What does "under the law" mean in the context of Galatians 4:21? Setting the Scene “Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” Paul addresses believers influenced by Judaizers who insisted that circumcision and Mosaic ordinances were still binding for justification. He challenges them to consider what the very Law they revere actually teaches. What “under the law” Signifies • Living beneath the Mosaic covenant as a binding system for righteousness • Bearing its entire weight of commands, penalties, and ceremonies • Seeking acceptance with God by personal obedience rather than by faith in Christ • Remaining under the guardianship of the Law instead of entering the mature sonship provided in the gospel Old Covenant: A Tutor, Not a Final Home • Galatians 3:24-25 teaches that “the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” • The Law’s role was temporary, exposing sin (Romans 3:20) and pointing to the promised Seed. • Staying “under” it after Christ arrived amounts to refusing graduation into grace. Bondage Illustrated by Hagar and Ishmael • Galatians 4:22-25 contrasts Hagar, the slave woman, with Sarah, the free woman. • Hagar corresponds to Sinai and “present Jerusalem,” representing bondage under the Law. • Those who rely on Law-keeping resemble Ishmael, born “according to the flesh,” producing effort but not the inheritance. Freedom Displayed in Sarah and Isaac • Sarah represents the covenant of promise fulfilled in Christ. • Isaac, “born through the promise” (Galatians 4:23), pictures believers who receive righteousness by faith. • These heirs live under the covenant of grace, not under the jurisdiction of Sinai. Key Cross-References • Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” • Romans 7:4-6: believers “died to the law through the body of Christ” and now “serve in the new way of the Spirit.” • 1 Corinthians 9:20-21: Paul meets Jews “under the law” without compromising the fact that he himself is “not under the law but under the law of Christ.” • Galatians 5:18: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Implications for Believers Today • Justification rests solely on the finished work of Christ; any attempt to supplement it with human effort returns the soul to slavery. • The moral standards revealed in the Law remain holy, but the covenantal curse attached to disobedience has been borne by Christ (Galatians 3:13). • Walking by the Spirit produces the very righteousness the Law described yet could never energize (Galatians 5:22-23). • Assurance flows from sonship, not from performance; heirs receive, they do not earn. Living in Grace, Not in Law Under the Law means being confined to an obsolete covenant for righteousness. In Galatians 4:21 Paul pleads that believers embrace their true status: children of promise, born of the Spirit, standing in the freedom purchased by Christ. |
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