Galatians 5:13-26 Serve in Love!

Galatians 5:13-26  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. 

In the above focus,  Paul warns the believers to beware of the tendency of their flesh, for they had just recently transitioned from living by the dictates of the flesh and not by the power of God by which they now live.  The former is one of bondage to the evil one and the latter is freedom under the Spirit of God.  The flesh (their old nature) desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  These two natures are as far away from each other as the east is from the west.  The fruits of the old nature are many: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  Under the control of this evil nature, societies need police, regulators, patrols, armies, laws, and so on to keep mankind civilized, working in harmony with a modicum of peacefulness and quietness.  Without such controls, civilization is faced with chaos and destruction.  The devil’s intentions for men and women is to destroy them, to take away God’s creation from him.  The personality God planned for his creation was his nature:  love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  No controls or supervision are needed when people function within the fruit of the Spirit.  Men and women have been made to be free.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1)  Paul is telling them very directly that their old nature is detrimental to their new life.  The old nature runs contrary to their born-again spirit.  The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  Appeasing the old nature will lead to death, not life.  The old nature is not in right standing with a righteous and holy God. Therefore, if their intentions are to abide in the fruit of the flesh, their souls are in jeopardy.  As Paul said earlier in this letter, get rid of Hagar and Ishmael in your life.  Do away with the old works of your flesh; set yourself free from the works of the law, for your born-again life is a gift from God, just as Isaac was a gift to Abraham and Sarah.  Ishmael came about because Abraham and Sarah planned it, but man’s efforts will not satisfy the demands on sinful flesh of complete holiness.  Ishmael would never please God, for he was the work of the flesh and not of God.  Only Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Spirit of God would please God and his requirement on humans: complete holiness, a sinless life.  Paul is telling the Galatians, walk in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, not in the ways of the flesh, for the latter will lead to death, the former to eternal life.

What lifestyle is evident when people are walking in the Spirit and not in their flesh, no longer under condemnation but under the assurance that they are safely in God’s family?  What makes us no longer under bondage to sin, not indulging in sinful matters, but instead fixated on loving others, especially those in the family of God?  Paul says, you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love covers a multitude of sins.  Righteous living under the auspices of love satisfies God’s demands on humans for HE IS LOVE.  A self-willed life will be judged.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  (2 Corinthians 5:8-10)  People after their born-again experience ought to be invested in doing the works of God.  They should be displaying the fruit of the Spirit, emulating the very nature of God.  All Christians will face the Lord and give an account of how they displayed him in their redeemed nature.  This judgement does not involved the eternal designation of the soul, for that  judgement has been won at the cross, through faith in the Lord’s work.  Righteousness (right standing with God) is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.  (Romans 3:22-25)  But an accounting of how one lives his or her redemptive life will be assessed.  Paul is telling the Galatians to stay far away from living by the constructs of the old nature, for the benefits are few and will lead to sorrow for failing to edify the world through imaging God to everyone.  Serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  The Bible says, obedience is better than sacrifice.  Throwing off the old nature because of loving God is better that going through the rituals of a religious  life.  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit,  just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  (Ephesians 4:1-6)  Paul wants followers of Christ to live in peace and cooperation with each other, for that is the nature of the family of God. Jesus was one with his Father.  He lived in absolute peace with his Father, willing to submit himself to God.  We too are to live in a spirit of submission or servanthood to others.  Jesus demonstrated this by washing the feet of his disciples.  He washed everyone of his disciples' feet that day, and told them that this kind of servanthood should be their nature, regardless of their stature in the world, rich to poor, poor to rich.  If people are unwilling to express servanthood love to everyone, they might consider who is deserving of their love and turn to their fleshly evaluation of others.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.  The greatest light that has ever come to a dark world is Jesus Christ, and He was a servant to all, even died for his enemies.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are asked to be lights to the world, this comes only through emulating the greatest light that has ever lived, Jesus.

Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are all expressions of light.  They also manifest God, the Father’s nature.  The Galatians by retreating back into works of the carnal mind as a way to satisfy God’s demands on their lives, were retreating to the answers of the flesh.  However, this was a great deception of the devil for he knows the flesh is susceptible to evil.  The works of the flesh always lead to the deeds of sinful humans--the weaknesses of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, and the like.  Why?  Because as Paul reveals in Romans 7, once law became pronounced in a person’s life, the weakness of the flesh becomes an active ingredient in the nature of people, working against the freedom won by Christ on the cross.  Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.  (Roman 7:9)  We see Paul in Galatian 5, fighting the nature of men and women on two fronts. First, the willingness to bring the law back into their spiritual existence, and secondly, the willingness to allow ungodly actions of the old nature into their existence.  Both will alter, even destroy, their relationship with God.  Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  (Ephesians 4:30-32)   Paul in his letter to the Galatians is emphasizing to them not to grieve the Holy Spirit, to stop their sinning, to stop their dependence on the law; instead, unite with each other in love and cooperation.  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  So Paul says, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  Law is accompanied by judgements and condemnation, determining constantly who is in the family and who is not in the family of God.  But Jesus did not come to condemn but to save.  We also ought to come to the world not in condemnation but as lights, exposing darkness as the Spirit does, but mainly as lights for those who are lost in the darkness, pointing them to a better world by encouraging them to know Jesus Christ.  All of us were once in darkness, the hopeless condition of being lost in a chaotic world that seems meaningless.  We were not righteous, better than others, even the Hitlers of the world.  We were lost in violence and turmoil, but God saved us, even the worst of us.  His kindness and generosity reached down into our lives and pulled us out of the muck that we were sinking in.  So breakfast companions, keep that focus so that you will love each other as you should.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.  (1 John 1:8-11)   Paul was desperately throwing out the lifeline of eternal salvation to the Galatians.  He did not want one of them to revert back to trying to please God through the law or to abide permanently in the works of the flesh.  His heart is felt strongly in today’s focus.  Our companions who are partaking of this breakfast, consider your lives.  Are they based on Jesus Christ and him alone.  If so, honor him by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, for surely your reward will be great when you meet YOUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.  Amen!   

Galatians 5:1-12 Love One Another!

Galatians 5:1-12  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words!  I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.  Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.  You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.  For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?  That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.  The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.  Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?  In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.  As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

In today's focus we see Paul expressing openly what happens if works enter the picture of the salvation message through Christ Jesus.  If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.  You have fallen away from grace.  Paul understood well that the only path to be right with God came through faith in the works of Jesus Christ: first the cross, then the grave, and finally the resurrection.  NO OTHER WAY will find eternal life guaranteed to humans.  Paul’s life illustrated how strongly he believed in faith as the only way to God.  May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 5:14)  Without Christ, people are lost in their sins and desperately exist as slaves to the devil, the prince of this world.  I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  (Romans 7:23)  Paul knows that even the most religious people, those who desire to do right all the time for God’s glory, are bound in slavery.  Their wish to be pleasing to God continually is betrayed by their inability to be obedient to God’s nature in every situation in life.  This weakness to do right all the time leads them into condemnation, a condition that Jesus came to deliver them from; He came not to condemn but to save.  Rather than freedom from sin, the law binds them into condemnation.  The law itself undermines their peace with God and brings them into even more bondage to sin.  Instead of being free in the household of God as children of God, they find the law has brought more slavery to them: for the law reveals clearly that they are not free from sin.  Instead of drawing people closer to God, the law alienates people from a place of peace with God.  You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ.  Why were the Galatians even considering circumcision?  They knew this was not the message Paul delivered to them when they greeted him at first with great love.  As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.  Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.  (Galatians 4:13-14)  Why now are they alienating themselves from Paul’s message of faith in Jesus Christ as the only way for Jews and Gentiles to be justified before God?  Sadly, a little leaven of another message had crept into their Christian community: circumcision.  This message was probably brought to them by either the Christian Jews or the Jewish community of Galatia.  Paul knew this leaven of circumcision and the subsequent law would destroy the message of Jesus Christ as the ONLY WAY to be right with God.  This seemed like a harmless addition to Christianity, but Paul knew this lethal message would infiltrate Christianity completely and destroy it.  That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  So Paul, who was first greeted by the Galatians as Christ himself, was now fighting a persuasion that many Galatians thought was harmless and even beneficial to the salvation message that Paul preached.  Paul understood well that this innocuous persuasion was aimed at the very heart of Christianity; consequently, he was greatly concerned.

