Objection No. 7: Paul's allegory on the two covenants in Galatians 4 proves that we have nothing to do with law in the Christian dispensation.
In the fourth chapter of Galatians, Paul recounts that Abraham had two sons. After relating the incidents of the birth of Ishmael to the bondwoman Hagar and the birth of Isaac to the free woman Sarah, the first “born after the flesh,” the second “by promise,” Paul declares:
“Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Gal. 4:24-26.
God had promised Abraham a son. He believed the promise, and the Lord “counted it to him for righteousness.” Gen. 15:6. This promise was of vast significance to Abraham, for God had also promised him: “In thy seed [Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Gen. 26:4. (See Gen. 12:3)
But his faith and that of his long-childless wife, Sarah, evidently waned. She encouraged him to take Hagar to wife and thus raise up seed. But the Lord told him that Ishmael, who was born of that union, was not the fulfillment of the divine promise of a son and that that promise would yet be fulfilled.
Adapting this historical incident to the current experience of the Galatian Christians, who were trying to secure Heaven's promised salvation by observation of the ceremonial law—you you observe days, and months, and times, and years” Gal. 4:10 he declares that here is an “allegory,” or a figurative description of “the two covenants.”
In the allegory Hagar stands for Sinai. She was a bondwoman, and her children would therefore be in the same state of slavery. She also stands for “Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with, her children.” From Mount Sinai came the old covenant. How can it be said that the old covenant “genders to bondage”? All Bible commentators, along with the apostle Peter, agree that our brother Paul wrote some things hard to be understood, and the book of Galatians illustrates that fact. But we believe that in two ways the old covenant might be regarded as leading into bondage.
1. The ceremonial ritual of numerous sacrifices, feast days, and the like, by which the Israelites were to express their desire for freedom from sin, the transgression of the moral law, tended to become more and more an intolerable burden upon them as the rabbis constantly refined and multiplied the ritual.
At the Jerusalem council the early Christian leaders first considered in a formal way the contention of certain Jews who declared “that it was needful to circumcise them [the Gentile converts], and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” Acts 15:5. To this contention Peter replied, “Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?” Acts 15:10.
This question seems to parallel the one that Paul asks the Galatians: “But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!” Gal. 4:9-10.
Obviously, here is a “bondage” that suffices to provide a reasonable interpretation of Paul's words about the Sinaitic covenant genders to bondage. The Pulpit Commentary well observes on Galatians 4:25:
“The religious life of Judaism consisted of a servile obedience to a letter Law of ceremonialism, interpreted by the rabbis with an infinity of hair-splitting rules, the exact observance of which was bound upon the conscience of its votaries as of the essence of true piety.”
2. The moral law, central to the old as well as the new covenant, can also be considered as bringing a man into bondage—if that man seeks to keep the law in his own strength, and by the keeping of the law be his own Savior. “The law works wrath,” says Paul. Rom. 4:15. Why? Paul explains: “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Rom. 7:9. In other words, knowledge of the moral law equates to consciousness of sin and guilt, or “wrath.”
But here is another real sense in the law brings bondage: “Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants, you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6:16. If, after having accepted the grace and pardon of Jesus Christ, you refuse His transforming righteousness in your life, you are once again a slave of sin and death.
Now, how could those of whom Paul was speaking—“Jerusalem which now is, with her children”—hope to escape from their bondage? By moving from the old covenant to the new covenant: “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
In Hebrews, Paul uses the same figurative language:
“You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel..” Heb. 12:18-24.
Without going into a detailed examination of figures of speech, which would carry us beyond the range of the particular question at issue—the perpetuity of the Ten Commandments—we may say that Paul is describing the state of those who are under “the new covenant.”
Isaac was the child of promise, the answer Abraham’s act of faith and obedience. Because we come under the new covenant by our act of faith in accepting the Lord Jesus Christ, and His promise to write His law in our hearts, we are no longer “by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:3), but the children of promise. We become children of promise by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by accepting through faith God's promise of a new covenant relationship.
Blending the two ideas, Paul really comes to the climax of his allegory with these words: “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Abraham's act of faith in believing God's promise was counted unto him for righteousness. Our act of faith in believing God's fulfillment of His promise in Christ Jesus is counted unto us for righteousness. That is how we acquire true righteousness, new covenant righteousness.
And why did the Lord make His promise to Abraham? “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Gen. 26:5.
And how are those described who are literally waiting to be taken to “Jerusalem which is above”? “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.
No, Paul’s words in Galatians do not teach freedom from the law of God. They teach freedom from bondage to sin through Jesus Christ and the new covenant relationship.