Are You an Ishmael or an Isaac?
Galatians 4:21-31 01/02/05
Paul says to these Galatian believers who were in danger of going back into bondage, having been set free by Christ. Now false teachers have come and they are going back into bondage.
The Apostle Paul spent a lot of his life trying to earn his own salvation. When Paul had a miracle experience with the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road. He found out that his salvation depended on the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins, and the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb, to give us power to live the Christian life. It was the best news Paul had ever heard in all his life. It set him free. He came to understand that he was saved not because of anything he did, but rather because of what Christ did on the cross. Paul preached that everywhere he went. He preached salvation not by works—what we do. He preached salvation by grace—by what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It was good news to these Galatians. They had been brought up in the bondage of their pagan religions.
There are only two views of what salvation is. All religions in the world fall into one of two categories. It is either a system of works or it is a system of grace. All pagan religions teach a system of works. You have to earn or work for your salvation.
When these teachers came to Galatia and began to preach that they had to keep the law in order to be saved, they were in danger of falling right back into a system of bondage. There is something about sin embedded in the human heart that causes us to want to do something to deserve salvation. We feel like we need to work a little bit for it. We need to earn it. We need to deserve it. So it was the easiest thing in the world for these people in Galatia to fall for the teaching of legalism and law-keeping which these teachers from Jerusalem had come teaching.
So Paul is arguing the case for grace. In the first two chapters he has given his own personal experience—the fact that God had revealed to him from heaven salvation by grace through faith.
In chapters 3 and 4 he is setting forth that their own Scriptures had been teaching this all along and they had missed it. Their own Scriptures had taught that you couldn’t earn your salvation by keeping the law. He points out that the purpose of the law was not as a vehicle to take us to heaven. The purpose of the law was to show us that we couldn’t work our way to heaven. That’s what he’s talking about.
He’s trying, now to clinch the argument. He’s trying to nail down what he has been teaching them in these two chapters. He begins in verse 21 with a question. “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” In other words—do you really know what you are talking about? Have you studied the law? Do you know what it says?
Then he proceeds to give three basic arguments to prove that we are saved by the miracle of the grace of God. We are not saved by any natural means of our own efforts or our own works.
There are three arguments here. The first argument is the—
I. The HISTORICAL argument.
Beginning in verse 22 he says, “For it is written” (talking about their Old Testament history). For the Jewish people, the Old Testament was their history book. It was not only their book of religion, but it was also the book of their history. It told the story of their history.
When Paul would talk to them about salvation, these who were under the bondage of the law, he would tell a Jew that you couldn’t earn your salvation. You have to be born again. That Jew might reply, “Well, I’m a son of Abraham.” Paul’s answer would be, “Which son of Abraham are you?” That’s what he means when he says in verse 22 that Abraham had two sons.
If you are a son of Abraham, which son are you? Are you a son of Ishmael or are you a son of Isaac? Abraham had two sons—Ishmael and Isaac. You know Abraham and Sarah were on in age before Isaac was born. Ishmael was Abraham’s son but not by Sarah but by Hagar. Ishmael was not the son of promise but Isaac.
That’s the first argument—the historical argument. The second argument begins in verse 24. It’s called—
II. The ALLEGORICAL Argument.
“Which things are allegories.” In other words, this story he has just told to us is an allegory. An allegory is a true story with a deeper meaning. An allegory is a set of facts that have a spiritual symbolism. He is going to take these two wives—Hagar and Sarah—and he is going to take these two sons—Ishmael and Isaac—and use them in a figurative manner. He is going to teach spiritual truth from this historical story.
He says in verse 25, “For this Agar is Mount Sinai.” Hagar, the bondwoman, represented bondage, legalism, the law. “...and answereth to Jerusalem which now is.” He is saying that the religion that is being taught in Jerusalem right now is a religion of legalism—a religion of works—and it produces bondage.
People, who are in these religions where they are going through all kinds of rituals and ceremonies and observances in order to please God and merit their salvation, are in bondage. You can’t ever do enough. If you have ever read anything about Martin Luther, the great father of the Reformation who rediscovered the Bible truth that the just shall live by faith, you will know that here was a man who was in religious bondage. Martin Luther was bound by his religious legalism. He was trying desperately. He went all the way to Rome. He was climbing up the steps of Pilate’s hall, just a step at a time, kissing (supposedly) the blood of Jesus Christ on every step. It finally hit him that he was in religious bondage. He turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and he was set free.
So are you an Ishmael or an Isaac? If you are trying to earn and merit your own salvation, you are an Ishmael. You are in the Jerusalem that now is, so to speak.
On the other hand, look at the other side of the allegory. Verse 26 says this. “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Sarah is a symbol and Isaac is a symbol of those who are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—those who trust what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary for their salvation. That sets you free. You are free in Jesus Christ. When you are set free in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jerusalem above is your home. That’s how you get to heaven. It’s not because you work your way to heaven. You get there by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the figurative argument.
Do you know where the greatest hostility and persecution come to a Bible-believing church? Do you know where the greatest persecution comes on our fellowship right here in the city of Sandy Ridge? It doesn’t come from pagans for the most part. It comes from the religious crowd. They have the idea that you have to do something to earn your salvation. You have to merit it. You have to live up to it. It’s the religious crowd. So don’t be surprised. That’s just the way it works. It’s always been that way all the way back to Ishmael and Isaac.
Notice in verse 30 and 31 he gives us—
III. The PERSONAL Argument.
“Nevertheless what saith the scripture?” He quotes here Genesis 21, verse 10. When Hagar began to despise Sarah and when Ishmael began to persecute young Isaac, Abraham had to send Ishmael and Hagar away. They couldn’t both live in the same family. They were mutually limited. Law and grace are mutually limited. Salvation by works and salvation by grace are mutually limited. You are saved not by works, but by grace and you live the Christian life not by works, but by grace.
Verse 31 says this, “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” You are free in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not free to sin, but free to live a holy, dedicated, consecrated, separated, on fire for Jesus life. It’s a life of love. It’s a life of liberty. It’s a life of joy. Are you an Ishmael or an Isaac?
Let’s bow our heads in prayer.
