Born Free

Galatians: A Study of Christian Freedom

Lesson 13:    Born Free!  Galatians 4:21-5:1 

Let me tell you a story, a true story that happened almost 4000 years ago.  It is the story at the heart of Paul’s final appeal to the Galatians.  

Should you decide to read this story as it unfolds in Genesis 16 and 21, you’ll find it’s not a pretty story.  None of the principal characters make a very good showing, except for God and a toddler. And the toddler was, well, a toddler and probably didn’t have a clue.  Paul doesn’t include those details since they're not necessary for his point.

As you recall, God had called Abraham from his father’s country in Mesopotamia, promising him that he would become the founder of a great nation.  In fact, his descendants, so The Promise said, would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

There was a great problem.  Abraham and his wife Sarah had no children,  The years passed and still no child.  

When she was about 75, Sarah seems to have concluded that God was taking too long and came up with a scheme to have a family.  She would use her servant Hagar to be a surrogate.  Any child Hagar had would become her child.  This was a perfectly legal arrangement at the time, since servants were the property of their owners and had no rights.  Some masters used their female servants as unofficial concubines but there’s no suggestion Abraham treated the female slaves this way.  But, in this case, for what appears to be the only time, Abraham agrees.

So, Hagar becomes pregnant and eventually gives birth to Ishmael.  Almost immediately, hostility develops between the two women and Hagar runs away with her son.  An angel appears to her and tells Hagar she is to return; so, she does.  About fifteen years later, Sarah finally gives birth to Isaac, the child of promise.  Once again, hostility develops, this time caused by Ishmael’s bullying of young Isaac.  Sarah banishes the two of them to the wilderness where they would have most likely died had God not intervened.  In fact, God promises that Ishmael, himself, will be the founder of a great nation.  But that’s another story.  

This story has long been seen as an example of what happens when we attempt to second guess God, when we attempt to improve upon what God has done, when we set out to tweak God’s plans.

Did Paul have that in mind when he used this story?  We can certainly see how the Judaizers seemed to have concluded that the way of salvation by grace needed improvement.  That’s what Paul has been struggling against throughout the letter.  Certainly, Sarah’s scheme to improve God’s plan led to trouble for Israel.  But, if Paul has this in mind, it’s secondary his main point.

Two Mothers, Two Sons

Paul’s purpose is served by reminding us that there were once two mothers and two sons.  One mother was free, the other was a slave; one son was born free, the other was born a slave.  Isaac was born by God’s power, not through human scheming; so he was the child of The Promise.  You know, God’s Big Promise to Abraham that he would make him the father of a great nation that would eventually bless the whole world.  Like Isaac, Christians are God’s children through God’s power, not through human effort.  The Apostle John may not have written his Gospel yet but he makes the same point about believers:  “But as many as received [Christ], to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”

In telling this story, Paul seems to be asking the Galatians, “Who are you going to be, a child of Sarah or a child of Hagar?” 

Any Jew hearing that question would have replied “I’m a child of Sarah; I was born free.”  Then, with that Paul suddenly starts talking about MtSinai.  What’s he doing?

As he explains, he is using a literary device called “allegory” in many translations.  The translation is accurate but the word translated “allegory” had a broader meaning in Paul’s day.  Paul is offering an illustration drawn from a historical event, like an analogy.  Jewish teachers commonly used it to make a point. 

One Mountain, Two Cities

This becomes clear when he suddenly starts talking about MtSinai.  He says, “the two women are like the two agreements or covenants between God and his people.”  One was made at MtSinai.  That’s where Israel received the Law.  As a consequence, MtSinai was considered to be a sacred place.  It had treasured associations with the Jewish culture.  It was where the Law that defined what it meant to be a Jew was given.  

 But it was also in Arabia where Hagar and Ishmael eventually settled. So, Paul links Sinai to Hagar.  In other words, I don’t think I’m going too far to say that a child of Sinai (one who attempts win God’s favor through the Law) is a slave, just like Hagar’s child.

At this point, the Judaizers are beginning to seethe.  So, Paul turns up the heat.

In contrast to being a child of MtSinai was being a child of Jerusalem.  But Paul makes it clear he is not talking about the Jerusalem at 31.78 degree’s North and 35.22 degrees East.  

That Jerusalem, the earthly Jerusalem, remained under the grip of the corrupted understanding of the Law’s purpose and of how we receive God’s favor.  Although they were hundreds of miles from each other, the earthly Jerusalem remained under the shadow of MtSinai.  

Those who study the history of religions, say that the followers of many of the world’s religions see some special place as the axis mundi, that is they see that place as the center of the world.  For Jews it may be Jerusalem, for Christians it may be Mount Calvary or the Empty Tomb; for Muslims, it may be Mecca; closer to home, for the Cherokee, it may be a little valley in North Carolina where some in the tribe believe the first man and woman were created.  It is some geographical location around which everything else revolves.  It’s an important concept for understanding things like pilgrimages and the Crusades.

