Sarah and Hagar

    "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. (10) Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.”

    The Bible is not a Book about history. It is a Book about Christ and the redemption of sinners by Christ. However, whenever the Bible deals with historical facts, it is always accurate in every detail. The historical facts revealed in Holy Scripture are given, not just to fill in the gaps, but to convey and illustrate the message of redemption by Christ. In that sense, all of the events recorded in the Old Testament are to be interpreted allegorically. An allegory, or an allegorical interpretation of Scripture, is the use of historical facts and events to portray and teach spiritual, gospel truths.¹⁵

    Creation is a historical fact. Yet, it is also a picture of grace. The flood and Noah’s ark are historical facts. Yet, they are also a picture of grace, a picture of our redemption and salvation in Christ. Bible stories are much more than examples of God’s miraculous power. They are examples of God’s merciful acts toward the sons of men. We now have before us one story in the Scriptures that is plainly declared to be an allegory. The story of Sarah and Hagar is a beautiful and instructive picture of the grace of God. The historical facts of this story are recorded in Genesis 21:1-14. The allegorical interpretation of those facts is found in Galatians 4:21-31.

    The purpose of this allegory, as Paul uses it, is to show us the believer’s complete and total freedom from the law. The allegory is about two women, Sarah and Hagar, and two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Sarah represents the covenant of grace. Her son, Isaac, represents the children of promise, all who are born again by the promise and power of God’s grace. Hagar represents the covenant of works. Her son, Ishmael, represents all who go about to establish their own righteousness by the works of the law and will not submit to the righteousness of God which is in Christ Jesus. These are children of bondage who know not God.

    No two things in all the world are more diametrically opposed to one another than law and grace. Yet, all men by nature attempt to mix the two together. The mixing of law and grace is the heretical assertion that salvation is both by our works and by God’s free grace through the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must understand the difference between these two things. Any mixture of law and grace, any intermingling of the covenant of works with the covenant of grace is deadly. Those who mix law and grace teach a doctrine that is damning to the souls of men. We must distinguish between our doing for salvation and another doing in our place for salvation. Salvation is not by our doing at all, but by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ for us! “This doctrine lies at the very heart of the gospel, and is so important that he who grasps and understands it, is a master in divinity, while he who does not properly distinguish here remains in doubt and perplexity and walks in darkness, knowing not at what he stumbles.” (G. S. Bishop).

    It is the universal assertion of Holy Scripture that all true believers are totally free from the law (Rom. 6:14-15; 7:1-4; 8:1-4; 10:4; 1 Tim. 1:9-11). It is the purpose of God the Holy Spirit to show us that fact most emphatically in the book of Galatians (Gal. 1:6-9; 2:16, 21; 3:1319-25;5:1,4,12; 6:14).

    The Holy Spirit tells us plainly that Sarah and Hagar represent two covenants which are diametrically opposed to one another, the covenant of grace and the covenant of works (Gal. 4:24). God almighty deals with men upon the basis of a covenant. A covenant is a contract made between two or more parties in which certain promises are made in the anticipation of specified conditions being fulfilled. We see this illustrated in David’s covenant with Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:11-17).

    Understanding the nature of a covenant, we recognize that there could only be two possible covenants between God and man. (1.) A covenant of works, founded upon what man shall do for his salvation, or (2.) A covenant of grace, founded upon what God shall do for man to save him -- a covenant of law , or a covenant of grace.

    Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid and servant, represents the covenant of law, works, and ceremonies, revealed and given to Israel by God through his servant Moses at Mt. Sinai. In the law God says to man, “Do this and live!” John Gill asserted that the Jews in the Mosaic age were “in bondage to the moral law, which required perfect obedience of them, but gave them no strength to perform; showed them their sin and misery, but not their remedy; demanded a complete righteousness, but did not point out where it was to be had; it spoke not one word of peace and comfort, but all the reverse; it admitted of no repentance; it accused of sin, pronounced guilty on account of it, cursed, condemned, and threatened death for it, all which kept them in continual bondage.” Hagar represents the bondage of legalism.

    Sarah, Abraham’s true wife, represents God’s eternal covenant of grace with Christ for the salvation of his elect. “The covenant of works stood between God and Adam. Adam fell, and it now lies hopelessly broken. The covenant of grace stood between God and Christ. Christ has fulfilled it, and it stands established forever!” (G. S. Bishop).

    The covenant of works was written out in the law in stone at Sinai. However, it was the same covenant which Adam broke in the garden. And it is the covenant (the law) which is written upon the hearts of all men by nature, a covenant which all men constantly break (Rom. 2:14-15). But, blessed be God, the covenant of grace cannot be broken!

    The covenant of grace was made long before the covenant of works (Eph. 1:3-6; 2 Tim. 1:9-10). It was made from eternity and cannot be nullified by anything done in time (Gal. 3:16-17). The covenant of grace was made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and cannot be broken by man (Heb. 7:22; 13:20; John 17:2-3). The covenant of grace says, “Do this, O Christ, and thy people shall live forever!” (Psa. 2:8; 110:3; Isa. 53:10-12). The covenant of grace took into consideration the failures of God’s elect and made promises of grace concerning us, even in the teeth of our sins (Psa. 89:19-37; Jer. 31:31-34; 32:37-41). This is a covenant of pure, free, immutable grace, ordered in all things and sure (2 Sam. 23:5; Rom. 8:28-34; 2 Tim. 1:9-10). Sarah represents the covenant of grace. Hagar represents the works of the law!

