Natural or supernatural?
Paul proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ with great zeal in Galatia, so that many people came to faith and received a new life through God. It wasn't long before unrest spread among the church. A group we know as Judaizers put the good news to a severe test. They demanded that non-Jewish Christians observe Jewish laws, including circumcision. Paul recognized this false teaching as a serious threat and wrote a powerful letter: Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not through obeying the Mosaic Law. The title of today's sermon is: Natural or Supernatural?
Part One: The Story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar
First, let's consider the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar in the Old Testament. It illustrates the profound contrast between law and grace, works and faith, and natural and supernatural action. They are as fundamentally different as fire and water, or light and darkness.
The natural line is embodied by Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the bondwoman. He was born of human deliberation and self-help. Isaac, the child of Sarah, Abraham's wife, has a supernatural line because he came into the world through God's promise. In this tension, we recognize the question of whether we trust God and hope for his intervention or rely on our own efforts and religious duties.
Sarah, Abraham's legal wife, was barren. Because the promised son didn't appear, Sarah came up with the idea that the 86-year-old Abraham could sleep with her Egyptian maid and thus ensure offspring:
1. Moses 16,1-4 "Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no child. She had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, 'See, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Go, I pray thee, in to my maidservant, and perhaps I may have a son by her.'" And Abram obeyed Sarai's voice. So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her Egyptian maidservant and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife, after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she was pregnant, she despised her mistress.
Thus, Ishmael was born. When he was about 14 years old, Sarah unexpectedly conceived a son by Abraham. He was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90:
1. Moses 17,15-19 "And God said to Abraham again, 'You shall no longer call Sarai your wife Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. For I will bless her, and I will give you a son from her. I will bless her, and she shall be nations and kings over many nations.'" Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, 'Shall a child be born to me when he is one hundred years old, and shall Sarah, when she is ninety years old, bear a child?' And Abraham said to God, 'I wish Ishmael would live before you!' But God said, 'No; Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant throughout his descendants.'"
When the younger Isaac was about three years old, he was weaned from his mother. Abraham held a special celebration, which, of course, was also attended by his older half-brother, Ishmael, now 17 years old. At that time, he could already appreciate what the unexpected little Isaac meant to him. For 14 years, it had been clear that he would be the sole heir of the wealthy Abraham. And now, at the age of 90, his father's wife was finally having a child. Ishmael must have found this annoying, and he despised and mocked Isaac:
1. Moses 21,9-11 "And Sarah saw that the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the slave woman whom she had borne to Abraham, was mocking. And Sarah said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit with my son Isaac."
There was great tension in the family, so Sarah demanded that Abraham drive Hagar away with her son. At first, he refused, but eventually God spoke to Abraham:
1. Moses 21,12-14 "But God said to him, 'Do not let it displease you because of the boy and the bondwoman. Obey everything Sarah has commanded you, for after Isaac your descendants will be called. And the son of the bondwoman also I will make a nation, because he is your son.'" So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and put them on Hagar's shoulder, along with the boy, and sent her away.
A final separation was brought about, making Isaac his parents' absolute sole heir. From our human perspective, this sounds very harsh and unfair.
Part Two: Faith, Spirit and Promise
In the second part of the sermon, we consider how Paul applies the Old Testament story to the gospel. He shows us unequivocally that law and faith, flesh and spirit, merit and promise cannot dwell under the same roof. They are hostile to one another and must be separated, just as Ishmael and Isaac could not remain together in Abraham's household. The Judaizers in Galatia insisted on the law as a justification. Paul confronts them with a penetrating question:
Galatians 4,21 "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not hear the law?"
Those who promoted this legalism proudly emphasized that they were children of Abraham and therefore blessed. Paul counters that Abraham, in fact, had two sons:
Galatians 4,22-23 "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman and one by a freewoman. But the one by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, but the one by the freewoman through promise."
Here we can see the first contrast between true Christianity and legalism: freedom versus slavery. Isaac was born of a free woman, a baroness or baroness, symbolizing her exalted position. Ishmael, on the other hand, the son of a bondwoman, was born according to the flesh through unbelief. It is an attempt to enforce God's promise through human means. What is the difference between law and grace? Under the law, the emphasis is on my own performance. Under the grace of God, however, it is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ that makes us righteous before him. These are two entirely different covenants:
Galatians 4,24-25 "This is to be understood figuratively: The two women are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, who gives birth into slavery; that is Hagar. Hagar, however, refers to Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a parable of present-day Jerusalem, which lives with its children in slavery."
