I did say this would be a run through the book, not in detail, so a whole chapter this time round.
My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than those who are enslaved, though they are the owners of all the property, but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir through God.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental principles? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.
Brothers and sisters, I beg you: become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong. You know that it was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you; though my condition put you to the test, you did not scorn or despise me but welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What has become of the goodwill you felt? For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them. It is good to be made much of for a good purpose at all times and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by an enslaved woman and the other by a free woman. One, the child of the enslaved woman, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother. For it is written,
“Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,
burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs,
for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
than the children of the one who is married.”
Now you, my brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. But what does the scripture say? “Drive out the enslaved woman and her child, for the child of the enslaved woman will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.” So then, brothers and sisters, we are children, not of an enslaved woman but of the free woman.
Again a few arguments in here that don’t cut it logically for us. The section on Hagar and Sarah for example. Who decides that Hagar corresponds to ‘the present Jerusalem’? This is not self-evident. We have to allow the argument of the first century to be just that, and as we do not know all the backstory we are also coming at this a little in the dark. It is possible that the Judaizers were using that very story in the opposite direction that Paul uses it and he is ‘forced’ into giving the opposite interpretation to theirs. What remains is his beef is over the issue of freedom, and his sight is from the future. The current era is no longer his framework, Christ has come and everything else is re-calibrated or annulled.
Here are a few pull-out parts for me.
The Jew / Gentile element of the cross is highlighted. He is born under the law (Jewish) as well as being born of a woman (human) in order to redeem those who were under the law (Jews). Paul is no moderate, to be under the law was to be under ‘elemental spirits’. He comes as close as one can to suggesting that the law (defining Israel) was to Israel what the ‘elemental spirits’ that defined and held Gentile nations in bondage was to them. Certainly it is through the coming of the Spirit that they cross over and become children of God. Although Jews were those who were going to inherit (as physical descendants of Abraham, so different to Gentiles) until the date set (the fullness of times) they were no better than those who were enslaved (Gentiles).
For Paul Jesus is everything, and he writes this as a Jew. The turning of the ages changed everything for him.
Jesus comes at the ‘fullness of times’. He comes, not immediately post the ‘fall’, though the Tri-une God journeys with ‘Adam, Eve’ and all their offspring down the centuries as they leave Eden, carrying the effects of the Fall with them. He does not come immediately post the exile when there is a major dislocation at numerous levels from the promises. He comes at the fullness of times. When the world is under an all-but one world government, when Caesar is in Rome making blasphemous claims (exact counter claims to the ‘gospel’, using the very same term euangelion of the wonderful good news that went from Rome to one and all). Demons are visible and present, even within the synagogue; the one nation that was to be free and lead others to freedom openly confesses that they too had no other king than Caesar. The fullness of times, when there was no hope for the world because the one hope (Israel) was under bondage. Not even the Temple as a house of prayer for all nations (Gentiles) had a semblance of redemptive presence, thus Jesus announced that not one stone of the Temple would remain on another.
Jesus does not come before time, but comes to destroy all bondage when the enslavement was complete. Jew and Gentile, both, all under the rulership of the dark powers, the prince of this world.
And a very practical statement:
They make much of you but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them.
Hard-hitting but ever so perceptive. They focus on you, but not to promote you… so that the result is that they are the ‘big people’. Gas-lighting; narcissism.
Freedom is through Jesus; nothing added.