Same as It Ever Was

Paul concludes his analogy where he uses the soap opera of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael to explain situation involving the Judaizers and the new believers in Galatia.  

In this letter, he's doing everything he can to undo the damage these false teachers have done.  

They've infiltrated these churches and convinced them that the only way they can stay saved is through their own good works (Gal 2:4; 3:1-3).  The apostle repeatedly uses the Old Testament as an explosive to blast away at their false gospel.  

Beginning in Galatians 4:22, he uses the story of Hagar and Sarah as an allegory to illustrate just what's going down.  The Judaizers and those who follow them are just like Ishmael and his mom.  The followers of Jesus are like brothers of Isaac, "children of the promise" (Gal 4:28).

Ultimately, the man from Tarsus hopes his readers will understand that the relationship between these two half brothers still exists today.  He wants us to see that history repeats itself.  Here we go again.  

Same as it ever was.

Once again, Paul flips open the pages of Genesis.  He recalls, "But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit..." (v29).  He reminds them that Ish and Ike weren't exactly close.  

Once again, he describes Ishmael as "born according to the flesh."  In other words, this was when Abe and Sarah took things into their own hands to fulfill God's promise (Gen 16:2).  

The writer of Genesis says that the day Abe and Sarah weaned Ike as a baby, Ish mocked his little brother (Gen 21:9).  This is more than a little sibling rivalry.  Hagar’s kid openly talked trash and laughed at his kid brother.

Paul points out that just as Ish ridiculed and insulted Ike, "so also it is now" (v29).  What's happening in now Galatia is the same thing that happened back in Genesis.  In other words, don't fall for the Judaizers' trash talk of Paul and the rest of Jesus' followers.  

That's what Jesus taught His followers on a Galilean hillside (Mt 5:10-12).  Unbelievers will persecute those who trust God.  It’s Christ’s way of saying, “Haters gonna hate."

As a matter of fact, the radical Rabbi/Carpenter says this is pattern of persecution is actually a good thing.  It let's you know that "your reward is great in heaven."  

It happened then.  It's happening again.  Here we go again.  Same as it ever was.

The apostle quotes Genesis 21:10 which describes how Sarah insisted that Abe kick Hagar and Ishmael to the curb so that they would not be included in Isaac's inheritance.  

Paul wants us to know that folks like the Judaizers that teach self-salvation will never be saved through trying to keep the rules.  When the divine will is read, they won't hear their names.  

This family feud continues today.  Forget the Hatfields and the McCoys.  That ain't NOTHING compared to the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael.  Jews and Arabs have been at war ever since.  We're not talking centuries, but millennia!  

Same as it ever was.

Notice in Paul's analogy the different ways he refers to the unnamed Isaac.  He's the child "by a free woman" (Gal 4:22, 23, 30).  He's the boy born through the "promise" (Gal 4:23, 28).  He's kid "born according to the Spirit" (Gal 4:29).  

He wants us to know that they all mean the same thing.  When we're born according to God's promise, we're born according to the Spirit and we're born free! 

Paul concludes his allegory with the bottom line: "So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman" (v31).  

This is what he wants the Galatians to take away from the illustration.  They are NOT like the Judaizers.  They are NOT like Ishmael.  

If you've placed your trust in what Jesus has done FOR you, then you're a child "of the free woman."  

Don't let these spiritual snake oil salesmen fool you with scriptural slight of hand.  And it's still happening today!  That's why we need be aware just like the Galatians.  It happened then.  It's happening again.  Here we go again.

Same as it ever was.

©2012

Jay Jennings

Brother from Another Mother

Family history and genealogy are incredibly popular these days. It's easy to understand why. The United States is a melting pot. 

Other than the native people who were already here when the explorers and colonists set foot on the shores, we all came from somewhere else. 

People want to know where they came from. We want to know who we are.

That's Paul's point here in verses 24-28. Using the story of Hagar and Sarah as an analogy, he draws a distinct difference between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. 

He wants the Galatians to understand that while the followers of Jesus may share a few things in common with those who are under the law, they are actually brothers from another mother.

Don't forget that the apostle continues to hammer away at the Judaizers' false gospel taught in the Galatian churches. They've tried to use the Old Testament to teach these new believers that Paul didn't get it right. 

According to the false teachers, Jesus may have saved us but we must make sure we stay saved through religious rule-keeping. 

