Galatians 4 - Introduction

We were under the law till Christ came, as the heir is under his guardian till he be of age. But Christ freed us from the law: therefore we are servants no longer to it. He remembereth their good-will to him, and his to them; and sheweth that we are the sons of Abraham by the free-woman.

Anno Domini 49.

THE Apostle having established the joyful doctrine, that believers, in every age and country of the world, are heirs of the promises made to Abraham and to his seed, goes on in this chapter to answer two questions, which he knew would naturally occur to his readers, but which, according to his manner, he does not formally state. The first is, since all believers from the beginning were heirs of the promises, as well as of the things promised, why were they not put in possession of the promises from the beginning, by sending Christ into the world, and introducing the gospel dispensation, in the first age; that the promises, especially the promise of pardon and eternal life through faith, might have been published universally, and preserved for the benefit of the heirs in every age? The second question is, Why were mankind left for so many ages to the direction of the laws of nature and of Moses (for so the infidel would state his objection), neither of which gave them any hope of pardon and eternal life?—To the first of these questions the Apostle replied, That in not giving the heirs the knowledge of the promises, by introducing the gospel dispensation immediately after the fall, God treated them as a prudent father treats his son, while under age. During his non-age he does not allow him to possess the estate of which he is the heir, because he has not discretion to use it aright; but he keeps him in the condition of a bondman. In the same manner, though believers from the beginning were heirs of the promises, God did not, in the early ages, put them in possession of them, by immediately setting up the gospel dispensation; because, in the first ages, the state of the world did not admit, either of the universal publication of the gospel, or of its preservation, Galatians 4:1.—To the secondquestion, concerning the keeping of the heirs for so many ages under the tuition of the laws of nature and of Moses, the Apostle's answer implies, that, as the heir of a great estate must be prepared by a proper education for enjoying it with dignity, and is therefore, in his childhood, placed under tutors who protect and instruct him, and stewards who manage his estate, and supply himwithnecessaries,tillthe time appointed in his father's will for taking possession of his inheritance, Galatians 4:2.—so, to prepare believers for the actual inheritance of the promises under the gospel dispensation, God judged it proper to continue them for a long time under the bondage of the laws of nature and of Moses, or rather, as a Christian would express it, under the Adamic law, &c.—a law accompanied with such offers of grace and influences of the Spirit, as would bring every sincere soul to glory, through the infinite and alone merits of the great Redeemer of mankind, that, by experiencing the hardships of that bondage, they might be the more sensible of the happiness which they were to derive from the liberty of the gospel, Galatians 4:3. Only it must be added, that the Adamic law, as well as the law of Moses, could do nothing of itself, without grace, but make sin exceeding sinful.

More particularly, it was not fit that a complete discoveryof the method of salvation should be made to all mankind by the publication of the promises in the gospel, till they were made sensible of the utter insufficiency of their own natural powers for discovering an effectual method of reconciling themselves to God. But so perfectly ineffectual is the mere reason of fallen man to guide us to life eternal, that, though a sufficiency of grace for salvation was offered to mankind under the darkest dispensations, the generality of the world had lost even the imperfect knowledge of the method of salvation which God had revealed to their first parents after the fall; notwithstanding, to preserve that knowledge, God appointed the sacrifices of beasts, as an emblem of that effectual sacrifice which the Seed of the woman was to offer in due time. For mankind, not preserving the true meaning of these sacrifices, believed them to be real atonements; and in that persuasion multiplying them without end, they foolishly expected to be pardoned, through the number and costliness of the animal sacrifices which they offered. In this state of the world, God thought fit to introduce the law of Moses, in which the same sacrifices of beasts wereappointed; not however as real atonements for sin, but expressly as types of the real Atonement which God had promised should be made; that, bybringing back the rite of sacrifice to its original intendment, and by reviving the expectation of a real atonement, mankind might be made sensible that it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sin. This important truth was still more directly shewn in those precepts of the law of Moses which ordered the same sacrifices to be often offered for the same persons. For, as the Apostle justly argues, Hebrews 10:2 if these sacrifices had been real atonements, being once offered, there would have been no need to have repeated them. Thus the Levitical sacrifices, by reviving the expectation of a real atonement to be made in due time, and by shewing the utter inefficacy of the sacrifices of beasts to procure the pardon of sin, led the Jews to the sacrifice of Christ, the only real atonement; so that, as the Apostle affirms, Galatians 3:24 the law of Moses, by its sacrifices, as well as by its curse, was a schoolmaster to lead the Jews to Christ.—Wherefore, when the heathens, under the tuition of the Adamic law, accompanied with divine grace, without which it could work nothing but death, were made sensible of the insufficiency of their own natural powers to discover any effectual method of obtaining pardon; and when the Jews, by the law of Moses, were shewn that it was not possible for the sacrifices of beasts to take away sin, and when the political state of the world admitted the gospel to be preached to all nations, and preserved when preached,—then was the fulness of the time, or the proper season for God's sending forth his Son into the world, born of a woman, descended from Abraham, to make a complete discovery of the method of salvation by the gospel revelation, Galatians 4:4.—And by offering himself a sacrifice for sin to redeem believers, the heirs of the promises, from the tuition both of the Adamic law and of the law of Moses; and to place them under the gospel dispensation, that they may receive the adoption of sons; that is, all the privileges which belong to the sons, or heirs of God.

