Free in Christ

Toward a New Creation
A World Gone Wrong

God Set Things  Right

Galatians 4:28-5:1  The Message

^21-31 Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human connivance; the son of the free woman was born by God’s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem—a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother—this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:

Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,
    shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,
Because the children of the barren woman
    now surpass the children of the chosen woman.

Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless connivance (Ishmael) harassed the child who came—empowered by the Spirit—from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: “Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.” Isn’t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

The Life of Freedom

5 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

For Reflection

We, who believe in a God of Grace, who worship the God of unexpected blessings, who live in the Holy Spirit who resides within us, are children of promise.  We are not slaves to spiritual laws.  We, through Jesus Christ, have been freed to follow the only law that matters, to love God and others.  Those that  use spiritual law against you maliciously have not fully understood or accepted the full meaning of the Son of God.  Without love, forgiveness and compassion, the law is barren, a useless artifact of an archaic past.

Pray

That you will live a righteous life as illustrated by the life of Christ.  Pray that you will practice humility, Christian hospitality, forgiveness as a loving witness to the resurrected Christ and to the grace of God.