At this juncture in Galatians, the Apostle Paul realised that there were so many interlocking issues in his debate with the Judaizers that the Galatian Christians must have been confused as to what the main issues and principles were.
So Paul decided to use a picture-story or allegory based on true incidents in the Old Testament to make clear what the debate was all about, and to help the believers to make sense of his arguments.
Before we go into that story, we must realise that the Judaizers were not advocating not believing in the gospel per se; but rather, they were insisting that although it is in order to believe the gospel, the believers also need to follow the law in order to really belong to the people of God. To do so, to begin, they had to be circumcised. This is in fact a distortion of the true gospel of Christ that Paul preached – we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. What they were advocating was a gospel-plus – the gospel plus the keeping of the law. Earlier on in our study of Galatians, we noted that if Paul allowed this to happen, there might evolve two kinds of churches – the Jewish Christian church and the Gentile Christians church – something God is against – in fact, in Christ, there is reconciliation, primarily also between Jews and Gentiles, and God intended the gospel to reach the whole world, and His church must not be built along racial, or cultural, or any other lines.
The Judaizers claimed they have the Jewish law and the Old Testament story of the call of Abraham on their side. So they communicated to the Gentile believers in Galatia that if they want to be part of God’s true people and proper children of Abraham, they must follow the law, including the most obvious starting point – circumcision. Was not Abraham told by God to be circumcised and that his children also must follow suit in order to be covenant people?
Paul turned to the Old Testament story of Abraham’s wife and Abraham’s concubine and the sons that each of them bore, to argue against his opponents, who probably also referred to Abraham to ‘prove’ that they were right in insisting that the Gentile believers must follow the law to be proper children of Abraham. From the story, there were two families, both claiming to be Abraham’s children; from this, the JudaIzers then claimed that the Jewish Christians must be the true free children, the descendants of Isaac and that the Gentile Christians, still uncircumcised, must be the children of Ishmael, the outsiders.
Paul then started his argument by claiming that the true family – the Isaac-family, is the one created by God’s promise. Abraham and Sarah decided to try having children through Hagar, without any promise of God; Ishmael was therefore born ‘according to the flesh’. Isaac, though, was born according to God’s promise. From here on, all the other arguments become clearer in the picture. Paul has shown that the law of Moses, functioned between the time of Moses and the coming of the Messiah, and this kept the Israelites ‘enslaved’ as little children needing a tutor before maturing to become true heirs of God’s people. The law, left to itself, produces Ishmael-children, not free Isaac-children.
Paul’s opponents claimed authority from Jerusalem but they were referring to ‘the present Jerusalem’, as opposed to the heavenly Jerusalem, ‘the Jerusalem from above’, which is the real home of all believers. And Ishmael people will persecute Isaac-people, but they will eventually be cast out and not inherit the promises of God.
We started by saying that Paul knew that there were many interlocking issues in his argument with his opponents. It is needful to unravel some of these and to take note that they also apply to us believers today. First, FAITH versus WORKS in salvation.
Christians are justified by grace through faith in the Triune God; the object of their faith is God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Salvation comes from the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. It is God the Father who initiates it; it is the Triune God, before the creation of the world, who planned salvation and decided that the Son should be incarnated and to be the Lamb of God, the Saviour, the Mediator, the substitute for fallen man by dying the death the latter deserves, and by effecting the great exchange at the cross, so that the ones who believe by faith should be justified and God’s wrath would be propitiated. It is the Holy Spirit who is the agent and executor of the divine will of the Triune God in salvation; He brings to perfection and completion the works of the Godhead in every sphere, It is the Spirit who quickens the soul into life and who enables it to believe upon, and rest only in, Christ for salvation. It is the Spirit who brings light to the mind, and renews the will, and with His invincible power overcomes the natural enmity of the human heart towards God and towards good. Faith is then a gift from God; it is a ‘vessel’ which receives what God has effected and completed for us in Christ – the salvation and redemption applied by the Spirit. Regeneration is the work of the Spirit.
So we are saved by grace through faith, and notice the great and vast work effected by the Triune God for our salvation, which we receive by faith. No amount of works on our part can achieve this – certainly we are saved by faith and not by works. But we are also saved for good works; the fact that we are not saved by works does not mean we do not work hard, in dependence on God, in the outworking of our salvation (which includes sanctification and being moulded into the image of our Master). We work, by the enabling of God, in dependence on Him. Saying that we are saved by faith and not by works may cause some to think that they can remain passive in the new found faith and be guaranteed salvation without obedience and discipleship.
Next, PROMISE, SPIRIT, FREEDOM on one side versus LAW, FLESH, BONDAGE on the other side.
Paul made it clear that Abraham was given the covenant by God through a promise by Him: ‘You shall be my people and I shall be your God’ – this is echoed again and again from Abraham right on to the New Covenant. The Law was given through Moses to indicate to the Israelites God’s desires and standards for His people; the law was not meant to be kept to achieve salvation – it was a ‘tutor’ to teach and guide the people of God to uphold the ways and desires of God as contrasted to the ways of the nations around them – the law was only fulfilled and kept perfectly by the Messiah subsequently, but the law would continue to serve as a moral guide to God’s people in the New Testament in their pilgrimage on earth and in their process of transformation into the image of the Son. Abraham was given the covenant long before the law came through Moses; Abraham was called into a covenant with God with a PROMISE from God and he responded by faith. However, Ishmael came about not by faith but by works and by the flesh (as contrasted with the Spirit); and the flesh results in slavery and death, whilst the Spirit gives life and freedom. Notice that this continues to apply even in the lives of Christians today: if we live by the flesh, we shall die, but if we live by the Spirit, we shall live. Similarly, if we seek to be saved by keeping the law, we shall be cursed, but if we seek to be saved by faith based on God’s promise and by His Spirit, we shall receive life, true freedom in Christ, and reconciliation with God.
In summary, we can represent the interlocking issues in the following way:
Promise Law
Spirit Flesh
Freedom Bondage
Faith Works and keeping of the law
Heavenly Jerusalem Earthly Jerusalem
The Apostle Paul was given the wisdom by God to counter the argument of his opponents by looking to the very portions of the Old Testament used by the Judaizers to show clearly that the true gospel has no place for proclaiming ‘salvation by works’, or ‘salvation by keeping of the law’, for these will only lead to bondage, the work of the flesh, and spiritual death; whereas the true gospel preaches salvation by grace through faith, leading to freedom, spiritual life, and life in the Spirit, anchored on the promise and faithfulness of the Triune God.