by Angus Harley

As much as one must labor to make theology as reader-friendly as possible, certain subjects naturally have a high difficulty factor attached to them. Hermeneutics is one of those deals. Try as one might to keep hermeneutics on an introductory level, it is sometimes necessary to go deeper. The text of Galatians 4 is a deep that forces this situation. I aim to provide three articles on Galatians 4; all of them will be deeper and more controversial than before. I will split Galatians into two sections: vv1-20 and vv21-31. These will furnish the first two articles. The third will look at controversial issues. 

The X-Y Axis

In this article, I’m going to illustrate part of Paul’s hermeneutic using an analogy from math. In math, there is the X-Y axis that is used to plot out points in a graph form. I’m borrowing this imagery, stripping it of all math meaning, and using it in my own way to shed light on Paul’s hermeneutic.

The X axis. In math, the X axis is horizontal. The typical model of Biblical Theology (BT) works on a ‘horizontal’, linear mode of chronological continuity from A to Z, as it were, from Genesis to Revelation, from the beginning of time unto the completion of redemption in the return of the Son. 

Now, we all agree the bible’s history is accurate. We also can confirm that God did his work of salvation on earth, in time, creating redemptive history. We further accept that redemption as a story is related in Genesis and goes all the way along to the book of Revelation in a historical line. We can acknowledge, too, that in Scripture that God by stages reveals his plan of salvation, and that there is therefore growth in the manifestation of redemptive ideas and concepts. Finally, it has to be asserted that all history has no proper meaning outside of God’s plan in his Son for the redemption of Abraham’s heirs.

The Y axis. The Y axis in a math graph is the vertical line. In my model it represents looking at redemption ‘vertically’, from heaven to earth, from above to below. Not from below to above. Heaven is the origin of redemption. God from above sent his Son from above. The Creator made heaven and earth. He is Lord of all. Thus, the Y axis is the dominant axis, the control. X bows to Y; Y does not bend to X. Earth, time, history, redemption, and so forth, all are ruled and governed by ‘above’. That which is below on earth bows to the Lord and Creator of all. 

Intersection. Any decent BT will describe the interaction and intersection of both axes, how heaven impacts earth, how God works in time and history, how redemption from heaven manifests itself on earth. However, what must never be forgotten in this interpretive process is that the Y axis is the superior axis. For God is Lord, and that it is from heaven that the Son and God’s redemption in him comes. Salvation is not found on earth, in below, nor is it discovered by some cooperation between below and above. Y imposes itself on X. God above imposes himself, his Son, and his plan, on earth below.

Problems arise. Most modern Biblical Theologies run into a major problem, however. They effectively make the X axis the control, rendering the horizontal nature of redemptive history the key factor. And because their thinking is controlled by the X axis, they end up giving to it a positive organic content. 

What does this look like? In previous articles, I demonstrated this weakness by pointing out how the Law of Moses is seen as a being in a straight-line of positivity that starts with a Garden Covenant, moves to Abraham’s Covenant, then on to the Mosaic Covenant. All are considered positive salvifically speaking. Progressive Covenantalism (PC) takes this approach. Some approaches to Reformed Theology (RT) say this line of positive historical-continuity concerning covenants is bound by yet another two covenants (the Covenant of Redemption and the Covenant of Grace). The above theological models pay no attention to covenant as a redemptive concept imposed from above (the X axis), and because it is redemptive, it could not exist prior to the Fall. Nor do they see that the Law, rather than being inserted as yet another organic stage in the line of positive history, was given for one purpose: to expose sin. It had no hands-on role in conveying grace or promise. None whatever! And, more to the point, it was a ‘pure’ negative. The Law functioned in this way as part of God’s redemptive plan imposed from above. Not that the Law was redemptive, but that it was necessary for it to be, so that the heirs of Abraham would see their need of faith and the Christ.

A final example is found in Dispensational Theology (DT). It follows a straight-line of positive continuity from the Seed in Genesis 3 unto Abraham and his Seed, then on to Israel the nation (the seed of Abraham), and from there onto Jesus and the New Covenant. Abraham’s seed are configured in the form of Israel of the flesh, and this is the control. Jesus is then read to be Jewish-Jesus creating a Jewish kingdom. Scarily, DT’s approach is exactly the same hermeneutical method that PC and RT uses: the appropriation of linear history in a positive and organic form to ‘prove’ its thesis.

