Through His Promise: Galatians 4:21-30
If Christ is in us, we are in Christ. We do not need an intermediary between us and God. God can speak directly to you through His Spirit who lives within you. We do not need the permission of others to speak truth. God can speak through you through His Spirit that lives within you.
Paul gets very bold in this passage. His boldness comes through the example he pulls from Hebrew history. Paul uses Sarah and Hagar, the wives of Abraham.
The history of Sarah and Hagar is from Genesis 16. God promised an heir to Abraham, but Sarah remained without child. Sarah decides to force God’s hand and asks her husband to produce an heir with her hand-maiden, Hagar. A son is born and his name is Ishmael. In Genesis 21 we find the story of Sarah conceiving an heir to Abraham, and his name is Isaac. Naturally, the Hebrew people trace their lineage through Isaac to get to Abraham, meaning that Sarah’s child is preferred to Hagar’s son.
Paul reminds the Galatians that Isaac is the child of promise. Isaac was promised to Sarah even though she was old and considered barren. The birth of Isaac is considered miraculous even by Sarah herself. Since the Hebrew people trace their lineage through Isaac, they are also a people of promise.
Paul also reminds the Galatians that Ishmael is not the child of promise. Ishmael is the outcome of a human being trying to force God’s will. Ishmael is the result of a human being who is unable to fully rely upon God’s promise.
This is the same point that Paul has been making about salvation. Paul teaches that salvation relies solely upon God’s promise delivered through the faithfulness of Jesus upon the cross. God’s miracles have always been delivered through a promise, not through an obligation or contract. God promised a descendant to Abraham. God delivered on that promise literally through Isaac and spiritually through Jesus.
Relationship with God only comes to us through His promise. He is the one who wants relationship with us; He is the one who extends His hand to us. We receive His offer of relationship. We receive His offer of salvation and eternal life spent in relationship with Him. He gives the promise, we receive it.
What does Paul conclude? If we are children of the promise, we must cast off those who would tell us that God’s promise through Christ is not enough. We must cast off those who force human requirements to being in relationship with God besides the faithfulness of Jesus on the cross. We must not listen to those who would force human requirements to our service of God besides our reception of the Holy Spirit. As Paul said earlier in this letter, in Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. There is no other criteria needed besides Jesus. If Christ is in us, we are in Christ.
