Gal 4:26–31 — The Jerusalem Above

Review

“Interpreted Allegorically”

This passage is a difficult one because Paul here says that this story of the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, is a story that may be interpreted allegorically. He says that in verse 24. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women, referring to the mother of Ishmael, Hagar, and the mother of Isaac, Sarah, these women represent two covenants.

And to our way of thinking, allegory is a bad thing. Allegory we think of as being like the way many of the theologians in the Middle Ages found all kinds of obscure and bizarre interpretations of scripture that were not clearly rooted in the text, but were finding a deeper meaning that was just from their own imagination, maybe imposing their own philosophy or their own ideas into the text. And so for us, it’s somewhat shocking to hear Paul say that we can interpret the story of Ishmael and Isaac in the Old Testament, and their two different mothers, that we may interpret this allegorically as having a deeper spiritual significance. One thing that might help is to say that although the word allegorically in English has those bad connotations of fanciful and subjective interpretation, in Paul’s day it didn’t necessarily have that meaning.

A Deeper Meaning Rooted in Scripture

It just meant speaking about one thing in order to speak about something else. In other words, it’s another term for figurative interpretation. One commentator I read said, we could translate it this way in verse 24, this may be interpreted as having a deeper meaning. A deeper meaning. And that deeper meaning is not simply Paul coming up with some bizarre interpretation from his own ideas and reading those into the text, but rather it is based upon comparing scripture with scripture.

Exposition

Galatians 4:21–23: Abraham’s Two Sons

Because you’ll notice that he not only is Referring to this episode in the book of Genesis, which is found actually in several passages in Genesis. In Genesis 16 is when Sarah says to Abraham, why don’t you have Hagar, my servant, as your wife? And then Ishmael is born. Another passage that Paul is alluding to is not only Genesis 16, but also Genesis 21, after Isaac is born, there is an incident where on the day when Abraham put on a party to celebrate the weaning of Isaac, it says that Ishmael, who is now his older brother, about 14 years older than Isaac, he was found mocking or somehow making fun of his younger brother Isaac. Perhaps he was saying something like, I’m the firstborn and you’re not going to inherit anything or something like that. We don’t know exactly what it was.

But in that episode there in Genesis 21, it says that Sarah was very upset by this and so she went to Abraham and she said, and Paul himself quotes this in verse 30, The words that Paul quotes in verse 30 of our text are from Genesis 21, and these are the words of Sarah to Abraham. Cast out the slave woman, that is Hagar, and her son, Ishmael, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with my son Isaac. And Paul changes that last phrase to shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So Paul is referring to these passages in the book of Genesis. Some of them are found in Genesis 16, the first incident where Hagar is given to Abraham.

The next passage in Genesis 21, where there’s this conflict and Sarah asks Abraham to expel Ishmael from the family, to disinherit him. And of course, God himself says, what Sarah said is true because Isaac is the true promised offspring, not Ishmael. So do what Sarah says. Listen to the voice of your wife, Sarah.

Galatians 4:24–27: Isaiah Interprets Genesis

Paul is looking at these passages in the Old Testament in Genesis. And he is interpreting them as having a deeper meaning that applies to us today, that has a spiritual significance that applies to our lives today, but he’s doing so through the intermediation of another passage. Did you notice in our text that there’s another passage that’s quoted? And that is right there in the middle there in verse 27. In verse 27, he quotes from the book of Isaiah.

Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. This is from Isaiah chapter 54. It’s actually the very next verse after the wonderful Isaiah 53 passage that we’re all familiar with about the suffering servant, about the work of Christ.

And so Paul is using this passage in Isaiah as an inspired commentary on the story about Ishmael and Isaac in Genesis in order to interpret the spiritual deeper meaning of the Genesis narrative. He’s not doing what those theologians in the Middle Ages did where they already had their own preconceived philosophical or theological ideas and then they foisted them into the text and came up with all sorts of fanciful interpretations. Rather, he’s using scripture to interpret scripture. He’s using the Bible itself. He’s using a passage in Isaiah as an inspired commentary upon what is going on in Genesis.

He’s using Isaiah 54 to interpret Genesis 21. There’s an interesting parallel to this, to this procedure of looking at something in Genesis that’s very obscure and it seems somewhat odd to take it in the spiritual sense, but then using a passage later in the Bible, in the Old Testament, to interpret it. And what I’m thinking of is the example of the author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter seven. You remember what Hebrews seven is about?

The story of Melchizedek. Now Melchizedek is this interesting figure that appears only once in the Bible, at least only once in the Pentateuch. In Genesis 14, after Abraham is returning from the battle with the kings and he rescued Lot, he’s met by this figure, Melchizedek, who just comes out of nowhere. Who is this Melchizedek person.

The author of Hebrews says that Melchizedek is a type, is a picture of Christ. And specifically of the fact that Christ is a king who is also a priest. Melchizedek is a king, he’s the king of Salem, but he’s also a priest, and he received a tithe from Abraham, and he pronounced a blessing upon Abraham.

Furthermore, he’s a priest not according to the order of Aaron. He’s not an Aaronic priest. He is completely separate from the Aaronic line of the priesthood that you see throughout the rest of the Old Testament. The author of Hebrews says, we can take this little incident, it just seems like it’s out of nowhere, about Melchizedek, and we can see this as a picture, as a type of Christ, who is a priest and a king, and whose priestly office is not tied to the earthly lineage of Aaron, but rather he is a priest from heaven. He is a heavenly priest. He is the divine son of God. Now the author of Hebrews, you might think, is just making this up out of thin air. He’s got this bizarre theology and he’s just foisting it into the text.

But actually, the author of Hebrews says, we don’t only have Genesis 14, we also have another reference to Melchizedek later in the Bible in Psalm 110. In Psalm 110, God says, You are a priest forever, referring to the Messiah. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. And so the author of Hebrews is saying, we can take that passage later on in the Bible, in Psalm 110, and we can use it to shed light on this interesting episode in the life of Abraham.

And we can see how scripture is interpreting scripture and providing us with guidance to see that there’s more going on there in this story of Melchizedek in Genesis than meets the eye, and that it’s actually connected to a broader theme that is fulfilled in Christ. So he’s using Psalm 110 as just the same way that Paul is using Isaiah 54. Which should be understood as being connected to Isaiah 53. It’s the very next verse after Isaiah 53. And Paul is using Isaiah 54 to interpret Genesis 21. And so he’s arguing there that when it refers to these two women in Isaiah 54 verse one, there’s the barren woman and there is the one who has a husband. He’s saying that those two women in Isaiah are referring not only to Sarah and Hagar, but referring to Sarah and Hagar in a spiritual sense.

So who is the barren one, who does not bear? It’s referring to Sarah, who was barren, but it’s not limited simply to the historical person of Sarah. It’s referring to the people of God who are now in exile. The nation of Israel is like Mount Zion, who is the people of God, who is the bride of God, but she is barren because of the exile. But now God is prophesying, through Isaiah the prophet, that the suffering servant will come, he will lay down his life as a sacrifice for sins, he will be raised from the dead, and he will transform the barren woman into a fruitful woman. Rejoice now, O barren one who is now in exile and suffering because of the condemnation of God and the breaking of the law. Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear, just like Sarah. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor.

For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. And that reference there to the one who has a husband is a reference to Hagar. You might say, wait a minute, it doesn’t make sense to refer to Hagar as the one who has a husband. Actually it does, because if you go back to Genesis 16 that I mentioned before, in that incident when Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and said, why don’t you go into her and maybe we can use this as the way to get the fulfillment of the promise. It says in the text that Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to be his wife. It actually says that, believe it or not. You can look it up for yourself, it’s in Genesis 16. It actually says to be his wife.

And so that’s what this passage here in Isaiah 54, being quoted by Paul in Galatians 4.27, Isaiah 54 is using the story of Sarah and Hagar, but using it in a spiritual sense to refer to these two wives, these two peoples of God, these two mothers. The one mother who is barren, but now because of the work of the Messiah is going to be fruitful and have children, in contrast with the one who seemed to have a husband, Hagar was given to Abraham as his wife, and yet she’s going to have more. Sarah, spiritually understood now as the people of God, the heavenly Jerusalem as Mount Zion, Sarah is going to have more children because of the Messiah’s work.

it’s helpful to go back to Isaiah and read the whole context. I’m not going to do it right here because it’d take too long, but just read that whole context from Isaiah 51 verse 3 and read it and then keep going. Don’t let the big chapter division stop you. Just keep going into chapter 54 and read all of chapter 54 as well. Essentially, it’s two main parts.

Isaiah 53 verses 1 through 9 is telling us about the work of the Messiah, how he is going to suffer, he’s going to bear the sins of his people, He’s going to justify them. My righteous servant will justify the many. So the work of the Messiah, his atoning death and resurrection.

Beginning in Isaiah 53:10 and continuing into chapter 54, we see the fruit of the Messiah’s work: he will see his offspring. He will produce a people called “the many” and a mighty nation, fulfilling the promise given to Abraham in Genesis 12:2. Isaiah 54:3 even refers to the inclusion of the Gentiles, declaring that the offspring will possess the nations.

So Paul’s interpretation of this story of Abraham’s two sons and their two mothers, the mother of Ishmael is a slave, and so she begets a slave himself. So Ishmael is a slave born into slavery. And the mother of Isaac is a free woman, and so she gives birth to a free son, and he is the one who inherits. Slaves cannot inherit, only the free sons can inherit.

Galatians 4:28–31: Children of Promise

And Paul uses this story and applies it to the present situation of the Galatian Christians who are having this conflict with the Judaizers. The Judaizers represent the bondage of the law. They represent the offspring of Hagar, who are born into slavery, into the slavery of law-keeping as a means of salvation. Whereas the Galatian Christians, they’re called to be reminded that they are not children of slavery, they are children of promise.

Paul applies this story to the present situation. The basic outline of our whole text here is that in verses 21 to 23, he simply summarizes the story of Abraham’s two sons and their two mothers. Then in verses 24 through 27, he gives his spiritual meaning, his spiritual understanding of the significance of the story of Abraham’s two sons and their two mothers, using Isaiah 54 to shed light on it. And then in verses 28 to 31, Paul applies the story to the present situation of the Galatians.

Verse 28, now you brothers, you Galatian Christians, you, like Isaac, are children of promise. And just as it was back then when he who was born according to the flesh, that is Ishmael, persecuted and mocked the one who was born according to the spirit, so it is now. You’re being persecuted and mocked and being pressured by these Judaizers who are trying to get you to say that you are not true children of promise unless you become circumcised and commit yourself to keeping the law.

But what does the scripture say? It says, cast out the slave woman and her son. Get rid of these Judaizers who are infiltrating the church. For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So brothers, you are not children of the slave, but of the free woman.

An amazing thing, isn’t it, to see how Paul interprets the Old Testament, not in a fanciful way, making it up, but rather interpreting it by comparing scripture with scripture and seeing how it is all fulfilled in Christ. Another key point, too, to keep in mind is that in this whole section of Isaiah, you have to read the whole context of Isaiah, not only 53 and 54, but throughout that whole section, there’s many references to the Abrahamic promises. In Isaiah. Isaiah is saying that when God makes a new covenant and restores his people, that is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises. And so Paul is correctly interpreting Genesis 21 in light of Isaiah 53 and 54.

Doctrine

Two Covenant Communities

What can we derive from this What are some doctrinal implications we can derive from this important passage? First of all, notice that this text clearly says that there are two different covenant communities. So verse 24, now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. And then the other is the Jerusalem above, verse 26. The Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother.

These two covenant communities refer to the Christian church versus the Jewish community that rejects Christ and is continuing to observe the Mosaic law as necessary for salvation. These two covenant communities are going their separate ways now that Christ has come. There is the Christian Church, which is composed of all Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ, who embrace Christ as the Messiah, and are living under the new covenant, and who are rejoicing in the free gospel of salvation by faith alone. The other covenant community is not a genuine covenant community. They’re not really in covenant with God.

They are rejecting Christ and continuing to adhere to the outward forms of the old covenant, even though Christ has come and fulfilled them. And they also teach that keeping the law is necessary for salvation. That’s what the Judaizers are saying. The Judaizers may have added a little element to that, which is that they say, you could also believe in Jesus if you want, but really they are still a part of that old covenant community that has rejected Christ and is continuing to keep the law in a Christless way and is saying that you need to do it in order to be saved. These two covenants, so when it says there in verse 24, this may be interpreted allegorically.

These women are two covenants. It’s not referring to the two historical covenants, the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant, but rather to these two covenant communities. That have now diverged and are now going their separate ways after Christ. And it is only the true Christian Church that embraces Christ as the Messiah and is living under the reality of the new covenant, which is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. It is only that covenant community that is the true people of God.

These two covenants correspond, Paul says, to two Jerusalems. There’s the present Jerusalem, And in Paul’s day, that was literally the case. You could go to Jerusalem and see all of those pious Jews looking to the law, living in the bondage of the law, living a performance-based life of seeking to gain God’s favor by performance. Or as Paul would say, walking in the flesh. That’s why he says that Ishmael represents that, because Ishmael was born according to the flesh. He was born according to the fleshly efforts of Abraham and Sarah to try to fulfill God’s promise in their own efforts, in their own performance.

That’s what the present Jerusalem is. But there’s another Jerusalem. Paul says there’s a Jerusalem above. This is the Jerusalem that is spiritual, that is looking to Christ who is in heaven. That’s why it’s above, because Christ is above. This Jerusalem is living in gospel liberty, not in the bondage of the law and the performance-based religion. This is a religion that is based upon grace.

And Paul uses another term, which is the antithesis of the other one. If the present Jerusalem is characterized by the flesh and walking in the flesh, then the Jerusalem above is what? Characterized by the spirit, walking in the spirit, which is walking by faith in gospel liberty and laying a hold on who we are in Christ.

These women represent two covenant communities that are going their separate ways now that Christ has come. There is still hope for those that are within the earthly present Jerusalem and who are currently rejecting Christ and adhering to the law as their means of being right with God. There is still hope that they too can repent and believe in the Messiah and become a part of the heavenly Jerusalem And throughout the church age, the gospel goes forth to both Jews and Gentiles, inviting them to join this heavenly Jerusalem by faith in Christ. Nevertheless, the present Jerusalem, in Paul’s view, is living in bondage, the bondage of seeking to be right with God by the efforts of the flesh.

The Christian Church Is Distinct from the Jewish Nation

It is a performance-based religion that is divorced from the gospel of Christ. So that’s the first thing we can learn from this text, is we can see right here, even in this early time, not exactly sure when Paul wrote this letter, but maybe 30 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, Right away we’re already beginning to see this separating of ways between Judaism and Christianity. Paul even talks about it because he knows that he was a part of that earthly Jerusalem before.

Remember when he was persecuting Christians? He talks about his life back in Galatians chapter one, his former way of life in Judaism, and how he persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. He was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, among my own people, he says. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

But then God did a miracle, laid hold of him on the road to Damascus. Christ appeared to him, the risen Christ appeared to him, revealing him to Paul. And Paul immediately, he did not consult with anyone. Nor did he even go up to the earthly Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before him. But he went away into Arabia, and he returned again to Damascus. He learned the gospel from Christ from heaven itself, and he was transferred from the present Jerusalem to the Jerusalem that is above.

That’s the second point. So the first point was seeing this divergence of Judaism and Christianity. Of the two covenant communities going their separate ways after Christ. And seeing that as being foreshadowed in the story of Isaac and Ishmael. And how Ishmael himself was sent away and cast out from the covenant community. And how we too then must follow in that same way and be sure that we identify with the right covenant community.

The Church Is Heavenly

But that’s the second point then is that we need to understand that the church is heavenly because Christ is in heaven and the church is united to Christ. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. The church, then, is not another earthly institution like civil government. The church does exist on earth as the church militant, and we see the flaws of the earthly church all around us, but to the eyes of faith, the reality is that the church is heavenly.

It has a heavenly origin. It has a heavenly quality. It has a heavenly destiny. Remember that wonderful passage at the very end of the Bible, in Revelation 21, when John saw the vision of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21 too, combined with our text in Galatians 4, verse 26, Both describe this heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above, the new Jerusalem. It’s another term for the church of Jesus Christ. And it comes down out of heaven from God. Yes, it does exist on earth.

But the earthly church in its visible earthly form that we see right now is not the true reality of the church. The true reality of the church is that it’s hidden with Christ and God. And what its true spiritual reality is will only be revealed when Christ returns. And so we must be careful then that we not identify the church as simply another earthly institution alongside the other institutions of this passing age that will fall away.

The Church Is Our Mother

So that was the second point, that the church is heavenly. It is the heavenly Jerusalem. The third point is this, the church is not only heavenly, so the first point was that the church is diverging from the Jewish covenant community and is the true spiritual people of God. The second point is that the church is heavenly. The third point is that the church is pictured in our text as a mother, isn’t that interesting? The church is our mother. Verse 26, the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother.

And again, Paul didn’t make this up on his own, he’s getting it from Isaiah. Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. The church is our mother. The best way of understanding this is to look at the ancient metaphor of a mother city.

We don’t really think about this idea today because First of all, most of our cities are just these sprawling metropolises. We don’t really think of specific cities anymore. Although sometimes we do, maybe New York is an example of a city that stands out like a specific city.

But in the ancient world, cities were very important. In fact, people tended to identify most with their city than with anything else. They were proud to be an Athenian, or proud to be a Roman, a citizen of the city of Rome. And so there’s this ancient metaphor of the city being like a mother. Now, clearly cities are not mothers, but it’s a metaphor.

It’s a way of trying to understand the importance of belonging to a city. Of being a citizen. A citizen is somebody that was born in that city and identifies with that city, was raised in that city, and looks to that city for their culture, for their heritage, their language, their values. There’s even a sense of patriotism that goes with that. Citizens are raised and formed by their mother city. And so if you’re born in the city of Rome and you identify with Rome as your mother city, then you look to Rome as a mother in some way.

