Galatians 4:31 So then, brothers, we are not children of the female slave, but of the free. The whole force of this application of the allegory lies in the truth of the facts. It is because the birth of Isaac was supernatural that St. Paul was able to find in it what he here bids us see. What Isaac was in the miracle of his origin that is the Christian in the miracle of his regeneration. What Hagar and Ishmael hated in Isaac was the interference of God with the laws of nature. This spirit caused the strife and the ejection. So it is now. I. THE JEW HAS HIS COVENANT from Sinai. Call that Hagar. Set it in the same row with Jerusalem that now is. See her gendering to bondage, bearing her offspring into a condition of spiritual servitude, the condition of all who trust in the flesh. II. THE CHRISTIAN HAS HIS COVENANT, and its home is above. He is a child not of the flesh but of the Spirit. He is born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, but of supernatural graces. III. NATURE CRIES OUT AGAINST GRACE, and regards it as an interference with creature rights and dignity, and "mocks" and "persecutes," and must be ejected, at last, from the family and the home of the free. IV. APPLY THIS TO SCEPTICISM. It is the boast of anti-supernaturalism that it is free. It has cast off the shackles of tradition, authority, priestcraft. Freethought is its watchword. Paul here brings a charge against it under the figure of Hagar and Ishmael, whose characteristic was dislike of the supernatural. 1. Unbelief in rejecting the supernatural rejects pardon and Christ, grace and the Holy Spirit. 2. This is a state of bondage. For what hope is there for man in nature? (1) None as he turns remorsefully towards the past. Nature crushes the sinner. (2) None as he looks wistfully towards the future. Mark the poor tentative, vacillating peradventures in reconstructing himself in holiness. Mark the self-vexing "O Baal, hear us" of the man who will not grasp the Divine Sanctifier. 3. If we would be free from the slavery of sin and despair, we must seek forgiveness through Christ and sanctification through-the Holy Spirit. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.WEB: So then, brothers, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the free woman. |
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