Today, as we are now well into the illustration/story/allegory of Ishmael and Isaac … Paul writes: “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.” Galatians 4:29

Ishmael literally “mocked” Isaac, often it appears, when the latter was just a boy! “And the child (Isaac) grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, MOCKING (meaning “laughing at, making fun of,” in the PIEL, “very energetic, aggressive” Hebrew stem of verbs).” Genesis 21:8-9

So Paul lets this Hebrew verb “mocking” be changed/translated into “persecuting” in the New Testament. And he does so guided by the omniscient, inspiring Holy Spirit, mind you. (The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible, in many ways!)

By the way, Paul has this very Old Testament Text (Genesis 21:8-9) in mind as he writes Galatians 4:29. How do I know? Come back and read tomorrow’s Lesson, the Lord willing. In Verse 30 of Galatians 4, Paul quotes parts of Genesis 21, nearly word for word!

“But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.” Back to Galatians 4:29. 

In olden days, Ishmael persecuted Isaac, the child of slavery persecuted the free-born child! The “Spirit” born child! As opposed to the fleshly born child!

This verb “persecuted” is “dioko,” meaning “to chase after” a person, in order “to do him or her harm!” (The grammatical idea is “to put to” flight” an enemy.) One would have expected “dioko” here to be an aorist verb, but not so, “completed action! Rather, it’s an “imperfect verb,” a technical Greek way of saying this persecution … once started, continued on and on! 

Then Paul (quite appropriately) adds … “even so it is now.”

Paul the Apostle was then, the very second he was writing these lines, being persecuted by Ishmael’s crowd! By the Jews who loved slavery to the Law!

Heretics!

Like these: “Certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, EXCEPT YE BE CIRCUMCISED after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” Acts 15:1, adding to God’s Plan of Salvation by Grace, Salvation as a Gift! As a Blessing that cannot be earned by human works!

Much of Paul’s life he was “dogged” by these (true) legalists! 

In fact, they inadvertently contributed to Paul’s (first) Romans imprisonment anyway!

They hated the Apostle with a passion!

The “salvation by works” people (even in our “modern” 21st century) still can’t stand us “salvation by Grace” folks, either!

But (thank God) Paul was willing to suffer for, to fight, and to defend the marvelous saving Power of God’s amazing Grace!

And all of us should be thankful!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Our Scripture verse today is short, but thrilling! “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Galatians 4:28

Hence … we are NOT, as Ishmael was, children of slavery!

The Greek noun “brethren” has always interested me. It is “adelphos,” simply being a combination of “a” (like a prefix, but here denoting “union”) and “delphus,” a noun meaning a woman’s “womb!”

We, who are born-again in Jesus Christ, are … children of the same Womb!

The birth process involving the eternal Word of God, the invigorating Holy Spirit, believing faith … all devoid of human works!

But what is this about being born “of promise?”

This noun is “eppagelia,” meaning literally a “message!” It is translated just this way (“message”) once in the Bible, too! In 1 John 1:5, matter of fact. “This then is the MESSAGE (‘eppagelia’) which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 

So … we are children of the “Message!”

What “message?”

The Gospel!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The Gospel that tells the story of Jesus’ Death, Burial, and Resurrection!

We are God’s “children” because we believe the Truth of the Gospel!

So, in Greek, “promise” is spelled “eppagelia.”

And “Gospel” is spelled “euaggelion.”

See the same “root” built into both nouns, “aggelos?”

We become Abraham’s seed (spiritually, not literally) by believing the Promise, the Message, the Gospel, by faith! Not by works!

Just like Isaac also was born!

Promise, faith, trust!

Believing God’s Message!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

An Atlanta (Georgia) area radio station has begun airing a short Sermon/Bible Study each day (Monday through Friday) of one of my daily devotions! (Made on my cell phone from many a motel room, I might add!) Now I realize most of you cannot hear those broadcasts in a local sense … but they are on the Internet as well … live! At 11:30 this morning visit WordChristianBroadcasting.com and just “click” the “Listen Online Now” tab.

Paul today quotes Isaiah the Prophet!