The Law’s bondage

Previous articles have already shown that Paul’s view of the Law is that it brought Abraham’s heirs into bondage. Galatians 4 teaches the exact same model, and then some. As this article is about the X-Y axes, I will demonstrate the difference between the PC interpretation of Galatians 4:1-3 and the NCT one.

Fill in the blank. Using the linear model of PC, fill in the blank at the end of v3:

“1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children….”

Using PC’s positive hermeneutic, how might it complete Paul’s thought? Perhaps with something like this: ‘…while we were children under the Law, we were managed by our guardian who led us eventually to Jesus.’ 

Now, let us complete Paul’s actual thought:

“So also we, while we were children, were held in

bondage under the elemental things of the world.”

Not a hint of positivity is found here. Bondage is the sole theme. Also, it is rather puzzling that the Law is associated with the “elemental things” (but we’ll come to this theme shortly).

Re-interpreting the text according to the Y axis. It is assumed by PC that 4:2 and its references to “guardians and managers” are relating positive aspects to the Law’s role. But, this verse is sandwiched between two verses (vv1 & 3) that strongly describe the Law in negative language. Isn’t Paul’s explicit testimony in v1, “Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything”? Slavery, bondage! It is highly unlikely, therefore, that epitropos indicates a ‘guardian’, which is a very positive image. The two other times epitropos is used in the NT, it indicates a foreman (Matt.20:8) and a steward (Luke 8:3). Most likely, both these usages imply a form of servitude, and, most likely, slavery (some slaves were highly skilled). Certainly, the thought of guardianship is absent. Paul’s logic is rather plain: the heir, as long as he is a child, is essentially slave-like. This was the status of Abraham’s heirs “under the Law.” There was no positive organic link between the Law and sonship, or between the Law and inheritance. The one completely contrasted to the other. Not unless we are going to say that freedom is organically and positively united to, and the extension of, bondage, or Sonship the extension of slavery!

Bondage to elemental things

Religion on the X axis is solely elemental, and therefore negative, in nature. The issue of the Galatians being bound to elemental things (stoichea) forces us into yet another level of difficulty. For, Paul is arguing that the X axis of human history is not in itself a positive. Indeed, the whole of human history is a negative, for the world is a sinful and wicked place controlled (stoichea) by elemental religious practices that the flesh (sarx) indulges in. This world cannot produce a straight-line of grace continuity. There is nothing of Y in X, nothing of redemption and salvation found in this world and its elemental religion.

The Law is elemental in nature. Paul writes:

“1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.”

“We” here is referring to all of Abraham’s heirs, Jews and Gentiles. Galatians 3 has already amply testified that the Law held Abraham’s heirs under bondage. Now, this raises the issue of whether Gentiles were actually under Moses’ Law. The brief answer is they were not; but I’ll come back to this theme in another article. For the moment, the sole concern is that the Mosaic Law was a form of elemental religion that held Abraham’s heirs in bondage. Later, in 4:8-10, Paul describes the Gentile version of this elemental religion:

“8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

What was the Law riddled with? Observation of days, months, seasons, and years – a point we will come back to. Moreover, Paul confirms the Law-elemental equation:

“how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”

They were formerly enslaved to the pagan ‘flavor’ of the elementals; now they are enslaved to the Jewish version.

Colossians 2. The same theology is found in Colossians 2:

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world….14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us….16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head….20 If you have died with Christ [to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

Paul extends the range of the elementals here to include philosophy and empty religion. He pinpoints it, too, as “decrees against us”. This, as many commentators note, is probably the Mosaic Law, given that Paul goes on to speak about the Jewish abcs of religion: food, drink, festivals, new moons, sabbath days, angels, commands to do this and to not do that. Let us not forget that Galatians 3:19 refers to the Law coming through angels via a man, Moses. All of this was fleshly religion of the world, according to Paul.

