The Gospel Family Tree

As we continue in the letter of Galatians, where Paul has reminded us so many times there's no other gospel,

there's no other good news other than the good news that we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by our works.

And then he comes to this passage here, talking about the family of Abraham.

And so we're going to think this morning about the gospel family tree for a few minutes.

Paul has already in chapter 3 used the story of Abraham, the example of Abraham to make the point that it was never God's intention to save people by the law.

He called Abraham by a promise 430 years before the law.

And he never changed his intention that we're always saved by promise and not law.

Paul, in chapter 3, he talks about Abraham demonstrating the fact that it was never God's intention that the law would save us.

It was always on the basis of grace and promise and covenant.

And so now he's going to return to the family tree of Abraham to teach some important lessons on the topic of grace and promise.

So Galatians chapter 4 and at verse 21, let's read and hear God's word together.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.

One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves.

This is Hagar.

Now, Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem because she is in slavery with her children.

But the Jerusalem that is above is free and she is our mother.

For it is written,

Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children.

Break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains,

because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

At that time, the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.

It is the same now.

But what does the scripture say?

Get rid of the slave woman and her son,

for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.

Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

This is God's word.

Now, as we look around us today, we discover that tracing our family history,

tracing our family trees is becoming a big deal.

In fact, it's becoming big business.

There are now a variety of DNA testing companies that you can send a sample away to.

They can help you trace your origins and roots.

You can employ a DNA detective.

If you don't know who your family is, if you want to find distant family members,

there is the business of archive research, which grows all the time.

It's made its way into popular culture with TV shows like Who Do You Think You Are?

Where celebrities are brought in and they meet with experts who can help them trace their stories.

Sometimes those stories can be really surprising, really shocking to those who are involved.

But why is this big business to us?

It's because family matters to us.

Family connects us to people and to places.

Family gives us that sense of roots and having a shared identity.

Family is important for a sense of belonging.

Now, central to the whole letter of Galatians is a question,

who are the children of God and how can I become a child of God?

And in the background, Paul, who's writing the letter,

is reacting time and again to false teachers who've been saying,

On the one hand, because we are Jewish people and because we're keeping the law,

we are God's children.

Because of our family tree that we can trace back to Abraham,

we are in God's family.

And on the other hand, they were saying to people who weren't Jewish,

well, you're believing in Jesus, yes, but you also need to become Jewish.

You need to take on Jewish rituals and ceremonies.

You need to be keeping the Jewish law if you really want to be saved and be a child of God.

And so Paul is reacting to that and he's going to say,

that's the wrong way to think about it.

We're saved by grace.

We become children of God by God's loving kindness,

not because of who we are and what we've done.

And he's going to use Paul, Paul's going to use Abraham's family tree in order to teach that.

He's going to give us a warning to say,

don't rely on your family, don't rely on your own moral goodness.

And he's going to give hope.

He's going to say, because it comes as a free gift,

there is good news for anyone who is willing to listen.

So our big question, how can I be a child of God?

Now, boys and girls, let me speak to you for a few minutes.

Sometimes in our families, we are very like our brothers and sisters.

Sometimes you're twins and then you're really, really like,

you know, sometimes we have the same interests.

We like doing the same kind of stuff together.

Other times we're quite different.

Sometimes people wonder, are they actually in the same family because they're so different?

Well, today in our story, Paul is going to tell us about two brothers who are in Abraham's family.

One's called Ishmael and one's called Isaac.

And their stories are very, very different as we're going to think of it.

And Paul says, we can actually think about these two brothers

and think about them standing for two different ways to try and know God.

One is the wrong way and one is the right way.

So he's going to talk about this boy, this man called Ishmael.

And he's going to say, Ishmael stands for the wrong way to try and know God,

which is all about us thinking, well, if I try and be really, really good,

then God will accept me.

God will welcome me.

So if I try and be really good in my family,

if I try and be good at school,

go to church and read my Bible, keep the rules,

Paul's saying, actually, that's not how we are saved.

That's not how we become a child of God.

Because God's standards are higher than ours.

So boys and girls, if I was to ask you,

are you good at jumping?

Probably quite a few of you, if you're quite sporty,

say, yeah, I'm pretty good.

I'm probably better than some people in my class.

So you'd have your own idea.

Here's what good at jumping looks like.

Maybe you could jump as high as this table.

Maybe you could jump as high as my head.

Maybe.

But if I said to you, here's what I think being good at jumping is.

Can you jump high so you can touch the roof?

That's a different standard, isn't it?

That's an impossible standard.

We could never get there.

Even with a trampoline, we couldn't get there.

And what Paul is going to remind us,

he reminds us in this letter again and again,

we cannot be good enough for God's perfect standard.

It's too high for us.

So there needs to be another way.

There needs to be another way for us to be children of God.

So there's a right way.

And that takes us to the other brother, not Ishmael, but to Isaac.

Isaac was the son of a promise.

He came as a gift from God.

And for anyone to be in the family of God, it comes as a gift of God.

It comes as a gift of his kindness.

And what we need to do is not trust in our own goodness.

It's to trust in Jesus.

It's to trust that where we couldn't match God's perfect standard,

Jesus can and Jesus did.

And he did it for us.

And then he died to forgive our sin, to wash our sin away,

to bring us to God.

So as we listen to the Bible story, sometimes in our head,

we think, I just need to be a really good boy.

I need to be a really good girl.

And Paul is saying, no, you need to trust in Jesus.

You need to receive the promised grace from God.

So let's remember that, boys and girls,

as we work our way through our Bible passage here.

Two things I want to say.

The first is it's important to know your family history

in spiritual terms.

Now, who is Paul speaking to at this precise moment in his letter?

Look with me at verse 21.

He says, tell me, you who want to be under the law.

So he's writing to a whole church,

but then he's writing to a group of people within the church,

this group that want to be under the law.

In other words, they want to rely on God's law for their acceptance.

He's writing and speaking to a group of people who are tempted to say,

I need Jesus and I need the law.

So they're tempted to that way of thinking.

Now, he says to them positively in verse 28 that they are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

In verse 31, therefore, brothers and sisters, he'll say,

you're children of the free women.

You already have all these wonderful things.

So he's warning them, don't go back to an old way, to a bad way of thinking.

And to help them with that, he uses the story of Abraham again.

So verse 21, are you not aware of what the law says?

First five books of the Bible, sometimes known as the law.

Book of Genesis is where we find the story of Abraham.

And he's going to use that story to show them that being under the law,

it is to be in slavery.

And he's going to point them back to God's way of grace.

So in verses 22 and 23, we get a summary of two branches of Abraham's family tree.

And boys and girls, you'll find on your worksheet,

there's these details that you can fill in so that we can help to track with what Paul is saying.

Let's read verse 22 again.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons,

one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

So there are two mothers.

We only get the name of one of them in this passage.

Her name is Hagar.

She's the slave woman.

And then Abraham's wife is Sarah,

described here as the free woman.

So this is taking us back to the story that we find beginning in Genesis 12,

all the way to Genesis 21.

And in that section, we find time and time again,

God made promises to Abraham and to Sarah,

promising that they would have a child, that God would bless them,

that they would become a great nation,

and that one of their seed would be the source of blessing for the whole world.

Those were promises to Abraham and to Sarah in particular.

But as time passes in the story in Genesis,

Abraham and Sarah are old and getting older,

and Sarah can't have children.

And so we get to this point in Genesis chapter 16,

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

where Sarah comes up with a new plan.

She says to Abraham,

I can't have children,

so why don't you take my slave woman,

Hagar,

and start a family with her?

So we end up in Abraham's family tree.

We have two mothers.

We have Hagar, the slave woman,

and we have Sarah, the free woman.

And then we have two sons.

Verse 23.

His son by the slave woman

was born in the ordinary way,

but his son by the free woman

was born as the result of a promise.

So his son by the slave woman,

again, is not given a name here,

but we know in the Bible that this is Ishmael.

And Paul says he's born in the ordinary way

because he's the project of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar

coming together, having this discussion,

working out how to get a son,

born in the natural way,

representing human effort.

But then there's this other child mentioned,

the child who's born as the result of the promise,

and this is Isaac,

who is the son of Sarah.

And he's not born in an ordinary way.

He's born in an extraordinary,

in a supernatural way,

because his birth comes

as a result of God's kindness,

as a result of God's faithfulness

to that promise that he'd made

as a result of God's gracious provision

to Abraham and to Sarah.

So Isaac comes as a gift of grace

in response to that promise

that they'd received.

So here is Paul,

and he's tracing out these two different branches

of Abraham's family tree,

but why is he doing it?

What point is he making here?

Well, he's trying to remind

these Christians who are tempted

to go back under the law

and to become Jewish.

He's saying being a child of God

is not about physical DNA.

It's not about our biology.

It's not about the family

that we belong to.

And nor is it about human effort.

It's not about human effort

at law keeping.

Rather, enjoying God's freedom

is a gift to receive by faith.

It's the message he's been bringing

to us again and again

in the book of Galatians.

Now, why is he making the point?

He's making the point, remember,

these are people who are free in Christ,

but they're tempted to go back

towards slavery.

He's making the point

to say to them

that by trusting in Jesus,

they're already adopted

as children of God.

He's saying to them,

don't forget,

that's already yours.

That's your status.

Let's remind ourselves

of Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5.

Galatians 4:4

He says,

when the time had fully come,

God sent his son Jesus,

born of a woman,

born under law,

to redeem those under law

that we might receive

the full rights of sons.

Verse 7,

you're no longer a slave,

but a son.

And since you're a son,

God has also made you an heir.

You don't need anything else

if you're trusting in

the Lord Jesus Christ

for your salvation

and your acceptance

from God.

But this passage

stands as a reminder to us

that even as Christians,

we stand in danger

of what we might call

legalism,

relying on the law

in order to be accepted

by God.

If I do this thing,

and if I don't do that thing,

then God will love me more.

He will value me more highly.

Or if I keep this list of things

that I must do,

then God will surely accept me.

And on the other hand,

if I do badly,

if I fail,

then perhaps God will love me less.

Perhaps God will want nothing

to do with me.

And we become very insecure

or very proud and judgmental

or despairing

when our sense of salvation

is rooted in

what we are doing

and how we are performing.

And so Paul is reminding them

that the gospel of grace

gives us freedom from that.

The knowledge that because

we're in Christ,

we are fully loved

and accepted.

Let's think about it this way.

Boys and girls,

when it's your birthday time,

do you find your parents

coming with a sheet of paper

and adding up your list

of good things and bad things?

Do they say,

oh wow,

you did really well

helping with the dishes

and you're really kind

and helpful.

Oh, but

you did that thing wrong

and that thing wrong.

Therefore,

I was going to give you this gift,

but now

it didn't quite make the good.

We don't do that.

We give

out of grace

and out of love

and out of kindness.

And we need to recognize

that God is far more generous

and loving towards

His children.

And we have this invitation

to joy

and freedom

and security

in Christ

if we are in Him.

Because if we are in Him,

we enjoy God's perfect gift,

His perfect love.

And it's when we are resting in that,

when we are trusting in that,

then we have also the freedom to obey.

He's going to start talking about

because you're free,

you get to obey

out of thankful hearts,

not because you're afraid

that you'll be judged,

but because you want to please

your Father.

So know your family history.

All of us

are either

an Ishmael

by nature

in slavery

to sin

and far from God

or we are

an Isaac

by God's grace

set free.

Which family tree

do we belong to

and which family tree

do we want to be

part of?

And we need to understand

that it all depends

on how we respond

to Jesus,

the King,

to Jesus,

the Lord and Savior.

Do we turn from sin?

Do we trust that He forgave sin?

That He has the power

to deal with the power

and the penalty of sin

to give us new life,

to bring us to God?

And as Christians,

how can we avoid

this danger of legalism

that some of the Galatian church

was falling into?

Again, it's about knowing

your family history.

Live with freedom and joy

because you know

that you're living

in light of the promise

and grace

and because of Jesus'

finished work

on your behalf.

Take a gospel

DNA test.

What am I trusting in

for my salvation?

Am I trusting in Jesus alone

or am I tempted to think

it's Jesus plus

my efforts,

plus

my law keeping?

If we're trusting

in Jesus alone,

we're told we're a child

and an heir of God,

we're in God's family

with all the freedom

that that brings.

So know your family history

and also know your family story.

In verses 24 to 31,

Paul moves away

from a straightforward

family tree

and he begins to use allegory.

He uses this family tree

to stand for spiritual truth.

He's continuing

to build his argument

that we trust in grace

and promise

and not effort

and law.

So he's going to say

these families represent

different realities.

First of all,

the two families represent

two different covenants.

So look with me

at verse 24.

And we find that's

exactly what he says.

These things may be

taken figuratively

for the women

represent two covenants.

One covenant

is from Mount Sinai.

So that's the covenant

of law at Mount Sinai.

But then there's

another covenant.

There's the covenant

of promise.

Verse 28,

Now you brothers

like Isaac

are children

of promise.

So as I was saying

just before we started

reading the Bible

that in Galatians chapter 3

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

Paul had already said

promise comes first.

Promise was always

the only way

to be a child of God.

And in actual fact

the law's purpose

is to lead us

to see our own sin

and to see why

we need Jesus

as Savior.

And so

Hagar and Ishmael

represent

living under the law

whereas Sarah

and Isaac

represent living

under the covenant

of promise.

And he goes further

and he talks about

two places.

Verse 25,

Now Hagar

stands for Mount Sinai

in Arabia

and corresponds

to the present city

of Jerusalem

because she is

in slavery

with her children.

So there's the physical

city of Jerusalem

in verse 25

and then verse 26

there's the Jerusalem

that is above

which is free

or the heavenly Jerusalem.

So one is a place

filled with slaves

marked by slavery.

The other is filled

with children of God

who are enjoying

freedom.

And that points us

to these two conditions

that Paul is driving towards.

So one is slavery.

One covenant

verse 24 again

is from Mount Sinai

and bears children

who are to be slaves.

Verse 26,

But the Jerusalem

that is above

is free

and she is

our mother.

Now,

we maybe don't get

the sense of this

but there is a real

shock factor

in what Paul

has just said.

So remember

he's speaking

against

these false teachers,

these Judaizers

who are so proud

of their family tree,

so proud

of their DNA,

so proud

of their law keeping,

believing that

that made them

children of God.

And he turns

and he says

to you

spiritually

you are slaves.

You think

you are free,

you think

you're children

of promise

but because

you're not trusting

in Jesus

spiritually

you're slaves.

Jerusalem is described

as a city

full of slaves

because by and large

they had rejected Jesus.

They decided

we don't need Jesus,

we'll continue

to trust

in our own righteousness,

in our own efforts

at law keeping

and so they rejected

Jesus,

God's Savior.

So Paul says

to them

when you trace

your family story

spiritually

you discover

a nasty surprise.

I was reading

about some

of the highlights

of that TV show

Who Do You Think You Are?

I think it's been on

for 10 seasons

and one of the

most surprising,

shocking moments

for one of the guests

was when

Ainsley Harriet,

you know the TV chef,

he was on

finding out

about his family history

and he discovered

that his great,

great grandmother

when she was just

two years old

in Trinidad

was sold

into slavery.

And so there was

a real shock

for him

discovering

that he was

descended

from this slave woman

who he'd known

nothing about.

Paul wants

to shock

his readers

to say to them

look if you continue

on this path

that the false teachers

are recommending

your family story

will be about slavery.

You will make

yourself slaves

if you walk away

from Jesus

and his grace.

To the legalist

he's saying

you think you enjoy

promise and privilege

because you're

Abraham's children

but because you

reject Jesus

your father

is Ishmael

not Isaac.

To rely on

our own ability

rather than

the supernatural

grace of God

is to remain

in slavery

is to remain

under judgment

and this should

stand as a

warning

to us.

I don't know

how many of you

have done

the series

called

Christianity

Explored

but in one

of those sessions

there is a question

that is asked

why should God

let you

into heaven?

And there are

various people

who come up

on the screen

and they present

answers that

ultimately

are not good enough

but answers

that many people

rely on.

I'm a good

person.

I give to

charity.

I try and obey

the law.

I've never been

to prison.

I read my

Bible.

I pray.

And what Paul

teaches, what the

Bible teaches

is that any

answer that

begins because

I, it is

doomed to

failure.

The only way

into God's

presence, the

only way to

know and enjoy

God's love is

because Jesus.

Because Jesus

loved me.

Because Jesus

gave himself for

me.

Because Jesus

died in my

place and for

my sins.

So he gives a

warning about

slavery and

then he gives

the promise,

the reminder

of freedom.

Almost the

flip side to

Ainsley

Harriet's story

is the story

told by C.S.

Lewis in

The Horse and

His Boy.

I don't know

how many of

the boys and

girls have read

through some of

the Chronicles of

Narnia.

Well, in The

Horse and His

Boy, which I

think is the

third one in

the series, the

story begins with

a boy called

Shasta.

And Shasta was

being raised by a

really mean

fisherman who was

basically keeping

him as a slave and

he thought this

man, this horrible

mean man was his

dad.

But then he goes

on this adventure,

he runs away from

home, goes on

and it turns out

he's actually a

prince.

He's actually a

son of the king

living as a slave.

But actually, he

had this glorious

freedom.

And Paul is

saying, look, you're

wanting to go back

to slavery but you

have this glorious

freedom to enjoy.

That's what he's

saying to us as a

church.

The opposite of

slavery is freedom

and the opposite of

human effort is

God's initiative,

God's power,

God's grace and

that's represented

by Isaac's family

tree.

So in verse

29, at that

time, the son

born in the

ordinary way

persecuted the

son born, how?

Born by the

power of the

spirit.

So here is a

reminder that

Isaac was a

gift from God.

There is grace

in evidence here.

And Paul also

parallels this with

the story of

Israel.

That's why he

quotes in verse

27 from Isaiah

Isaiah 54 · chapter mention

chapter 54.

These are words

spoken to

exiled Israel,

feeling abandoned,

feeling small,

feeling weak and

helpless.

Here is hope for

them that God

would restore them

by his grace and

would expand their

family.

Here is promise

that God's kingdom

will be much

bigger than

anybody ever

imagined.

So Paul uses

the story of

Isaac and he

uses the story

of Israel to

bring hope.

Hope.

Because it's all

about Jesus,

anyone can

become a child

of God.

It's not

restricted to

those who have

the right family

pedigree.

It's not about

our human

family.

It's not about

our background

and circumstances.

It's not about

our ability or

morality.

It's all about

faith in Jesus,

trusting in who

he is as the

son of God and

what he has

done in

coming to

rescue us

from our

sin to bring

us to God.

It's really

important for us

to notice how

he closes off

his discussion

of these two

family trees.

Verse 29,

we read about

Ishmael

persecuting

Isaac.

And Paul says

at the end of

verse 29,

it's the same

now.

That these

false teachers

are persecuting

those who are

trusting in

Jesus.

And then

verse 30,

what does the

scripture say?

Get rid of

the slave woman

and her son,

for the slave

woman's son will

never share in

the inheritance

with the free

woman's son.

So in Abraham's

family, under

Abraham's roof,

there was fighting

and there was

tension.

There were two

families, two

brothers who

couldn't live

under the same

roof.

Ishmael was

persecuting his

younger brother

Isaac.

And there is this

reminder, only

the child of

promise would

receive God's

spiritual inheritance,

not Ishmael.

And then Paul

applies the story

to the church and

says that in the

same way, you

cannot have

existing in the

same place a

theology that

rests on grace

and a theology

that rests on

human works.

One of them

must go so

that grace alone

is left to

stand.

And so we

must be really

careful in our

churches to

preserve the

gospel of grace

to defend it

from legalism

which is always

a danger that

we face.

Which family

story is

ours today?

Are we under

law?

Thinking it's

all about do

better, try

harder and in

the end I hope

that God might

accept me?

Or are we

under Christ

where it is

true security

because we're

resting on his

finished work,

his precious

promises to

us so that

we can know

that we are

God's children

because only in

Jesus is there

freedom to enjoy

God's promise.

Only in Jesus

can we become

children of God

through what

Jesus came to

do for us.