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Skip Heitzig: The New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem he is speaking about, which is a future literal city we read about in the book of Revelation, corresponds to the New Covenant, the covenant of grace that comes by faith.

A couple interesting things: the Arabs refer to Mount Sinai as "the rock," and the name Hagar in Arabic means rock. Also, her descendant Ishmael and his descendants settled in the area of Sinai. It was the area from which they came.

But if you go back to the book of Genesis where you had Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, Hagar was the slave of the free woman, Sarah. And so he's making this all an allegory of the bondage that comes by the law, which corresponds to Hagar, the slave of the free woman who bore the son of the promise, Isaac. So he's making an analogy that way.

In verse 27 is just a very interesting verse because it's a quote out of Isaiah 54. Now, Isaiah 54 comes after Isaiah 53. Very good. You've passed your math classes. And as you know, Isaiah chapter 53 is all about that atoning work of the Messiah. He was bruised, wounded for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. It's all about the suffering Messiah.

Well, the suffering Messiah of Isaiah 53, according to Paul here, he sees Isaiah 54 as speaking of, in regards to the heavenly Jerusalem when he says, "Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear; break forth and shout, you who do not travail; for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband." He is speaking about the number of people who will be saved in the New Covenant as opposed to the old.

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. When Hagar got pregnant, even though Sarah told her husband, "Get her pregnant, let's have a kid together through her," as soon as Hagar got pregnant, Sarah got jealous, got all up in her face, and just exhibited an ongoing jealousy against Hagar because she got pregnant and Sarah was unable to.

And then once Ishmael was born and then eventually, miraculously, when Isaac was born, there was a rivalry between the two boys. Ishmael was 13 years older than Isaac, and when Isaac was weaned in Genesis chapter 21, they threw a feast for him celebrating the fact that he is now becoming a young child after being weaned as an infant.

So they had a party for him and at that party, the older brother Ishmael started mocking Isaac. And Sarah looked over and saw this older kid, not hers, but Hagar's son, mocking her son. And she said to Abraham, "Cast the bondwoman out. Get her out of this house."

And Abraham was just kvetching over that like, "I can't do that. That's my son too." And God came to Abraham and said, "Listen to your wife." That could be a word for some of you men tonight. Listen to your wife. And God said, "Don't worry, I'm going to take care of him. I'm going to make him a great nation." And God did, a very numerous nation.

But that is what he'll also refer to here. "We are, as Isaac was, we are the children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh was then persecuted, persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now." Still to this day, unbelievers mock people of faith. Even to this day, legalistic people mock people of faith, which is really the greater point that Paul is making. Even so it is now.

Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Now he's quoting Sarah out of Genesis 21: "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. All of that is just a spiritual allegory that Paul brings out to draw the comparison between the Old Covenant of the law and the New Covenant of grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. That sort of unravels that passage.

So the New Covenant is very different from the Old Covenant. You say, "Well, what does the Old Testament require?" Actually, that is summed up by one of the minor prophets, the prophet Micah in chapter 6, verse 8: "He has shown you, O man, what the Lord does require of you: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

So first of all, God requires that you do or you practice justice, righteousness. You just act righteously, just keep all the law. And you go, "Well, oops." Okay, so I don't like the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? Well, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said this: "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

And you read that and you go, "Okay, so I'm not batting very well here. I mean, I got two strikes: Old Testament, New Testament." So what is God's actual requirement in the New Testament then for me? Here it is. Because you can't do either of those. Believe. They came to Jesus one day and they said, "What must we do to work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom God has sent." That's the work: believe. If you believe in the one God has sent, you have fulfilled the work that God requires. This is the work of God: believe in him whom he has sent.

So that is a huge difference between the Old and New Covenant. Now, chapter 5: "Stand fast therefore." Stand immovable. Stand in confidence. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." You know what a yoke is, right? A yoke is a steering device for an animal. It was a piece of wood, a crossbeam that went across the back of the neck of two oxen. Underneath that wooden beam was a metal connector that went under the chin and it fastened the two animals together so they could do work on the farm, on the ranch, they could plow a plow, pull a plow.

But it made it very difficult for an animal to eat. An animal could not readily bend its neck. They could just march forward. So they were imprisoned in the yoke, but that's how you got stuff done is by putting your animals under the yoke. So here he refers to the law as a yoke. It'll steer you in the right direction, but man, is it uncomfortable. And you are not free.

Now, Jesus came along and he said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am lowly and gentle. You'll find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light." It's not like the yoke you were used to keeping.