Elemental and fleshly because of the X axis. The usual counter-response to this reading is that God gave the Law to Moses. Yes, he did. No one disputes this. However, Paul is not interested in looking at salvation from the perspective of the X axis, from the point of view of the elemental world. God used the X axis and its penchant for bringing men into sin by inserting the Law as a magnifying glass of sorts. That is why Paul distances both God and Christ from the Mosaic Law in the book of Galatians, and, instead, unites it to the angels and to a mediator and his “hand”. The OT religion of Moses and his Law was riddled with cherubim and angels. God was hidden behind all that ‘stuff’ and its countless layers of commandments that separated and distanced the Abrahamic heirs further and further from God. Paul takes that fact and simply extends it to say that the Law-covenant was in itself contrary to direct access to God and to his redemption. It got in the way of those things. More to the point, this same Law that got in the way, was, properly speaking, given to magnify sin not the promise. As argued throughout, the X axis is fleshly and worldly, and the Law of Moses fitted right into that system, given the Law’s purpose and makeup.

Contrasting times

Battle of time or ages. BT that revolves around the X axis portrays history, or time, in a positive light, as the vehicle for a straight-line of redemptive continuity. Redemption is found ‘within’ that historical narrative. Yet, this is deceptive: redemption comes into human history from above, but does not actually, by its nature, belong to history’s system of elemental religion. Salvation is from above and bursts into this world, its elemental religion, and its religious times, as an invading force. Time that naturally belongs to this world is characterized exclusively by the flesh and sin. However, God’s timeline, his plan, is imposed from above onto below. It is an invasion of the Y axis and its time into the X axis and its time. We’ll keep to Galatians 4:1-14:

1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. 8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. 12 I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong; 13 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time….

Although Abraham’s promise was given to Abraham within human history, in time in this fallen world of the X axis, it was the invasion of God’s promise, its imposition from above, of the Y axis, that issued according to his timeline, his plan from above. That is why the Son was “sent forth” to be “born of a woman, born under the Law”, for he did not belong to either state (human or the Law). He came from above to below. Salvation from the realm of the ages unto ages imposes itself, its hallmark, its stamp, upon fallen human history. It bullies it, and creates a new history, one of redemption from above.

‘What about history before the Fall?’ My reading will be challenged on the basis that history clearly begins with creation, incorporating Adam and Eve before the Fall. This was not history marred by sin, by the elementals. Paul then goes on, in a normal type of history, it will be said, to refer to the Abrahamic promise and to Jesus.

If we read history in the way typically practiced in the world, from the first second to the present, then the above objections are valid. Yet, non-Christians perceive history in a non-redemptive, non-promissory, non-faith, non-Christ manner. Regular history of textbooks is a series of seconds, persons, and events. Paul is not at all coming at time and history from that perspective; he is not using a second-by-second model of history as a kind of blank canvass for painting on the history of redemption. Paul understands history from perspective of the ascended Christ. The new aeon of the ages of ages came about through Christ and his crucifixion and ascension. Human history is not a blank canvass waiting to be filled. It is a history of black and dark figures and events, fleshliness and rebellion. It is filled with times, days, seasons, and elemental religion of the flesh. Bursting into this dark picture, coming from above, from the ages of ages, is redemption, its promise, its faith, and its Christ. These now become the redemptive ‘color’ in an otherwise repulsively dark, black, and gloomy painting. For God injects into elemental and fallen history contrary events: the promise, faith, and the Son from above. They indeed participate in the fallen world, but not as just more characters or events in a line of history, but as interlopers, invaders, bringing spiritual warfare to this world and its history. The plan of God and timing from above invaded the ‘time and history’ of fallen man below.

Concluding thoughts

I am aware readers will not be familiar with thinking in the above ways. I have tried as best as I can to express that which is complex as reader-friendly as possible. I hope the reader will not be put off, but perhaps read this article further times until the model clicks in.

What to grasp is that God’s salvation is not from below, not from the world of elemental religion and human history as such. Human time and religion is elemental, fleshly, and fallen. God had to, therefore, to save Abraham’s heirs, impose a new timeline, a new history, a new order from above, that did indeed use fallen time and its elemental order, but in the process broke its enslaving power as found in the Law.