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"To testify the gospel of the grace of God" TrustingTheLordGrace 101 Bible Studies |
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Galatians Chapter Four – Part Two
Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Paul tells the Galatians who desire to be under the law to hear the law. In other words, the law speaks. It speaks to those who are under the law. It tells people who are under the law to do the law and to keep the law, to keep the WHOLE law. The law points out guilt and it says that if you fail to keep the whole law you are guilty:
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
In other words, the law is a witness of the righteousness of God. God is holy. God is righteouss. So when the law speaks, listen to what it says:
Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Paul tells Timothy that the law is a good thing “if a man use it lawfully.” The law is a good thing, but for those in Christ the law is not a good thing because it is a far better thing to be in Christ than to be under the law.
Paul uses this phrase, “under the law,” ten times in the bible. He is the only writer to use it and here in the book of Galations he refers to being “under the law” four times. In Romans he mentions it twice and in 1 Corinthians he talks about being “under the law.”
1 Corinthians 9:20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
You don’t find references to being “under the law” in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Why? Because it is a given. They all were under the law. Jesus Christ was made of a woman, made under the law. He kept the law, taught people to keep the law, told people to offer the gift, the blood sacrifice, that Moses commanded and he told the “rich young ruler” that to have eternal life, “keep the commandments.” Being “under the law” was a given, it was taken for granted, not only in the Lord’s ministry, but in Peter’s ministry during the book of Acts as well.
Today, only people who are out of the will of God want to be “under the law.” Today we are led by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit does not lead people “according to the law.” God didn’t give the Holy Spirit to “help you keep the law,” as some mistakenly think. The Holy Spirit was given to lead you in the love of God and of Christ, and love worketh no ill to his neighbor, so Paul says:
Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law
There are people who want to argue about what it is that Paul is referring to when he refers to the law. Some want to say that what Paul means is the “Jewish ceremonial law. Well, here’s what Paul means when he refers to the law:
Romans 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
So when Paul talks about the law, and the contrast between the law and grace, he is referring to the law, the whole law, and nothing but the law. In other words he is referring to everything in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy that Moses wrote pertaining to the law:
Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The law neither makes you spiritual nor can it save an unbeliever. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can save you. So the law makes an unbeliever religious but lost. A religious but lost unbeliever’s next stop is the lake of fire. The reality of religion today is that it is full of ‘lost believers.”
Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
When Paul says “it is written” it shows that the bible you hold in your hand today is as much the word of God as it was when Moses wrote what he wrote nearly 3500 years ago. We believe that the King James Bible is the perfectly preserved word of God, in English, for English-speaking people.
Now as we get in to this passage, and if you really want to understand the truth that Paul is bringing out in the passage, then you will need to accept the fact, first of all, that in the body of Christ, as it was being formed by the preaching and teaching of Paul during his lifetime, in other words, from the beginning in Acts chapter nine, on the road to Damascus, until Paul wrote the last words that he wrote in his thirteen books, that in that period of time we will see two groups of people.
During the period of time of Paul’s preaching and teaching in the book of Acts there is something there called ‘the commonwealth of Israel.” Now that phrase, “the commonwealth of Israel,” is only used once in your bible. It only shows up in the book of Ephesians:
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But just because it only shows up once in your bible, it doesn’t make the truth of the verse unimportant. The phrase, “the gospel of the grace of God” only shows up in your bible once, but we know, according to Ephesians chapter three, that we are involved in something called “the dispensation of the grace of God.” We know that in this economy, or this administration that it is our job “to make all men see the fellowship of the mystery.” And notice that it doesn’t say “all saved men,” it says all men. So the fact that a word or a phrase only appears in the bible once is not a reason to minimize the importance of it.
