The Road Less Traveled - Galatians 4:21-5:1

The Road Less Traveled

Galatians 4:21-5:1

Introduction:  Robert Frost in his famous poem, “The Road not Taken,” said:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

There are moments like that in our lives, when we make a choice, a decision, over which path we are going to take.  Some of those decisions are of greater consequence than others.  When it comes to the question concerning our hope of eternal salvation, the Bible teaches that there is only one way to God, one path, to life. Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Jesus used a similar illustration when He said in Matthew 7:13-14,  

¹³ "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

       Jesus says pretty clearly that most of humanity continues on the broad way to destruction, while only a “few” find the way to life. The broad way seems to be the same in all the religions of men: thinking that somehow, we can make ourselves good enough to come to God by human effort. The Judaizers were there. They had been insisting that the Galatian believers needed to obey the Law in addition to trusting in Christ in order to be right with God. The issue was this: are we justified before God by faith alone, or by faith plus works? Paul is arguing that “the just will live by faith,” that is, the Christian life must be lived in a trusting faith relationship with Jesus, and not by relying on human effort or ingenuity.

       Since they had been using the requirements of the law to confuse the Galatians’ understanding of the Gospel, Paul turns toward the “Law,” in the broader sense, the Torah, or “teaching,” that is, the Hebrew Scriptures, and he uses the familiar story from the first book of Moses, the book of Genesis, to illustrate the contrast between faith in God’s promise, and human effort. The story of Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah’s servant Hagar, and the sons born to them, were known to every Jew. Paul is saying that the choice before Abraham and Sarah is the choice that was before the Galatians, and us: will we take God at His Word and trust in His promise, or will we try to find our own way, through own efforts, to come before God? That brings us to…

The Maine* Idea: The Bible presents two contrasting paths: one is focused on human effort, the other on trusting God’s promises. Trust God, and find life!

I. Our only Hope: The Gospel of Grace is contrary to religion based on works (4:21-23). The story to which Paul refers illustrates two contrasting paths: one leads to freedom, the other continues in bondage. He is saying here that these legalists are wrongly telling people that true spirituality comes from human effort.  They evoke the Law, but they have not even learned from the Scriptures themselves.  Paul turns to Genesis for an illustration in contrasting the births of Ishmael and Isaac…

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.

       Many first-century Jews put their hope of salvation in their physical decent from Abraham. John the Baptist rebuked the leaders who came to him warning, “Do not say, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham!”  (c.f. Matthew 3:9). Let’s look back with Paul to Genesis for a moment, to the story of Abraham and Sarah, and consider the contrast between trusting God and relying on human effort…

       We can start in Gen 12:1-9, at the age of 75 Abram is called to leave his home and all that he knew, and to head to a new land that God would show Him…

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen 12:1-3).

God said “Go” and Abraham went. He trusted God and took Him at His word. Sometime later, we read about it in chapter 15, God promised Abraham a son, and not only a son, but a multitude of descendants. And Abraham believed God…

³ And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir."  ⁴ And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."  ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  ⁶ And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness… (Gen 15:3-6).

       When we get to Genesis 16:1-3, we come to a key point in the narrative in terms of Paul’s purpose in Galatians. At the age of 85, the promised son has not yet arrived.  Sarai (then 75) knowing that her time for bearing children had long passed, gives her servant Hagar to Abraham. This was culturally acceptable, and seemed practical, but it contradicts God’s design for marriage revealed in Creation. And consequences of that decision are quickly evident… In Genesis 16:4-16 When Abram is 86, Sarai gets jealous of Hagar’s pregnancy and drives her out – God intervenes and brings her back. The Lesson is clear: Whenever we attempt to run outside of God’s will, or to take matters into our own hands, there are always consequences, and often heartache. Not only God’s will, but God’s time and God’s way are important. When Abram is 86 Hagar bears him a son, Ishmael. But this was not the son of promise!

       We read in Genesis 17 and 18, that at the age 99 God promises Abram a son by Sarah, who was then 89! They both laughed at the idea, but Abraham believed God. When Abraham is 100 and Sarah 90, Isaac is born (Gen 21:1-7; cf. Rom 4:16-25). Jealousy and conflict continue, and when Abraham is 103 or so, Ishmael, then about 17, mocks Isaac, and Abraham is forced to put him out. Wow!

       That is the background in Genesis. Back in our text, in Galatians 4:23, we read, “But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.” It was according to the flesh because the scheme was motivated by purely selfish desires and fulfilled by purely human means.  Paul is saying that human effort is not the means to live the life for which we were created (Titus 3:5). The just shall live by faith! That means believing God, taking Him at His word.

