Galatians 4:21-5:1

This looks a pretty difficult passage to me. I don’t know what you felt as we were going through it just then. Verse 25: ‘Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.’ What on earth are we to make of all that?

Actually it’s a little simpler than it may seem, particularly in the wider context of the whole Letter to the Galatians, which we’ve been studying in recent weeks. And that’s why we read on to the first verse of the next chapter: ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and don’t let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery’ (Galatians 5:1). Slavery and freedom run all the way through our passage, don’t they? And they’re going to run through next week’s as well. And that’s where we are going to end up this morning, but we need to start with a reminder of the context.

‘Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?’ Let’s go back to last week’s diagram. [I used this diagram somewhere else during the week, and someone came up afterwards and thanked me for the talk, and said, “Mark, I do think the passage casts quite a lot of light on that diagram you put up.” Well, nonetheless, I press on with this diagram again!]

FAITH
(Abraham)

Jews
Law

Gentiles
Paganism

Weak and miserable principles

CHRIST
Galatians

The Galatians had come to believe in Jesus from Gentile paganism. They followed that arrow from Paganism to Christ, they’d given up on the pagan gods to trust instead that Jesus had died for them on the cross, and that through His death they could have a relationship with God. And having done that they had experienced the forgiveness of their sins; they had come to know God for themselves and to know that God knew them. But having done that, they’d begun to be confused by people who told them that they needed to go a little further: they needed to start practising the Jewish religious Law – circumcision, food laws, Sabbaths (all very ordinary things to the Jew, but rather special and different to the Gentile). And they needed to practise these as well if they wanted God to be really pleased with them. So they had begun to sneak back to the right. They were becoming more ‘churchy’, more religious. “Build a few more religious observances into your life, day by day, regularly,” they were being encouraged. “No! No! No!” said Paul, “Going further is really going back. You’ll lose Jesus entirely if you do that.”

FAITH
(Abraham)

Jews
Law

Gentiles
Paganism

Weak and miserable principles

CHRIST

Galatians

There was a man once who was having his hair cut, and he was talking to the hairdresser about the gospel. But the hairdresser just could not grasp it: he kept saying things like, “But surely I’ve got to go to church, and start taking Communion, and leading a good life if I want to be right with God.” Eventually the Christian, sitting in the chair and seeing that he was getting absolutely nowhere with this hairdresser, noticed that the person in the next door chair had just had his haircut finished. So the Christian got up, and took a pair of scissors, and began to snip at the hair of the man in the next chair. Of course, the hairdresser was aghast – he said in an anguished voice, “DON’T DO THAT! It’s finished. You’ll spoil it!” “Exactly!” said the Christian, “It’s finished. You add to it, you’ll spoil it. Jesus did it all for you, on the cross.” Those little religious observances we want to bring in, they’re snipping away with the scissors – I’ll get a little more right with God, I’ll be a little closer to Him. He’ll be a little more pleased with me if I do this or I do that or I do the other: if I get a little more ‘churchy’, a little more religious. Snip, snip, snip. No! You’ll spoil it. It’s finished. It was all done for you, says Paul. If we try to add our own efforts to Christ’s death on the cross, we’ll spoil everything.

‘Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?’ (v. 21) – Paul is going to try to beat these Jewish legalists at their own game. The method of reasoning that he uses in this passage is not very familiar to us today. But in the context it was probably effective: a turning of the tables on his opponents. And it was probably pretty galling for them – rather like a guest borrowing our own tennis racquet for a game of tennis, and then beating us with it!

‘For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise’ (vv. 22, 23). Abraham, remember, is the great figure right back at the beginning of the Bible, who received a promise from God and believed it. So he is a great example to us of how human beings respond to the Creator God: they hear, and they believe; they trust what He said.

Now part of that promise was that Abraham would become the father of a great nation, through whom all the people on earth would be blessed. But the years passed and Abraham remained childless. And his faith waned. Eventually his wife, Sarah, suggested that she give him her slave girl, Hagar, as a concubine to try to have a son. Abraham agreed with that, and Ishmael was born, Hagar’s son. But God made it quite clear that this was not what He had intended. Abraham was not to take matters into his own hands and try to achieve his destiny through his own efforts. He was to trust in God’s promise. And in due course, against all natural expectations (because by this time Abraham was 100 and his wife was 90), Isaac was born, according to God’s promise.

