Explore the Apostle Paul’s powerful message in Galatians 4:21-5:1, where he contrasts the burdens of legalism with the freedom of grace. Learn why true salvation is found through faith in Christ alone, not through our efforts.

Believers, Not Achievers

Have you ever worked on a project that you thought would be in your wheelhouse, but the deeper you got, the more you realized that you should’ve called a professional?

Doing it yourself doesn’t always work, does it? This is especially true when it comes to salvation. We cannot save ourselves. The harder we try, the more likely we will grow frustrated and want to give up. The truth is that we’re in desperate need of help, the kind of help that only God’s grace can provide.

As we’ve seen through the first three-and-half chapters of Galatians, the Judaizers (false teachers) pushed the Galatians off the grace track and back onto the performance track. The Galatian churches began to dwell on the doubts the Judaizers had sown in their minds. From their actions, we can surmise that as they moved back to legalism, they wondered if Jesus wasn’t enough. They were trying to earn their salvation.

Let’s clear something up. There’s nothing wrong with setting spiritual standards. However, legalism means we think we’re more spiritual than others because of our standards. Through our passage, Galatians 4:21-5:1, the Apostle Paul is once again contending that we’re saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone! He’s hammering this truth again!

Have you ever noticed that the Bible refers to Christians as believers, not achievers? We don’t earn or achieve salvation in the life of faith. Ephesians 2:8b-9 tells us, “It is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.”

This is illustrated in the life of John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist revival movement. After years of striving and performance, of overworking in an attempt to gain God’s favor, Wesley finally experienced the grace and freedom of salvation.

“I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” John Wesley

Our passage can be broken down into four sections, but the ultimate reminder that the Apostle Paul is hammering (again) is encouragement that you can’t be saved by yourself; God has already done it through His Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s examine those four sections.

1) A Challenging Question

The Apostle Paul begins his final argument or defense of salvation by grace through faith by asking a challenging question:

“Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” Galatians 4:21

The NIV version says, “Are you not aware of what the law says?” Paul tells the Galatians to look at the contract’s fine print before choosing to live under the law and (attempting to) earn God’s favor. You had better read it all before you sign on the line because going in this direction won’t save you, nor will it end well.

Choosing to live under the law or legalism is too heavy a burden to bear and will leave us paying forever without gaining anything but self-righteousness when we can keep it or total defeat when we break it.

If we choose to live under the law, we must remember that we cannot pick and choose some things out of the law that we think are important and ignore the rest. Many people do this: some choose to keep the dietary restrictions but ignore special days. Some keep special days but ignore dietary laws. Some choose circumcision but ignore tithing. Others choose tithing but neglect circumcision or faithfulness to their spouse.

Scripture is clear regarding the law: It’s all or nothing. Before you choose to be under the law, you better understand that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10 NIV).”

2) A Historical Narrative

“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.” Galatians 4:22-23

Paul takes the Galatians all the way back to Genesis and Abraham, whom the Jews claimed as their father, to ask them who they claimed as their mother. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, by two different women, Hagar and Sarah. Paul uses Abraham’s family situation to reveal the distinction between law and grace, flesh and spirit.

Let’s review the story: God called Abram to leave his country, people, and father’s household and go to a land He would show him. Abraham was promised to be blessed if he did as God commanded (Genesis 12:1), so Abram trusted God and went.

One of the things He was promised was that because of his willingness to trust God, his descendants would be as numerous as the sands of the seashore (Gen. 13:16, 22:17). As we see in the story, there are two BIG problems here:

1. Abram didn’t have any children.

2. Abram was 75 years old, and his wife was 65!

Abram and Sarah waited and waited for God to fulfill His promise. They weren’t getting any younger after all! So, when they reached 85 and 75, they took it upon themselves to give the Lord a hand.

Sarah was so humiliated by her childlessness that she devised the brilliant idea of pushing her husband into the arms of another woman so he could have a child with her. Sarah was so desperate that she would’ve done anything (except wait longer) to achieve God’s promise.

When we start trying to accomplish God’s will in our own way, it leads to heartache and unhappy endings. Additionally, we might be left standing with a lot of stuff in our hands that we don’t know what to do with! In this story, we see family rifts, persecution, contempt, and the guilt of contaminating God’s perfect plan with our dirty fingers.