The Judaizers have clearly picked a theological fight with the wrong person. There may not be anyone on the planet with a better understanding of the OT than the man from Tarsus. 

In this letter to the Galatians, he uses the truth of the Hebrew Bible as a wrecking ball to pound away at their phony gospel.

After bringing up Abraham's two sons, Ishmael and Isaac (Gal 4:22-23), Paul uses their story as analogy. "Now this may be interpreted allegorically" (v24). The original text literally reads "which are things allegorized.” 

The Greek verb here is αλληγορεω/allegoreo. It's the idea of trying to convey something other than literal meaning. It means to talk figuratively, to use analogies and to illustrate using comparisons.

Let's be VERY clear here. Paul is NOT saying that the story of Abraham's two ladies in Genesis is some sort of fairy tale fabricated to explain something not understood. 

The story of Abe, his aging wife and their young maid is much more than some sort of risque soap opera. It's actually TRUE! It is history. It is fact. 

We're to read the OT for what it says. It's not to be spiritualized. We are to read it in context of God's bigger story, the Meta-Narrative. In that story, Jesus is the Point of the story. Jesus is the one and only Hero of the Bible. 

And here, Paul is simply using the story of Hagar and Sarah as a way explaining the difference between those living under the law and those living under grace.  

When the apostle's done with his illustration, we'll have a better understanding of who we are and where we've come from.  We'll realize that living under the law is NOT a family heritage.  That's a brother from another mother.

The apostle begins his analogy.  "These women are two covenants" (v24).  Paul compares Hagar and Sarah with two of God's covenant promises.  

The mother of Ishmael plays the part of the Mosaic Covenant, "One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, she is Hagar" (v24).  

In case you missed it the first time, he repeats it again: "Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia" (v25).  She reps the promise Yahweh made with His people through Moses on the mountain just after He freed them from 400-plus years of Egyptian slavery.  

It included the Ten Commandments but actually numbered a grand total of 613 commands.   That’s right, the Mosaic Covenant was 613 conditional commands.  

In order to gain God's blessing, the people had to obey them perfectly, completely and flawlessly (Ex 19:5-6).  

Read that again. There were 613 backbreaking commands.  Take a look at the impossible standard God dictated to Moses that's listed in Exodus 19-31.  

And it really didn't make it any difference if there was one or 613.  Before the Big Mo could make it back down the mountain, the people were partying like rock stars in front of a golden cow (Ex 32).

The Mosaic Covenant was NEVER intended to save anyone.  God gave it to His people to let us know that we could never save ourselves through our own performance, even on our best day.  

The law is not a spiritual therapeutic treatment but a diagnostic device.  Paul puts it this way in Romans: "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom 4:20).  It's used to diagnose our disease.  

It is NOT the cure.  He gave us the law to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we need a Savior.  We need Jesus.  The Ultimate Remedy.

But there are those who misuse the law as a means of salvation.  That's like trying to cure an appendicitis with MRI.  It doesn't matter how many times the patient gets scanned, there's no treatment involved.  It only reveals the disease.  

The Judaizers were some of those that used the Mosaic Covenant as the cure.  Paul let's us know that Hagar represents that futile and foolish effort of self-salvation in his analogy.  "She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children" (v25).  

The "present Jerusalem" is where priests still offered animal sacrifices at the temple altar in the first century.  This was pointless for two reasons.  

First, Jesus' death on a Roman cross fulfilled God's requirement for sacrificial death once and for all (Heb 7:27; 9:12; 10:10).  Second, God's Spirit hit the road and left the temple centuries before (Ezek 10:18; 11:23).  

Hagar is the ultimate femme fatale in this drama.  She's the bad girl that leads us down the bad road.  She is the "present Jerusalem."  

She is the pinup girl for the Judaizers.  She represents slavery.  She represents works righteousness.  She represents self-salvation.

Meanwhile, the other female lead in the story is Sarah, or as Paul describes her, the "Jerusalem above" (v26).  She symbolizes life under the grace of Christ.  

Just as Abraham and Sarah should have trusted in the promise of God to provide a son through Sarah, we should trust in the promise of God to save us through grace by faith in Jesus.  Sarah is free.  And she represents the freedom we have in Christ.  

This reference to "Jerusalem above" is the New Jerusalem that God will drop from heaven when all things are made new at the final fulfillment of His promises (Rev 3:12; 21:1).  

It's God’s heavenly paradise.  And one great and glorious day, heaven comes to earth when His kingdom literally comes.

