Day 4
Lisa Scheffler, author
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Early in Galatians chapter 4, we saw Paul unpack the amazing truth that in Christ, we are God’s children and heirs. To return to living under the law is a return to slavery. To live in Christ and by the Spirit is freedom. Paul returns to the idea of inheritance as he comes to the climax of his argument in the verses we’ll look at today.
Read
Galatians 4:28-31
28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Who does Paul consider his brothers and sisters? Which covenant are they under?
Reflect
The story of Abraham was well-known and may have been used by Paul’s opponents against the Gentile Christians. Most scholars assume that Paul is turning his opponents use of this story back around on them. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son, but he was not Abraham’s heir. Although he had been circumcised, he and all his descendants were Gentiles, not children of the promise and therefore not part of the covenant family. Yet here, Paul is calling those who follow the law the children of Ishmael, not Isaac. This would have been shocking to his opponents.
Consider the conclusion of commentator Craig Keener who sees Paul reversing the argument Paul’s opponents had been making:
“Because his opponents neglect the promise, the way of the Spirit, it is they who are outside the covenant. They are spiritual Ishmaelites, circumcised yet missing the very fulfillment that the law had promised….Abraham’s son Isaac represents not only Christ as the promised seed (3:16), but also those who are in him (3:29).”[1]
Paul is elevating the status of Gentile believers by identifying them as children of promise. They had been harassed by Paul’s Jewish Christian opponents. Gentile Christians had been treated like outsiders. Recall how Paul rebuked Peter for refusing to dine with uncircumcised Gentile believers (Galatians 2:11-14).
As Walter Hansen points out, “Genesis says that Ishmael mocked Isaac (Gen 21:9). Interpreting this text in the light of his own experience, Paul saw Ishmael’s treatment of Isaac as derisive and abusive.” Paul is drawing the conclusion that “One personal consequence of being like Isaac is being mocked and persecuted by ‘false brothers’ like Ishmael.[2]
Here is how N.T. Wright sums up this passage:
“The point Paul wants to emphasize is that ‘we’—Paul himself, and those who believe the gospel he has preached—cannot be labelled as outsiders, second-class citizens, or Abraham’s illegitimate family. Those who believe the gospel are, like Isaac, promise-people, the free family of God.”[3]
[1] Craig S. Keener, Galatians: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2019), 401.
[2] G. Walter Hansen, Galatians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Ga 4:28–30.
[3] Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 60.
Respond
What does it mean for you to be a child of the promise? In the line of Abraham’s miracle son, Isaac? Reflect on that today.