(Read Galatians 4:28-31)
This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing to look at The Law given under Moses vs. the Grace provided by Jesus. In yesterday’s message Paul gave us a great analogy, using the two mothers of Abraham’s children to illustrate the Old and New Covenants. In today’s passage Paul continues to flow in the same vein.
Speaking to the believers in Galatia, and continuing with the analogy of Abraham’s two wives, Paul said, “You, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac.” So that there is no confusion, Paul clearly states that we, as New Covenant believers, are just like Isaac, the promised child of God, born of a free woman, by God’s Grace. Paul continues, “But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.” Wow. Paul compares the animosity and persecution Isaac faced from Ishmael — a strife which remains today in the rift between Muslims and Israelites — to the animosity and persecution Grace-centered believers were facing from Law-centered believers. I don’t know why, but Law-centered believers have a dogged determination to force people to live under The Law. When the message of Grace is preached, in it’s purest form, they fight it because they seemingly can’t stand the freedom it offers. But we don’t get to come up with what the Bible says. The Bible is clear (at least to me anyway) that salvation comes by Grace, through faith, and not by human effort.
Paul goes on to say, “But what do the Scriptures say about that?” Paul was referring to Ishmael here. Paul gives the answer and says, “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” When the rift between Ishmael and Isaac t so bad that there was no peace in Abraham’s home, Abraham got rid of Ishmael and his mother. This is a natural story of something that really happened and that we can all understand. And this is the analogy Paul chooses to illustrate the fate of the Old Testament. Paul continued and said, “So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.” Are you a child of the free woman, who remained after the split, and who enjoyed the Blessing? Or are you a child of the slave woman, who caused the strife, and who wound up outside of the Blessing?
So what does this mean to you today? Let’s seek to glean a few golden nuggets:
1. Paul likens the Old Covenant to Hagar and Ishmael, a slave woman and her son born of human effort.
2. Paul likens the New Covenant to Sarah and Isaac, Abraham’s freeborn wife and her son born by God’s Grace and supernatural power.
3. Ishmael had problems with Isaac and those problems still remain today in the rift between Muslims and Israelites. Likewise, Law-minded believers had problems with Grace-minded believers in Paul’s day and the issues still remain today as Law-minded believers attempt to get Grace-minded believers to live under the Law of Moses.
4. Sarah and Isaac represent God’s free gift of Grace. Hagar and Ishmael represent the bondage of the Law. You choose whom you want to associate with. Paul calls Ishmael “the child born by human effort,” and Isaac “the child born by the power of the Spirit.” I don’t know about you, but I choose Isaac.
5. There came a point when Hagar and Ishmael were asked to leave. Likewise, the Bible says, “By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear” (Hebrews 8:13). Do you want to live by the Covenant that is obsolete and outdated (The Old Covenant of the Law) or by the Covenant that came through Jesus the Christ (Grace)? The choice is yours. As for me and my household, we shall accept God’s amazing Grace and seek to pursue it by faith.
Closing Confession: Father, the more I read Your Word concerning Your New Covenant of Grace, the more convinced I get that this is Your Will for me. I don’t want to live by human effort. I know human effort is limited and flawed. I want to live by Your Supernatural power and I know Your power can only flow by Your Grace. You don’t use me Supernaturally because I am so good. You use me Supernaturally because You are so good. You want to perform miracles, signs and wonders in the earth today. You want to extend heaven to the earth and allow people to see and experience the Supernatural. But that does not come by human effort or because we have earned it. You don’t manifest Your power because I have prayed enough, or because I have studied hard enough. You manifest Your power when I have the faith to believe that You can do the impossible, and I then get out of the way and let You do it THROUGH me. So Father, by faith I declare that I shall access Your Grace to do the impossible in the earth. I expand my capacity to believe You. I take off every limit I have ever placed on You, my limitless God, and I welcome You, I even beg You, to manifest the Supernatural through me. Not because I am so good, because You know I am not. But because of Your Grace. You deal with me by Grace, I deal with You by faith, and together we shall make a divine difference here in the earth! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
