Children of Promise

For the last two weeks, we ventured off the path to take a look at the two sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac was the child of Abraham through Sara while Ishmael was his child through Hagar. Today, we get back to Galatians 4:24-25 which says, “Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar (Hagar). For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” Now he says that these two relationships of Abraham can be compared to the Law and Grace. The Law was the covenant of the Old Testament and Grace was the covenant of the New Testament. The Law was given at Mount Sinai and it gave birth to bondage. Grace was first taught on the day of Pentecost and gave birth to freedom. So, Jerusalem had been under the bondage of the Law up until Jesus came and offered them freedom.

Notice v.26, “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” The Jerusalem above represents heaven or Sara. The promise was that the Seed would come through Sara (Genesis 12). The “Seed” was fulfilled in Jesus Christ who was a descendant of Isaac (Genesis 3:15). So, Sara represents Grace as that through her womb literally came Grace through Christ.

Notice v.27, “For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.” This is actually a promise to the Gentiles that because of Jesus Christ, they too will be given the opportunity to enter into the very same salvation that was offered to the Jews. We must remember that the Jews had some real issues with Jesus and his teaching about the Gentiles being able to receive the same salvation that they were offered. As a matter of fact, this verse, which is a quote from Isaiah 54:1, promises that at least initially, more Gentiles would come to Christ than Jews.

Notice v.28, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” We are the children of promise in that we have received the promises that were made about Jesus Christ and the salvation that He offers.