Mount Sinai represents Hagar. It was there that the laws were given, and in the Temple in Jerusalem, the sacrificial system, with its prescribed days, foods, and purifications, took place, all in the hope of becoming righteous before God. Hagar, Sinai, and the earthly Jerusalem symbolize bondage: The law reveals our sins and shows us our inability to fully fulfill God's commandments. Thus, the law becomes a curse for man rather than a liberation.
Which path leads us to true freedom? Paul directs our attention to the covenant connected with the "upper Jerusalem":
Galatians 4,26-28 "But the Jerusalem above is the free woman; she is our mother. For it is written: 'Rejoice, you barren woman who bears no child! Sing aloud and shout for joy, you who are not pregnant! For the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband. But you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of the promise.'"
This second covenant is not tied to the earthly Mount Zion, but to God's own heavenly Jerusalem. Therein lies the third contrast Paul emphasizes: heaven versus earth. True Christianity comes from above—from God himself—and cannot be tied to the present Jerusalem of this world. The heavenly city is the mother of all believers, regardless of whether they are of Jewish or pagan origin. Whoever believes in Christ belongs to the children of the promise and therefore comes not from the earthly Jerusalem, but from the Jerusalem above.
This makes it clear: Paul teaches that law and grace are mutually exclusive and that our true freedom lies in the supernatural work of God, who makes us righteous through Christ. Only the promise, not our merit, opens the gate to the heavenly Jerusalem—to the sublime freedom of the children of God. Therefore, Jesus said to Nicodemus:
John 3,3 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
The Greek word "anothen" means primarily "from above" and only secondarily "anew." People who stand in living faith are born from above, from the new Jerusalem. Although Christ worked in earthly Jerusalem, acquired our salvation, and the first church arose there, and one can therefore also speak of it as the Holy City, Paul equates it only with fleshly Israel. For him, Jerusalem is the city of the religion of the law and not the city of believers. Their city is the new Jerusalem, the upper Jerusalem. They long not for the so-called Holy City on this earth, but for the heavenly Jerusalem. It is their mother, it is their home. Although Abraham had already been to the promised land of Canaan and lived there in permanent tents, he longed for more than an earthly fatherland:
Hebrews 11,9-10 "By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
And so it is with all believers. They long for more than a holy city here on earth:
Hebrews 11,13 "These all died in faith, not receiving the promises, but seeing them from afar, greeting them, and acknowledging that they were strangers and exiles on the earth."
Abraham and Sarah believed the promise. They didn't forget that this world was not their home. They knew that God had prepared a better and permanent home for them in heaven.
Hebrews 11,16 "But now they are going to a better land, the heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to call them their God, for he has built them a city."
Of this heavenly city, of the heavenly Jerusalem and of the mother of us all, from where we were spiritually born, Paul speaks:
Ephesians 1,3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
All our blessings and spiritual goods come from heaven. The source of our salvation is not from the earth, but from the upper Jerusalem. We even bear the name of this city:
Offenbarung 3,12 "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my name the new"
John was once shown this truly Holy City in Heaven:
Revelation 21,2 "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
Jesus and the church, his bride, are the upper Jerusalem. The line that leads to the freedom of the children of God, to salvation and eternal life, runs through Sarah, Isaac, and the upper Jerusalem. On this road are also Jews and Gentiles, all who are saved by grace through faith. The children of the promise, who come after the promised Isaac, are as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky, a host that no one can count. Sarah, the incapable one, has endless children, throughout all ages, from all lands, peoples, tribes, and languages.
Finally, let us read the powerful words from the Epistle to the Hebrews:
Hebrews 12,1824 "For you have not come to anything that can be touched and that burns with fire, nor to darkness and gloom and tempest, nor to the sound of a trumpet and the sound of words. Those who heard this asked that no more word be spoken to them, for they could not bear what was being said: 'Even if a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.' And the sight was so terrible that Moses said, 'I am terrified and tremble. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and to the festal assembly and to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkling blood that speaks more good things than the blood of Abel."
At the end of this sermon we hear the personal conclusion of Apostle Paul:
Galatians 4,28 and 31 Hope for All: "Dear brothers and sisters, you, like Isaac, owe your lives to the promise of God. But we, my dear brothers and sisters, are not the children of the slave, but of the free woman!"
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
by Pablo Nauer
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