So Paul writes to the Ephesians because he has “heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints.” Before Paul went to Rome as “the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” he had been in Ephesus and he had established a church, preaching in the synagogue of the Jews. He spent a total of three years in the area and he says:
Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
But during all those three years, Paul had never met the people he writes to in the book of Ephesians. In other words, the book of Ephesians is not written to those people that he met, that he knew, and that he had preached to when he had been there before. Yet Luke writes in the book of Acts:
Acts 19:10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
Notice that Luke writes here that ALL THEY which dwelt in Asia heard the word and it’s a reference to JEWS AND GREEKS. Well, I know that the Ephesians to whom Paul wrote the Ephesian letter don’t fit in this group, because the “word of truth, the gospel of THEIR salvation” is something they didn’t hear during that period of time because it is clear that Paul didn’t know those Ephesians he wrote the letter to. He had only heard of their faith.
Now the difference between the three years and the two years in those two verses is that Paul preached in the synagogue for three months, and when the Jews began to oppose Paul and “speak evil of THAT WAY” he separated the disciples and went into the “school of one Tyrannus” and continued to teach them for two years, and after that he “stayed in Asia for a season.” So the total time adds up to three years, as Paul said in the verse in Acts chapter twenty.
But he had not preached to the people that he wrote the Ephesian letter to. He had never met them, he didn’t know them. He had only “heard of their faith.” So he writes to them and he tells them to remember that “in time past” that they were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.” So in order for them to have been aliens from it, there had to be something which existed which he refers to as the commonwealth of Israel.
So the “commonwealth of Israel” existed all the way through the book of Acts. Israel had fallen, but they had not yet been “cast away.” At the time of Acts chapter twenty, actually at the time of Acts chapter twenty and verse three, Paul goes into Europe, into Macedonia, and from Macedonia he goes down into Greece and to Corinth and he stays there three months, and during that three months he writes the Roman letter. We know that from the internal evidence in the letter. Now in the Roman letter he says that God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. And he says that through the fall of Israel salvation has come to the Gentiles. In Romans 11 he says:
Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
The present time is the time of Acts chapter twenty. Prior to that he had written the Galatian letter. After the Galatian letter he wrote the first and the second Thessalonian letter and the first and the second Corinthian letter. All of Paul’s ministry during the book of Acts includes all of those people. It includes the Galaltions, the Thessalonians, the Corinthians, and it also includes the Romans. During all of that period of time, Israel had fallen, but they had not yet been cast away. The casting away of Israel occurs at the time of Acts chapter 28. The Ephesian letter and the Collosian letter, a total of seven different letters, which are called “the prison epistles” were written after the time of Acts 28.
So the period of time of the book of Acts represents a “time of promise.” Paul writes to the Ephesians and says that “at that time” you were strangers from the covenants of promise.
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
So there are covenants involved. And there were people who were involved in the covenants. That is what Paul is talking about in the book of Galations and he is talking to the people who were involved in them. The people who are involved in the covenants of promise are Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles are sometimes referred to as proselytes. They are God-fearing Gentiles and they have faith in the God of Abraham.
That’s why you see Abraham’s name mentioned so much, especially in the Galatian letter and in the Roman letter. In the prison epistles, those letters written after the time period of the book of Acts, the name of Abraham is not mentioned one single time. It’s not that the name of Abraham is no longer important, but that the truth pertaining to Abraham has already been written and recorded and it’s there for our learning, just as it was for the Ephesians learning. But the Ephesians were not involved in the covenants of promise. The Galations were. So were the Thessalonians, the Corinthians and the Romans.
So what you have is what is referred to as “Paul’s provoking ministry.” The idea comes from this verse:
Romans 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
Romans 11:14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
Paul wants to provoke them that the “emulation” might result in some of them being saved. And it’s that “remnant according to the election of grace” in verse five that he wants to save. In order to do that he preaches “my gospel,” which is the gospel of Christ, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The gospel of Christ, all the way through the book of Acts, is preached to the Jew first, and because Israel has fallen, also to the Greek. The Jews and the Greeks in the synagogues of the Jews in the regions of Galatia where Paul preached, and to whom Paul wrote the Galatian letter, are in the covenants of promise. So Paul is talking about Abraham and he says that Abraham had two sons
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Now the women nor the sons are an allegory but THE THINGS pertaining to them are the allegory here. The things that pertain to the two represent something.