In illustrating the ultimate victory “Salvation by Grace” will enjoy over Law, over human works!

The Quote fits well into Paul’s overall argument against the “Judiazers” who have come from Jerusalem to Galatia to confuse the believers in that Roman Province.

It’s part of the Biblical Backbone to Paul’s “allegory,” his inspired “word picture,” concerning the true means of salvation.

“For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.” Galatians 4:27

The Isaiah Passage is beautiful! Although Paul only utilizes verse 1, I have decided to share the whole paragraph. Read it! Get the “trajectory” of what the Prophet is saying. “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. Verse 1 of Isaiah 54. 

But there’s even more good news! This is certainly Grace, saving Grace! Verses 2-5 … “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy REDEEMER the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Isaiah 54:1-5

Now Paul is taking this dynamic Old Testament (Isaianic, just meaning pertaining to Isaiah)  “truth” and applying it to his Hagar/Sarah (Ishmael/Isaac) illustration.

Our Text is actually pitting one woman against another! Sarah’s child against Hagar’s! But in a “twist” of expected meaning, the Apostle has Sarah as being “desolate” and Hagar as being “the married wife!” And Sarah, in the end, has many (many) more children than does Hagar! Grace (Promise) enjoys proliferation, the manifold blessings of God, many “converts!” Law (works) … does not!

Sarah went 13 years “desolate,” grieving over Hagar’s son … when she (Sarah) all that time was “barren!” But then God stepped in (as He had promised) and miraculously (by faith, not by works) gave her a child. And through that child … Isaac … ultimately a whole nation, the Jews … and through those Jews … in time  came Jesus Christ God’s Son!  

FAITH is God’s means of bringing eternal life to the world!

FAITH in Jesus and His Finished Work on Calvary!

“Many more children!”

Literally as Israel (in the Millennium) prospers!

And spiritually (right now) as multitudes (lots and lots of Gentiles) are born again by belief in Sarah’s (and Abraham’s) greater Son, our dear Saviour!

Oh yes, GRACE IS REJOICING today, all over Heaven I suspect!

“Saying with a loud voice, WORTHY IS THE LAMB that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” Revelation 5:12

“Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the HEADSTONE (a definite picture of JESUS, the Cornerstone and Headstone) thereof WITH SHOUTINGS, CRYING GRACE, GRACE UNTO IT (unto HIM).” Zechariah 4:7, singing GRACE, GRACE to our Saviour some day!

And Romans 5:21 reminds us that, this very second, GRACE reigns throughout God’s creation! Through Jesus and His Shed Blood! “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might GRACE REIGN THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Let’s follow Paul’s logic a while.

He is (successfully) trying to illustrate how we Christians enjoy real “liberty” (not “license” to sin, but “freedom” to live a godly life, via the sweet Holy Spirit’s Guidance, Power) in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Paragraph in focus is Galatians 4:22-26. The whole “thought” continues through verse 31, but we’ve not reached that point yet in our studies.

“22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

Today verse 26 is in our purview, our “range of thought.” Literally, our “sight” or “scope.” Precisely, in the King James Version: “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

Ishmael, born of slavery.

Isaac, born of freedom.

Ishmael and Hagar are symbols of some “legalistic” means of salvation! Like the “bondage” placed on the Jews at Sinai, the Mosaic Law! Or the current religious state in Jerusalem (in Paul’s day), even though Jesus had been born, crucified, buried, and raised from the grave! Jerusalem, its people, the vast majority of them … still wanted to earn their salvation via the Law! Still wanted to emphasize (overemphasize) Moses, to the (near) exclusion of Jesus!

Wow!

But Isaac (and Sarah his mother), are symbols of those who have been born again by faith in Jesus … here pictured as another Jerusalem! The one which is “above!” A heavenly City!

One that is “free!” 

Free in Jesus!

Free to live a life that pleases God! 

I suspect a man claiming his liberty in Jesus, and full of the Holy Spirit … will live a far more godly life than anyone ever did under the “requirements” of the 613 laws in that vast Mosaic Code!