So Paul suggests the analogy: ‘These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants [two agreements, as it were, between God and human beings]. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:

“Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

Abraham
Sarah (free)	=	=	Hagar (slave)

We start with Abraham, and his two wives: Sarah (on the left hand side) who was the free woman, his real wife, and then Hagar, his concubine, who was a slave. And then we have the two children.

Abraham

Sarah
(free)

Hagar
(slave)

Isaac
(faith in God's Promise)

Ishmael
(Human effort)

Ishmael (on the right) was born first; and he was born by human effort in the sense that this was Abraham’s own way of trying to achieve his destiny. He was going to do it by his own plans and schemes, to reach the end that he thought God had for him. On the other hand (there on the left hand side) was Isaac, who was born by Abraham’s trust in God’s promise: that He would eventually have a natural son by his real wife.

Abraham

Sarah
(free)

Hagar
(slave)

Isaac
(faith in God's Promise)

Jerusalem above

Ishmael
(Human effort)
Sinai (The Law)
Jerusalem on earth

On the one hand what he calls Jerusalem above: which is, I trust, you and I today – as it has been everybody since the beginning of time who have put their faith and trust in God’s word, and acted on it. But on the other hand there is what he calls Sinai (that’s where the Law was given, that people should behave in a particular way in order to get right with God), and what he then calls the Jerusalem on earth: the present Jerusalem at the moment (by which he is possibly referring to Judaism or anybody who tries to get right with God through their own efforts, whatever they might be).

And then finally, he says, these result in two different states: freedom and slavery.

Abraham

Sarah
(free)

Hagar
(slave)

Isaac
(faith in God's Promise)

Jerusalem above

Freedom

Ishmael
(Human effort)
Sinai (The Law)
Jerusalem on earth

Slavery

You see, like diagrams I’ve put up before, it’s two different ways of relating to God. On the left what Paul says is the correct way: by faith, by trust in His promise; and on the right a wrong way: by our own efforts.

Now you and I may not find that a particularly convincing way of arguing, from stories back in the book of Genesis. And I guess if Paul was preaching this morning in St Andrew the Great, I am not sure whether he would use this particular method as a way of reaching us in the 21st Century rather than the people back in that 1st Century context that he was writing to. Nevertheless certain lessons are still obvious, and apply to us today. Look again in the Bible and notice verse 29: ‘At that time, the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.’ Ishmael persecuted Isaac – interestingly it tells us (back in Genesis 21) that Ishmael mocked or laughed at Isaac. And we know all too well how the religious person will mock any Christianity that stresses simple faith, just simple justification by faith. It’s too simple, it’s too insulting to human pride, to human effort. It is a mark of human religion that it persecutes; and a mark of true Christianity that it is persecuted. I guess we need to mull that over in our minds – particularly if we ever find ourselves, in religious things, tempted to persecute. Even within a family there can be persecution on a religious level. It is a mark of human religion that it persecutes; and a mark of true Christianity that it is persecuted.

But note also, that God reverses those human judgements. In verse 27 Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1, “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” It is the children of promise (our diagram’s left hand column) who will multiply and be a blessing to the whole world. And it’s those who try to establish their own righteousness by their own human efforts (the right hand column) who will be rejected by God. Look at verse 30: ‘But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ’ Now notice, that’s not a command to us. The Bible is not ordering you and me, as it were, to get rid of the slave woman’s son. It’s a quotation from Genesis 21 again, where Sarah asks Abraham to expel Hagar and Ishmael and God confirmed that Abraham should do that. It was God’s verdict. It is God who rejects religion based on human effort, because He has provided us with the only way to freedom. So, finally, we are going to look at that.

You will have noticed that there is an insistence on freedom throughout our passage: ‘But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother’ (v. 26); ‘Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise’ (v. 28); ‘Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman’ (v. 31); ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and don’t let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery’ (5:1). Interestingly, at the beginning of chapter 5 verse 1 the Greek could actually mean it is ‘with freedom’ that Christ has set us free. Christ’s death on the cross was not just in order that we might become free – like a key that unlocks the door to liberty – it was itself freedom: because it fully, freely and entirely paid the Law’s demands for us. We enter into freedom as we enter into it: it is freedom itself. A Law relationship with God is always reciprocal.

Our final diagram this morning is one we looked at earlier in the letter. Law is reciprocal. Promise is one way. Promise is grace, promise is freedom. Law is two-way, and it means slavery because I’m always bound by obligation, by my own efforts to fulfil my side. And that self-reliance leads to slavery. Christ-reliance leads to freedom.

