Galatians 3 & 4: Justification by Faith in the Promise

Law and Faith

I must admit that these two chapters are ponderous and difficult. His point is that before the law was created with Moses, there was the promise that was given to Abraham. Quoting Genesis 15:6 and Habakkuk 2:4, Paul makes the case that there was a righteousness before there was the law, and that righteousness was obtained through faith in God, not by obedience to a moral law code. Working Abraham against Moses like that would certainly have been a jolt to his Pharisaically-minded opponents. One of the books I read for my doctoral studies is entitled, Echoes of Scripture in the Writings of Paul. While it will never win the Pulitzer or be a major bestseller, it does takes seriously Paul’s creative use of the Old Testament. His experience of the risen Christ and the power of the Spirit changed the lens through which he saw scripture. For John Wesley, his heart-warming experience at Aldersgate and the call to take the gospel to people outsider their workplaces shaped how he saw scripture. How has your experience of the Christ shaped the way you see the Bible?

How is the law a curse (Gal. 3:10)? It is a curse because we cannot keep it. It is a standard which puts us in a perpetual guilt cycle: 1) We agree that the standard is correct, 2) We fail to meet the standard by words and action and experience guilt, 3) We ask for forgiveness and promise to do better in the future and then the cycle repeats itself. The law reveals our need (for forgiveness and a new way of life) but it cannot deliver what we need. That comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In the words of Gal. 3:24: “So that law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”

Law and Promise

The promise to Abraham also predated the law. It is here in Galatians 4:21-31, we have a creative look at Hagar and Sarah. When Abraham was 86, eleven years after the promise that he would be the father of many nations, Sarah (who was unable to have children) decided it would be best for Abraham to have a child by her maid, Hagar. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. When Abraham was 100 years old God appeared to him and told him that Sarah was going to have a child at the ripe old age of 90 (35 years after the promise!). What a laugher that was – thus his name “Isaac” (Genesis 17:19, Genesis 18:12, Genesis 21:6). Abraham actually asks that the blessing go through Ishmael (the child born to his slave, Hagar), but the blessing goes through Isaac (the child born of Abraham’s wife – a free woman - and the child of the promise). For Paul, the miraculous birth of Isaac is a picture of God’s preference for promise over law, for freedom over slavery.

No doubt, the Pharisaical opponents would have balked at such a stretch. The association of Hagar and Ishmael with the law would have been unacceptable and ludicrous. But Paul is really using his own experience of the liberating grace of God in Christ (vs. his slavery to the Pharisaic law code before he encountered Christ) as the lens by which he can see what his opponents cannot.

When I look at the present tensions between Muslims (who often connect themselves to Abraham through Ishmael) and Jews & Christians (who connect themselves to Abraham through Isaac), I wonder what would happen if we simply said, “Abraham is common ground to us. He did become a father of many nations, partly by Ishmael (the 1.6 billion Muslims) and partly by Isaac (the 2.3 billion Christians and Jews).” The assumption by our warring factions is that one child is legitimate and other is illegitimate. Paul’s analysis here tends to confirm that only Isaac is legitimate? What do you think?