Then the apostle makes a VERY important description of Sarah (who is strangely unnamed in this analogy).  "She is our mother" (v26).  Let's be clear about this, Paul says.  If you’re a follower of Jesus, Sarah's your mom.  Not Hagar.  

Your spiritual identity is found in the one through whom God pledged to fulfill His promise to Abraham.  Sarah is not only Paul's spiritual mom, but she's also the matriarch for the Galatians and all of those who've placed their faith in Jesus.  

As a follower of Christ, you are not one of Hagar's kids.  You're a brother from another mother.

Paul goes on to quote the prophet Isaiah.  "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 the one who has a husband" (v27; Is 54:1).  

He's applying this prophecy to the "Jerusalem above."  Like Sarah, one great day she'll have more kids, grandkids and great grandkids than you could ever imagine.

The apostle connects the dots in verse 28 by writing, "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise."  By placing our faith in what Jesus did on our behalf, we are Sarah's kids and Isaac's brothers.  

Hagar represents taking things into our own hands and trying to do what only God can.  Sarah plays the part of the one who realizes that the only answer is to place our trust in the Lord.  

If we've trusted in Jesus' perfect life in our place, bloody death in our place and glorious resurrection in our place, we're like Ike and "children of promise."  

And like Ike, a brother from another mother.

©2012

Jay Jennings

Law vs Promise

Paul continues to dissect the counterfeit gospel of the Judaizers by using God's Word as his scalpel.  These false teachers have infiltrated the Galatian church network and told them that Jesus saves us but it's up to us to keep the law in order stay saved (Gal 2:4; 3:2-6, 10-11).  

The spiritual hucksters have made a huge mistake by trying to use the OT to make their case against Paul's true Gospel.  Few people on the planet know the law better than this former Pharisee.

Paul says this all comes down to how God saves.  Is it through His covenant promise to Abraham?  Or is it through the law He gave to Moses?  Which has priority?  

Does what happened at Mt. Sinai have precedence over what happened on the way out of Ur?  Is it the law?  Or is it the promise?  With apologies to Shakespeare, THAT is the question.

The apostle writes, "This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void" (v17).  

Paul reminds us of the time line of the OT.  God confirmed His covenant promise to Abraham 430 years before He met Moses on the mountain and handed him two stone tablets.  

The span of 430 years actually indicates the time from God's confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant to Abe's grandson Jacob (Gen 46:2-4).  This was just before Jake and his crew rolled into Egypt to escape the famine and join his son Joseph.  

The writer of Exodus confirms the Israelites 430 year stay in captivity (Ex 12:40).  The approximate time from God's original promise (ca. 2090 BC) until Mt. Sinai (ca. 1445 BC) was more like 645 years.

Paul tells us that God's promise to Abe takes precedence over the law given to Moses.  Let's be clear.  Both of these are covenants between God and His people.  The Abrahamic Covenant.  The Mosaic Covenant.  

But there is a HUGE difference between the two.  According to John MacArthur, God's covenant with Abraham is unilateral (God made the promise to Himself), eternal (provides an everlasting blessing), irrevocable (never ends) and unconditional (depends on God, not man).  

The Mosaic Covenant is completely conditional on the people's perfect obedience.  I think we know how that worked out.

Paul reminds us that God personally ratified the covenant made to Abraham (Gen 15:9-21).  Ancient near eastern treaties were ratified by walking between the bloody pieces of animal sacrifices.  It indicated what would happen to anyone violating the agreement.  

That's exactly the scene we witness in Genesis when "a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces" as "the LORD made a covenant with Abram" (Gen 15:17-18).

God is the ultimate Promise Keeper.  The spectacular scene at Sinai doesn't void any promise the Lord made to Abraham.  A promise is a promise.  

If God says He will do something, we can take it to the bank.  We can look back at the thousands of prophecies He's fulfilled to be sure that He will come through on absolutely everything He's pledged or promised to do.

Paul goes on to write, "For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer is by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise" (v18).  

Again, he wants us to understand that we don't have access to our spiritual inheritance by obeying the rules.  If that's the case, we're all completely out of luck.  

This is a reminder of what the apostle wrote earlier when he pointed out that "it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham" (Gal 3:7).  Our inheritance is based on faith in God not on self-salvation by law keeping.

The man from Tarsus would confirm this idea again a few years later in his letter to Rome.  "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.  For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void" (Rom 4:13-14).  

