Galatians 4:28
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
Truth to Learn
We are the children of God through believing what He tells us in the Bible and works of the flesh add nothing to that.
Behind the Words
The New Testament was written in Greek, which was the predominant language of the
Most of the books of the New Testament were originally written and sent as circulating letters called epistles, which were passed from one church to the next. As a church received a letter they would make a copy of it to keep and pass the original on to the next church. Since most of the originals and early copies were written on papyrus, which becomes very fragile over time, all of the originals (referred to as autographs) and early copies have disappeared. Most of the copies that exist today were written on vellum (animal skin) or other more durable material. Today there are more than 4000 copies or fragments of the writings of the New Testament dating from as early as the fourth century AD.
Scribes who made the copies were very meticulous in copying the text exactly as it appeared in the version they were copying. Whether intentional or not, occasionally a single letter or word was changed in the copying process. In some cases entire words were added or left out. As a result, of the copies that exist today, there is a variation in the text of some verses (referred to as variant readings). Though these differences exist, few if any, have any significant effect on the major doctrines of the New Testament.
An example of a variant reading is found in the beginning of Galatians 4:28. In most texts the first word in the Greek for this verse is hēmeis, which means “we,” although a few texts have it as humeis, meaning “you.” As can be seen, the difference between whether Paul was saying “we” or “you” is insignificant, since he was referring to Christians.
Meaning Explained
Paul here makes his first conclusion from the allegory between Ishmael and Isaac. In verse 23 he told us that Ishmael was born according to flesh. He was produced by fleshly acts on the part of Abram and Sarai (through Hagar). Ishmael was the result of them doing things which they judged to be necessary to produce the result they were seeking. Isaac, on the other hand, was born according to the promise. He was produced by faith, faith that God would produce the promised son through Abram and Sarai. He was not the result of them doing, but believing.
According to Paul we, like Isaac, are children of promise; that is, our spiritual birth is a result of our believing what God tells us in His Word, not from performing any acts or actions with our body of flesh. Hence, the teaching of the false teachers in the Galatian churches must be wrong, since it indicates that salvation is, at least in part, dependent on keeping the Law of Moses.
Application
If our spiritual birth which makes us the children of God is based solely on faith, why would it be necessary for us to improve on that relationship through works?
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2008 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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