Christian by Contract

On Sunday we continued our series on Galatians by looking at Galatians 4:21-31. At first glance, this looks like a strange passage where Paul is speaking figuratively about an obscure passage from the book of Genesis. But it is very important. It is likely that the false teachers were telling the Galatians about Abraham and his two sons Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was the father of Gentile or non-Jewish nations and Isaac was the father of Israel and the Jews. It was on Isaac that the promises of God rested. If the Galatians wanted to receive God's promises, they would have to take on the Law, get circumcised and become children of the promise like Isaac. Paul turns this on its head by looking at this not in the terms of ethnicity but of sources of hope. God promised Abraham a child but nothing seemed to happen. They took things into their own hands when Sarah offered her slave girl Hagar for Abraham to sleep with. From this pregnancy came Ishmael. Later God came through in grace and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. For Paul, Hagar and Ishmael are symbols of trying to do things in our own power. On the other hand, Sarah and Isaac are symbols of relying on grace and receiving God's promises in faith. Being a child of Sarah is not about following the Jewish Law but about relying on grace rather than works. Where do we find our hope in God? Is it in our ability to be good enough for God or is it in God's grace?