Sarah Page 7 of 12
And through Sarah s family another unlikely son is born born to another woman 8 who could have no expectation of being pregnant not because she was barren but because she was a virgin. And through that son Jesus all peoples of the world would be blessed just as God promised Abraham and Sarah. That s how God s amazing grace works. Grace to the barren the infertile the unproductive the desolate the weak! Paul s comforting the Galatians and saying you are like the barren woman. He s saying don t listen to the false teachers that salvation is by works and only applies to the fertile the ones who are morally able and strong, the people from good families, the folk with good records. Paul s saying that the true Gospel is that it doesn t matter who you are or who you were. You may be a spiritual and moral outcast, as marginalized as a single, barren woman was in ancient times. It does not matter. You will bear fruit, the kind that lasts. The true Gospel says: Grace is not just for the fertile Hagars but for the barren Sarahs. If Sarah can have a future anyone can! In fact it goes deeper than that Paul is saying the gospel of grace is especially for the barren. The able and the fertile think they can achieve everything without God and so they reject the Gospel of grace and continue to be slaves to their own efforts! (pause) Page 8 of 12
And there is still another lesson from this story of Sarah and Hagar. 9 Ancient cultures told a woman that their worth and righteousness were in her ability to produce children and if she could not bear children her life was useless to the tribe. Even today single or childless women often feel stigmatized and useless, given an unspoken suggestion that they have failed in some way! But this story shows us that we should not make children our life and worth, any more than we should make career or money or power or approval our worth. The Gospel cries out that the people who have most will find their false strategies of self-worth collapse and in fact it is the barren, the poor and the marginalized who can be more fruitful! Let me explain how this principle works - There is a church in Harlem in New York whose membership is predominately black people. The church was started by a German lady about 80 years ago who held a bible study where two African-American women from Harlem attended. The German lady was asked to begin a ministry to more African-Americans in Harlem. At the time the German lady was engaged and her fiancée was very much against the ministry and he said he would call off the wedding if she continued the ministry. She came across that verse from Isaiah 54 verse 1 quoted in v27 in Galatians 4. more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. So she followed God s call and lost her fiancée And the Bethel Gospel church in Harlem was born Page 9 of 12
The German lady had more spiritual children than any physical children her lost 10 marriage would have given her. (pause) We here at St. David s are a family all descendants of Sarah and Isaac Whatever our personal circumstances are married, single, divorced, or widowed with many children or childless with much wealth - or very little Paul is saying in v28 as Christians - we are brothers and sisters like Isaac and children of a promise a promise fulfilled and accomplished by Jesus death and resurrection We all have that common bond of freedom in Christ We don t need to be slaves to any earthly systems of working our way to Heaven. How Ishmaels treat Isaacs (v29) There s one more surprise in these verses: Paul draws a final lesson from the story of Ishmael and Isaac See v29 At the time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. Paul s saying Ishmael persecuted Isaac (see Gen 21:8-9) And he s saying it s the same in Galatia Paul is flatly saying that the children of the slave those seeking salvation through law obedience will always persecute the children of the free woman those enjoying salvation through Jesus. Page 10 of 12
Ishmaels will always persecute Isaacs! 11 Why is this so? Because the Gospel is more threatening to religious people than non-religious people. Religious people are very touchy and nervous about their standing before God. The insecurity of religious people makes them hostile to the Gospel because the Gospel teaches them that their best deeds are useless before God. One of the ways we know that our self-image is based on knowing that we are right with God because of Jesus is that we are not hateful or hostile to people who differ from us. Whereas one of the ways we know that our self-image is based on what we do is that we persecute others. People relying on the law are threatened by people who rely on God s grace. That s why Ishmael laughed and sneered at Isaac. That s why Jesus was most bitterly opposed by the religious leaders of the time and was condemned by his own religious nation. In Galatia the persecution was not physical it was much more subtle but no less dangerous it was by religious law-relying teachers in the church undermining Gospel freedom. And it s the same today. To quote John Stott: The persecution of the true church is not always by the world, who are strangers but by our half-brothers, the religious people. The greatest enemies Page 11 of 12
of evangelistic faith today are not unbelievers but the church, the 12 establishment, the hierarchy. Isaac is always mocked by Ishmael Conclusion To finish up then The picture that Paul paints is before us: 2 Mothers Hagar and Sarah Slave woman and free woman 2 sons Ishmael and Isaac one born the ordinary way the other through a supernatural promise 2 sons who represent 2 ways to live One way is earthly, as a slave to the law which has no future other than disinheritance that keeps you far from God. The other way is to live looking towards the heavenly Jerusalem in freedom because of the grace of Jesus death and resurrection where we have the rich inheritance of life with God forever. I hope you can see that there is only one true way to live out our life here on Earth and that is to realize that we are saved by grace and we are brothers and sisters of Isaac Let s pray Page 12 of 12