Since we looked at the beginning of the chapter (4:1-7) two weeks ago at the Guest Service, I’ve talked to two members of the congregation who’ve said to me that, while they accept that there is a God, they know they don’t have a living relationship with Him. It may be true of others present this morning. Those two had not experienced verses 6 and 7 of the chapter. Just glance back at them: ‘Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.’ You see, in Paul’s terms it’s slavery to know that there is a God but not to know the forgiveness of sins. So many people in Cambridge today have that: they have a sense that there is a God. It’s quite hard to find the full-blooded atheist, isn’t it? Most people say, “Oh yes, there may be a God, I don’t know. Perhaps He’s there.” But they don’t know Him, they have no living relationship with Him. And that’s the slavery that Paul is talking of: the sense that we ought to be good, but an inability to be good.

I want to ask you this morning, is God a problem?— or is He the solution? Because God doesn’t actually come to us demanding payment. He comes to us, as we saw two weeks ago, in the Person of His Son Jesus, with a promise that the payment has been made on our behalf. And to trust that promise is the secret of freedom. You and I live in a world whose Creator has promised us life. But it can come to us on no other terms than His promise to us.

Maybe you’re puzzled over this; you’re saying, “What is God expecting of me – that I don’t try to be good any more?” Perhaps you’re a little puzzled for the sake of your child at how CJ introduced the service: was he telling my child that he shouldn’t try to be good?— that it doesn’t matter how good we are? Well yes, in the matter of getting saved there is only one way: God’s way – and it isn’t a matter of being good. There’s no lesson your and my children need that’s more important than that. If they come to church Sunday by Sunday and hear God telling them to be good, they’ve missed the most important part of what we’re trying to say: which is that God loves them and His love for them and their response to that is far more important than their or my or your goodness; our ability to live up to moral standards.

You see, at the end of the day, it’s a matter of giving up on my own goodness, my own efforts, because they just never get me there, and grabbing on to Jesus with all our strength. And when we do that a force of unimaginable power and beauty enters our lives: the Holy Spirit of the living God. And we know the reality of God: ‘Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir’ (vv. 6, 7). The first question that I’m bound to ask us from this passage is, Have I done that? Have I found freedom in Christ?

But I know that’s been the insistent message of Galatians all along, so let me add to it other applications. These Galatians had known that. They had entered that freedom and liberty. And yet they were in danger of wanting to be back under the Law, of slipping back into what I have called ‘churchiness’. And we need to be careful that we do not follow that same route. ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.’ How does he go on in verse 1 of chapter 5? ‘Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’ No yoke of slavery to religious practices, no slavery to man-made criteria of religious orthodoxy, no conformity to some inner ring of keen Christians whom we try to impress and stay popular with. That’s the second question: Am I staying free?

And then there is a third question it asks us. We are free because we are loved by God, so let’s live free. Am I living free? Are you living free of the fear of death that so grips our age? Or do you look just like everybody else around you when it comes to that? Are you living free of that fear of growing older, which is linked to it and so characterises our age? I’m so sad that Christians in our congregation are just like the rest of the world in that regard. Are we living free of that material acquisitiveness that rules our fellow Cambridge residents? So if you walk into our houses they’re exactly the same as everybody else’s in the street? Remember that is slavery as well. Are we living free of that fear of being out of line with our culture and our age, of transgressing political correctness? In the way we bring up our children would we dare to step out of line with what the world says is the right way to do it?

I once read a lovely description of the freeing of the slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations. I cannot recall the exact date. But when the day of emancipation came, many of those slaves went up during the night to the highest points they could find, the tops of the hills and the mountains, in order to see the first ray of sun on that day when they knew that they were free; and never could anybody call them a slave again, never could anybody treat them as if they were in bondage.

But when you and I share in this Communion this morning, we commemorate a greater liberation than that. And maybe you want to say under your breath as you receive the bread and the wine in a few moments: “Free from sin. Free from the Law.” Perhaps you might want to use the words that they put on Martin Luther King’s tombstone:

‘Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?’ Father God, as we share in the bread and the wine that remind us so vividly of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, in our place, for our sins, may we live in that freedom that He has granted to us. And will you keep us there this day and every day? Amen.

The Round Church

at St Andrew the Great

Cambridge

A Sermon Preached

on Sunday 12th March 2000

by Mark Ashton

Galatians 4:21 – 5:1 Born Free