In last week’s post from Galatians, we saw how Paul used the story of Hagar, Sarah, and the birth of their sons from Genesis to illustrate the struggle between law and grace to the Galatians. Today, we’ll see how Paul applies his illustration and consider four applications of the truth he laid out by contrasting Hagar and Sarah.
1. Rejoice in Spiritual Barrenness (27)
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.” (Galatians 4:27)
This is a quotation from Isaiah 54:1. In its original context, it was not about Hagar and Sarah but was spoken to Israel about their future. After a prolonged disobedience, God would push them into exile, but their future was still bright. One day, from the barrenness of exile, they would explode in population. This was fulfilled—at least partly—in the Christian church, which flowed from the Jewish Messiah. Even though Israel was barren, empty, and helpless, God would do amazing things in them—the vast multitudes of the church would be born from the barrenness of first-century Judaism. Paul is saying here that we can rejoice in the barrenness of our depravity before God because it is not the end of the story. God prospers the spiritually poor who come to him in simple faith. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). The legalists thought that their good works, morals, and rule-keeping could help them stand approved by God. But the gospel enables us to rejoice that we come to God as spiritual paupers without anything in our hands to please him. Despite this, God becomes completely satisfied and overjoyed with us through the blood of his Son! Though we came to him "dead in trespasses and sins," he makes us alive by his grace (Eph. 2:1). Though we were spiritually barren, God still loves and chooses us. Please bring this home and into your heart. When we slip into legalism, we are decimated by our failures because we trust them to approve us before God. Eventually, we give up and tap out. But when steeped in grace, we are shocked to find that God loves and accepts us without any work of our own. Though barren, he loves us, and fruit can come from our lives. If God approved us due to works, only the fertile, able, productive, and strong would be accepted. But we came to God as Sarah came into pregnancy—weak, without anything real to contribute, unproductive, as if we were dead. But God is able. He looks for the barren, so we rejoice in our barrenness! He looks for the spiritually poor, blind, and destitute (Rev. 2:17). In the same way that the Old Testament's Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Hannah all miraculously had children even though they were naturally unable, we are unable to produce righteousness on our own, but God has accepted us and made us fruitful. We can now take radical steps of obedience because we have been born into freedom, not slavery. Think of Moses' life. He began humbly but was quickly brought into the glory of Pharaoh's household. As he aged and matured there, he began assuming God would use him to deliver his people once he realized his Hebrew lineage. He thought his power, authority, and position were the needed ingredients. Not so to God. God allowed him forty more years of desert living as a fugitive. That's when God appeared to him at the burning bush, inviting him to be his instrument to set the people free. At that point, Moses felt weak and powerless. He could not believe God would use him. And that's what God needed—a spiritually barren man (Ex. 2-3). This humility, this recognition of our low spiritual state, is what God can use. He looks for the spiritually barren, not the proud.
2. Expect a Struggle with Legalism (28-29)
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. (Galatians 4:28–29)
Here, Paul geared the Galatian believers up for the inevitable battles they and all future gospel believers would have to endure. He prepared them by reminding them of the episode when teenager Ishmael mocked and scoffed at toddler Isaac (see Gen. 21:9-10). In the same way that Ishmael persecuted Isaac, legalists will always persecute people who are clinging to God's grace alone by faith alone (29). In one sense, you could say that Paul's usage of the Genesis story perfectly depicts church history. Much of the harshest persecution the church has endured has come by the hands of legalists, those who feel something must be added to the gospel of grace. Grace alone by faith alone is insufficient for these persecutors. And we must expect this struggle between law and grace. Ishmaels always persecute Isaacs. People who want to be approved by God because they think and do the right things will always chafe at those who lean on God's grace for acceptance. Just as Cain was angered that God did not accept his sacrifice yet did accept Abel's, legalistic people in the visible church will despise the freedom of those steeped in grace. Legalists hate grace. There will always be a legalistic contingent of the visible church that wars against the radical possibilities of grace. Ishmaels don't know what to do with Isaacs, just as Cains don't know what to do with Abels, whose sacrifice was accepted because he gave it by faith (Heb. 11:4). Even within the recesses of our hearts, doubts, arguments, and old habits will surface, telling us that our performance gains us God's affection. It is hard for us to feel completely free. We constantly battle a pullback into law as a way to be approved by God. Believers who love God obey God, so we will want to keep aspects of even the Old Testament law. But we often struggle by believing those works approve us before God. We are often like an older teenager or college student on the cusp of adulthood. They are beginning to feel their independence but are still under the authority of their parents. They can stay out late at night but also know their parents will be checking their GPA. Similarly, we feel free, loved, and accepted by God through Jesus, but we then revert to the parental authority the law had over us. But this has been Paul's point: when you receive Jesus, you receive full adult sonship before God. You have graduated with honors from the law's authority and are now free to respond and live before God! But you should expect a perpetual struggle with legalists, even the legalist within. Next week, we’ll study the last two applications of the truth Paul laid out using the story of Sarah and Hagar.