So Paul writes to the Galations and he is talking about two covenants. Unless there is a reason for Paul to talk about covenants then it would make no sense for him to be talking about them. He doesn’t talk about covenants when he writes to the Ephesians or the Collosians. Instead he tells them that they were “strangers from the covenants of promise.” Well he doesn’t tell the Galations that they are “strangers from the covenants” Instead he is explaining the covenants, because they are IN the covenants of promise. Understanding who is IN the covenants of promise and who is a stranger from them goes a long, long way toward understanding some of the things Paul writes about during the time of the book of Acts.
Now he uses the word “allegory” and this is the only time the word is used in the bible. Whole systems of religion and theology are based on a so-called “allegorical” understanding of the bible. It is called “spiritualizing the passage.” But like J.C. O’Hair said, people who “spiritualize” have no “spiritual eyes” and they tell “spiritual lies.” People who “spiritualize” in order to explain away things which they don’t understand are people who will not believe that the bible means it LITERALLY. So let’s read:
Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Galatians 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
The word “allegory” is not translated, it is transliterated. That is, it was simply taken from the Greek, given an English spelling and brought over into the English language. The same is true of the word “baptism.” An allegory is not a “made up” story but to speak in a figure, literally to speak in a different way. So Paul uses the two women, Hagar and Sarah, to represent something.
When he says “it is written” he is referring to two passages, Genesis 16 and Genesis 21. Genesis 16 is about the birth of the son of the bondwoman, who is Hagar, whose name is Ishmael:
Genesis 16:15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
Genesis 16:16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
Notice that the name is still Abram here. Abram’s name was not changed until the time of Genesis 17, so what has happened here is not involved in the later truth that God made ABRAHAM the father of many nations. This is not to say that Ishmael’s seed could not have later been blessed if they had blessed Israel, but just to note that Ishmael is not in the seed line. The fact is, historically speaking, that instead of blessing Israel, Arabs and Jews have cursed each other.
Now the reference to the free woman is a reference to a miracle birth. A miracle because Sarah was barren, she couldn’t have children. And not only because she couldn’t have children but because she was well past child-bearing age, she was ninety years old and because Abraham was a hundred years old:
Genesis 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
Genesis 21:2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
Genesis 21:3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
Genesis 21:4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Genesis 21:5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
So Paul says that the two women represent the two covenants. Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, not the present day city of Jerusalem but the Jerusalem “then present” where the temple was and where the worship of God by the nation of Israel was centered. Hagar represents three things here: Mount Sinai; a covenant, which is the Law of Moses; and the earthly city of Jerusalem. The people who were given the law of Moses at Mount Sinai are the same people who live in the then-present city of Jerusalem.
Now the emphasis is on bondage. Hagar was a slave woman and the children of Israel were in slavery to the Law. Now the Judaizers who had gone to Galatia and were “fascinating” the Galatians evidently didn’t talk much about the slavery and the bondage of the Law. So that’s what Paul is doing, he is showing them how terrible the bondage of the law really is. Once you are under the law you are obligated to keep all of it and if you fail in one single point the Law makes you guilty of all. But then he says, “But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Hagar is the mother of Ishmael and she stands for the Law of Moses and the city of Jerusalem and people under the law. She represents people who would come to God through the Law. Those involved in the gospel of the circumcision are still very much under the law, keeping the law, under a schoolmaster. They endure to the end until the time of Romans 11:27 when God’s covenant unto them takes away their sins.
