Slave or Free?
Stand Firm in Freedom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
One of the most charged words in our modern society is the word slave.
For most, slave conjures up images of Africans being shipped to America and forced to work on plantations in the South.
We recoil as we consider quite possibly the gravest sin in our country’s history, one that could only be ended with America’s bloodiest war, the Civil War.
In reality, slavery didn’t end with the Civil War. In fact, it is estimated that over forty million people today worldwide are in some form of slavery (though it is impossible to know for sure what the real number is.)
The majority of these are people who have been sold into sex slavery, a large percentage are children, most of whom are outside of the United States (though there are still many within the United States).
Last year’s breakout hit movie Sound of Freedom attempted to shine a light on a problem that many people would like to just ignore because, frankly, it’s gross and causes sadness and anger in anyone who has even an iota of morality in them.
So, when Paul speaks of slavery, it can create a disconnect with us as modern Americans. We don’t see ourselves as slaves because we understand the ugliness of slavery.
And yet, Jesus says this:
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Therefore, we are all in a different form of slavery at some point in our lives.
What is the one thing all slaves need: to be free from bondage!
Galatians 5:1 is at the heart of what Paul has been saying throughout this first part of his letter to the churches in Galatia.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Paul sets this up with a very interesting illustration which we will look at this morning in Galatians 4:21-31. As we consider his challenge to the churches in Galatia, we will consider that Paul’s point doesn’t simply apply to the Galatians dealing with the influence of the Judaizers, but we will see how we too often “submit again to a yoke of slavery,” though from a different source and how we can stand firm in the freedom Christ has won for us at the cross.
Body
Body
Verses 21-23
Paul takes them back to the Torah, specifically Genesis. His focus is Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
Genesis 16:1–4 (ESV)
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
Ishmael, Hagar’s son, was born according to the normal means and born because of a lack of faith.
Isaac, on the other hand, was born of the miraculous working of God, giving a very old woman who up to this point had been barren, the ability to have a child in her old age.
This was according to the promise of God to Abraham:
Genesis 15:1–6 (ESV)
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 17:15–21 (ESV)
And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
Genesis 21:1–7 (ESV)
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. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
In taking them back to the Torah, Paul reminds them that he has a superior knowledge of the Scriptures than even the Judaizers.
Paul illustrates a vitally important lesson for believers: always go back to the Bible!
Verses 24-27
What is an allegory?
Allegory is finding a deeper spiritual meaning within a biblical text; possibly even deeper than even the original writer knew.
Within an allegory, each character and item within a story has some sort of deeper spiritual meaning to it.
The trouble with interpreting Scripture allegorically...
We are not the inspired writers...
We can miss the original meaning...
Who makes the rules?
Why does Paul get to do it?
He is an inspired writer...
He is not suggesting that this is the real meaning of the text…(it was common for the Jewish religious teachers to use these types of illustrations within their commentaries, or midrash.)
The the Greek word that is interpreted as “allegorically” in my version is a hapax legomenon...
Paul’s allegory:
Hagar and Sarah represent two covenants:
Hagar represents a covenant that leads to slavery (justification by works of the law), and Sarah a covenant of freedom (justification by grace through faith).
Those who are trying to be justified by works of the law, represented by Hagar, are modern Jerusalem, i.e. the Jewish religious establishment and the Judaizers.
Those who are justified by faith, represented by Sarah, are from the heavenly Jerusalem; i.e. people who have been saved by grace through faith.
Paul then quotes Isaiah 54:1.
Here we should see the biblical idea of the great reversal, in which God takes those who are suffering and brings them to a place of rejoicing.
The idea being that God is the one who takes initiative for the benefit of His people.
Justification by grace through faith is the initiative of God, not man.
Thus, it is a call to faith.
Verses 28-1
Paul’s point in all of this isn’t to reinterpret Genesis, but to remind them that they are children of the promise given to Abraham, not children of the flesh.
And as the heirs of the promise through faith, they needed to rid themselves of those who “bewitched” them, as Paul said in Galatians 3:1.
When Paul speaks of Ishmael persecuting Isaac, he is pointing back to Genesis:
Genesis 21:8–10 (ESV)
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”
The laughing there is a mocking laughter, diminishing Isaac and likely putting him into later danger from Ishmael.
Again, Paul uses this as an illustration. Just as the Abraham needed to send Hagar and Ishmael away, so the Galatians needed to send the Judaizers away because they were damaging the Galatians faith.
So What?
So What?
How do we apply a passage like this? By answering three questions:
Where might you submit to the yoke of slavery?
Where might you submit to the yoke of slavery?
The yoke of slavery is any belief or practice that draws us away from biblical truth.
The yoke of slavery is any belief or practice that draws us away from biblical truth.
Habitual or persistent sinful practices...
Self-justification…(who I am)
Justification by works…(what I do)
Are you a child of the promise or a child of slavery?
Are you a child of the promise or a child of slavery?
Are you saved by grace alone through faith alone, or do you think you are saved by some other means?
Do you say that but believe and/or behave in a different way?
How can you stand firm?
How can you stand firm?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must study and apply God’s Word to our life.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Be aware of your weaknesses.