In the book of Acts chapter 15, that council of Jerusalem that I keep referring to—by the way, it is one of the most important chapters in the Bible because it's dealing with this—when the Judaizers went up to Antioch and said, "You have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses," when they had the council of Jerusalem, Peter is the one who first stood up.

And he said to the Judaizers, "Why do you test God by putting on these Gentiles a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were ever able to bear? You've lived your whole life, I've lived my whole life," said Peter, "with this yoke that we couldn't bear, we couldn't keep, we couldn't perform." So Jesus comes along and says, "Take my yoke upon you. It's easy, my burden is light."

So he's telling these believing Gentiles in Galatia, "Stand fast in the liberty and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." Think of this. He's saying to them, "You've been freed from paganism." They were not Jewish. They were garden-variety pagans in Galatia. They had a worship system of different deities, different gods. They were delivered from that false idolatry and ideology. You've been freed from paganism. Why would you become now entangled in legalism? You're going from one slavery to another form of slavery, from one yoke to another form of a yoke. Don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Verse 2: "Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." Now, you have to understand, he is not denouncing circumcision per se. He's denouncing circumcision as a means to be right with God. Do you get the difference? I have to be circumcised, I have to keep the law, then I'll be accepted by God. That's what he's denouncing. Now, how do I know that? Because did you know that Paul told Timothy to get circumcised?

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. When you give to this ministry, you help reach thousands of people every day with God's life-changing truth, encouraging them to know him, trust him, and walk in his freedom.

And this month, we want to thank you with a special resource package. You'll receive Skip's book Biography of God, which helps you explore God's nature, his power, the mystery of the Trinity, and the hope that comes from removing the false limitations we sometimes place on him. Plus, you'll get Skip's six-message CD series, Expound Galatians, where Skip unpacks the book of Galatians and the freedom believers have through grace, not works.

Your gift today helps bring the life-changing message of Jesus to people around the world through Connect with Skip. Request your resources when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: If you recall the story in Acts chapter 16, Paul is going through the area, he meets Timothy, leads him to Christ. This young believing half-Jew, half-Gentile kid is growing in his faith. His dad was an unbelieving Greek, his mother was a believing Jewess. He was uncircumcised and everybody knew that his father was a Greek. And Paul knew that if he brings Timothy with him because everybody knew Timothy in that region, that his dad's an unbeliever, that Paul would have no inroad to preach the gospel into the Jewish synagogues of Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch of Pisidia.

He needed to get the circumcision done just so he could go into the synagogue and preach the gospel to the Jew. Otherwise, they wouldn't even listen to him. So he had it done as a means to an end to spread the gospel of grace. So he's not down on circumcision per se, but that necessary act of circumcision in order to be made right with God.

And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You see, when you get circumcised, "Okay, I'm going to keep, I'm going to do what God wants me to do. So I'm first going to get circumcised," you are entering into a whole new set of obligations.

Do you know how many commandments the Jews say there are in the Old Testament? Some of you know, 613. If you're saying, "I'm going to live by the law," okay, you got to know what those 613 are so that you know if you've broken one today. And you've already broken a bunch, guaranteed. So you can't pick and choose which ones you like and don't like. "Oh, I like that one. I'll do that commandment. I don't like that one." It's not a smorgasbord religion here.

If you're going to get under the law, you're going through now a whole set of duties and performances that you have to keep. You're a debtor to keep the whole law. It's a unit. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. He's not saying you've lost your salvation. Grace here doesn't equal salvation. Grace is the means by which you attain salvation. You've fallen from the platform by which God makes people righteous, which is the platform of grace.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. You should probably know that that little phrase "eagerly wait for the hope" is mentioned five times in the New Testament and all the other times, it's a reference to the Second Coming of Christ, the return of Christ for us.

So when Jesus comes for us, you will be made perfectly actually righteous. Until then, he declares you, that's justification, as righteous. Right? So we have a declaration now, we'll have an actualization then. We're justified now, we'll be glorified then. So the idea is that event. We through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

In this New Covenant, Paul says, "If you've gotten circumcised, okay, no big deal. If you're uncircumcised, okay, no big deal. Either one of them doesn't matter. Neither one of them is a requirement." So uncircumcision or circumcision avails nothing but faith working through love.

To Paul in this verse, faith is the root of your salvation. Love is the fruit of your salvation. If your life is lived by faith, that's the root that is put into the soil of grace. If your root, faith, is put into the soil of grace, out of your life will come fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, as he will say, first on the list. So the root produces the fruit: faith working through love.