Sarah then, the mother of Isaac, the child of the promise, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem, and a different covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the New Covenant. Now Paul says, in 2 Corinthians that “we are able ministers of the new testament:”
2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Now covenant theology and Acts 28’ers alike, want to make Paul be ministering the new covenant. Covenant theology so-called “spiritualizes” the bible to come up with replacement theology and the Acts 28”ers want to make Paul be one of the ones who heard the Lord, in other words, like Peter, James and John, and make Paul one of the ones who “confirmed the word” to the Hebrews as in Hebrews 2:3. But whoever wrote Hebrews 2:3 is a THIRD PARTY. He got his information from someone else who got it from the Lord. But Paul got his information directly from the Lord, as he said in Galations 1:11-12.
Paul is NOT ministering the LETTER of the New Testament. He is ministering THE SPIRIT of the new testament. Under the letter of the new testament they are bound to keep the letter. The law will be WRITTEN in their hearts and in their minds and they will all know God from the least to the greatest, But yet, they are never relieved of the responsibility of KEEPING the new testament and Jesus said until heaven and earth pass that one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law. Heaven and earth DO NOT pass away until after the millennium.
Now the SPIRIT of the new testament is righteousness. There is but one SPIRIT of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. Paul says that Israel has a “vail” over their mind in the reading of the old testament but the vail is taken away when they “turn to the Lord” and that the Lord is that Spirit. Well, Israel had not yet “turned to the Lord.” Peter preached repent, he preached for them to “turn to the Lord” but Israel rejected the offer and so the salvation of Israel and their new covenant is yet future.
2 Corinthians 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2 Corinthians 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
So Paul’s ministry is the ministry of righteousness, the righteousness of God. Where can the righteousness of God be found? In MY GOSPEL, in Paul’s gospel, the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the preaching of the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
So Paul takes things from prophecy, things which WILL BE true of Israel at the second coming of Christ and the blotting out of their sins and makes application to the body of Christ. Here is one of them in the book of Romans where Paul quotes from David in the book of Psalms where David speaks about Israel in the future and applies it to the body of Christ:
Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Romans 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Romans 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness in Genesis chapter fifteen and in Genesis chapter seventeen, Abraham is made a father of many nations, and in Galatia are some of those nations that Abraham is the father of. The God-fearing Gentiles called Greeks in the synagogues of the Jews are told by Paul:
Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
These people, blessing the seed of Abraham, fearing the God of Abraham, seeking the wisdom of the God of Abraham get the blessing of Abraham:
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The promise of the Spirit was a promise. Promises are given to people to whom the promises pertain. So the people to whom Paul writes in the
Galatian letter do not match you and I. These people are in the covenants of promise. Which promises? The ones made to Abraham. Why? By Faith. What did they do? They blessed the seed of Abraham. In the context they blessed the seed of Abraham by blessing Israel. Some of them would have been circumcised and called proselytes. Some were not circumcised. But they feared the God of Abraham. And so they received the promise by faith. Their access into that faith is through the faith of Christ.
You are I were never in the covenants of promise. We never blessed the seed of Abraham nor feared the God of Abraham in association with Israel. Before you and I were ever born there was no Israel. Israel had been cast away and scattered among the nations. We are more like the Ephesians to whom Paul wrote the Ephesian letter, from prison in Rome, after the time period of the book of Acts.
God made no promises to people like the Ephesians. Instead the mystery of their salvation was hid in God. The mystery of Christ, the gospel of Christ, preached to the Jew first and also to the Greek is Paul’s gospel. But the gospel of the GRACE of God, the dispensation of the grace of God is the mystery OF THE GOSPEL:
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Ephesians 6:19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
By the way, Paul also refers to the “mystery of the gospel” here:
Philippians 4:15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
That beginning that he refers to is neither in Acts nine nor in Acts 28. So we see that there are some things pertaining to members of the body of Christ that were hidden in the scriptures. But there are some MEMBERS of the body of Christ that were HID IN GOD, and that is called the FELLOWSHIP of the mystery. Like fellows in a ship. Certain men are in a ship and they don’t want you to pick up those stragglers out there drowning in the ocean, but the Captain of the ship stops, picks them up and they are more FELLOWS in a ship! The FELLOWSHIP of the mystery.
