WEEK 12 Galatians 4:21-31 - Redeemer Bloomington · WEEK 12 Galatians 4:21-31 DAY ONE READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:21 THINK: Paul in this verse turns his attention to those who desire

W E E K 1 2 G a l a t i a n s 4 : 2 1 - 3 1

W W W. R E D E E M E R B L O O M I N G T O N . O R G

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DAY ONE READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:21

THINK: Paul in this verse turns his attention to those who desire to be under the law. It is important to understand that he is not specifically addressing those who are seeking to just obey the law. Rather, he is turning right to those who believe that they need to add to what Christ accomplished for their salvation by their own works. People who believe that their works are what make them righteous before God. Paul then asks a very pointed question to these individuals. He says, “you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?”

He is calling out the inconsistency in the thought process of those who desire to be under the law. He is saying that “you do not know what you are asking!” While it may seem like relying on the law is what you need to do, if you actually read the law correctly, you will see that you can’t even come close to obeying if fully. Paul will unpack this in the remainder of Galatians 4, but for now there are a few things to consider.

While we don’t necessarily have Judaizers around us today (those who taught that you must believe in Jesus and still follow the Old Testament law to be saved) there are still many people who struggle with the same type of belief. There are those who are law-obeying and law-relying. Meaning they both follow the rules and believe that these rules save them. Then their are those who have a strong belief that their works must be important in some way, but they don’t actually follow any specific law. (Law-disobeying and law-relying) And there are those who don’t believe in any law of God at all and believe they are a law all unto themselves. (Law-disobeying and not law-relying)

Maybe as you are reading this you are noticing where you tend to fall on this spectrum. Paul is going to use an example from the Old Testament to show his point, but what he is trying to get at is to remind people that Jesus Christ made a way where we can be free from attempting to work out our own righteousness before God. This is good news for those who are striving and striving to be right in the eyes of the Lord as they follow Jesus. And it is good news for those who don’t even know why they have these feelings of what is right and what is wrong in the world. None of us can escape the feeling that something in this world is not right and thankfully Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all the requirements of the law of God, so that we would be free to rest in the righteousness and salvation He gives and joyfully obey the law to glorify God. (Law-obeying and not law-relying)

EXAMINE: Use a journal to write down all of your observations of the text. Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions. Also, ask basic questions such as Who? What? When? Where? Why?

1) In what ways do you seek to rely on the law for your own salvation?

2) Where do you notice that you create a law for yourself to please your own selfish desires?

APPLY: Use the SPECK method to make an application from these verses.

Sin to Avoid Promise to cling to Example to follow Command to obey Knowledge to gain

PRAY: One thought to include in your prayer…

• Lord, I thank you that you sent Jesus to live and die so that I may have salvation through faith alone by grace alone. Help me to seek to follow you by obeying your law, but not so that I may earn salvation, but only so I may glorify you. And when I fail, help me to rest in your grace that you offer us by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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DAY TWO READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:22-23

THINK: Verses 22 and 23 lay out the historical background for the story that Paul is giving us. The story that we have here is about the two sons and wives of Abraham. The sons names were Ishmael and Isaac. One was born by a slave woman, who’s name was Hagar. She was the maidservant to Abraham and his wife. And one was born of the free woman who was Abrahams wife and her name was Sarah. When God made a covenant with Abraham he says in Genesis 12:1-4, “Go from your country and your kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God is promising Abraham that He will provide an heir to live in the land that God is going to show him. But the problem in Abraham and Sarah’s mind was that they were getting incredibly old. So Sarah suggested that he sleep with their maidservant Hagar, so they could gain an heir and begin to build a family. Abraham agreed and he and Hagar conceived and had a son that they named Ishmael. Fourteen year later, when Abraham was 100 years old, “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.” (Genesis 21:1-3)

It is interesting how many time the author in Genesis mentions that Sarah, the old and barren woman, was the one who gave birth to Isaac. Paul says of this account in Galatians 4:23, “But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.” There is a distinction being made here between people who try to get what God has promised by their own attainment and those who rely on the Lord to carry out the promise that He gave.

Abraham attempted to gain the promise of God through having a relationship with a woman who, by human standards, was completely capable and ready to have a child. Abraham was not willing to wait and trust that God would come through on what was promised. We are all like Abraham in this way to some extent. We all seek to gain the promises of God on our own merits and work in one way or another. The beautiful thing is that what ever God promises, he is faithful to come through on. He sent the Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life and die in our place for our sins so that we don’t have to go and try to get God’s promise of salvation and abundant life. Just like Isaac being born of Sarah, who was old and unable to have children naturally, so we too have been given a promise that is a work of God from start to finish. Their is nothing we can do to add to our salvation. God accomplished it completely for us so that we may be truly free in Christ and dependent on Him.