       The contrast is in the second part of the verse, 4:23b, “…and the son of the free woman was born through the promise…” The son of the free-woman, Isaac, was born through promise.  When Isaac was born, Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90!  The certainty that God had intervened was beyond question (Heb 11:11; Gen 17:17; 21:5).  The son of the bond woman was born according to the flesh, that is, out of human effort and human ingenuity. Having to wait another 14 years, it was clear that Sarah would only give birth if God intervened. Lesson learned! Humanly speaking, the birth of Isaac was impossible.  Get this: humanly speaking, the Christian life is not difficult, it is impossible (in our own strength!).  Just as Sarah was long past the age of child bearing, with no hope of giving birth, “as good as dead,”  so we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we were as Paul says in I Cor 2:14, “unable to understand the things of the Spirit of God…”  Yet we were saved, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. The Bible presents two contrasting paths: one is focused on human effort, the other on trusting God’s promises. One way leads to bondage, the other to freedom. Only one is the way of life. Trust Him, and find life!

II. The Scriptures illustrate the futility of trusting in our human efforts, and show the need for Grace (4:24-27). Paul is using this passage as an analogy or an illustration of the New Testament truth. Bondage begets bondage! Only faith, taking God at His Word, leads to life. Instead of “do,” we trust what God has “done.” Paul explains the parallel between the Gospel and the Genesis story,

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.  ²⁷ 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."

       Let me say that I don’t think Paul is saying that the conflict between Sarah and Hagar was intended as a prophecy of the conflict facing the Galatians. I think Paul is showing parallels between then and now, and so some of the same principles are there in both the Old Testament story and in the situation troubling the Galatians. First, he says that “Hagar” represents Mount Sinai, or the “Earthly Jerusalem” of Paul’s day. (4:24,25).  That had to be shocking, since the Judaizers had come from Jerusalem, and no doubt considered themselves children of Abraham!  The covenant in view is Law and works, which no one is able to keep perfectly (c.f. 2:16; James 2:10). In having relations with Hagar and trying to help God out, Abraham was doing something culturally acceptable and humanly logical, but it was contradictory to the purpose, plan, and promise of God! Question: Why do you think God had Abraham and Sarah wait so long for the promised son?  So that they could recognize that the situation was not only difficult, it was impossible, and the promise could only be realized by the grace and power of God. The natural man does not want to acknowledge dependence on the Creator God…

       The Jerusalem above is free (4:26-27). The Jerusalem above, here paralleled with Sarah, is the mother of the children of promise.  Isaac was born of promise, out of faith, not because of human ingenuity or effort, but according to the mercy and miraculous intervention of God.  Paul is using this as a picture, an illustration, of salvation and the Christian life. There is a spiritual birth, a birth from above that takes precedence over physical decent. The Bible presents two contrasting paths: one is focused on human effort, the other on trusting God’s promises. One leads to bondage, the other to freedom. Trust God, and find life!

III. Our new Life: There are essentially two paths before us, one is trusting what God has done, the other is trusting in what we can do. The way of faith will lead to conflict with the world, but it is the way to true freedom, the way to living the abundant life for which we were created (4:28-5:1).

²⁸ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.  ²⁹ But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.  ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman."  ³¹ So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.  [^ESV Galatians 5:1] For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

       “…and we brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise…” (v.28).  The NKJV using the Majority Text, translates “we” while the NIV and ESV translate from some earlier manuscripts, “you brethren…” The point is the same, Paul surely included himself among the children of promise, by grace through faith, and importantly, he wants the believing Galatians to know that that is their position as well. He calls them “…brethren…” as he did in 1:11 and 4:12, they are part of the same spiritual family, by faith. Every believer, like Isaac, is supernaturally conceived, miraculously born, and the offspring of God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled in Christ.  They needed to remember that just as Isaac owed his physical life to the miraculous intervention and gracious working of God, so did they owe their spiritual life in the same way.

       Flesh and Spirit are incompatible (4:29,30). As Ishmael resented Isaac, so the spiritual descendants of Isaac will be persecuted by the spiritual descendants of Ishmael, Those who wished to continue under Law and Works would resent and persecute those who recognized their liberty in Christ.  We are children of the free woman (v.31). This is an indicative, stating who we are, in reality in Christ.

       Therefore, let us live as free! (5:1). “Stand fast,” Christ has set us free! Where- as the law showed the impossibility of salvation by works Jesus provided the Way of Grace, therefore, because of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, because in Christ we are “children of the free woman.” Stand fast therefore… don’t waver on the truth of the Gospel – Jesus did it all, our salvation is by grace through faith – don’t fall into the trap of legalism. That would be saying the work of Christ was not enough.  It is finished, the debt is paid.  Do you believe that?

What is God saying to me in this passage? There are two contrasting paths: one is focused on human effort, It looks reasonable, it has its attraction, but “there is a way which seems right to a man, the end thereof are the ways of death.” Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He did it all for us. Our part is simply trusting God’s promises, taking Him at his Word. Trust Him, His way is the way of life!

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Paul prayed for another group of believers in Ephesians 3:14-21, that they would grasp the reality of what they have in Jesus, and live in the light of the Gospel;

“…I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height --  ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,  ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

That is God’s desire for us today, that we would know and understand more fully the salvation that we have in Jesus… The Lord’s Table is an opportunity to reflect on the Cross, and the Good News that God was, in Christ, reconciling us to Himself. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe…  To God be the Glory, AMEN.