Grace 101: Week 9, “Sonship Born of the Spirit”
When we read the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry, the most important thing for us as New Covenant believers to see is that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. He is compassionate, loving, and merciful. Hebrews 1:3 - And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. Jesus went about doing good and healing all who came to Him. He never put a requirement on anyone before they received a miracle. He loved with open arms and showed us a beautiful picture of our Father. If you want to know the will of the Father, look at Jesus who was always healing, always delivering, always multiplying.
4:21-23 In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul brings home his point about removing all semblance of the law from the church by using more symbolism. This time he contrasts Sarah and Hagar, two important women in Abraham’s life, as representing grace and law. To understand Galatians 4, we must take a look at the context of the symbolism that Paul is using. If we gloss over the words and we don’t look back at the story of these two women and their sons, we will miss the richness of the truth that Paul is taking pains to explain. When we read that Sarah represents grace and Hagar represents law, we are reading a letter written to people who knew the scriptures. They had a wealth of knowledge that enabled them to grab hold of what Paul was saying when he got to the main command, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son!” Paul had preached the Gospel to the Galatians at some point in the past. The problem with the Galatians was that they believed in Jesus, but because of some Judaizers who were bringing the law into the church, the Galatians had begun to believe that they would grow spiritually, be blessed, and become holy by keeping the law. Paul is addressing this when he says, Galatians 4:21-23 - Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise... The “bondwoman” is Hagar. The “freewoman” is Sarah. The son of the bondwoman is Ishmael. And the son of the freewoman is Isaac. Sarah was the lawful wife of Abraham whom God promised to be the father of many nations. His descendants would be as the sand on the seashore and as many as the stars in the sky, but Sarah was barren. The years passed with no baby. So she went to her husband and told him to go to her servant girl, Hagar, and try to get some descendants. Perhaps God’s promise could come true this way - as if God needed help. Abraham didn’t complain. He slept with Hagar and they brought forth Ishmael. Ishmael is describe by Paul as the son “born according to the flesh.” Ishmael was born out of Abraham’s self-effort. At 86, Abraham was still able to father children naturally and was still “fruitful” even if it was by his own self-effort. The lesson for us: don’t ever fall for the lie that “success” means you are walking in God’s plan! What some people call “fruit” could be the result of striving. If your success is born out of self-effort, you will have to maintain it by self-effort. Anything that you get by self-effort brings insecurity because you have yourself - and no one else - to be the one responsible to maintain it. 118