In other words, when we try to follow the rules to save ourselves, we throw both faith and God's promise under the bus.  There's only One who kept the law.  Jesus.  Trust in what He has done that we could never do!

God kept that promise to Abe in the Person of Jesus.  Christ is that descendent or "offspring" who embodied complete fulfillment of that covenant.  

Somehow, someway, the man from Ur of the Chaldees got a prophetic glimpse of the radical Rabbi from Nazareth.  "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.  He saw it and was glad" (Jn 8:56).

The law devastates us.  The law destroys us.  The law dominates us.  Its purpose is to make us realize that we need a Savior.  Its purpose is to force us to understand that we could never do this on our own.  

The law drives us back to faith in God's promise to Abraham.  The law drives us to Calvary and the bloody Roman cross of Christ.  It's only in His perfect life, brutal death and glorious resurrection that we have any hope at all.

So what will it be?  Law?  Or promise?

©2012

Jay Jennings

Abe and the Gospel Ship

Deb and I are on our first cruise.  Our ship is the Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world.  It holds 5,400 guests and 2,100 crew members.  

More than half these people are from countries other than the U.S.  This is literally a floating U.N.  And it is a beautiful parallel of God’s gracious saving act in Jesus.  

Just as He promises through Abraham to bless all nations the world, this massive ship safely carries people from just about every ethnic group on our journey.

While we ride as passengers on this huge cruise ship, God’s saints set sail on His amazing Gospel ship.

Paul tells the Galatians that they are saved through their faith in God just as Abe was.  No good works required.  No rule keeping needed.  The false teachers are wrong.  Very wrong.  

Once again, the apostle flips his Bible open to Genesis to explain the doctrine of justification by faith.  “We’re children of faith thanks to Abraham” (Gal 3:7).

He describes how the writers of Scripture looked into the future and saw how “God would justify the Gentiles by faith” (v8).  Paul uses the Greek word εθνος/ethnos to describe the Gentiles.  It’s where we get our English word “ethnic.”  

The Lord reveal to the prophetic authors how one day He would bless, save, and justify people from every ethnic group through the faith of Abraham.  He would actually do this through Abe’s descendant Jesus.

Paul uses a very interesting phrase when he writes how “the Scripture…preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham” (v8).  “Preached the Gospel”?  

In the OT?  Huh?  It’s another fabulous example that the Bible is really one story, not two.  And Jesus is THE Hero of that story.  The OT saints were saved the same way God saves believers in the NT.  By faith and trust in Him alone.

The apostle says that the Gospel that Abraham heard preached was God’s personal promise to him, “In you shall all the nations be blessed” (v8).  This is a quote from Genesis 16:3 that’s later repeated again in Genesis 18:18 and yet again in Genesis 22:18.

Here Paul equates the very words of Yahweh to Scripture.  This reminds us how the inspired words of the Bible are equal to hearing directly from the lips of the Lord.  It is indeed God’s holy Word.

God’s promise of future blessing qualifies as the Gospel because that future blessing of all the people groups of the world will happen through Abe’s eventual descendant, Jesus Christ, the radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth. 

It is through Jesus that we receive that blessing.  What is that blessing?  Ultimately it is God Himself.  He is my portion(Ps 73:26; Lam 3:24).

The beauty of God’s Gospel ship as opposed to our cruise ship is that He is still accepting passengers, just as He has been for thousands of years.  He is welcoming aboard people from every country, race, language, and religious background.  

They don’t need a ticket.  They don’t need a passport.  If they’ve placed their trust in Jesus, He lovingly welcomes them aboard.

©2012 

Jay Jennings

Who's Your Daddy?

Maury Povich has become infamous for featuring paternity tests on his show.  Hundreds of couples have degraded themselves by parading in front of a cheering audience to find out who’s the father of the child.

Paul tells us there is a simple paternity test when it comes to faith.  If you believe God and trust that He is good and all-powerful and rely on Him, He’s your spiritual Father.  It is part of what it means to be counted as righteous (Gal 3:6).

Who’s your daddy?

“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (v7).  Remember that Paul is trying to convince the Galatians that the false teachers have sold them a load of spiritual snake oil.  

The Judaizers have told them that if they really want to be members of the family of Abraham, they must become Jewish.

You know that means.  Circumcision.  The law of Moses.  Ordering off the kosher menu.  The whole deal.  But the apostle uses the Old Testament and the story of Abraham to diffuse their case.  

