This lessons from Galatians 4:12-32 details how Paul explains the difference between the Law and Grace by comparing Ishmael and Isaac, and Sarah and Hagar. It also shows how legalism and grace cannot coexist in the life of the believer.

1. Meet Your Mother
Galatians 4:12-31
Based on Be Free byWarrenW.Wiersbe

2. 3.He seeks their affection (4:12-18)
● When Paul first visited these cities, they loved and accepted him
despite his appearance. Apparently, Paul had some ailment that
disfigured his face.
● In verse 15, Paul asks “where’s the love? Where’s the happiness
(blessedness) you experienced when you trusted Christ?”
● Paul had proved himself their friend, and now they were following
false shepherds.
● A true servant of God doesn’t use people to build himself up.
Beware of religious workers that want your exclusive allegiance
because he’s the only one who is right.
● A true servant and spiritual leader is one who helps people love and
follow Christ.

3. ▪ Paul takes the history of Ishmael and Isaac to explain the difference
between the Law and grace.
▪ We’re given the historical facts in verses 19-23. In verse 23 we are
told these events are an allegory. In an allegory, persons and actions
represent hidden meaning so that the narrative can be read on two
levels: the literal and the symbolic.
▪ Easiest way to figure this out is to look at Abraham’s experiences in
Genesis 12-21.
▪ Age 75, God calls Abraham to go to Canaan and promises him
children.

4. ▪ Age 85, Sarah becomes impatient and tells him to marry her slave,
Hagar to have a son. Note, this was legal in their society, but not the
will of God!
▪ Age 86, Hagar gets pregnant and Sarah gets jealous. She throws
Hagar out, but God intervenes and sends her back. Ishmael is born.
▪ Age 99, God promises a son through Sarah.
▪ Age 100, Isaac is born.
▪ Age 103, it was customary for the Jews to wean their children at age
three and make a big party out of it. Ishmael mocks Isaac at the
party. Hagar and Ishmael are sent away because God tells Abraham
to do so.

5. The Old Covenant
▪ Law
▪ Hagar the Slave
▪ Ishmael, conceived after the
flesh
▪ Earthly Jerusalem in bondage
The New Covenant
▪ Grace
▪ Sarah, the free-woman
▪ Isaac, conceived miraculously
▪ Heavenly Jerusalem, which is
free

6. The Spiritual Truths (v.24-29)
▪ Paul then starts by explaining the truths we can learn by examining the two
sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
▪ Ishmael and Isaac represent the two births: the physical birth that makes us
sinners, and the spiritual birth that makes us children of God.
▪ Isaac illustrates the believer in several ways.
▪ He was born by God’s power. (Galatians 4:29). Salvation only occurs by
God’s grace through faith.
▪ He brought joy. Isaac means “laughter.” Salvation is a joyful experience.
▪ Isaac grew and was weaned. Salvation is the beginning, not the end. After
you accept Christ, you must grow (I Peter 2:2; II Peter 3:18; Psalm 131)

7. ▪ He was persecuted. Ishmael cause problems for Isaac just like our old
nature causes problems for us.
▪ Ishmael didn’t cause any problems until Isaac was born. Your sin
nature isn’t a problem until your new nature enters when you accept
Christ.
▪ Paul then turns his attention to the two wives, Sarah (Grace) and
Hagar (Law).
▪ Hagar was Abraham’s second wife. God did not begin with Hagar;
God began with Sarah, who represented Grace.
▪ God treated Adam and Eve with Grace, not Law. He treated Israel
with Grace when He brought them out of Egypt. Law came later.

8. ▪ Hagar was a slave (bondwoman). Sarah was a freewoman, and therefore
her position was one of liberty; but Hagar was still a servant.
▪ The Law was given as a servant (Galatians 3:19), but was never meant to be
a mother!
▪ Hagar was not meant to bear a child. Her marriage was the result of
unbelief and impatience. The Law cannot give life (Gal.3:21), or
righteousness (2:21), or the gift of the Spirit (3:2), or a spiritual inheritance
(3:18).
▪ Hagar gave birth to a slave. Ishmael was a “wild man” (Genesis 16:12), and
no one – including Hagar – could control him. Our old nature cannot be
controlled or changed by the Law

9. ▪ Hagar was cast out. There was not room in the household for Hagar and
Ishmael with Sarah and Isaac.
▪ It is impossible for law and grace, the flesh and the Spirit, to compromise
and stay together. Hagar and Ishmael left permanently because it was
impossible to mix law and grace, or faith and works, or God’s gift of
righteousness and man’s attempts to earn righteousness.
▪ Hagar was not married again. God never gave the Law to any other nation
or people, including His church.
▪ Christians, like Isaac, are the children of promise by grace. The covenant of
grace, pictured by Sarah, is our spiritual mother.The Law and our old nature
(Hagar and Ishmael) want to persecute us and bring us back into bondage.

10. How do we solve this problem?
▪ 1.We can try to change them. It won’t work, but we could try.
▪ John 3:6.
▪ Note that God didn’t try to change Hagar and Ishmael.
▪ 2.We can try to compromise with them. It didn’t work for Abraham, and it
won’t work with our lives. (Galatians 4:9)
▪ 3.We can cast them out. This is what we are supposed to do. Paul applied
this to the nation of Israel (Galatians 4:25-27) and then to the individual
Christian.
▪ We can make the same mistakes the Galatians made. Legalism does not
mean the setting of spiritual standards; it means worshipping those
standards and thinking that we are spiritual because we obey them. It also
means judging other believers on the basis of those standards.
▪ The Pharisees had high standards, but they crucified Christ.

11. ▪ The old nature loves legalism because it gives the old nature a chance
to look good. The Christian who claims to be spiritual because of
what he doesn’t do is fooling himself.
▪ To attempt to mix Law and Grace is to attempt the impossible. It
makes for a frustrated, barren Christian life. But to live by grace
through faith gives one a free and fulfilling Christian life.
▪ The difference maker? The Holy Spirit living and working inside you.