Classic Baptist federalism (Nehemiah Coxe), the breakfast of champions: After reading the context (Galatians 4:21-31), you will observe that the allegory insisted on by the apostle is grounded on the historical verity that Abraham had a twofold seed. 1. One proceeded from him according to the ordinary course and by the strength of nature; the other was produced by virtue of a promise. The one was Ishmael by Hagar, a bond-woman; the other was Isaac by Sarah, a free-woman. 2. The bond-woman and her son had the precedence in time of conception and birth to the free-woman and her son. 3. In the process of time the son of the bond-woman who was born after the flesh persecutes the son of the free-woman who was born after the Spirit; that is, in the virtue of the promise. Because of this the bond-woman and her son are cast out of the family and Isaac remains there as the only heir of his fathers blessing. The apostle affirms that these things were ordered by God in a typical relationship to gospel times and applies them as follows. Hagar was a type of Mount Sinai and the legal covenant established there. Ishmael was a type of the carnal seed of Abraham under that covenant. Sarah was a type of the new Jerusalem, the gospel church founded on the covenant of grace. Isaac was a type of the true members of that church who are born of the Spirit, being converted by the power of the Holy Spirit for the fulfilling of the promise of the Father to the Jesus Christ the mediator. And the ejection of Hagar and Ishmael was to prefigure the abrogation of the Sinaitic covenant and the dissolving of the Jewish church-state so that the inheritance of spiritual blessings might be clearly passed down to the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:23:58 +0000
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