The Book Of Galatians Chapter 4 Part 4 An Allegory Distinguishes Between Law And Grace

The law of God cannot cleanse anyone from their sins.

Hebrews 10:1-4  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2)  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3)  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4)  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 

Christ Jesus came to fulfill the law so that we can receive a new heart and spirit from God.

Hebrews 10:7-18  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8)  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9)  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10)  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11)  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12)  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13)  From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14)  For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. 15)  Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16)  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17)  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18)  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 

Paul made it clear that Jesus Christ is the end of the law (See Romans 10:4). 

The writer of Hebrews also made it clear that the Old Testament sacrifices were inferior to Christ's once of all sacrifice.

No more animal sacrifices are to be offered because doing so denies the reality of Christ's sacrifice for us. 

No more observance of holy days like Passover, or feasts like the feast of trumpets or the feast of tabernacles. 

These ceremonies all pointed to Jesus Christ and He fulfills each of them.

No more Old Testament priesthood because Jesus Christ is our eternal high priest and He alone is the sole mediator between man and God.

Christ is God's perfect Passover Lamb. 

Christ is the fulfillment of the two goats, one killed and the other released bearing the sins of the people far away.

Thus, Christ is the end of the law for all who believe on Him. 

The perfect life of obedience to the law, the suffering death, resurrection and ascension of Christ removes our sins forever!

We are born at enmity with the Father who is satisfied with the perfect sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. He is for us and no longer against all who trust Christ.

Jesus' saving work brings full atonement to all who repent and believe on Him. 

Thus, the old covenant is replaced by the new one just as God promised to do.

This would be a huge paradigm shift in thinking and faith for a Jewish person who grew up observing the law and its sacrifices and ceremonies. 

To change to worshiping God in Spirit and truth one Sunday and giving up Saturday sabbaths would have been hard for them.

Proof that many Jews struggled with this foundational covenant change is shown by the efforts of Judaizers to bring Gentiles under the law.

Yet, the apostles of Christ are living examples to the Jewish people of what faith in Christ means and how it totally transforms our lives.

Righteousness is granted to all who believe in the blood of Christ.

Romans 3:21-26  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22)  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23)  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24)  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25)  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26)  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 

Now, righteousness from God is given to all who exercise repentance from sin and place their trust in Jesus' blood for salvation.

Jesus sacrifice is a perfect one that completely saves to the uttermost all who believe on Him.

The writer of Hebrews teaches us that animal blood cannot take away sins but the blood of God shed by Jesus Christ can remove our sins forever (See Hebrews 10).

Jews seeking to live under the law were under bondage.

Galatians 4:21-23  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22)  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23)  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.  

Jesus and His apostles often used word pictures to illustrate divine truths. 

Paul illustrated the difference between believers who trust Christ and Judaizers who trust the law by a comparing the stories of Isaac and Ishmael. 

Paul sought to convince the Galatians of great weakness in departing from the truth, and being deprived of the liberty of the gospel. 

Paul then referred to the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar recorded in Genesis #16-21). 

Paul used Hagar and Sarah and their sons to illustrate the difference between the bondage of the law and God's promises freely given by faith to Abraham.

Hagar was a servant or bondmaid and her son was named Ishmael. He was a bastard child in that Hagar was the servant of Sarah and not Abraham's legal wife.

It was somewhat common in Abraham's day that if the legal wife was barren, the husband could produce a son as his heir using his wife's servant.

This event happened because Abraham and Sarah were getting old and they had some doubt that they could produce a son as God promised.

Hagar's son Ishmael was the product of a fleshly solution for Abraham to have a son and receive the promises from God.

However, years later Sarah did conceive in her old age just as God promised and gave birth to Isaac. 

Therefore the promises of God to Abraham and his son Isaac were literally fulfilled. This meant that Ishmael was rejected and cast out.

Keeping the law cannot justify anyone, We must be justified by faith in Christ.

Galatians 2:15-16  We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16)  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 

He was born of the flesh not of the promise and this is important because the just shall live by faith. 

No one is justified by the works of the flesh (See also Romans 3:19-28; 4:1-6; Hebrews 7:18-19).

God will justify all who express repentant faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Hagar and Ishmael represent Mount Sinai and the law of bondage.

Galatians 4:24-25  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25)  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 

Paul tells us that the things he is saying are an allegory where Hagar and her son are pictures of God giving the law at Mount Sinai.

For these are the two covenants. These signify two different systems of religion; the one by Moses, the other by the Messiah.

The one from the Mount Sinai on which the law was published; which was typified by Hagar, Abraham’s bond maid.

For a bond maid could only bring forth her children in a state of slavery, and subject to become slaves. 

This pictures all who live under the law of Moses as living in a state of bondage to various sacrifices and ceremonies. 

They live under an obligation to keep the whole law but it demands perfect righteousness and their tendency to sin results in condemnation.

Sarah and Isaac represent the new covenant that yields much fruit.  Hagar and Ishmael represent the old covenant law that Christ fulfilled.  Sarah and Isaac represent the new covenant, the age of the church and the gospel of Grace.

Galatians 4:26-27  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27)  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

But the other is Abraham's legal wife Sarah. She pictures Jerusalem which is above, or the state of Christians under the new and better dispensation of the covenant. 

Faith in Christ frees all who believe from the curse of the moral and the bondage of the ceremonial law. 

Thus, this pictures new Jerusalem as mother of us all, into which both Jews and Gentiles, are admitted when they believe in Christ. 

Sarah pictures this time, Christ's work as the seed of the woman, and the birth of His the church and gospel preaching to save the lost. 

Isaiah 54:1  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. 

Paul pointed to Isaiah 54 as the source for the picture of the new covenant established by faith in Christ. 

The Church of God under the Old Testament was confined within the narrow bounds of the Jewish nation, and there was a very small number of true believers. 

Because of their idolatry, they sometimes seemed to be deserted by God who is the husband of Israel. 

Thus, Israel is the barren woman, that did not bear, and was desolate. 

She is exhorted to rejoice and to express her joy because of the promised reconciliation to her husband (See Isaiah 54:6). 

Further cause for her joy is that Gentiles will be added to her family as adopted children God, and united with it(See Isaiah 49:20-21).   

Believers in Christ are the children of promise by faith.

Galatians 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 

Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ stand in the faith of Abraham and are children of God's promise like Isaac.

Those who were Judaizers were still under the bondage of the law, ignoring the atoning work of Christ and condemned by their sins under the law.

Those after the flesh will always persecute those born of the Spirit.

Galatians 4:29-31  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30)  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31)  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. 

Hagar and Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Sarah and were cast out as God commanded.

It is still true today that those who are in the flesh still persecute those who were born again having been regenerated by the Spirit of God.

The bondwoman and her son were cast out because they cannot inherit the promise God gave to Abraham.

In like manner, those who are law keeping cannot please God because the just shall live by faith in what God did through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

In Paul's Spirit guided allegory, we are partakers of the new covenant of faith in Christ. We stand complete in Christ and His perfect atoning work.

Jews and Gentiles who believe on the Lord Jesus, are not children of the bond woman. 

We are not subject to the Jewish law, but are free from all condemnation under the law (See Romans 8:1).

May these truths help us glory and rejoice in the salvation God gave us through faith in Christ.

Paul has much more to teach us about the battle between our old man and our new man in Christ in chapter 5.

Let us remember the high cost of our redemption and seek to live for God's glory. 

Bob