Galatians 4:31

We are not children of the bondwomn, but of the free.

Nature and the supernatural

The whole force of this application of the allegory lies in the truth of the facts. It is because the birth of Isaac was supernatural that St. Paul was able to find in it what he here bids us see. What Isaac was in the miracle of his origin that is the Christian in the miracle of his regeneration. What Hagar and Ishmael hated in Isaac was the interference of God with the laws of nature. This spirit caused the strife and the ejection. So it is now.

I. The Jew has his covenant from Sinai. Call that Hagar. Set it in the same row with Jerusalem that now is. See her gendering to bondage, bearing her offspring into a condition of spiritual servitude, the condition of all who trust in the flesh.

II. The Christian has his covenant, and its home is above. He is a child not of the flesh but of the Spirit. He is born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, but of supernatural graces.

III. Nature cries out against grace, and regards it as an interference with creature rights and dignity, and “mocks” and “persecutes,” and must be ejected, at last, from the family and the home of the free.

IV. Apply this to scepticism. It is the boast of anti-supernaturalism that it is free. It has cast off the shackles of tradition, authority, priestcraft. Freethought is its watchword. Paul here brings a charge against it under the figure of Hagar and Ishmael, whose characteristic was dislike of the supernatural.

1. Unbelief in rejecting the supernatural rejects pardon and Christ, grace and the Holy Spirit.

2. This is a state of bondage. For what hope is there for man in nature?

(1) None as he turns remorsefully towards the past. Nature crushes the sinner.

(2) None as he looks wistfully towards the future. Mark the poor tentative, vacillating peradventures in reconstructing himself in holiness. Mark the self-vexing “O Baal, hear us” of the man who will not grasp the Divine Sanctifier.

3. If we would be free from the slavery of sin and despair, we must seek forgiveness through Christ and sanctification through-the Holy Spirit. (Dean Vaughan.)

Christianity the home and the hope of the free

I. The nature of true freedom.

1. The absence of all restraint.

2. The worldling is not free.

3. Man naturally desires freedom.

II. The Church of Christ as the home of the truly free.

1. It is a voluntary association.

2. It is well adapted to promote human happiness.

3. It is a state of preparation and training for higher scenes.

III. The province of the church in diffusing the true freedom of the race.

1. What it has done.

2. Would do.

3. Can do, as the hope of the free.

Learn: gospel freedom is necessary, for it alone can--

(1) make other freedom possible;

(2) valuable;

(3) permanent. (W. R. Williams.)

Abraham’s two sons

We must keep this faith pure; “For it is written that Abraham had two sons.” This fact of history, the Holy Ghost shows us, is an allegory, exposing the fatal bondage into which the Galatians were gliding. In the two sons of Abraham we see--

I. The bondage of the law.

1. Hagar’s son was born after the flesh, in the common course of nature. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6).. We inherit an evil nature, inclined to sin, yet miserable in it. No natural man is really happy (Isa 57:21-22); he is always sinful (Jeremiah 17:9).

2. Hagar’s son was born in bondage. She a bondwoman; her child, though Abraham’s son, a bondslave, under the law of the house. Here is the old covenant: “For this Agar denotes Mount Sinai.” There Israel consented to a covenant of works (Exodus 24:1.; Deuteronomy 5:2), which results in failure and bondage. Hagar brings forth only bondmen: this is all the law can do. “The strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:5).

3. Hagar’s son was a persecutor. He derides, mocks, persecutes the promised seed. The world, Israel, hated Christ. The law cannot endure grace (Luke 15:2). The natural cannot tolerate the spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 John 3:1). Here is the mind of Cain. Hagar’s son was Abraham’s son. This increased the hostility. Religion is often religion’s greatest enemy. Our claim to be perfectly justified by faith, without the law, arouses animosity (John 8:33).

4. Hagar’s son was cast out: he had no title; he could inherit nothing. His continuance in the house depended on his obedience. Obedience to law avails not for justification (Psalms 143:2); it only brings curse (Galatians 3:10), and wrath (Romans 4:15), rejection (Galatians 5:2; John 8:35); it confers no claim to inheritance. Christ the only way to God, to heaven (John 14:6). If not “in Christ,” “of the faith of Abraham” (Romans 4:16), we are yet “in our sins” (John 8:24). But think of Christ’s--“by no means” cast out (John 6:37).

II. The liberty of the gospel.

1. The freewoman’s son was the child of promise. Abraham and Sarah being as good as dead (Hebrews 11:12), their child was born, not in the course of nature, but by God’s gracious power (Romans 4:17). “We, brethren, as Isaac was, i.e., after the manner of Isaac, are the children of promise” (Romans 9:8; 2 Timothy 1:1). Our sonship is not the result of legal obedience, or “culture,” or of man in any way (John 1:12). We are counted dead, and have been quickened by the Holy Ghost, by the grace of God (Romans 9:11).

2. The freewoman’s son was born free, free from the conditions of the bondslave’s law. For us, who by faith are justified, the law is, in that respect, dead (Romans 7:4; Galatians 2:19). Its condemning hold is broken. In Christ its claims are satisfied. It is no longer an outer law, restraining, convicting; but an inner law, in which we delight (Romans 7:22 : Psalms 1:2), and which, by love, we fulfil (Romans 8:4), through the Spirit. This is real liberty. “Whose service is perfect freedom.”

3. The freewoman’s son was persecuted. This we must expect if we are faithful, to be “mocked” (John 15:20), especially in “the last days” (2 Timothy 3:12). The offence of the cross has not ceased. “Blessed are the meek,” etc.

4. The freewoman’s son was the heir. The children of promise are counted for the seed, and are heirs according to the promise. Jerusalem above is a city of freemen (Galatians 3:19; Romans 8:17; 1 Peter 1:3).

Conclusion.

1. Let us hold fast (Galatians 5:1) our liberty in Christ, and beware of legal bondage.

2. Let us use our liberty in active, loving service (Galatians 5:13).

3. Let us meekly suffer, in patient hope, for His sake. (J. E. Sampson, M. A.)

The ways of religion are not and cannot be pleasant to irreligious men

It is to renewed and holy persons that the assertion refers, and to them only; for our pleasures must be suitable to our prevailing dispositions and predominant tempers. Light itself affords no pleasure to the blind, nor can the most exquisite music yield any gratification to the deaf. An idle man has no enjoyment in labour, nor a glutton or a drunkard in temperance and sobriety. Those very things which the spiritual mind most relishes and desires are to the carnal mind distasteful and offensive. (Dr. Bruiting.).