Ephesians 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Now the Jerusalem which is above, represented by Sarah, the freewoman, is called by other names in the bible. It is referred to as the “heavenly Jerusalem” in Hebrews 12:12, the “new Jerusalem” in Revelation 21:2 and the “holy Jerusalem” in Revelation 21:10
This Jerusalem is free, it is the home of the free, not subject to the old covenant, the law of Moses. Those who inherit the city will be free. Now when Paul says “mother of us all” it is used in the sense that the Lord used it when he asked a man in Matthew chapter twelve, “Who is my mother?” And he said “those who do the will of God are my brother, sister and mother.”
And Paul, in Galations, is using the word in a spiritual sense, in that God is our father. But we are members of Christ’s body and the body of Christ has a head, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is simply talking about the “adopted, full grown sonship” and being free, being at liberty. He doen’t mean that the heavenly Jerusalem is the mother of the body of Christ. He is comparing the bondage of the slave woman, Hagar and the freedom of the free woman, Sarah. These are the two conditions, and the body of Christ is like Sarah and is free.
Now in verse 27:
Galatians 4:27 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.
That’s a quotation of Isaiah 54:1 and he is continuing the contrast between Hagar and Sarah. In the first half of the verse he is referring to Sarah. She was the one that was barren, as in Genesis 18:11 and as in Romans:
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:
She didn’t travail in birth because she was barren. Isaac was her first child and he was born when she was ninety years old. Is anything impossible with God? Now in the second half of the verse the “desolate” one is Hagar. There have always been more Arabs than Jews and the Angel of the Lord had told her that she would have multiplied seed in Genesis 16. Ishmael was the father of twelve princes, but she became desolate when she was cast out from Abraham and Sarah because Isaac was the miracle child and the child of the promise.
Galatians 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
So once again we see the use of the word promise, children of the promise. Isaac was the child of THE promise. Now we know that the promised SEED was Christ and Isaac is a type of Christ because it was through Isaac and through Jacob, the seed line, that Christ was to come. But the promise Paul refers to is the promise of the Spirit, the promise of the Father. As in:
Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Ten times in the book of Galations Paul uses the word PROMISE. And all ten times it is a reference to the same thing, the promise of the Spirit:
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Now to go back a minute, he explains something about this faith. He says in verse seven:
Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
He is basically laying out that even a Gentile, a non-genetic seed of Abraham, was accounted as a child of Abraham by faith. Now we are not talking about Gentiles like the Ephesians or like you and me. It’s a reference to those God-fearing Gentiles, and they are called Greeks in a King James Bible. He goes on to say:
Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Now the gospel preached to Abraham was not the fact that Christ died for his sins. It was the good news that in “blessing I will bless thee and I will make thee a blessing and in thee shall all nations be blessed.” That’s all the way back to Genesis chapter twelve. Well then, how would a nation be blessed in Abraham? They had to bless him. “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” So he is not talking about Gentiles who curse Israel, he is talking about the ones that bless them. And those would be Gentiles that the scripture foresaw who could be the seed of Abraham or the children of Abraham, by their faith.
Galatians 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
The point of this is that even a Gentile that blessed the seed of Abraham would receive a blessing and it wasn’t through keeping the law. When that promise was made, beginning in Genesis chapter twelve, there was no law. That covenant with Abraham was made 430 years before the law was written.
Now the promises of God are all spelled out in the old testament and they are all promises to Israel or through Israel.