Next, in regard that the believing Gentiles, equally with the believing Jews, are the sons of God, and heirs of the promises, the Apostle addressed both, saying, Wherefore, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, the Holy Spirit, whose gifts, graces, and witness, are evidences of your sonship, and embolden you to address God by the endearing appellation of Father, Galatians 4:6. Thou then who possessest the graces and witness of the Spirit, whether thou be'st a Jew or a Gentile, art no longer a bond-man, under the tuition of the law, either the Adamic or that of Moses, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God, an heir of all the promises of God, through the atonement which Christ has made for thee, Galatians 4:7.—However, ye Gentiles ought to remember, that in your heathen state, being ignorant of the true God, ye worshipped, with a slavish subjection, things which are no gods, Galatians 4:8.—But now, having acknowledged the true God as your Father, or, to express it better, being acknowledged by the true God as his sons, ye worship him acceptably with spiritual services. And being in this happy state, why do ye, by embracing Judaism, return to the same kind of bodily unprofitable worship, by sacrifices, washings, and holy days, which ye practised in heathenism? Galatians 4:9.—I am told that ye observe the days, and new moons, and seasons, and years enjoined in the law of Moses;which kind of worship, though different in respect of its object, is in its nature the same with the worship that ye formerly paid to your idols, and has the same tendency to beget in you a superstitious, slavish, disposition. These observances, I know, ye have been made to believe are necessary to your salvation: but I assure you that they are utterly ineffectual for that purpose, Galatians 4:10.—I am afraid I have laboured in vain among you, Galatians 4:11. Lest, however, this rebuke might have offended the Galatians, he assured them that it proceeded from love; and desired the continuance of their affection, which, when he first preached to them, had been very great, Galatians 4:12.

The Apostle next turned his discourse to the false teachers, and asked them and their disciples, who wished to be under the law of Moses as the rule of their justification, why they did not understand the law? He meant the writings of Moses, which, when rightly interpreted, taught the freedom of Abraham's seed, by faith, from the bondage of the law, Galatians 4:21.—To prove this, the Apostle, entering into the deep meaning of the things which Moses has written concerning Abraham, observed that Abraham, as the father of the people of God, had two sons, the one by the bond-maid, Hagar, the other by the free-woman, Sarah, Galatians 4:22.—But the one by the bond-maid was begotten by the natural strength of his parents; but the son, who was born of the free-woman, was begotten supernaturally, through the strength communicated to his parents by the promise, Galatians 4:23.—These things the Apostle told the Galatians were an allegory: for these mothers represent the two covenants, by which men are made the church and people of God. The one covenant is that of the law given from mount Sinai, whereby the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh were made the visible church and people of God; and which bringeth forth all its children in bondage to the law. This covenant is represented by Hagar, Galatians 4:24.—Wherefore her son Ishmael, whom she brought forth in bondage, was a type of the then present Jerusalem, or visible Jewish church, consisting of Abraham's natural descendants by Isaac; who are all in bondage to the law; and who, if they have no relation to Abraham but by natural descent, and to God but by living in his visible church, will be excluded from the inheritance of heaven, as Ishmael was from the earthlyinheritance, on account of his being brought forth in bondage. Hagar and her son Ishmael are likewise types of those who, under the gospel dispensation, are members of God's visible church, merely by being born of parents who are members of that church, and who are in bondage to their lusts: for they likewise will be excluded from the inheritance of heaven, Galatians 4:25.—The other covenant is that of the gospel, which was published from Mount Zion, Isaiah 2:3 whereby believers, Abraham's children by faith, are made citizens of the Jerusalem above; that is, members of God's invisible, universal church, whose most perfect state will be in heaven. This covenant is fitly typified bySarah, the free-woman, who was constituted by God the mother of all believers. And her son Isaac, who was born in freedom, is an apt type of Abraham's children by faith, who, being regenerated by God, are born in freedom from the bondage of the law, and from the slavery of sin; and are the universal invisible church of God, and heirs of the heavenly inheritance, Galatians 4:2

The foregoing account of Abraham's wives and sons, and of the persons and things typified by them, the Apostle told the Galatians, was confirmed by Isaiah, who foretold the conversion of the Gentiles, under the idea of their becoming Sarah's children by faith, in these words: Rejoice, O barren woman, &c. Galatians 4:27.

Having thus established his allegorical interpretation of the history of Abraham's wives and sons, he drew therefrom the following conclusion, concerning believers of all nations: we, brethren, after the manner of Isaac, are the children begotten to Abraham, by God's promise, "a father of many nations I have constituted thee," and are the persons typified by Isaac, Galatians 4:28.—But, says the Apostle, As then Ishmael, who was begotten according to the flesh, persecuted Isaac, who was begotten according to the Spirit, by mocking him, and by insisting that he should be excluded from the inheritance, because he was the younger son; so it hath happened now. The Jews, the natural descendants of Abraham, persecute us believers in Christ, who are Abraham's spiritual seed, and endeavour to exclude us from the inheritance, because they were made the church and people of God before us, Galatians 4:29.—But what (says the scripture) happened on that occasion? why, that God ordered Abraham to cast out the bond-woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman; thereby declaring, that those who are the people of God only by natural descent and outward profession, shall not inherit heaven, Galatians 4:30.—Thus, brethren, it appears from the law itself, that the births of Ishmael and Isaac were ordered in such a manner, as to shew that believers of all nations are the children of Abraham, not by the bond-woman, indeed, but by the free; consequently, that they are the heirs of the promises, and of the heavenly country, although they are not in bondage to the law of Moses, Galatians 4:31.