Sha’ul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 12

We pause the ongoing story of Sha’ul to examine his Letter to the Galatians.

In our last post, we left off in Chapter 4:20 with Sha’ul describing the Law & Faith. In this post, we finish his Doctrine of Justification.

Allegory of Sarah and Hagar

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism, don’t you hear what the Torah itself says? ²² It says that Avraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. ²³ The one by the slave woman was born according to the limited capabilities of human beings, but the one by the free woman was born through the miracle-working power of God, fulfilling his promise.

See Genesis 16 and 21:1–21 for what the Torah says about Avraham and his two sons. One, Ishmael, was born by the slave woman Hagar. Avraham and Sarah’s fear that God would not give them a child induced them to use their maidservant Hagar’s childbearing capacity. Their way of forcing God’s hand, of producing their feeble pseudo-fulfillment of God’s promise, was all too much according to the limited capabilities of human beings (literally, “according to the flesh”; see Romans 7:5). On the other hand, the other one, Yitz’chak (Isacc), was born by the free woman Sarah through the miracle-working power of God fulfilling his promise (literally, “through the promise“), which he made to her at Genesis 18:9–15.

²⁴ Now, to make a midrash on these things:

Hebrew midrash means “study, interpretation.” Most Jewish midrashic literature brings out ethical and devotional aspects of the Bible, sometimes drawing out and applying what is manifestly there and sometimes imposing meanings on the texts. However, the norm in Judaism is not to make a midrash that violates the simple sense of the text.

the two women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children for slavery—this is Hagar. ²⁵ Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Yerushalayim, for she serves as a slave along with her children. ²⁶ But the Yerushalayim above is free, and she (Sarah) is our mother;

The two women are two covenants. Sha’ul does not spell everything out but counts on his readers to get his point anyway. So, the one covenant referred to is from Mount Sinai, the Torah of Moshe. It bears children for slavery, but not because it is terrible (nowhere does the account in Genesis denigrate Hagar); hence, there is no reason to demean the Mosaic Law based on this passage. The Mosaic Law bears children for “slavery,” to be enslaved to the “weak and miserable elemental spirits” (Galatians 4:9) of legalism, because people pervert the Torah into a legalistic system. Who does this? The present Yerushalayim is the non-Messianic Jewish community of the first century, both its establishment and the people loyal to that establishment. The Judaizers, the would-be Messianic Jews who insist that Gentiles become legalists, do the same thing. She (Hagar), the present Yerushalayim, serves as a slave, along with her children, the legalists.

²⁷ for the Tanakh says,

“Rejoice, you barren woman who does not bear children!

Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor!

For the deserted wife will have more children

than the one whose husband is with her!”

This quote from Isaiah 54:1 in this verse deals with the fact that the children born after the exile were more fortunate and more significant in number than those righteously judged for breaking the law. The implication is that those who still rely on the law are replaced by the Messianic Believers and its law-free Gospel.

²⁸ You, brothers, like Yitz’chak, are children referred to in a promise of God. ²⁹ But just as then the one born according to limited human capability persecuted the one born through the Spirit’s supernatural power, so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless, what does the Tanakh say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for by no means will the son of the slave woman inherit along with the son of the free woman!” ³¹ So, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman but of the free woman.

Non-Messianic Jews and Judaizers who pretend to be Messianic Jews (2:4–5) but come with a false gospel (1:6–9) may persecute genuine Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles (v. 29). Still, they will by no means inherit eternal life.

5 ¹ What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery. ^[1]

The freedom the Messiah has freed us for is the subject of this whole chapter, previewed in 3:1–5 (compare Romans 7–8). This freedom consists of a life of trust, faithfulness, and love (Galatians 5:5–6, 13b–14, 22), and it produces good fruit (5:22–23) because it is empowered by the indwelling Ruach, with the old nature put to death (Galatians 5:5, 16–18, 24–25). In contrast, the life of legalism (Galatians 5:1–4, 13) produces all kinds of sin (5:15, 19–21, 26) because the old nature controls it (4: 6, 13a, 16–18, 24). When we live by the Ruach, all our circumstances help us (Romans 8:28), and our path continues growing brighter (1 Yochanan 2:8, 2 Corinthians 3:17–18).

“Be tied up again to a yoke of slavery implies legalism. In Judaism, the “yoke of the mitzvot” is regarded as joyful to bear (Acts 15:10), and if the Torah is understood as requiring first of all trusting faithfulness, then, as Yeshua put it, “My yoke,” the yoke of obedience to the Torah’s true meaning, as upheld by the Messiah (Galatians 6:2), “is easy, my burden is light” (Mattityahu 11:28–30). The yoke of the mitzvot becomes slavery only when the Torah is perverted into legalism (Galatians 3:21–23), as the Judaizers would have these Gentiles do.

In our next post, we will begin to explore Sha’ul’s Doctrine on Messianic Liberty, starting in chapter 5:2.

Click here for the PDF version.

^[1] Galatians 4:21–5:1.