Living by Faith - Galatians

The Two Jerusalem’s and the Inheritance

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 13-19

Genre: Talk

Track: 13

Dictation Name: Tape 07A

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts, in full assurance of faith. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.

Let us pray. Oh Lord our God, we give thanks unto Thee for the joy of salvation, and for the certainty of Thine unfailing grace and love. We commit unto Thee our loved ones, our hopes, our efforts; that they may be blessed of Thee. Guide us we beseech Thee, that day by day we may grow in grace and in knowledge, and in faithful service; to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Grant us this we beseech Thee, in Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Galatians 4:21-26, and our subject: The Two Jerusalem’s and the Inheritance. Galatians 4:21-26.

“21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

Paul as usual is very blunt. He is dealing with a problem in the church in Galatia, where Pharisees within the church have been leading the people astray, seeking to put them back under the law as the way of justification, whereas for Paul the law is valid as the way of sanctification, as the way of holiness. And so he challenges them in the 21’st verse: ‘You want to be under the law? Well listen to the law then.’ And he proceeds to tell them of Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael. Is this the law? He is referring to history, he is referring to the life of Abraham, a very interesting episode in the life of Abraham, but he calls it law.

Men today divide the Bible into law, the prophets, and history; and the wisdom literature; in the New Testament into the gospels, the epistles, and Revelation. But for the New Testament, for our Lord and for the apostles, the whole of the Old Testament is the law, that is how they referred to it, unfailingly. Sometimes they say the ‘the Law and the Prophets’ whereby they mean that everything apart from the actual part of the law is a commentary, a development on the meaning of the law. Our Lord refers to the Psalms as law.

Now, the modern attitude makes it possible for one to relegate a great deal of the Bible to limited relevance, and people will say: “Well, we are not under law, so we don’t have to pay any attention to this part of the Bible and to this part,’ and the result is they warp scripture.

Remember what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Now righteousness means in modern English, justice. All scripture is important for all these things. All scripture, in the Greek, ‘pasa graphe,’ all or every passage is God-breathed and profitable. The word ‘profitable’ is again a Greek word which we have in a name, ‘Ophelia,’ it means giving increase. All scripture gives increase to your life if you hear and obey.

Thus what Paul says there is that every passage of the Bible is necessary for our increase and knowledge of doctrine, in correcting ourselves, in reproving us to grow in Christ, and to teach us God’s justice. It is the law, all of it, Paul says; and so too the other apostles and our Lord.

Paul then says as he speaks of Abraham’s two sons, one by a bond woman, the other by a free woman, that this is an allegory. The word ‘allegory’ comes from the Greek ‘Allos’ and ‘Agora’, other, and marketplace. What this means is that when scripture speaks here, it means what it is saying, but it has another meaning that speaks for other things as well. So, the historical facts are clear, they are real; the historical facts were that God had promised to Abraham that his seed, the first time He spoke to him, would inherit the whole of the world that he knew. The next time He said: ‘All nations, the whole earth, your seed in due time shall possess.’

Now this was the promise that was made to Abraham, and Sarah as a Godly woman who took God’s word seriously and very literally, said in due time: “Well, it is obvious that I cannot have a child, and the promise was made to Abraham, not to me; therefore obviously God intends for Abraham to have the child by another woman.” In those days it was legal in such a case to take a secondary wife or a concubine. A concubine, even if she were the only wife, was a concubine under the law if there were no dowry. And so, she gave her maid, Hagar, to Abraham. This was an act of faith in God, and an act of love for Abraham; it was a legal act, and Ishmael was born.

But then God made it clear that the child is going to be born through Sarah, and the result in due time was Isaac. This is history. Where is the allegory? Well, because certain things are clear from the history, and Paul draws the logical conclusion. First, it is obvious that man’s efforts, however intelligent and dedicated, however wise and devout, (because Sarah was a godly woman and she is held up by scripture as the example to all women) nonetheless it was human works, not God’s work. And God tells us through Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:25 “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

So Paul is saying, whatever human efforts, the Pharisees with their works will get nowhere; it is God’s work that saves us. Sarah, a godly woman whom God approved of, nonetheless her efforts did not bring in the promised seed, it was God’s miraculous work.

Then second, there is a contrast here between sovereign grace and men’s works; Man believing and man’s zeal on one side, and grace from above on the other.

Then third, Paul is undercutting with his allegory, the efforts of the Pharisees in the church. These churchmen who were Pharisees saw the true covenant as the one at Sinai, as salvation by law; whereas as Paul tells us in Galatians 3:15-29, the law is valid as a part of the covenant, the covenant with Abraham, it was given as a part of the original covenant, not as another one, it was given to reinforce the promises given to Abraham.

So Paul is not saying that God gave two conflicting covenants, one to Abraham and one to Moses, but rather that there are two views of the covenant in conflict in the church; the views of the Pharisees who come into the church, and the view that God sets forth in His word; and these two views, he says, are comparable to the conflict between Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael. These two views of the covenant cannot both be true, one means slavery to a false faith, and the other is freedom in Christ.

So, Paul is saying: ‘If you believe the law, listen to the law.’ The law never says we are saved by works, the law as he said earlier, tells us that it is the blood of the sacrifice that redeems us, and the sacrifice sets forth Christ who is to come.

The fourth, Paul makes clear by this allegory that this conflict can be compared to a battle between two realms, two kingdoms, two cities: the Jerusalem from above, the heavenly city, and the Jerusalem which is from below. And to seek justification in law is to be outside of Christ, but the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

So the contrast is between slavery and freedom, between Phariseeism and Christ; and on the side of Christ are the law and the prophets, the whole of scripture. We cannot divide scripture and say: “It is grace versus law.” No, grace and law are both on the side of Christ, both a part of scripture. Thus Paul does not undermine the meaning of the two sons, the difference is a legal one.

Now, under law, remember what Paul has said earlier; it is the difference between the promise of the covenant and bondage, freedom and bondage. Legally, the heir was the child of the dowered wife, Sarah. The children of the concubine could receive gifts, but not the inheritance; and Abraham sent the other children away, all of them. Those by Keturah after Sarah died, and Ishmael. The only legal heir is of the dowered wife.

Now, who is the seed of Abraham? Why Paul tells us, it is Christ. It is not the physical descendants of Isaac or of Abraham or of Jacob, but it is the seed, Jesus Christ, and all who are members of Him.

So, we are the heirs, by grace; and the law confirms that we are the heirs. So we do not look to the law for justification, but as our way of life; we are saved by Christ, and therefore because we are His people, we abide by His law, His way of life. I said earlier that the whole of the Bible is law, according to the New Testament. Our Lord cites Psalm 35:19, which reads: “They hated me without a cause.” And He says: “This is written in the law, they hated me without a cause.” So our Lord treats the Psalms as a part of the law.

Paul has turned the tables on the Jewish Christian propagandists, the Pharisees in the church, by using the allegory of the Bible in a Rabbinic manner, but more faithfully, more consistently. The true heirs, he says, are those in Christ, the true seed. So he is not contrasting law to grace, or pitting Sinai against Calvary, but the old Physical Israel to the new Israel of God in Christ, and at the end of the epistle to the Galatians, he says: “Peace to the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16. And who is the Israel of God? The church, the believer, the Israel of God; because the twelve disciples took the place of the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes. So Paul says: ‘You claim to be eager to be under the law, but the law which is the Lord’s word is against you.’ In fact, when Paul writes this he is not only writing to the Galatians, he is also writing to the false teachers, the Pharisees in the church; and he uses the method they understand, and in effect he tells them: ‘On your own method of using the Bible, you ought to know better. You are students of scripture, you should not oppose Calvary and Sinai; when you do, you are destroying your own position.’

The idea of a covenant of works has been very popular from the Pharisees to the present; it is not Biblical. The Bible never speaks of a covenant of works, it speaks only of a covenant of grace. Every covenant between equals is a covenant of works, but when it is a superior and a lesser who make a covenant, it is an act of grace by the greater to the lesser. It can be a covenant of works only if you can give something to the other party; and what can we give to God?

Our Lord tells us: ‘When you have done all those works, when you have fulfilled all that the master word, His law requires of you, you must still say: “We are unprofitable servants” because you can give nothing to the Lord.’ So it is a covenant of law and of grace, but never of works. The law is our way of saying: “Thank you God for your grace to me.” The covenant of works was an invention of the Pharisees which sadly has influenced all branches of the church. Paul sets forth the true covenant which is always of grace. We are saved by grace, and because we are saved by grace we now can live by God’s grace in terms of His word; for the Pharisees there false covenant, Paul stresses again and again, is bondage. We are born of Christ, therefore we are the people of the promise; the Jerusalem which is from above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Now Paul in speaking about the Jerusalem from above was not saying anything new to the Bible; over and over again we find this, the contrast between the two Jerusalem’s, the prophets tell us, our Lord tells us that the Jerusalem that was there in Judea was full of deceit, of violence, of injustice, of murder; and of hostility to the Lord of glory. But there was another Jerusalem, Zion, the city of our God, and it is spoken of for example in Psalm 87, where the Psalmist sees the people going through the gates from Philistia, from Egypt, from Tyr, and from elsewhere, and he says of them: “These people are not Judeans, but they were born there.” Where? In Zion the city of our God.

Isaiah 54 speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem; Ezekiel chapters 40-48 also, Zechariah 2:1-13, Haggai 2:6-9, the scriptures speak of the two cities, the difference between them. For Paul therefore, the covenant and its promises are all of grace, but they are also a matter of law. First, of legal certainty God has said it, He has promised it, He will keep His word; and second He gives us that covenant law to show us the way wherein we are to walk now that we are redeemed. And Christ having sealed the covenant and our inheritance with His own blood, there can be no alteration of its legal terms.

Thus Paul is emphatic. You do not wrongly divide the scriptures, all of it is given by God to be profitable, to give us an increase; so how is the church going to have an increase in its spiritual life, in its prosperity, the Christians in their growth, in their strength in exercising dominion? By hearing the every word of God and knowing that it is all given to be profitable, to give us an increasing increase in Christ. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, we thank Thee that Thou hast promised us an increase in Christ, an increase in Thy word, in every word of Thy scriptures. Grant oh Lord that it be profitable, ever increasing for us, so that in Him we may be more than conquerors, that in Him we may exercise dominion and subdue the earth, that in Him we may extend Thy kingdom into the far corners of the world, and make every area an area of light. Grant us this in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience Member] I was just wondering if you could comment on the covenant of works (?) the Westminster Confession?

[Rushdoony] Years ago that was described by some Reformed people as the real problem and error in the Standards, and it has only led to trouble as people have tried to be faithful to the Westminster Standards, rather than scripture; and the Standards are remarkable, they are excellent, but they are not infallible.

Yes?

[Audience Member] The increase in Christ; now specifically amplify on that?

[Rushdoony] Well, the increase is not only in Christ, but it is in every word of scripture specifically, according to 2 Timothy 3:16. It is profitable, ever increasingly. And it means that there is continual growth, not only in our lives, but in our exercise of dominion in Christ. The antithesis of this can be described by a doctrine that for some time, exercised a powerful influence in Germans and in Reformed circles all over the western world; it was a formulation by a theologian named (Colbrugh?) and it’s called (Colbrugianism?) you have probably never heard of it, which is wonderful because it means that it is just about dead; but it was still very much alive not too many years ago. (Colbrugianism?) held that when you saved you were at the same time sanctified as far as you were going to be sanctified this side of heaven; so that it was a no-growth situation. So, if you were still something of a stinker when you were saved, you stayed a stinker until you entered heaven.

Well, you can see how deadly such a position is for Christian growth. In various forms this kind of thinking did enter into the church, entered into the holiness movement, so that others and Reformed people were affected by it, because vast segments of the Holiness movement felt that sanctification was instant, and as far as it was ever going to be, after conversion.

Well, what Paul is saying is that if we are not idiots because one of the Greek words that can be translated as babes is ‘idiotis,’ ‘no growth people.’ That is what an idiot it, a ‘no growth’ person. We are going to be ever increasing in our knowledge of the Word, in our service to the Lord, in our development of the implications of the faith.

[Audience Member] That’s why Paul is saying grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn’t that the essence of it?

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] However, judicially we are perfect, we are complete in Christ, although we are not in actuality in our life.

[Rushdoony] Any other questions? Or comments? Well, if not let us bow our heads in prayer.

Oh Lord our God, how great and marvelous are Thy ways. We give thanks unto Thee for the men of old who in Thy service endured trials and persecutions, that we might have the word in purity. Grant that we pass on the word in faithfulness, and ever increase in faithfulness and in knowledge of Thee.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you… [tape ends]