Clergyman and author Phillips Brooks said, “The problem with life is that we’re in a hurry, but God is not.” It’s also been noted that “The art of waiting is letting God set the timer!”

The other woman was Hagar, Sarah’s servant or slave, and she bore Abram a son, Ishmael, “according to the flesh (Genesis 4:23).” Ishmael was the result of Abram and Sarah trying to solve a problem through their own efforts.

God waited 13 more years to fulfill His promise to Abram. Abram is now 99, and his body is, by his own evaluation, “as good as dead (Hebrews 11:12).” Sarah was a young 89 and way beyond the child-bearing age. Simply put, God waited to fulfill His promise until He could remove the all-natural explanation for what He was about to do.

Nevertheless, God told Abram He was going to change his name from “Abram—father of many” to “Abraham—father of a multitude.” If you have no children, consider how mind-boggling that would seem. Thankfully, God followed up the name change with a miraculous conception for Sarah. It wasn’t a virgin birth, but a supernatural one, for sure. Isaac’s birth, unlike Ishmael’s, was the result of faith, Abraham and Sarah believing God’s promises.

3) An Allegorical Interpretation

“Now, this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 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 4:24-27 (emphasis added)

Paul informs us that these two women represent two covenants and two Jerusalems.

Hagar stands for the Old Covenant in that just as she was able to bear only a slave child, so also the Law can produce only spiritual slaves.

If your only birth is a natural one and you spend your life trying to earn your salvation through good works and human effort, then your mother is Hagar, and your claim to be God’s child is bogus regardless of how sincere you are. All our efforts are “filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).”

Sarah stands for the New Covenant, a Covenant of Promise and Grace, not works. If you have been born again by faith in Jesus Christ and are trusting in His grace and His grace alone for salvation, then God is your Father, and Sarah, a woman of faith, is your spiritual mother.

• Hagar: present Jerusalem, the headquarters or home of Judaism and legalistic Christianity

• Sarah: The Jerusalem above, the kind of Christianity that trusts in the grace of God rather than in human works, in the Spirit, not the flesh.

4) Practical Application

“Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” Galatians 4:28

We are children of promise, not works. As stated in the beginning, we’re called believers, not achievers! Paul reminds all born-again Christians that we are like Isaac, not Ishmael and that our descent from Abraham is spiritual. We are his sons supernaturally, not naturally.

“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 4:29

We can expect persecution from those who practice a religion of works. If we’re like Isaac, we must expect to be treated as Isaac was treated.

In Genesis 21:9-10, we read, “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’”

We don’t know the nature of the persecution or precisely what Ishmael did to his younger brother Isaac. Still, Paul uses it as an analogy to describe how those who follow man-made religion often treat those who live by grace. This persecution often comes more from legalists within the church than from the pagan world.

“But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. The slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son. So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.” Galatians 4:30-31

However, where there is pain from persecution, it’s accompanied by the privilege of inheritance.

“For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

This is the key verse of the entire book of Galatians. We must keep standing firm in our freedom.

No matter how godly the legalists appear, how persuasive their arguments are, and how severe their threats or harsh their persecution, we are to stand firm on the grace of God and on the freedom for which Christ set us free. We are commanded to dig our heels into the freedom Christ won for us so that no one can drag us off into bondage again.

Which will it be in your life? By the flesh or By the Spirit?

TL;DR

1. Paul’s message in Galatians 4:21-5:1 emphasizes that salvation comes through faith in Christ, not by adhering to the law.

2. He uses the allegory of Hagar and Sarah to illustrate the difference between legalism and grace, urging believers to stand firm in the freedom Christ has provided.

3. Paul’s reminder for believers is:

   1. We are children of promise, not works.

   2. We can expect persecution from those who practice a religion of works.

   3. The pain of persecution is accompanied by the privilege of inheritance.

   4. We must keep standing firm in our freedom.

Related Reading

How Adoption into God’s Family Changes Everything by Rev. Paul Lawler

Exploring the Law In Light of the Gospel by Rev. Paul Lawler

Set Yourself Free from Spiritual Dullness by Rev. Paul Lawler