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By Chris Lee
Copyright 2007 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Glendale, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised May 21, 2007. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
Chapter 5
Galatians 4:21-31: Two Women, Two Covenants
In Chapter 4 we saw that the Bible calls the Old Covenant engraved on stone “the ministry of death”. The Bible states that the Old Covenant fades away. Finally, we saw that when the Old Covenant engraved on stone is read, a veil remains in place. That raises the question of how we should relate to the Old Covenant and what we should do with it. The Bible answers this question in the fourth chapter of Galatians.
The Christians in Galatia had allowed false teachers, Judaizers, to convince them that they were obligated to keep parts of the Old Covenant. Paul dispels this serious heresy by telling an allegory.
Galatians 4:21-25 (NASB)
21 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.
23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.
24 This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
Paul leaves little doubt as to exactly what he is talking about here. We discovered earlier that the Decalogue was given to the people alive at the exodus at Mount Sinai (Deut. 5:3) and that the Decalogue was the covenant document (Deut. 4:13, 9:10-11, 9:15, and 10:4). Paul now uses Hagar to represent the covenant given at Sinai and uses allegorical language to say that those who are under the covenant from Sinai are in slavery. Now contrast this with his description of the New Covenant.
Galatians 4:21-28 (NASB)
26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.
27 For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND."
28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
Those who are under the New Covenant are free. They should rejoice because they are the children of promise. Unfortunately, there will always be those who try to steal that joy.
Galatians 4:29 (NASB)
29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
I think those of us who have faced the transition out of Adventism could echo Paul’s words here and heartily say, “So it is now also”. It seems that that many of those who want to be under law also want others to be in bondage as well. As it was in Paul’s day, so it is now also. So what are we to do with the Old Covenant and those who teach it and try to put us under it? The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms in the very next verse.
Galatians 4:30-31 (NASB)
30 But what does the Scripture say? "CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN."
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.
SDAs are not the only group who would try to put New Covenant Christians under the Covenant document engraved on stone at Sinai. But the Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that we are to have no part of such Judaizing because we are not in bondage, but are free! Cast out the bondwoman and her son! What blessing and joy we have as children of the free woman! Let us rejoice, break forth and shout!
But what if we really, really want to cling to the law? Can we keep one foot in the Old Covenant and one in the New Covenant? Next time we will answer that question with yet another biblical illustration.
