OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS US

Having examined the book of Hebrews, which is a distilate and summary of the redemption story from its old testament roots, we now look into chapter 4 of the  book of Galatians which is known to have been written by Paul and whose content is structured very similarly to the content in the book of Hebrews in the sense that a complex theological matter is being exposited and references are being drawn from the old testament.

In this case, the apostle Paul is addressing the question of the adoption of the believer from orphanhood to sonship.

Paul asserts that an immature believer is like a child in his father´s house who is a ward of the servants who care from him. As a son, he is the heir to all things but until the time of his maturity, he is under the rulership of guardians until the point that his father deems him to be grown enough to be entrusted with the authority of the household.

Through the life of Jesus on earth as a man who suffered and died for us, fallen men were redeemed so that they would be able to move from infancy under the law of external governance to the status of sons who are able to receive the Spirit of God's son in our hearts where we call on the Father as ¨ABBA, Father¨ or as ¨Papa¨ in the same way that a son would call his father.

As a son of God having been taken out of slavery, we are made heirs with Christ.

1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

The Apostle Paul, having explained how privileged we are to have been taken from abject slavery and lifted into the realm of God as sons, is flabberghasted that the Galatians would gravitate back to the same old feeble forces of legal works such as keeping special days and seasons as a means of attaining righteousness.

This retrogression by the Galatians was so contrary to the message of the gospel that Paul became highly concerned for them and feared that all the efforts of bringing them along in the exploration of the incredible gift of salvation had added up to nothing. Paul adjures them for reaching the state of knowing God and thus escaping the bonds slavery and then suddenly, being ensnared by the systems of enslavement and reverting to the practices of enslavement. 

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

The Apostle Paul reminds the Galatians how graciously they accepted him and the hospitality they showed him when he was sick. Even in illness, they respected him and treated him with honor. Paul commented on the fact that their honor for him seemed to have dried up and he wondered if perhaps it was because he was telling them the truth that they were not willing to hear.

Paul brings up the emergence of a group of influencers who had come into their circles and were leading them away from the original teaching of the gospel that Paul had brought to them. As a result of the drifting away of the Galatians into the orbits of the influencers who wished to harness them for their own causes, Paul describes his experience of going into labour pains again as if to give birth to them into a state of maturity that comes from having Christ formed in them.

12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! 

Paul, perplexed by the Galatians reversion to the law, begins an excavation of the history of the patriarchs because he percieves that even though they seem to want to revert to the strictures of the law, they may not be aware of what the law actually says.

 21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

The Aposle Paul brings out two figures from the scriptures: One was Hagar who was a slave woman in Abraham's household and the other was Sarah, Abraham's wife who was a free woman.

Hagar bore a son of the flesh when Abraham and Sarah felt that the promise that God made to them that He was going to give them a son was lingering too long and engaged the slave woman to carry a child ( Ishmael ) for them.

Sarah, on the other hand, late in her life, conceive a son in faith and this was the son ( Isaac ) that God had promised them. 

Paul explains that, figuratively,  Ishmael represents Mount Sinai which is from where the law was dispensed and this corresponds to the earthly Jerusalem which is from where the law was administrated over the civilization it governed.

Isaac, on the other hand, represents the promise of grace that was dispensed from the heavenly Jerusalem which is free and that heavenly Jerusalem is "our mother" ( as Paul puts it ) which means that we who are saved are birthed into the civilization of freedom which is governed by grace under the law of love. The metaphore invoked by Paul ( Isaiah 54 v 1 ) of the barren woman points to Sarah but also to the new Jerusalem that had remained childless until the era of grace  was inaugurated and children born of the Spirit and into freedom came forth.

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,

    you who never bore a child;

shout for joy and cry aloud,

    you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

    than of her who has a husband.”

Paul explains to the Galatians that they were children of the promise by the faith in Christ that they had walked in and as such, even as Ismael persecuted Isaac, the children of the flesh persecute the children born of the power of the Spirit until the slave and her son were turned away from the household.

Those who are saved by grace and are children of free woman should therefore eschew the influence of the children of the bond woman who were never going to share in the inheritance that was for the free woman's son.

In other words, having gained the promise of salvation through grace, the Galatians must expell the law as a means of attaining righteousness from their midst so that they can remain free.

28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Amen.

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