EXAMINE: Use a journal to write down all of your observations of the text.

1) What are some areas in your life that you don’t trust God is sovereignly watching over you?

2) How does the fact that God accomplishes our salvation all on His own encourage you?




• Father God, I thank you that you have accomplished our salvation all on your own. Forgive me when I seek to rest in my own works for my justification and help me to rest in Jesus.

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DAY THREE READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:24-27

THINK: In these verses, we can now unpack what Paul is getting at by telling us the story of Sarah and Hagar. Right off the bat, in verse 24, we read that these two women represent two covenants. He says that Hagar and her son, Ishmael, represents the law covenant of Sinai and the present earthly city of Jerusalem. Many of the individuals in Jerusalem, the center for the Jewish people, at the time had not accepted Christ and Paul is saying that they are in slavery, because they are still trying to live with the law as their means for salvation. They were still operating under the law. We see many things that are are being linked here in verse 25. The law was given to the people of Israel on the Mount Sinai. That is where Moses received it from God. The present city of Jerusalem was still trying to use the law as the way for justification, and Hagar was used to try to earn the promise of God.

Paul has been proving the point that people in Galatia were struggling with what would justify them and make them righteous before God. And that they shouldn’t believe what the Judaizers said they needed for salvation. He really hits it home here when he calls out the present Jerusalem and the law that they received on mount Sinai. Now it is important to pause and remember that Paul is using Hagar and Sarah as allegory. He sees that they there is a good picture of a work based righteousness verse a grace based righteousness. (Hagar in the historical story was an innocent victim.) Paul is simply trying to illustrate that the people need to stop seeking their own righteousness based on rule keeping and good works. They need to look back to Christ and see that he accomplished everything for them, without their help at all. They need to rest in the covenant of grace. This covenant is what Paul represents with Sarah and Isaac.

Isaiah 54:1 is quoted here in verse 27. This was originally a prophetic word for the Jewish exiles in Babylon, which was about 600 years before Paul’s time. The Israelites at that time thought that “their national life was over and would never return home, or have their own country again (Tim Keller in his commentary on Galatians).” But the good news was that those were were barren would have hope. Those who recognize that they are weak and helpless are the ones who understand that they can do nothing in and of themselves. Those who are spiritually barren, pictured by Sarah and her physical barrenness, are those who recognize their need for a savior. “Grace is not just for fertile Hagars, but for barren Sarahs. If Sarah can have a future, anyone can (Tim Keller in his commentary on Galatians)!”

This was wonderful news to the church in Galatia. Paul was saying that not only did they not have to be strong enough, good enough, moral enough, to earn their their salvation. They didn’t even have to come close to those qualities. The gospel of of Jesus Christ is for everyone. All we have to do is recognize our own spiritual barrenness. And that we can absolutely nothing but trust in the grace of God and live by faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us. When we do this we see that we were children of God who are free and under the covenant of grace and not one of works.

EXAMINE: Use a journal to write down all of your observations of the text.

1) Why is it important to recognize our complete need for God? Where do you forget this need in your life?




• Father God, help me to always to keep my spiritual barrenness apart from you at the forefront of my heart and mind. And help me to rest in the life you give me in Jesus Christ by your Holy Spirit working in my life. And help me to glorify you in everything I do in the power of the Spirit.

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1) Where in your life does following Christ cause you hardships from the world around you?

2) Why is it encouraging to look at the life of Jesus when you face trials and suffer?




• Lord God, I pray that you would help me to lean in on Christ when I am faced with trials in this life. I thank you that Jesus faced everything and abundantly more than what I could face in this life. Help me to be faithful to follow you and glorify you in all I do.

DAY FOUR READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:28-29

THINK: Paul begins to close the passage where he is using the example of Sarah and Hagar and their sons Isaac and Ishmael, by reminding the Christians in Galatia who they were like. And he gives them some practical implications. He says that they are like Isaac. They are children of the promise. If you are a Christian, your decent from Abraham is not one that is physical, but one that is spiritual. And this spiritual decent is so much more important than the physical decent. Because it means that the promise of God is for anyone who believes in the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul want the people to know that they can rest assured that, because of Jesus, they are justified in the eyes of God. They didn’t have to become Jewish.