Romans 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
All of what Paul said there in the verse was according to prophecy. But prophecy is about the rise of Israel, not their fall. Paul’s message of salvation came about through the FALL of Israel, not their rise:
Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
So we are on MYSTERY GROUND here. There is NOTHING in the Hebrew scriptures about Gentiles being saved through the fall of Israel, only through their rise. So like Paul said, the gospel I preach, is not of man, not received or taught by man, but by direct revelation of Jesus Christ. So you can see the things, some of the things, that Paul talks about here in the old testament. But this mystery pertaining to those things was only explained to Paul and through Paul and Peter said it was hard to understand. What we don’t clearly understand we just accept by faith because God said it. What I am saying is that you are not going to be able to go back to the old testament and pick this mystery truth out of it. Only Paul was given the revelation of the mystery.
Galatians 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
He that was born of the flesh was Abraham’s attempt to fulfill the will of God. Ishmael was the result of it. Isaac is the one born after the Spirit
This describes what Ishmael began and what his descendents continued, so that Isaac’s seed was being persecuted by Ishmael’s seed. The contrast is between Ishmael and Isaac and their seed. There has been a continuing and a continuous hatred and animosity between the Arabs, Ishmael’s seed, and the nation of Israel, Isaac’s seed. The Arab-Israeli conflict began in Abraham’s tent, and you can pray for the peace of Jerusalem all you want to, it is not going to happen until the body of Christ is finished and taken out of the world and God’s prophetic program winds up the tribulation and the Prince of Peace comes and cleans it all up and brings peace.
Galatians 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Now in chapter three Paul said that the scripture did something. It preached the gospel to Abraham. And that goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 12 and the first mention of Abraham and all the things that God said to Abraham which we commonly call the “Abrahamic Covenant.” Now the scripture said something to Pharaoh in Exodus chapter nine and in Romans 10:11 the scripture says “whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed,” in reference to Isaiah 28:16. God is equal to scripture which is equal to Christ and Christ is the word of God made flesh. What is written is written with words, by words and in words and Jesus Christ is THE WORD
But the scripture said, cast out the bondwoman and it is a reference to Genesis 21:10. It’s actually the words of Sarah. Now what Paul is saying here is that just as Sarah told Abraham to cast out Hagar and her son Ishamel, and God told Abraham to hearken to Sarah’s voice, so Paul is telling the Galations to cast out the legalizers. So people who try to add the works of the law to the grace of God have no part in the inheritance which belongs to Christ and to his body. And if you add works of the law to grace then you are fallen from grace. It is a shame that the majority of the fundamental, denominational religious system today simply does not understand Galatians, or else just won’t believe it. Legalism caused trouble in the assemblies in Galatia and it causes trouble in the church today.
Galatians 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Paul wants the Galatians, and you and me, to understand our liberty in Christ. They or we are not children of the bondwoman, Hagar, who represents Jerusalem and legalism. If they had been the children of Hagar the situation would have been different. There would have been no persecution. But they are like the child of Sarah, the freewoman, and they are free from the yoke of bondage through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Paul had evidently set forth Jesus Christ, crucified FOR them, in their behalf, in order to give them the liberty they now are to enjoy IN Christ
They had been saved by his preaching and they had received the Spirit by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the Law. The Law of Moses had not saved them and could never have justified them. Their responsibility then was to Paul and Paul’s doctrine. They belonged to the Lord through Paul and their responsibility was to Paul and not to Jerusalem.
The point of the whole Galatian letter is that circumcision would afford them nothing. It wouldn’t do a thing for them. In fact in Chapter five Paul says:
Galatians 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Trying to keep the law is of no profit. These people are already saved. They are already in Christ. Paul said:
Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Believers who follow the Law of Moses are out of their minds. Think about it. When you ask a religious person “what must I do to be saved.” Most of them will say things like repent, be baptized and so on. And almost all of them will make a reference to keeping the commandments in one way or another. Yet scripture says that NO man is justified by the works of the law and that the just shall live by faith.
A man is a fool to try to be justified by keeping the law because scripture says “cursed is the man that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. That’s why Christ had to die. He became a curse for us. God MADE him to be sin for us. People who try to keep the law are NOT in the will of God because they are following a message which is contradictory to the one Christ revealed to Paul. And, here’s another thing, if you ARE following Christ as Paul followed Christ you will suffer persecution for it on the part of religion because Paul says “all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But watch this:
2 Timothy 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
Reigning with Christ is related to suffering for him. Suffering for Christ is to NOT give in to religious dogma and denominational systems and the creeds and the ordinances and the ceremonies and the activities invented by men. Suffering for Christ involves standing fast in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free.
Now here’s what we have learned about the Galations so far. They have come out from the yoke of bondage. These believers in Christ, both Jews and Greeks, had been entangled with the yoke of bondage and Paul told them to not be entangled AGAIN with the yoke of bondage, not be entangled again with the law.
We have learned that Judaism and the Law of Moses is a DIFFERENT GOSPEL. Not a false gospel because there is no such term as “false gospel in the bible. False prophets, false teachers, false witnesses, even false Christs, but no such thing as a false gospel.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Galatians 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
The gospel of Christ, Paul’s gospel, was preached to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The Greeks in the King James Bible are God-fearing Gentiles. They are in the covenants of promise and they are blessed with hearing Paul’s gospel, being saved by grace through faith.
This other gospel, Judaism, is weak and sick, it is beggarly compared to the gospel of Christ:
Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Paul used what actually happened in Genesis with Abraham, Sarah and Hager to give an allegory, the only time the word is used in the bible, to demonstrate two covenants and to make contrasts between the two.
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Someone was bewitching the Galations. They were fascinating them, so to speak, with deceptive persuasion, and Paul called it leaven:
Galatians 5:8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Galatians 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Galatians 5:10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
In other words you could be a saved individual. You could be saved and sealed and on your way to Heaven. But in getting there you will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And the Judge you will face is not going to be your religious leader. It will not be your pastor, or your preacher or your teacher, and your volumes of theology and your religious traditions and your denominational teachings will count for NOTHING.
The Judge you will face at the Judgment Seat of Christ will be none other than the resurrected, glorified man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ who is THE LORD. You won’t have to give an account for things that you don’t understand. You will never be brought into question or give account for things that you cannot understand. But you WILL give an account for what you believe and what you teach. You will give an account for what you will not believe.
Your works will be tried and they will be tried by fire. If your works pass the test then you get a reward. But if they don’t then they will be burned. You will be saved, but a lifetime of religious effort and religious activity will all go up in smoke. Are you SURE that what you believe and practice and what you teach other people to believe and practice is in accord with the doctrine committed to the church for today? You need to check your doctrine against the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus Christ committed to Paul which are found in Romans through Philemon.
If you truly are a saved individual then WHY would you NOT want to compare what you believe and what you teach with what Paul teaches? If you did compare what you believe and teach with what Paul teaches and find it is not the same, then by what authority do you continue to believe what you believe and teach what you teach that is contrary to Paul’s doctrine? What possible reason could you have for wanting to do that?
Are you sure that you believe and teach the CORRECT doctrine committed to the church from the risen, ascended Lord Jesus Christ? How will you decided IF what you believe and what you teach is right or wrong. What is going to be your authority? Will it be denominational literature? Will it be your religious leader? What is your final authority?
Assuming that you are a saved individual, that you have seen and understood your lost sinful condition, and seeing yourself as a lost, doomed and damned sinner, have trusted in Christ, trusting the testimony that God gave about his Son, that God was in Christ reconciling you to Himself, not imputing your trespasses unto you but instead imputed them to Christ and made him to be your sin and that Christ died for your sins, all of your sins, and that he was raised again for your justification, clearing you of all guilt, and has raised you up with him and has given you a judicial and spiritual position seated with Him far above all heavens and that you are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, just redeeming the time and waiting for the day that you will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air to ever be with the Lord.
If you are all that, and if you are saved that’s what the bible says you are. If you are all that, then WHAT would ANY KIND of religious activity, including trying to keep the law add to that?
And if you are not all that, then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
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