Category Archives: Galatians

Preaching About Christ vs Preaching Christ

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While a student at Princeton Seminary, the great Presbyterian Charles Hodge began to form a close and life-long relationship with Archibald Alexander. In those days, Alexander was the president of the seminary and would, on a weekly basis, preach to the student body in the basement of the Old Library building. This left a lasting impression on them all. Commenting on this, Hodge wrote:

That room is to this day sacred in the eyes of the old students of the College. It was then, and for forty years afterwards, the birth-place of many souls. We were thus brought under the influence of a man, who, as an ‘experimental’ preacher was unequalled and unapproached. It was said of him, that while most other ministers preached about religion, he preached religion (AA Hodge, The Life of Charles Hodge, 26).

That’s an interesting distinction to make and one that has been on my mind for the last year. I was struck with this again last week. In Galatians Paul says, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Galatians 3:1). Calvin’s comments are worth quoting at length:

The actual sight of Christ’s death could not have affected them more powerfully than his own preaching…The meaning therefore is, that Paul’s doctrine had instructed them concerning Christ in such a manner as if he had been exhibited to them in a picture, nay, ‘crucified among them.’ Such a representation could not have been made by any eloquence, or by ‘enticing words of man’s wisdom,’ had it not been accompanied by that power of the Spirit.

Let those who would discharge aright the ministry of the gospel learn, not merely to speak and declaim, but to penetrate into the consciences of men, to make them see Christ crucified, and feel the shedding of his blood.

May the Lord grant to his church, in these desperate and dead days, men who blessed by the Spirit preach in such a way.

Redemption and the Law

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Redemption plays an integral part in the work of Christ. One aspect of the redemption of Christ relates to the law. In his important book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, John Murray offers helpful and necessary qualifications as to what the inspired authors mean when they speak of this. He says, “It does not say that we are redeemed from the law. That would not be an accurate description and the Scripture refrains from such an expression. We are not redeemed from the obligation to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength and mind and our neighbor as ourselves” (p. 45). Even as Christians we have an obligation to do—our motives and our ability are transformed by the gospel—but the formula of the covenant of grace is “Live and Do This.” So what does Scripture mean when it relates redemption to the law of God:

  1. Redemption from the Curse of the Law: Civil society teaches us that if you break the law there are certain penalties. If I get pulled over for speeding, I will most likely have a fine. The law of God, which predates any civil laws, is the same. We see this in Genesis 2:17, the one who eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will surely die. Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written” (Galatians 3:10). It’s this curse, this punishment, this death that Christ has redeemed his own from, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). He has done so to the furthest extent—exhausting the curse so no curse remains for his people.
  2. Redemption from the Ceremonial Law: It is common in Reformed doctrine to distinguish between the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws (for an excellent defense of this three-fold division see Philip Ross, From the Finger of God). There ceremonial laws never once secured salvation for the people of God. Salvation has always been by grace through faith. Paul proves his doctrine of justification by faith alone by appealing to Abraham and David in Romans 4. But through Moses God gave the church certain ordinances and ceremonies that they were to follow, but he did so as children who were under age and under tutors until the appointed time of the Father (see Galatians 4:2). In Christ these ceremonies were fulfilled as he was the substance of the shadow (Colossians 2:17). As Paul says, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:25-26).
  3. Redemption from the Law of Works: “Christ has redeemed us from the necessity of keeping the law as a condition and acceptance to God” (p. 45). Without this redemption we would all need to keep the works of the law to be justified. The first covenant, the covenant of works, was “Do this and live.” Life was only to be had by perfect obedience to the demands of the law. But Christ did what none of us—now fallen in sin—can do, and that’s to keep the law perfectly. He was born under the law to redeem those under the law (Galatians 4:4-5).

Without maintaining these particular nuances we run the danger of going to one extreme or the other. On the one hand we have legalism, which demands obedience for acceptance with God. On the other is antinomianism which says Christians are free from the obligation of the law. Both are dangerous, and both undermine the true gospel of Jesus Christ, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).

The Gospel Call of Sarah

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Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, “These things are an allegory,” referring to the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. There are some hard things to understand here, but bypassing some of the difficulties consider:

First, Ishmael and Isaac are two seeds. We remember well the unbelief of Sarah when she chose to trust the flesh rather than the God who opens and closes wombs (see Genesis 20:18). Beset with her own bareness and eager to obtain the promise, Sarah substituted another, even Hagar her servant, to bare Abraham a son. Though she thought the promise could be obtained in this way, Sarah was actually working against God. Yet her unfaithfulness did not void the faithfulness of God, and so he tells Abraham that the promised child would not be Ishmael, but would be Isaac, the son Sarah was still to bare. The one was the seed of the flesh, the other was the seed of promise.

Secondly, these two seeds were opposed. Throughout redemptive history there has been a stark antagonism between brothers. It began in the first family when Cain slew Abel. It continued in Noah’s line when Ham was set against Shem. It would be evident in the story of Jacob and Esau. Of course this antagonism is traced directly back to Genesis 3:15 when God declared he would put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and in Genesis 21 we see it in Isaac and Ishmael when the seed of the flesh mocks the seed of promise. And when she saw this, Sarah bids Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac” (21:10).

Thirdly, these things are spiritually discerned. Again, Paul says these things are an allegory. That doesn’t mean they’re only allegory. Not at all! They’re true history, true women, true men and true antagonism. But still they are an allegory to be spiritual discerned. Paul writes, “Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar” (4:24). Despite the many difficulties that attend this passage the driving point seems clear. Addressing the Judiazers, who like Ishmael were mocking Isaac, Paul is saying you cannot inherit the promise by the works of the flesh anymore than Sarah could secure the promise by substituting Hagar. Salvation does not come from the flesh, but by faith in the promise.

And so finally, and lastly, we see the call of the gospel. In Genesis 21 Sarah denounced Hagar to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son!” With the same zeal then, Paul does likewise in verse 30. This is the gospel call in the words of Sarah. Any who would inherit the promise must cast out the antagonistic works of the flesh, cast out self-righteousness, cast out boasting, cast out confidence in doing, and rest wholly and only upon the promise of God revealed in Jesus Christ. That’s what the gospel calls us to do. And so let us, who are not of the bondwoman, cast out the bondwoman and her son for we are children of the promise.