But what comes from accepting this is that they could be expected to be treated like Isaac was. And we can expect the same thing for ourselves today. While we don’t know all the details about the brothers, we do know that Isaac was not treated very well by Ishmael. He was mocked and scorned by him (Genesis 21:9). The persecution of the true church comes in many ways. (By true church, we mean those who are believers who have put their faith and Jesus Christ, been indwelled by the Holy Sprit, and have become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).) It comes by the world. And it also can come by those who claim to have faith in Christ, but really are just nominally following. Those who have no fruit that shows they really believe and have been changed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ (John 15).

Paul wants the Christians to know that they should not be surprised by this fact. And for us today, we should also not be surprised when persecutions come. We live in a cultural climate that is drifting further and further away from true Christianity. We have culture that had a lot of “moral” influence from and vague following after the God of the Bible. But as time goes on it will become increasingly evident who really is seeking to glorify God by loving Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor as their self. Those who do this should expect to to have some form of persecution, from both the world and even “religious” people who claim to follow the Lord.

But when this happens, we must not get discouraged. In fact, Paul would claim the opposite and even more importantly, Jesus would claim the opposite. Jesus Christ himself was opposed, rejected, persecuted, mocked, and condemned by his own nation. So when the same happens to us, we are to be reminded that will receive the promise and inheritance that God promised Abraham. And Christ made a way for us to rest in Him even when we face many trials and tribulations. All of these struggles point us back to Jesus and to the fact that we need Him in every moment of our lives and that he wants us to rest in Him so that He would be glorified. And so that the world would see that He is worthy to be praised.

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1) What about these verses encourages you in your walk with Christ?

2) Where is God calling you to encourage others and remind them who they are in Christ? Who is God calling you to share this good news of Jesus with?




• Father God, I thank you that I can rest completely in Christ. Please help me to remember who I am in Jesus at all times and help me to be so overflowing with joy that I can’t help but share the good news of Christ as I rest in your promises.

DAY FIVE READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:30-31

THINK: These last couple of verses are a glorious picture of what it means to be in Christ. We were reminded in verse leading up to this that those who are like Isaac could expect persecutions. But here were are told that while this may be the case, are also to remember that we are the children of the free woman. Paul quotes Genesis 21:10 in verse 30. This verse of Scripture was one that the Jews thought, at the time of the letter to the Galatians, was referring to the rejection of the Gentiles. Paul is making a bold claim and reversing that thought here and saying that it is actually applying to the Jews who didn’t believe that Christ had come.

The heirs of God’s promise to Abraham were not those who were physical decedents. The heirs were the spiritual decedents who were born according to the Spirit and not the flesh (v.29). This included Christian believers who were either Jews or Gentiles. The good news of Jesus Christ and the promises that come to those who put their faith in Him, outweigh the hardships that come in this life in an infinite way. Paul also wants the people in Galatia to know, again, that they can do nothing at all to receive their salvation. It is a gift of God’s grace from start to finish. They can’t keep the law correctly and they don’t have to strive to keep their status by following the law perfectly.

As soon as someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ they become like Isaac. They are children of the promise to Abraham. They are of the “free woman”. They are redeemed and brought back into a restored relationship with God as they were created to live. This group of verses that gives us a picture of what it is like to be free in Christ is so encouraging. It encourages us to remind one another constantly about who the are in Jesus.

We live in a world that is always striving to simultaneously earn some salvation and live for self. Christ came so that we would be free from both. He came to live and die in a selfless way so that we may no longer live selfishly. We now can live as were were created to, which is to glorify God by loving Him completely, living for Him, and loving others. He accomplished our salvation completely. Just like God did all the work for Sarah to have a child in her old age and in her barrenness, God fulfilled all the requirements of the law in Jesus Christ so that we may have the gift of His inheritance completely free and by His grace alone, despite our spiritual barrenness.

Be encouraged by these truths and take some time to worship God for the fact that He offers Himself freely and there is nothing we have to do to earn our salvation and right standing before Him.

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NOTES

SOURCES: Stott , John R.W. The Message of Galat ians . Inter-Var isty Press, 1968. This is a commentary on the book of Galat ians. Kel ler, T im. Galat ians for You. The Good Book Company, 2013.

Quest ions and content developed by Jesse Taylor Design by Nathan Furr.

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WEEK 12 Galatians 4:21-31 - Redeemer Bloomington · WEEK 12 Galatians 4:21-31 DAY ONE READ AND PRAY: Galatians 4:21 THINK: Paul in this verse turns his attention to those who desire