Showing posts with label bondwoman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bondwoman. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

A change in covenants: From bad news to good news!

I'm going to speak in general here, but under the Old Covenant, prophets would be sent out now and then to point out how the people were failing to follow God's commandments, and to proclaim the judgment that was awaiting them if they didn't repent of their evil deeds and start doing right.

There is no such bad-news prophet 'office' in the New Covenant! We got a taste of the change when the angels appeared to the shepherds with a brand new message, all focused around the Savior of the world, and no longer focused on what had condemned the world (the law).

Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

A stark change from the message of "change your ways or suffer the consequences!"

The law had done its job - death and condemnation. However, "when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5).

No longer is the message, "change your ways so that you won't be punished." That's bad news! The reason it's bad news is because there is none righteous, no not one. There is no one who can ever change their ways in a way that satisfies God! The new message, the message of the gospel (good news) is this: "Having been justified [made righteous] by faith [not by turning from bad behavior to good behavior], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom 5:1-2).

The Old Covenant gave birth to bondage! There is nothing about the Old Covenant that is good for us. Nothing! Cast out the bondwoman (the Old Covenant) and her son (the bondage that comes from the Old Covenant)! We are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Gal 5:1).

Saturday, August 02, 2008

In order to be free, there's a certain thing you need to get out of your life...

Gal 4:21-5:1
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:

"Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage!