Galatians Chapter 4

Galatians 4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

Galatians 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Galatians 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

Paul refers to the bondage that is in the Law and the elements of the world, such as rules about meat and drink and feast days and holy days, Sabbath days and so forth.

Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Galatians 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The adoption that Paul is speaking about here is not in the same sense as we think of adopting a child today. When we think of adoption, we think of adopting the child of a stranger and then raising it as our own child. But that's not what Paul has in mind. The adoption here speaks of a full grown son ship. It literally means placing, as the heir. Now the heir of all things is Jesus Christ. He is the promised seed. He is the heir. So where is your inheritance? In Christ. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Paul says in Romans that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Galatians 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

This is who they are and what they are in Christ. But in Christ is a spiritual, not a physical realm. Their body, their physical human body, is not in Christ. But THEY are in the body of Christ. Now Paul goes back and addresses the legalism again:

Galatians 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

The Galatians were in the synagogues of the Jews. They were fearing the God of Abraham, seeking the wisdom of the God of Abraham, and were being taught the law and the prophets. Here is basically the pattern of Paul's preaching, not only in Galatia but for most of the time of the book of Acts. He would go first into the synagogue of the Jews, as in this example:

Acts 13:14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.

Acts 13:15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

In Acts thirteen Luke has recorded Paul's entire speech in the synagogue and he preached a message of justification by faith alone. When the Jews  were gone out of the synagogue the Gentiles wanted to hear more:

Acts 13:42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

Acts 13:43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

And the bible says that the next Sabbath day almost the whole city came together, obviously to the synagogue of the Jews, to hear Paul preach. In the next town they go to, they go directly to the synagogue:

Acts 14:1 And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.

These people knew the law, they had been taught the law. Paul preached grace to them, they were saved, and now they were wanting to go back to the law:

Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Galatians 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

Galatians 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Galatians 4:12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

So Paul is not injured. He said I am as you are. Paul is saved and sealed and so are these Galatians. They haven't lost their salvation. So he says 'be as I am.' In other words, realize your position in Christ, your liberty in Christ and don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, the yoke of the law.

Now he talks about his infirmity:

Galatians 4:13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

Galatians 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Galatians 4:15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Paul's infirmity seems to be an eye problem. This could also be the same 'messenger of Satan' Paul mentions:

2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

In 2 Corinthians Paul is talking about a time, he says above 14 years ago, when he was caught up to the third heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

That seems to put the time he is talking about right here:

Acts 14:19 And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

This looks like the time Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians. If it is then we know that Paul was caught up to heaven, whether in the body or out of the body he didn't know.He must have seen the rapture of the church right here. He saw the whole truth of the rapture when he was caught up here. Now he gets up and goes right back to every town he had been to before:

Acts 14:20 Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

That word there, 'he rose up' is VERY akin to the word for resurrection. Did Paul actually die and then rise up? We don't know and Paul didn't know whether he was in the body or out of the body. We cannot say that Paul had an 'out of the body experience' because he doesn't say that.

Acts 14:21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,

Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Paul suffered much tribulation, and evidently these Galatians did too. Especially since they were being troubled by the Jewish legalists. Look at chapter six:

Galatians 6:12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

So to glory in the cross, like Paul did, causes persecution. Paul wrote to Timothy that 'all who will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.' But Paul has seen the rapture of the church. He gives all the details about the rapture in the first letter to the Thessalonians. But notice that after he was stoned he went right back to all the places he had been to before 'confirming the disciples.' He must have also taught them about the rapture, because it is certainly here:

Galatians 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Paul says, 'Am I now become your enemy because I tell you the truth'? And you do become the enemy of people in religion when you try to show them the truth of the grace message and the truth of right division and salvation by grace alone through faith alone. They don't want to hear you, they want you to hear them and to join them:

Galatians 4:17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.

Galatians 4:18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

But our salvation is not based on feelings. There is not a verse in the bible that says 'feel on the Lord Jesus Christ.' It says 'believe on' not 'feel on.' We don't go by feelings we go by facts. And the facts, the testimony of God about His son, Jesus Christ is that he died for our sins and that he was raised again for our justification and we have been forgiven all trespasses. That little word all means all then, all now, and all later on. We are complete in Christ. By grace are ye saved through faith. Now watch this next statement:

Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Paul calls the Galatians 'my little children.' He referred to the Corinthians as babes:

1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

The Galatians and the Corinthians and almost everybody today are babes in Christ. Why? Because we don't know the doctrine. We spend our time listening to motivational speakers and health, wealth and prosperity messages and good singers, and go to 'eatin' meetin's' and so on, and so little time really, really sitting with an open bible and studying the word of God. It that condition we are too easily tossed about with the wind of doctrine. A new doctrine or a new teaching, or a new teacher comes along, and it sounds good or it looks good and we add it to the list that makes up 'what I believe because it sounds right to me.' But God has given us everything we need and all we need to know in order to please him. God would have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth. The truth of God is in the written word. But like the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Peter's ministry in the book of Acts is from Acts chapter one through Acts chapter twelve basically. Some time after Acts chapter twelve, and evidently, before the time of the meeting in Acts chapter fifteen. Peter goes to Antioch. It seems that Peter, after the meeting in Acts 15 would have a clear understanding of the difference between his ministry and Paul's ministry. But Paul had withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed. Peter had come very close to preaching ANOTHER gospel. He had come close to the same thing that was occurring with the Galatians. And he had done it because of the 'bewitching' or the fascination of the Judaizers:

Acts 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

Peter had been eating with the Gentiles, but when these men came he withdrew himself. He caused Barnabas to be carried away with the dissimulation, the disassembling, and Paul said he was not walking uprightly according to the truth. He had told Peter, 'Peter we are both Jews and we both believe in Jesus Christ.'

Galatians 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

So Peter knew that he was not justified by the works of the law. He knew that his justification depended on the faith of Christ. That was his message, that Christ would come again and that Israel's sins would be blotted out at the second coming. So there was a big dispute about circumcision and keeping the law. At that time the Lord revealed to Paul that he should go up to Jerusalem and declare to them all 'that gospel that I preach.' When Paul got James, Cephas, (that's Peter) and John in private he had told them all these things that are written here in the book of Galatians.

And no doubt, Paul would have taken them to Genesis chapter fifteen and have shown them the justification of Abram, before he was circumcised. He would have taken them to Genesis chapter seventeen and verse five and shown them that God calls things that are not as though they were. He would have shown them that God made Abraham the father of many nations, and changed his name to prove it.

He would have told them that there are people out there, in all those nations who fear the God of Abraham and God will save them just like he will save you. And they don't even have to be circumcised or keep the law of Moses. He would have said, now Peter, I know you have preached to Israel to repent. To repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the promise of the Father. But you can see from what I am telling you here that the very thing that God said to Abraham, our father, is available to those Gentiles:

Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Galatians 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Paul would have said, Peter those Gentiles who have faith in the God of Abraham are in line to receive the blessing:

Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So those men in that private room in Jerusalem would have to acknowledge that the Lord had given Paul a totally different message than their gospel of the kingdom. The would have to acknowledge that their ministry pertained to Israel as a royal priesthood and holy nation and that they would receive the kingdom at the coming of the King. It is clear that there are two different messages here:

Galatians 2:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

Galatians 2:8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

In other words, Peter is carrying on the same ministry as that of Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John:

Romans 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

But the Lord has given Paul a different ministry:

Romans 15:16 That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

So Paul would tell Peter: I know that the kingdom is going to be restored, I know that Israel will have the land promised to Abraham and I know that they will have the Kingdom and the priesthood, but because of their blindness they have fallen:

Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

They saw, then, the truth that the Lord had committed to Paul:

Galatians 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

So while they agreed to confine their ministry to the circumcision, preaching the gospel of the circumcision, they had to agree with what Paul communicated to them, what Paul had said, although Peter said that it was hard to understand:

2 Peter 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

If we really desire to be approved unto God, then God has given us every thing that is needed, nothing left out, to do that. If you really want to know God, read his book. Study his book. God reveals Himself to you as you study and simply believe the words of the Spirit written down and preserved from this generation forever.

Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Paul tells the Galatians who desire to be under the law to hear the law. It tells people who are under the law to do the law and to keep the law, to keep the WHOLE law. The law points out guilt and it says that if you fail to keep the whole law you are guilty:

James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

In other words, the law is a witness of the righteousness of God. God is holy. God is righteouss. The law says this:

Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Paul tells Timothy that the law is a good thing 'if a man use it lawfully.' The law is a good thing, but for those in Christ it is a far better thing to be in Christ than to be under the law. Paul uses this phrase, 'under the law,' ten times in the bible. He is the only writer to use it and here in the book of Galatians he refers to being 'under the law' four times. In Romans he mentions it twice and in 1 Corinthians he talks about being 'under the law.'

1 Corinthians 9:20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

You don't find references to being 'under the law' in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Why? Because it is a given. They all were under the law. Jesus Christ was made of a woman, made under the law. He kept the law, taught people to keep the law, told people to offer the gift, the blood sacrifice, that Moses commanded and he told the 'rich young ruler' that to have eternal life, 'keep the commandments.' Being 'under the law' was a given, it was taken for granted, not only in the Lord's ministry, but in Peter's ministry during the book of Acts as well.

Today we are led by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit does not lead people 'according to the law.' God didn't give the Holy Spirit to 'help you keep the law,' as some mistakenly think. The Holy Spirit was given to lead you in the love of God and of Christ, and love worketh no ill to his neighbor, so Paul says:

Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law

There are people who want to argue about what it is that Paul is referring to when he refers to the law. Some want to say that what Paul means is the 'Jewish ceremonial law." Well, here's what Paul means when he refers to the law:

Romans 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

So when Paul talks about the law, and the contrast between the law and grace, he is referring to the law, the whole law, and nothing but the law. In other words he is referring to everything in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy that Moses wrote pertaining to the law:

Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

The law cannot save an unbeliever. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can save you. So the law makes an unbeliever religious but lost. His next stop is the lake of fire. The reality of religion today is that it is full of 'lost believers.' People need to stop trying to perform in order to find favor with God and simply put their trust in Jesus Christ, believing that he died for their sins and was raised again for their justification.

So Paul writes to the Galatians and he is talking about two covenants. Unless there is a reason for Paul to talk about covenants then it would make no sense for him to be talking about them. He doesn't talk about covenants when he writes to the Ephesians or the Collosians. Instead he tells them that they were 'strangers from the covenants of promise.' Well he doesn't tell the Galatians that they are 'strangers from the covenants' Instead he is explaining the covenants, because they are IN the covenants of promise. Understanding who is IN the covenants of promise and who is a stranger from them goes a long, long way toward understanding some of the things Paul writes about during the time of the book of Acts.

During the period of time of Paul's preaching and teaching in the book of Acts there is something there called 'the commonwealth of Israel.' Now that phrase, 'the commonwealth of Israel,' is only used once in your bible. It only shows up in the book of Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But just because it only shows up once in your bible, it doesn't make the truth of the verse unimportant. The phrase, 'the gospel of the grace of God' only shows up in your bible once, but we know, according to Ephesians chapter three, that we are involved in something called 'the dispensation of the grace of God.' We know that in this economy, or this administration that it is our job 'to make all men see the fellowship of the mystery.' And notice that it doesn't say 'all saved men,' it says all men. So the fact that a word or a phrase only appears in the bible once is not a reason to minimize the importance of it.

So Paul writes to the Ephesians because he has 'heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints.' Before Paul went to Rome as 'the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles' he had been in Ephesus and he had established a church, preaching in the synagogue of the Jews. He spent a total of three years in the area and he says:

Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

But during all those three years, Paul had never met the people he writes to in the book of Ephesians. In other words, the book of Ephesians is not written to those people that he met, that he knew, and that he had preached to when he had been there before. Yet Luke writes in the book of Acts:

Acts 19:10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Notice that Luke writes here that ALL THEY which dwelt in Asia heard the word and it's a reference to JEWS AND GREEKS. Well,the Ephesians to whom Paul wrote the Ephesian letter don't fit in this group, because the 'word of truth, the gospel of THEIR salvation' is something they didn't hear during that period of time because it is clear that Paul didn't know those Ephesians he wrote the letter to. He had only heard of their faith.

Now the difference between the three years and the two years in those two verses is that Paul preached in the synagogue for three months, and when the Jews began to oppose Paul and 'speak evil of THAT WAY' he separated the disciples and went into the 'school of one Tyrannus' and continued to teach them for two years, and after that he 'stayed in Asia for a season.' So the total time adds up to three years, as Paul said in the verse in Acts chapter twenty.

But he had not preached to the people that he wrote the Ephesian letter to. He had never met them, he didn't know them. He had only 'heard of their faith.' So he writes to them and he tells them to remember that 'in time past' that they were 'aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.' So in order for them to have been aliens from it, there had to be something which existed which he refers to as the commonwealth of Israel.

So the 'commonwealth of Israel' existed all the way through the book of Acts. Israel had fallen, but they had not yet been 'cast away.' At the time of Acts chapter twenty, actually at the time of Acts chapter twenty and verse three, Paul goes into Europe, into Macedonia, and from Macedonia he goes down into Greece and to Corinth and he stays there three months, and during that three months he writes the Roman letter. We know that from the internal evidence in the letter. Now in the Roman letter he says that God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. And he says that through the fall of Israel salvation has come to the Gentiles. In Romans 11 he says:

Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

The present time is the time of Acts chapter twenty. Prior to that he had written the Galatian letter. He also wrote the first and the second Thessalonian letter and the first and the second Corinthian letter. All of Paul's ministry during the book of Acts includes all of those people. It includes the Galatians, the Thessalonians, the Corinthians, and it also includes the Romans. During all of that period of time, Israel had fallen, but they had not yet been cast away. The casting away of Israel occurs at the time of Acts chapter 28. The Ephesian letter and the Collosian letter, a total of seven different letters, which are called 'the prison epistles' were written after the time of Acts 28.

So the period of time of the book of Acts represents a 'time of promise.' Paul writes to the Ephesians and says that 'at that time' you were strangers from the covenants of promise.

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

So there are covenants involved. And there were people who were involved in the covenants. That is what Paul is talking about in the book of Galatians and he is talking to the people who were involved in them. The people who are involved in the covenants of promise are Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles are sometimes referred to as proselytes. They are God-fearing Gentiles and they have faith in the God of Abraham.

That's why you see Abraham's name mentioned so much, especially in the Galatian letter and in the Roman letter. In the prison epistles, those letters written after the time period of the book of Acts, the name of Abraham is not mentioned one single time. It's not that the name of Abraham is no longer important, but that the truth pertaining to Abraham has already been written and recorded and it's there for our learning, just as it was for the Ephesians learning. But the Ephesians were not involved in the covenants of promise. The Galatians were. So were the Thessalonians, the Corinthians and the Romans.

So what you have is what is referred to as 'Paul's provoking ministry.' The idea comes from this verse:

Romans 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

Romans 11:14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

Paul wants to provoke them that the 'emulation' might result in some of them being saved. And it's that 'remnant according to the election of grace' in verse five that he wants to save. In order to do that he preaches 'my gospel,' which is the gospel of Christ, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The gospel of Christ, all the way through the book of Acts, is preached to the Jew first, and because Israel has fallen, also to the Greek. The Jews and the Greeks in the synagogues of the Jews in the regions of Galatia where Paul preached, and to whom Paul wrote the Galatian letter, are in the covenants of promise. So Paul is talking about Abraham and he says that Abraham had two sons.

Now he uses the word 'allegory' and this is the only time the word is used in the bible. Whole systems of religion and theology are based on a so-called 'allegorical' understanding of the bible. It is called 'spiritualizing the passage.' But like a man once said, people who 'spiritualize' have no 'spiritual eyes' and they tell 'spiritual lies.' People who 'spiritualize' in order to explain away things which they don't understand are people who will not believe that the bible means it LITERALLY. So let's read:

Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

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

Galatians 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The word 'allegory' is not translated, it is transliterated. That is, it was simply taken from the Greek, given an English spelling and brought over into the English language. The same is true of the word 'baptism.' An allegory is not a 'made up' story but to speak in a figure, literally to speak in a different way. So Paul uses the two women, Hagar and Sarah, to represent something.

When he says 'it is written' he is referring to two passages, Genesis 16 and Genesis 21. Genesis 16 is about the birth of the son of the bondwoman, who is Hagar, whose name is Ishmael:

Genesis 16:15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.

Genesis 16:16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

Notice that the name is still Abram here. Abram's name was not changed until the time of Genesis 17, so what has happened here is not involved in the later truth that God made ABRAHAM the father of many nations. This is not to say that Ishmael's seed could not have later been blessed if they had blessed Israel, but just to note that Ishmael is not in the seed line. The fact is, historically speaking, that instead of blessing Israel, Arabs and Jews have cursed each other.

Now the reference to the free woman is a reference to a miracle birth. A miracle because Sarah was barren, she couldn't have children. And not only because she couldn't have children but because she was well past child-bearing age, she was ninety years old and because Abraham was a hundred years old:

Genesis 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.

Genesis 21:2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

Genesis 21:3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

Genesis 21:4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.

Genesis 21:5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

So Paul says that the two women represent the two covenants. Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, not the present day city of Jerusalem but the Jerusalem 'then present' where the temple was and where the worship of God by the nation of Israel was centered. Hagar represents three things here: Mount Sinai; a covenant, which is the Law of Moses; and the earthly city of Jerusalem. The people who were given the law of Moses at Mount Sinai are the same people who lived in the then-present city of Jerusalem.

Now the emphasis is on bondage. Hagar was a slave woman and the children of Israel were in slavery to the Law. Now the Judaizers who had gone to Galatia and were 'fascinating' the Galatians evidently didn't talk much about the slavery and the bondage of the Law. So that's what Paul is doing, he is showing them how terrible the bondage of the law really is. Once you are under the law you are obligated to keep all of it and if you fail in one single point the Law makes you guilty of all. But then he says, 'But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Hagar is the mother of Ishmael and she stands for the Law of Moses and the city of Jerusalem and people under the law. She represents people who would come to God through the Law. Those involved in the gospel of the circumcision are still very much under the law, keeping the law, under a schoolmaster. They endure to the end until the time of Romans 11:27 when God's covenant unto them takes away their sins.

Sarah then, the mother of Isaac, the child of the promise, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. In many cases Paul takes things found in the old testament which WILL BE true of Israel in their new covenant which is yet future and applies them to the body of Christ. For instance, Paul says, in 2 Corinthians that 'we are able ministers of the new testament:'

2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Many people want to make Paul a minister of Israel's new covenant. In other words, to make Paul one of the ones who 'confirmed the word' to the Hebrews as in Hebrews 2:3. But whoever wrote Hebrews 2:3 is a THIRD PARTY. He got his information from someone else who got it from the Lord. Paul got his information directly from the Lord, as he said in Galatians 1:11-12.

Paul is NOT ministering the LETTER of the New Testament. He is ministering THE SPIRIT of the new testament. Under the letter of the new testament they are bound to keep the letter. The law will be WRITTEN in their hearts and in their minds and they will all know God from the least to the greatest, But yet, they are never relieved of the responsibility of KEEPING the new testament and Jesus said until heaven and earth pass  that one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law. Heaven and earth DO NOT pass away until after the millennium.

Now the SPIRIT of the new testament is righteousness. There is but one SPIRIT of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. Paul says that Israel has a 'vail' over their mind in the reading of the old testament but the vail is taken away when they 'turn to the Lord' and that the Lord is that Spirit. Well, Israel had not yet 'turned to the Lord.' Peter preached repent, he preached for them to 'turn to the Lord' but Israel rejected the offer and so the salvation of Israel and their new covenant is yet future.

2 Corinthians 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

2 Corinthians 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

So Paul's ministry is the ministry of righteousness, the righteousness of God. Where can the righteousness of God be found? In MY GOSPEL, in Paul's gospel, the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the preaching of the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

So Paul takes things from prophecy, things which WILL BE true of Israel at the second coming of Christ and the blotting out of their sins and makes application to the body of Christ. Here is one of them in the book of Romans where Paul quotes from David in the book of Psalms where David speaks about Israel in the future and applies it to the body of Christ:

Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Romans 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Romans 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness in Genesis chapter fifteen and in Genesis chapter seventeen, Abraham is made a father of many nations, and in Galatia are some of those people that Abraham is the father of. The God-fearing Gentiles called Greeks in the synagogues of the Jews are told by Paul:

Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

These people, blessing the seed of Abraham, fearing the God of Abraham, seeking the wisdom of the God of Abraham get the blessing of Abraham:

Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

The promise of the Spirit was a promise.  Promises are given to people to whom the promises pertain. So the people to whom Paul writes in the Galatian letter do not match you and I. These people are in the covenants of promise. Which promises? The ones made to Abraham. Why? By Faith.  What did they do? They blessed the seed of Abraham. In the context they blessed the seed of Abraham by blessing Israel. Some of them would have been circumcised and called proselytes. Some were not circumcised. But they feared the God of Abraham. And so they received the promise by faith. Their access into that faith is through the faith of Christ.

You are I were never in the covenants of promise. We never blessed the seed of Abraham nor feared the God of Abraham in association with Israel. Before you and I were ever born there was no Israel. Israel had been cast away and scattered among the nations. We are more like the Ephesians to whom Paul wrote the Ephesian letter, from prison in Rome, after the time period of the book of Acts.

God made no promises to people like the Ephesians. Instead the mystery of their salvation was hid in God. The mystery of Christ, the gospel of Christ, preached to the Jew first and also to the Greek is Paul's gospel. But the gospel of the GRACE of God, the dispensation of the grace of God is the mystery OF THE GOSPEL:

Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Ephesians 6:19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Paul also refers to the 'mystery of the gospel' here:

Philippians 4:15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

That beginning that he refers to is neither in Acts nine nor in Acts 28. So we see that there are some things pertaining to members of the body of Christ that were hidden in the scriptures. But there are some MEMBERS of the body of Christ that were HID IN GOD, and that is called the FELLOWSHIP of the mystery. Like fellows in a ship. Certain men are in a ship and they don't want you to pick up those stragglers out there drowning in the ocean, but the Captain of the ship stops, picks them up and they are more FELLOWS in a ship! The FELLOWSHIP of the mystery.

Ephesians 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Now the Jerusalem which is above, represented by Sarah, the freewoman, is called by other names in the bible. It is referred to as the 'heavenly Jerusalem' in Hebrews 12:12, the 'new Jerusalem' in Revelation 21:2 and the 'holy Jerusalem' in Revelation 21:10

This Jerusalem is free, it is the home of the free, not subject to the old covenant, the law of Moses. Those who inherit the city will be free. Now when Paul says 'mother of us all' it is used in relation to the Galatians who were IN the promises. It is also interesting to note that in Galatians 1:15 that he was 'separated from his mother's womb' and God called him by his grace. That could be connected to what he is saying here. But he is contrasting bondage under the law and liberty in Christ. He never tells the alien Gentiles in Ephesians, Colossians, etc. that Abraham is their father or that Jerusalem above is their mother. The Galatians had spiritual connections with Abraham but the Ephesians and you and I do not.

He doen't mean that the heavenly Jerusalem is the mother of the body of Christ. He is comparing the bondage of the slave woman, Hagar and the freedom of the free woman, Sarah. These are the two conditions, and the body of Christ is like Sarah and is free.

Now in verse 27:

Galatians 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

That's a quotation of Isaiah 54:1 and he is continuing the contrast between Hagar and Sarah. In the verse he is referring to Sarah. She was the one that was barren, as in Genesis 18:11 and as in Romans:

Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:

She didn't travail in birth because she was barren. Isaac was her first child and he was born when she was ninety years old. Is anything impossible with God?

Galatians 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

So once again we see the use of the word promise, children of the promise. Isaac was the child of THE promise. Now we know that the promised SEED was Christ and Isaac is a type of Christ because it was through Isaac and through Jacob, the seed line, that Christ was to come. But the promise Paul refers to is the promise of the Spirit, the promise of the Father. As in:

Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Ten times in the book of Galatians Paul uses the word PROMISE.

Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Now to go back a minute,  he explains something about this faith. He says in verse seven:

Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

He is saying that even a Gentile, not physically related to Abraham, was accounted as a child of Abraham by faith. In other words he had a spiritual connection with Abraham. Now we are not talking about Gentiles like the Ephesians or like you and me. It's a reference to those God-fearing Gentiles, and they are called Greeks in a King James Bible. He goes on to say:

Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Now the gospel preached to Abraham was not the fact that Christ died for his sins. It was the good news that in 'blessing I will bless thee and I will make thee a blessing and in thee shall all nations be blessed.' That's all the way back to Genesis chapter twelve. Well then, how would a nation be blessed in Abraham' They had to bless him. 'I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.' So he is not talking about Gentiles who curse Israel, he is talking about the ones that bless them. And those would be Gentiles that the scripture foresaw who could be the seed of Abraham or the children of Abraham, by their faith.

Galatians 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

The point of this is that even a Gentile that blessed the seed of Abraham would receive a blessing and it wasn't through keeping the law. When that promise was made, beginning in Genesis chapter twelve, there was no law. That covenant with Abraham was made 430 years before the law was written. Now the promises of God are all spelled out in the old testament and they are all promises to Israel or through Israel.

Romans 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

All of what Paul said there in the verse was according to prophecy. But prophecy is about the rise of Israel, not their fall. Paul's message of salvation came about through the FALL of Israel, not their rise:

Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

So we are on MYSTERY GROUND here. There is NOTHING in the Hebrew scriptures about Gentiles being saved through the fall of Israel, only through their rise. So like Paul said, the gospel I preach, is not of man, not received from man or taught by man, but by direct revelation of Jesus Christ. So you can see the things, some of the things, that Paul talks about here in the old testament. But this mystery pertaining to those things was only explained to Paul and through Paul and Peter said it was hard to understand. What we don't clearly understand we just accept by faith because God said it. You are not going to be able to go back to the old testament and pick this mystery truth out of it. Only Paul was given the revelation of the mystery.

Galatians 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

Galatians 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

The scripture said, cast out the bondwoman and it is a reference to Genesis 21:10. It's actually the words of Sarah. The bondwoman represents the bondage of the law. So people who try to add the works of the law to Paul's message of grace have no part in the inheritance which belongs to the body of Christ. And if you add works of the law to grace then you are fallen from grace.

Galatians 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Hagar represents Jerusalem and legalism. But the Galatians are like the child of Sarah, the freewoman, and they are free from the yoke of bondage through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Paul had evidently set forth Jesus Christ, crucified FOR them, in their behalf, in order to give them the liberty they now have IN Christ

They had been saved and they had received the Spirit by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the Law. The Law of Moses had not saved them and could never have justified them. The point of the whole Galatian letter is that circumcision wouldn't do a thing for them.

Scripture says 'cursed is the man that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.' That's why Christ had to die. He became a curse for us. God MADE him to be sin for us. People who try to keep the law are following the wrong message, not the one Christ revealed to Paul.  The gospel of Christ, Paul's gospel, was preached to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The Greeks in the King James Bible are God-fearing Gentiles. They are in the covenants of promise and they are blessed with hearing Paul's gospel, being saved by grace through faith.