Galatians 4:28 - Exposition

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise ( ἡμεῖς δέ , ἀδελφοί κατὰ ἰσαακ ἐπαγγελίας τέκνα ἐσμέν [or, ὑμεῖς δέ ... ἐστέ ]); now we (or, now ye ), brethren , after the mariner of Isaac , are children of promise. In the Greek text it is uncertain whether we should read ἡμεῖς ... ἐσμέν or ὑμεῖς .., ἐστέ , "we are" or "ye are." The only difference is that "ye are" would more directly thrust upon the attention of the Galatians the conclusion, which "we are" would express in a more general form. "After the manner of Isaac;" κατὰ as in Ephesians 4:24 , τὸν κατὰ θεὸν κτισθέντα : 1 Peter 1:15 , κατὰ τὸν καλέσαντα : Lamentations 1:12 , Septuagint, ἄλγος κατὰ τὸ ἄλγος μοῦ . The apostle is viewing Isaac as in the manner of his being brought into being, the type, to which the children of the mystic freewoman were in after ages to be assimilated. In both cases the children are born or begotten through a promise which God of his own free grace hath given, and which, by an accepting faith, is appropriated and made effectual. Thus Isaac was born. The children of the supernal Jerusalem are begotten through the gospel, which in effect is a promise of adoption through Christ to be children of God held out to all who will accept it. Obviously the cases differ in this—that in one it was the faith of the parents which made the promise effectual; in the other, the faith of those who in consequence of believing become children. But none the less is it true that the result is due to an announcement proceeding out of God's own free grace—"Not of works but of him that calleth" ( Romans 9:7-13 ; comp. John 1:12 , John 1:13 ; 1 Corinthians 4:15 ; James 1:18 ; 1 Peter 1:23 ). The "promise" is not the parent of the children; this, in the imagery now present to the apostle's mind, is in the antitypal case the mystic Freewoman. The genitive "of promise" is a genitive of qualification, pointing here to the means through which the children are begotten. Compare a somewhat similarly loose use of the genitive in Romans 9:8 , "Not the children of the flesh.., but the children of the promise." The case of baptized infants is not in the apostle's view.