On Galatians 4: 22-26

Posted : 25 Sep, 2013 07:18 PM

On Galatians 4: 22-26



Galatians 4: 22-26: "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

25. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."



Paul is talking about the difference between the Old and New Covenants. But the Old Covenant was for physical Israel, and the New Covenant is for the Israel of God (Galatians 6: 16) and all Israel (Romans 11: 26) and the children of the promise who are the spiritual seed of Abraham (Galatians 3: 29) who are also the seed of God. Therefore, restricting Galatians 4: 22-26 to just the two covenants diminishes the power of what Paul is saying here.



And reading Galatians 4: 22-26 as saying physical Israel (Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage) is not the mother of the elect is allowing the spiritual power of of the verse to be seen.



Dispensationalism has been able to get its foot in the door and then march fully in and take over many or most of the denominations and churches because the NT does not spoon feed, and leaves it to the believer to understand with the help of the Holy Spirit. The NT does not say over and over in a very explicit way that physical Israel is no longer the people of God, and that the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5-9 is the people of God and that they are the chosen (I Peter 2: 9). This is the snare of Luke 21: 35 and the strong delusion of II Thessalonians 2: 11. One has to have the Holy Spirit to fully understand the whole counsel of God, which is the Gospel.



And I Peter 2: 5 and I Peter 2: 9 fulfill the prophecy starting in II Kings 21: 13, which is mentioned in Isaiah 29: 16, and which points to Jeremiah 18; 1-6. God turned physical Israel upside down and transformed it, something which the dispensationalists cannot hear. Since these three Old Testament texts on God's turning physical Israel upside down and transforming it is prophecy, and Calvinists generally do not take a great deal of interest in prophecy, Calvinists may not oppose these texts as much as the dispensationalists but they tend to ignore them and/or not aware of them.



Romans 2: 17-29, Romans 9: 6-8 and Galatians 4: 25-26 state that the prophecy saying God would turn physical Israel upside down, or transform it, was fulfilled.



Those church Christians influenced by dispensationalism sometime respond to the inclusion of Galatians 4: 22-26 with Romans 2: 17-29 and Romans 9: 6-8 - which is Paul's doctrine on the difference between physical Israel and Israel born again in Christ - by claiming that Galatians 4: 22-26 is just about the two covenants and not about two Israels. They tend to make use of the dialectic, which always argues against the truth of scripture and for some man-made doctrine, thinking that if they can overthrow some one part of a doctrine that magically they have overthrown the entire doctrine. The doctrine they want to overthrow is that which says, as Paul states clearly in Romans 9: 8, "they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God." And using the dialectic, the dispensationalists may also claim that Romans 9: 8 is just about all those who are in the flesh and not about physical Israel. They must defend their chosen people.



Paul is using Jerusalem as a metaphor for Israel, saying there is one Jerusalem (Israel) which exists and is in bondage with her children, and another Jerusalem (Israel) which is above, that is, spiritual, and is the mother of us all, that is, of all the elect.



Galatians 4: 22-25 says Hagar, the bondmaid or slave, whose son was Ishmael, represents the Old Covenant and he who was born of the free woman, Isaac, the child of the promise, represents the New Covenant. Paul also links mount Sinai in Arabia with literal, physical Jerusalem, which is in bondage. Hebrews 8 talks about the Old and New Covenants, and Hebrews 10: 9 says clearly that Christ took away the Old Covenant, so that he could establish the New Covenant. Hebrews 7: 22, 7: 27, 8: 7, and 9: 11-14 teach that the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant, and that Christ's own blood is far more powerful in obtaining redemption for his people than is the blood of goats and calves. But there are many other ways in which the New Covenant is superior spiritually to the Old Covenant.



The many ways in which the New Covenant is spiritual and better than the Old Covenant are the ways in which Israel born again in Christ, or in scripture, a spiritual house, whose elect members are a chosen generation, A royal priesthood, a holy nation, the Israel of God, or "all Israel shall be saved" is different from physical Israel. That is, the ways in which the Old and New Covenant are different are the ways in which Israel born again in Christ are different.



Here are just a few of the ways in which both the Old and New Covenants and physical Israel and Israel born again in Christ are different are in the change from the physical to the spiritual: Under the Old Covenant and for physical Israel entry into the Kingdom of God was by genetics, by the literal DNA from Abraham. Under the Old Covenant and for physical Israel there was the literal, physical temple building. Under physical Israel and for the Old Covenant all males had to be circumcised. But under the New Covenant and for Israel born again in Christ, entry into the kingdom of God is by faith and by bring born again, instead of a literal temple building the believers themselves are the temple of God, and circumcision was abolished under the New Covenant and for Israel born in Christ.



There is another very important difference between the Old and New Covenants. In Luke 9: 52-56,"And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."



James and John were still operating under the Old Covenant and in physical Israel when they wanted Christ to call fire down on the village of the Samaritans to kill them. But Christ was in the process of transforming physical Israel and the Old Covenant, and he rebuked them, saying Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Jesus Christ came not to kill people, but to save them. " I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10: 10



The members of physical Israel under the Old Covenant were a death-oriented culture. They stoned many of the prophets to death, had Christ crucified, stoned Stephen to death, and tried to kill Paul when he went back to Jerusalem the last time to meet with James and the Jerusalem group, and went to the temple as James asked him to do to take part in an Old Covenant, physical Israel purification ceremony. Israel in Christ does not bring forth a death-oriented culture, but a life-oriented one.



To compartmentalize off the Old and New Covenants as abstractions in man-made theology from physical Israel and that Israel turned upside down or transformed in and by Jesus Christ is false doctrine. When the differences between the two covenants is described accurately it turns out that this is the difference between physical Israel and the Israel of God of Galatians 6: 16, the spiritual house of I Peter 2; 5.

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