God credited righteousness to Abe’s account BEFORE his circumcision.  That happened when he simply trusted God and His goodness.

The result is that Abe is the spiritual dad of not only the Jews but EVERYONE who places their faith in God.  On this side of the cross, that means trusting in the finished work of Jesus.  This does address the often-asked question of salvation before Christ.  

How were OT saints saved?  Simple.  They trusted God. They believed that He would save them somehow, someway.  Through their faith in Him, He counted them righteous.  Their works and obedience would follow.  

But they were still flawed, sinful failures.  Noah.  Abraham.  David.  Moses.  An endless parade of losers that placed their faith in a God who saves.  

The Galatians are no different.  They are sons and daughters of Daddy Abraham when the only thing they have to do is trust God.

Paul will later explain this when he writes to the Romans.  The whole reason God saved Abe before he was circumcised “was to make him the father of all who believed without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well” (Rom 4:11-12).

He goes on to tell the Romans that God’s saving act is a gift He gives and that we have done nothing to deserve so ”that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring…Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Rom 4:16).

I don’t ever think of myself as a son of Abraham.  Obviously, I should.  It’s what connects me to the story of the OT.  It’s what grafts me into the family tree (Rom 11:17-36).  Like Abe and the Galatians, I have done nothing to earn such a blessing from God.  

I have simply believed in what God has done and in who He is.  I trust in Jesus.  So when someone asks, “Who’s your daddy?”  I can say, “Abraham.”  And because of that, I can be assured of my relationship with my Heavenly Dad as well.

©2012

Jay Jennings

OT? Bring It on!

Paul continues to defuse the spiritual grenade left in Galatia by the Judaizers.  They rolled into the churches telling everyone that Paul’s Gospel was incomplete.  If you wanted to follow Jesus, you had to follow Jewish law first.  That included circumcision, the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham.

The apostle has just asked us a series of questions.  He wants his readers to think back to their conversion.  How did that happen?  What did you do?  What kind of things do you perform in order to receiver God’s Spirit?  Was it by obedience to a list of rules, “by works of the law?”  Or was it really by simply believing in what Jesus has done for you, “by hearing with faith?” (Gal 3:2-5).

At this point, Paul opens his Bible and flips back to Genesis.  If these false teachers want to use the OT, the apostle says, “Bring it on!”  You want to talk about obedience to the law, let’s talk about Abraham.  Father Abraham.  “Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (v6).

Paul quotes Genesis 15:6.  What does a dusty old Bible story have to do with churches in Galatia, much less with us today?  Great question!  Paul is saying that God made Abe right LONG before He established His covenant and its mark of circumcision.

Abe simply believed what God had told him.  Somehow, someway, he believed God was good on His crazy promise to transform a childless old man into a “great nation” (Gen 12:2).  That his descendants-to-be would be like “the dust of the earth” (Gen 12:16).

Abraham believed God.  He believed in the goodness of God.  He believed in the sovereignty of God.  He certainly trusted Him for the promises He made to him regarding land, seed, and blessing.  But more importantly, Abe simply trusted God.  

No matter how difficult life was, no matter how ridiculous his situation, he trusted inch God was and what He said.  And he did so centuries before Jesus showed up to fulfill everything. 

Do I have the same kind of faith?  Do I have that same kind trust in God and HIs goodness?  I pray that I do.  One thing I have in my favor is the perspective of the life of Jesus and His death for my sin on the cross.  Abraham believed in God for what he has done as well as those future blessings.

Paul says that when Abe believed, God “counted it to him as righteousness.”  The Greek verb he uses here is λογιζομαι/logizomai.  

This is an accounting term.  It means that when Abraham believed, God went into His divine ledger and credited Abe’s account as made right and reconciled.  Everything was paid in full.  Simply because he trusted in God.

This is important to the Galatians because it means they didn’t need anything more than to place their faith in God.  If Abe, as the patriarch of the Jews, didn’t need to be circumcised, much less follow the law that was still to come centuries later, then they didn’t either.

Justification by faith is good news for for me.  I simply need to trust in Jesus and what He’s done for me.  And that also means I don’t need to add any of my on futile self-salvation projects either.  Not going to church.  Not serving in ministry.  Not reading my Bible.  Not praying.  Not seminary.  No small groups.  

None of these has the power to save.  Only my faith in Jesus.  Only my trust in God.  And if anybody wants to bring up the OT, bring it on!

©2012

Jay Jennings