But Paul—religious sociologists not withstanding—says the Jerusalem to which we are to show allegiance isn’t on any map.  It is a “heavenly” Jerusalem.  It’s the capital of a Kingdom that is not on any map.  It is the capital of the Messianic Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.  The earthly Jerusalem is a place of legal bondage; the heavenly Jerusalem is a place of grace because it is under the rule of the Messiah.

Like Ishmael mistreated Isaac, the children of the law will mistreat the children of grace, but they cannot take away their freedom.

So, the question remains:  Who are you going to be?  A child of slavery or a child of freedom?

Born Free

This brings Paul to the moment he has been moving toward for four chapters.  He makes the declaration that sums up his plea to the Galatians.

Christ set us free so that we could live in freedom.

Christ our great Liberator liberated us so we should live in liberty.  This brings Paul to issue a warning:

Therefore, stand firm and don’t 

submit to the 

bondage of slavery again.

 Get that, Christ died for our freedom; living in slavery of any kind short-circuits his work.  In other words, with apologies to lionesses everywhere, you were born free; live free.

On a deep level, this reflects God’s commitment to our freedom.  To speak of human freedom is frightening to some people, yet that seems to have always been God’s great wish for us.   Chris Blake describes God’s commitment to our freedom:

  Freedom is sacred to God.  God would rather have us free than have us safe, God would rather have us free than have us forever saved.  Otherwise, He would force us to be saved, to be gentle, to be unselfish and kind.  God understands that sullen submission breeds resentment and rebellion.  God knows love cannot be forced.[1]

This freedom has several dimensions  

God would have us free from legalism.  That’s the repeated message of Galatians.  We are free from the need to fearfully observe a set of rules and taboos in order to win God’s favor.  Receiving God’s favor is not linked to a list of do’s and don’ts;  it rests on God’s promise to accept those who trust the word of the gospel.

God would have us free from fanaticism.  Christianity calls us to commitment, to take up the cross and follow him.  But there is a difference between such commitment and raw fanaticism.  Commitment is born out of love for God; fanaticism is born out of fear—fear that only the extraordinary act will secure God’s favor.  Jesus offers us freedom from such fanaticism.  He accepts us, not for what we might do for him, but simply because he loves us.  

A former Muslim who converted to Christianity explains what Jesus’ death means for him.  He says, “… Jesus died on Calvary, so that I wouldn’t have to. And if I may be so crass,,,, Jesus strapped Himself to a cross so that I wouldn’t have to strap a bomb to myself.”

God would have us free from fear.  So much of legalism, fanaticism, and religious extremism is rooted in fear.  Jesus wants us to live free from that fear.  This is at the heart of what Christians call “peace.”  It is the tranquility rooted in our confidence of God’s acceptance.

God would have us free from the dictates of a broken culture.  Paul would tell the Romans, “Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold.”  Of course, ever a realist, he would tell the Corinthians that getting away from bad influences would involve going “out of the world” which was impossible.  We live in a broken, but inescapable, culture; a culture that would gladly squeeze us into its mold.  And, because we are broken too, we are susceptible.  

Sometimes giving into the pressure may even take a form that seems spiritual, even commendable.  The Judaizers so much wanted to escape the criticism of their community they took a religious stand in favor of traditional rules and taboos that ultimately would corrupt the gospel of grace. 

God would have us free to be neither left nor right, free to take the unpopular view even if it means flying in the face of the cultural consensus, free to refuse the easy answer to a complex issue.

God would have us free from sin’s dominion.  Some fear the gospel of grace because they believe it is indifferent to sin.  But how could God be indifferent to such a destructive power? Sin is more than affront to God, it is an assault on the crown of his creation—us.  

God does not want us dominated by sin.  So, the gospel has liberating power.  To honor the anniversary of his own conversion, Charles Wesley wrote:

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive…

To the degree we open ourselves to the Spirit’s work we know that life as a reality.

Conclusion:

Paul is about to turn a corner.  He will turn from the foundation of the Christian life to the outliving of the Christian life.  But he knows that life cannot be lived apart from what he has already said.  

This is why it’s so important for us to remember we were born to be free.  When I was checking out the background of Wesley’s hymn, I came across the testimony of a man who, when he was thirteen, read a book that listed 101 sins to avoid.   The man says the author told his readers that success was their responsibility.  The man said it was a “straitjacket” that left him with fear and self-absorption.  He says he knew nothing of the joy Wesley’s hymn speaks of.

Paul wanted nothing to do with a gospel without joy, without freedom, without peace. He didn't want it for himself, he didn’t want it for the Galatians; and, if we could ask him, I’m sure he wouldn’t want it for us.

So keep in mind  “Christ has set us free! This means we are really free.”

[Paul doesn't mention the second covenant, perhaps because his readers would have understood it was initiated by the death of Jesus.  In any case, his point was made.]