Paul is using the same ancient metaphor of the concept of a city being like a mother, and he’s applying it here based on the biblical precedent of Isaiah 54. He’s applying it to the church. He says the church, the Jerusalem above, is our mother. Not only Isaiah 54, the reference there to rejoice, O barren one, and the one who is desolate, that same language of the desolate mother, the desolate or barren mother, is used later on in Isaiah to refer to Mount Zion, to Zion as the city of God, the city of God’s people. So it’s a mother-city combo, the city which is a mother. Not only Isaiah 54, but also in the Psalms.

For example, in Psalm 87, In Psalm 87 verse five it says, and of Zion, that is the city of Jerusalem, of Zion it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her. And in the context it’s referring to the fact that even Gentiles who are not native Jews by birth, they will be reckoned as those who were born within the city of Zion. So the mother gives birth to her children. The city gives birth to her citizens. And not only gives birth to her citizens, but raises her citizens and nourishes them and forms them to adopt the values of that city.

The Apostle Paul refers to this again in Philippians chapter three and verse 20. He says that our citizenship, the city that we identify with, the city that we look to as being the source of our values and our patriotism and our nationality is in heaven. We don’t identify anymore with any earthly city. We’re not looking to the city of Rome or New York or America. We’re looking to Christ, our King in heaven, our citizenship, our home country, our patriotic hope and values is in heaven with Christ.

Two Incompatible Spiritual Centers

There’s a certain, even in the earthly level, there’s a certain spiritual I don’t know what to call it, a spiritual energy. A spiritual energy that’s associated with a patriotic identification of citizenship in reference to an earthly city. But Paul is saying here, let’s take that into the spiritual realm. And we see this same idea of this spiritual energy emanating from these two mother cities.

One mother city is the earthly present Jerusalem that’s in bondage to the law. That city has a spiritual energy that’s focused on the law. Focused on looking to the law for salvation and life. It bears children for slavery, he says. But the other city, the heavenly Jerusalem, looks to Christ.

There’s a spiritual energy that’s associated with our heavenly identity. As those that are connected to Christ. We look to Christ, not the law, for life and blessing and salvation. We are not children who are slaves. We are children of promise who are born as free sons.

Application

The Necessity of Church Membership

I think we can apply all this very simply by saying, look how important it is to be a part of a church. Last Sunday, we welcomed three new members into our church, and they became members of the body of Christ. Of course, some of them had been members before and transferred to us, but there’s still this idea of connecting with a particular expression of the body of Christ, the necessity of membership in the church, of being a citizen of the church, and deriving your spiritual energy and strength from that. The church fathers used to say, you cannot have God the father, God as your father, if you do not have the church as your mother. That sounds somewhat extreme, like salvation comes by the church. But it’s just saying that how can God be your father unless you have that nurturing, care of the church through her ministry and the teaching and preaching of the word of God and through the sacraments to nourish your faith and to strengthen you in your walk with the Lord.

There’s no such thing as lone ranger Christians that are just out there at the beach reading the Bible. I can just read the Bible on the beach and just pray and that’s all I need. No, we need the body of Christ. We need God’s people. We need that heavenly mother to nourish us and to encourage us. Calvin himself even quoted this line, this famous saying from the church fathers, and he affirmed it.

The Importance of Faithful Church Attendance

And he used this verse here, Galatians 4.26, as the proof text for it, to say, yes, this is a biblical idea. Calvin said, there is no other means of entering into life unless the church conceives us in her womb and gives us birth, and unless she nourishes us at her breasts. And not only the importance of membership in the church, but also what? The importance of faithfully participating in the life of the church, of attending church, of being a part of the body of Christ. And not just simply physically going to church and being there and then walking out immediately afterwards, but being a part of the life of the church, to be nourished in your faith, to grow in the knowledge of Christ, to be taught how Christ wants us to live, to be receiving the nourishing, life-giving power of the gospel by the Spirit to help us to walk with the Lord.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this before, But very often you’ll look around and you’ll say, I noticed that this one person that used to be faithfully coming to church isn’t coming anymore. What happened to that person? Hopefully it’s something good that they simply moved and they’re going to transfer their membership to another church, but very often what? It’s a sign that something is off. Something is not quite right spiritually with that person. And so we reach out to them and say, brother, what’s going on? We need to see you in church.

You can’t grow in Christ apart from the life of the body of Christ and the fellowship that we have with one another in Christ. What a wonderful passage this is, and it’s so glorious to see how the Apostle Paul interprets the Old Testament by comparing Scripture with Scripture, and how he sees deeper meanings even in these stories that at first glance just seem like ordinary earthly stories, but they contain spiritual significance that is relevant for us even today as Christians.