Verse 7: "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you." Now, he's referring here now to the Olympic race, the footrace. You ran well. You know, one of Paul's favorite analogies for the Christian experience was running the race.

1 Corinthians 9:24: "Don't you know that all who run in a race, all of them run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain the prize. For he who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. And they do it for a perishable crown, we do it for an imperishable crown." So he would often compare the Christian experience as a race, running the race.

"I press," in Philippians, "toward the mark of the high call in Christ Jesus." Speaking of a runner on the footrace running toward the marble column at the end of the stadium. He's got his eye on that pillar. In Acts chapter 20, when people are telling him that he's going to die when he goes to Jerusalem, he says, "None of these things move me. Neither do I count my life dear unto myself that I might finish my race with joy. I'm running a race. My eye's on the prize. I'm stretching forward to do what God wants me to do every day, every hour, every minute. Don't care if I live or die, because I'm going to die anyway someday."

So these things don't move me. Now, at the end of his life, he's in Rome, he's in prison, he's in the Mamertine prison, he dictates a letter, his last letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy. And he knows the end is near. And he says, "I've fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, our righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing."

So his whole life, he's running the race, running the race, eye on the prize. And he says to them, "You ran," past tense, "well. Who hindered you?" What that means is, who cut in on you on the track and made you stumble? You're running a race. Are you living your Christian life like you are or should be running a race?

Some of you are not running, you're strolling. You're meandering on the track. Your eyes are sort of on the track, but you get distracted quite easily by what's going on around you. So you're just sort of meandering on the track. You're not really running. Then there are people who act like they're runners. They buy the gym clothes, they got the best shoes, decked out in Lululemon, they're running every day. And but really, they're running when the cars are driving by them. They look like they're running when the car goes around the corner, they just start walking and meandering again. So it's an act. So you think, "Oh, it's a runner."

There are some who are not even on the track. They're just on the sidelines and they're the ones that are giving all the advice to those of us who are running the race. That happens as well. What he's talking about here are people who are cutting in on your race—the Judaizers that have come from Jerusalem and making you to second-guess your belief in Jesus, and you are stumbling on the track. You ran well. Who cut in on you? Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who called you. This whole system you're into, this is not from God.

And he sums all that up by saying, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." Leaven is yeast. Yeast is put in a batch of dough, and what happens to the dough? It gets puffed up. It gets swollen. It rises. So the leaven is what causes the dough to ferment and it causes that beautiful fluffy bread.

At Passover, the Jews are very careful to eat unleavened bread because when they were going out of Egypt, they didn't have time to prepare a meal. They just had to leave quickly and in haste. And so they made their bread without leaven so they could do it quickly and get on the road. So every year at Passover, unleavened bread is a staple ingredient in the Passover meal, and a week before, they make sure that the leaven is out of the house.

And there's even a special ritual called the Bedikat Chametz, or the search for the leaven. And a mom will take a little bit of the leavened dough and hide it in a place in the house, and it's sort of like hide-and-seek. The kids will be told, "Find the leaven, and let's throw it out. Let's cast it out so we can have an unleavened kosher household."

So because yeast, leaven, and unleavened bread are part of the whole Jewish system, this became a proverb: "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." Leaven in the scripture is sometimes seen as sin. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, there is a man who is having an incestuous relationship in the church, and the church is tolerating it. "Oh, you know, you've just got to like let people love who they love and whatever they're into." And Paul said—he rebuked them and said, "Kick him out. Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little sin causes that immorality to spread."

Sometimes leaven refers to doctrine, false teaching, as it does here. That's what Paul is referring to. Now, the example for that is in Matthew 16 when Jesus said to his disciples, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." And later on, they go, "Oh, we don't get it. Is it because we don't have enough bread? Is that why you brought that up?" And he said, "Beware of the doctrine, the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which is hypocrisy."

So Paul uses that commonly known proverb, "a little leaven leavens the whole lump," in this situation to say this: a little legalism is enough to ruin a whole congregation. A little legalism, if you let it in, will permeate and influence more and then more and then more. Pretty soon you'll have a critical group of people who are divided over every little issue. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus.

And this month, we'd love to thank you for your support by sending you a special resource bundle: Skip's book, Biography of God, along with his six-message CD series, Expound Galatians. Together, these resources help you explore who God really is and how to live in the spiritual freedom he offers. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip.

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