Galatians 4:21-31
'Two Religions' or 'Paul's Allegory of Law and Gospel'
Morning Service
Laetare, The 4th Sunday in Lent | March 14th, 2010
Dear Saints,
We might think that St Paul is writing to someone else. When he begins the passage that we heard in the epistle reading from Galatians 4 with this question:
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? (Galatians 4:21)
“What? 'You who desire to be under the law?' That's not me! In fact, I've got no idea who, in their right mind, would want to under the law. We live under the Gospel, under mercy, under the Lord's love.”
But just as Paul was an incredible student of our Lord Jesus, Paul was also a student of mankind, and he knows something about you and me that we are tempted to forget, and it is this: we are drawn toward the religion of the law. Like gravity is constantly pulling us to the earth, our flesh is constantly pulling us, pulling you, toward the religion of the law. So St. Paul gives us a reminder of what the religion of the law is and does.
But first the context. The church in Galatia was being troubled by the Judiazers. These were the supposed Jewish converts from Jerusalem who followed Paul just about everywhere he went undoing what he had done. Paul would go into a city and preach the Gospel, the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Paul would overthrow every thought of works-righteousness, of self-made holiness. “Forgiveness of sins is found in Jesus name.” Paul was a preacher of grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone for man's salvation. And by this preaching Paul would found a church, train a pastor (or leave one of his companions to serve the church and train pastors), and then Paul was off to the next town.
And it seems that as soon as Paul would leave the Judiazers would show up. The presented themselves as “professionals” from Jerusalem, experts in the Law, children of Abraham, and they took upon themselves the task of “completing” Paul's teaching, filling in the things Paul forgot to mention.
And what were those things that Paul forgot to tell them about? Oh, things like, “You have to be circumcised; You can't eat pork and you have to observe the kosher laws; keep the Saturday Sabbath and the Jewish feasts.” For the Judiazers, the Gospel might make you a Christian, it might get you started, but it was by the law that we are made perfect.
Now you might not believe this, but the Christians in Galatia started to believe this. Maybe they thought that this is the completion of Paul's teaching. But they were wrong; this false doctrine completely over throws the Gospel, it undoes the grace and mercy of God. These two religions, the religion of the law and the religion of the Gospel are incompatible.
So Paul writes his epistle to the saints in Galatia. (Almost all of Paul's letters have similar motivation: he's left a congregation that he planted or visited and then got word of a false teaching or practice that was tempting them, and writes a letter to correct the false doctrine.) He is writing to the Galatians, and in the passage that we heard this morning he is telling them a story, painting them a picture, of two religions.
There are, remember, only two religions in the world, the religion of the Gospel (that the Lord forgives us through the sacrificial death of Jesus) and the religion of the law (that we by thought, word or deed become holy). And, Paul says, these two religions are in conflict with one another, they are opposed to each other, and they have totally different results.
So Paul tells this story of two religions, and he's going to use an allegory, that is, a picture. In his allegory there are two mothers, two sons, two covenants, two mountains, two Jerusalems, and two results: freedom or slavery. (The text is on the back of your bulletin...)
22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.
Hagar was the slave-woman, Sarah's servant, and she bore Ishmael. Sarah, Abraham's wife, is the free woman, and she bore Isaac.
23But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
Now Paul reminds us of the circumstances of these two boy's birth. When Abraham and Sarah could not conceive they plotted together, and Abraham went in to Hagar and they had a boy. This is the son born according to the flesh, according to man's plans and workings. Isaac, on the other hand, is called the child of the promise. Remember how the Lord came down with two angels and said that Sarah would have a child, and she laughed. But sure enough, Isaac was born a year later, according to the promise.
24Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
Now Paul begins the allegory, the picture. Hagar is the religion of the law, the religion of works. This religion has a mountain: Sinai where the Lord gave the Ten Commandments. And she has a city Paul says: the present Jerusalem, that is, the teaching of the Pharisees and Scribes, those who teach a righteousness through obedience.
But there is another religion, another child who is born not of the flesh, but of the promise, and this is the religion of the Gospel. This is pictured by Sarah and her son Isaac. This religion has a city: the heavenly Jerusalem.
26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27For 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." 28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
You are not born of the flesh. You are born, says Paul, of the promise. You have your life not in your works but in the Word and promise of your forgiveness. And if you go and seek life through the work of the flesh you are moving from freedom to slavery, from life to death, from salvation to damnation.
Paul is writing to the Galatians, warning them. These Judiazers are trying to make you slaves, slaves to the law, slaves to the working of the flesh. They are trying to convert you from the religion of the gospel to the false religion of the law.
And this is what the religion of the law always does. Paul finishes his picture with these words:
29But 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. 30But 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." 31So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
The teachers of the law are always attacking the Gospel, always persecuting it, always troubling the true church. But Paul reminds them that only the children of the promise will inherit the blessing.
And this is true for us also. Paul knows that our sinful flesh is an expert of the law; the religion of the law is our native religion, and it is always creeping in, worming its way into our hearts and minds. We are constantly being drawn to the religion of the law; constantly being drawn into slavery and bondage.
What this temptation looks like for you is different than what it looks like to the person you are sitting next to, but it might be something like this, “The Lord will love me if, or when, I do this-and-that.” This is the slavery from which Jesus rescued. God loves you because Jesus died for you. Your sins are all forgiven, you are free, a child of the promise, born again through the incorruptible Word of God's promise.
The devil is always trying to convert you to the religion of the law, but the Lord Jesus won't have it. He will have you in His love and mercy and kindness, in His heavenly Jerusalem, in His freedom and life and light. And all of this because He has declared you to be righteous and holy and perfect in His sight.
God be praised for keeping us in His perfection, in His religion of the Gospel. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
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