Then Paul “spiritualizes” a bit, he really does! “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

He makes this “Heavenly City” the “mother” of us all!

By faith, not by works!

We have been born (again) into freedom!

Saved people are not slaves to a list of “dos” and “don’ts!”

We are under the “Law of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 8:2), Who has led us to Jesus Christ the great Liberator!

The Emancipator!

The Preacher of Grace, of Belief, of Salvation as a Gift of God!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Now, it will take tomorrow’s verse (Thursday’s too) to complete our thought. Paul is laying a careful groundwork for the Grace of God to be enjoyed, as Jesus meant it to be.

Not legalism!

Not libertinism!

But Biblical literalism!

Meaning: salvation by believing, by trusting in Jesus and His Shed Blood … then living a godly life as motivated by the Spirit of Jesus, living deep within our hearts!

Again, who needs the Law of Moses?

When he or she already has “the Law of the (Holy) Spirit of Life” abiding within his chest!

Yes, if a choice must be made, Jesus is better than Moses! 

 

We have come to Galatians 4:25, one more link in Paul’s allegorical chain of thought, in his vital doctrine of Salvation by Grace!

“For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” 

The Apostle has carefully taught us the background of two sons of Abraham. Or maybe I should say Abram’s first two wives! (Technically Hagar, spelled “Agar” here, is a slave wife, in our Text a handmaid, but still the mother of one of the man’s children!)

So Paul is now using her, Hagar, as a symbol, as a picture, as a “type” the Bible teachers sometimes say … of someone in bondage! And naturally her child as a servant/slave too!

Accordingly, she is here in Galatians 4:25 being called the equivalent of “Mount Sinai,” the place the Law of Moses was penned (given by God) hundreds of years earlier. The place those 613 injunctions were pressed upon Israel. As a way of pleasing God! As the way of achieving God’s Blessings! Including land, and health, and prosperity!

Sidebar: How did Paul learn some of these dangers of trusting “Arabia” instead of “Jesus” for salvation? Personally, I suspect from the Holy Spirit Himself … as the Apostle invested those “silent” years in Arabia … shortly after his conversion! See Galatians 1:17 … “Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; BUT I WENT INTO ARABIA, and returned again unto Damascus.”

Our Text for today, again: “For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” 

The verb “answereth” is unique. It’s a “hapax legomenon,” occurring only one time in all the Bible. But Paul needed it here! It is spelled “sustoicheo,” and is a blend. Its prefix is really “sun,” a preposition meaning “with” or “alongside,” suggesting “union.” And its root verb is “stoicheo” (which does occur elsewhere (but only 5 times, 4 in Paul and once in Acts, used by Luke) meaning “to line up in a row.” In our King James Bible it is once translated “to walk orderly.”

In other words, “Hagar” is parallel (in the same line as) “Jerusalem.” Not the literal city as in its “streets and houses and infrastructure”) … but in its (“current” to Paul and his coworkers) theological teaching. In its insistence that the coming and death and resurrection of Jesus had absolutely NO bearing on the plan of salvation, as if Jesus had never been Virgin Born!

Embedded in the name “Jerusalem” is the Hebrew word “shalom,” essentially meaning “peace, welfare.” But the City has seldom experienced any of that illusive little quality! And as Paul wrote she was in the clutches of strict a deadly “Moses-helps-save-as-much-as-Jesus” heresy!

“Agar” used to be, but of course she died.

“Jerusalem” still is, and is carrying forward Agar’s “slave/handmaid” status, not to Abraham this time but instead to Moses!

That’s what Paul means by using the word “bondage” in our Verse. “For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in BONDAGE with her children.” 

Really a verb, “is in bondage” translates “douleuo,” merely “to be a slave.” Present tense, active voice … still happening, and by choice!

Wow!

What analogy!

So … do these Gentile converts to Jesus, these Galatians, REALLY want to go back into a form of slavery, after having been set free by Christ our Lord? 

To go back into a life foreign to the working of the Freedom-Giving (yet godly-living) Holy Spirit, the Godhead?

And as they say … THAT IS THE QUESTION!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

Yes … Jesus only saves!