    Though Hagar bore the first son, Sarah had a prior claim to all the inheritance, because she was Abraham’s original wife. Sarah told Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out upon the basis of her prior claim upon him. And, though the covenant of works was revealed first, the covenant of grace has a prior claim upon God’s elect and upon the inheritance of life. Long before we sinned, the covenant of grace was made. Before we became sinners, Christ stood as our Surety. Before ever we needed atonement, Christ was the Lamb of sacrifice slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 1 Pet. 1:18-21). Long before we were cursed by the law, we were blessed with God’s salvation in the covenant of grace (Eph. 1:3-6; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:9).

    It was never intended that Hagar should be Abraham’s wife, or that Ishmael should be the promised seed of grace. Hagar was Sarah’s handmaid. Nothing more! The law, which Hagar represents, was never given, or intended to be, a means of righteousness and salvation for anyone. No one was ever saved by keeping the law. The law was only a handmaid to grace. The only purpose of the law is to point men to Christ (Gal. 3:21-29). “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). When the Word of God asserts that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, the Spirit of God means for us to understand that…

    1.Christ is the end of the law as the object of it.

    2.Christ is the end of the law as the fulfilment of its purpose, pictures, and requirements.

    3.Christ is the end of the law as the conclusion of it.

    4.Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, both for justification and for sanctification. We do not go to Calvary for justification and then run back to Sinai for sanctification. Both justification and sanctification are found in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30).

    5.Christ is the end of the law in the sense that death is the end of all covenants (Rom. 7:1-4).

    The law identifies sin and condemns men for sin; but it can never remove sin, justify the sinner, or sanctify a believer. The law is good, if a man uses it lawfully (1 Tim. 1:9-11); but when it is put in the place of grace, it must be cast out, like Hagar and Ishmael. The law is holy, just, and good; but when it is made to be a means of winning, keeping, or improving God’s favor, it is used unlawfully.

    Sarah and Hagar also represent two systems of religion: grace and works (Gal. 4:25-27). There are but two religions upon the earth: grace and works. These two systems of religion mutually annihilate one another. If a person is saved in anyway, either in whole or in part, by his own works, then he is not saved by God’s grace. If we are saved by God’s grace, then we are not saved, in whole or in part, by any works of our own (Rom. 11:6). There is no in between ground, where grace and works live together. Read Galatians 5:1-4. Then read it again. If we do anything by which we hope to get God’s favor, keep God’s favor, or improve our standing in God’s favor, we have missed Christ altogether.

    All churches, religions, and systems of doctrine which teach salvation by the works of the law are represented by Hagar. Any teaching which says we are justified, sanctified, preserved, given favor with God, or inherit heavenly glory upon the basis of our own works of obedience to God is legalism, antichrist, and damning to the souls of men. That is what Galatians. 5:1-4 declares.

    Now, look at what Paul tells us about Hagar, the religion of the world, the religion of works (Gal. 4:25). She is in Arabia, -- outside the land of promise. She is in bondage. -- The law can give nothing but bondage. There is no liberty to be found at Sinai. Her children are all yet in bondage. – Those who live under the tyranny of the law, are yet wearing the iron shackles of slavery and imprisonment. They are in bondage to sin. They are yet the captives of Satan. They are under the curse of the law. They are yet under the sentence of death. There is nothing else to be found in the house of bondage.

    Sarah represents that church, that religion, that system of doctrine which declares salvation by grace without the deeds of the law (Gal. 4:26-27). The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. The gospel of God is the gospel of grace. And the church of God is the true Jerusalem, the city of grace and peace. The gospel of grace is from above. The people of God are free (Rom. 6:14-15). The church of God is the mother of all who believe. The church of God, the kingdom of grace, shall be triumphant and glorious in the end (Gal. 4:27; Isa. 54:1).

    Hagar never was free; and Sarah never was a slave. Ishmael, being the son of a slave, never could be a free man. Isaac, being the son of a free woman, never could be a slave. All who seek salvation by their own works are forever in bondage, and must be cast out into outer darkness. All who trust Christ alone, being saved by pure, free grace, abide in the house of grace forever, forever free, forever heirs of grace. When Isaac was born, Ishmael had to go. Hagar and her son were driven out of Abraham’s house, but not Sarah. So too, as soon as the gospel of grace is revealed, the covenant of works is driven away (Heb. 10:1-10).

    The Holy Spirit uses the two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, to represent lost religious legalists and sinners saved by the grace of God (Gal. 4: 28-31). Ishmael was born after the flesh. Isaac was born after the Spirit. Legalism, all legal religion, is of the flesh, fleshly. Grace is of the Spirit, spiritual. Ishmael was the child of works, the child of unbelief. Isaac was the child of promise, born supernaturally, by a work of God. Ishmael mocked and persecuted Isaac. Ishmael was cursed. Isaac was blessed.

    There is no room for legalism in the house of grace. “We are not under the law, but under grace.” We are not justified by the law, but by grace (Rom. 3:19-24). We are not sanctified by the law, but by grace (Gal. 3:1-3). We are not ruled by the law, but by grace (Tit. 2:11-14). We are not motivated by the law, but by grace (2 Cor. 5:14). The difference between the believer and the legalist is not their conduct, but their motive. We shall not be glorified by the law, but by grace (Jude 24, 25).

    Why are the Scriptures so dogmatic about this matter of the believer’s freedom from the law? Legalism would rob Christ of the glory of his grace. Legalism would rob the believer of the joy of faith, the joy of assurance, and the joy of all service to Christ. Legalism would rob the world of the hope of salvation. If salvation depends upon something done by man, then all men must forever perish without hope. Blessed be God, that is not the case. “Salvation is of the Lord!” “By grace are ye saved!” ”So, then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy!”

    “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31). The only way any sinful man can honor the law is by faith in Christ. Christ fulfilled the law in the room and stead of his people. We, believing on him, fulfil the law by faith.