Is the law contrary to the holiness of God?  Is it corrupt, contaminating righteousness?  No, the law reveals clearly God’s demands on people’s lives; it is good, not evil.  However, men and women for centuries never were completely able to satisfy the law and all of its regulations.  Therefore, they always were falling short of God’s perfection, his holiness and righteousness.  If men and women always fall short of God, who then can please God?  The answer of course is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of Man.  Jesus came in the likeness of man in the flesh and kept the law perfectly.  He always did the will of the Father, so perfectness, righteousness and holiness lay in him.  Therefore, all who believe in his name, his works, will be be right with God, for faith in him puts them IN CHRIST, hidden in Jesus’ goodness and not in their own weak flesh.  A good and complete work has come to Earth in the form of Jesus Christ.  Whoever believes in him (Jesus) is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  (John 3:18)  Jesus is very rigid in his demands that people must be born again to enter the kingdom of God and that there IS NO OTHER WAY to be right with God.  He tells Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up on the cross so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.  (John 3:14)  However in Galatia, Christians were trifling with this message that Christ alone brings a right relationship with an eternal God.  But true righteousness can come only through Jesus Christ.  Jesus tells people that John the Baptist was the holiest of humans, but his holiness in the flesh would fall short of the kingdom of heaven.  Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  (Matthew 11:11)  He also refers to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law’s lifestyle as righteous by following the law, obeying the commandments and observing holy days religiously.  These men were considered by people as very holy in their lifestyle and religious practices.  However, Jesus points to them and says, I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 5:20)   John the Baptist and the Pharisees and teachers of the law lived their lives as outward examples of righteous people, following God in a sacrificial manner.  But their lives of service to God would never cause them to enter the kingdom of God, for righteousness that is acceptable to God could and would only come through Jesus Christ.  They obeyed the law and its regulations, at least outwardly, and they were circumcised, fulfilling the covenant to Abraham, but their lives were not acceptable to a holy, eternal God.  To know God, they had to be born again.  They had to be new creatures to enter into a new creation, set apart for their eternal existence.  They must throw off the nature of Adam and put on the nature of Jesus Christ.  The fruit of the flesh are many, revolving around self-gratification: filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  (Romans 1:29)  The fruit of Jesus Christ who came as a servant of mankind is the opposite of the fruit of self-willed men and women:  love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  Laws and police are necessary to control men and women after the nature of Adam in the flesh.  But no laws or policemen are needed if people display the nature of the second man: Jesus Christ.  He came to change the heart.

Paul is telling the Galatians The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.  You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?  True faith in Jesus Christ and therefore in God is demonstrated through love, not circumcision or following the law.  If circumcision and the law replace faith in Jesus Christ alone, the attributes of the flesh will accompany that kind of lifestyle, for men and women are weak when functioning in their own flesh.  They will fall back into condemnation because the flesh is not obedient to keeping the whole law.  The flesh will never be perfect; Jesus said for us to be perfect as God is, for God even loves his enemies passionately.  While men were still his enemies, God gave his beloved Son to them as a sacrifice for their sins, their hatred of him.  The law will only lead to slavery to men and women’s sinful nature.  Paul tells the Galatians, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free from the law.  Christ anoints us as children of God.  God is free, so are his children.  We are now truly in the likeness of God, not just in the likeness of human beings.  Paul is encouraging the Galatians to put aside this message of circumcision as being a way to please God.  There is a better way, THE ONLY WAY, to please the eternal Father and that is through faith in Christ and his works in the flesh: dying on the cross, entering the grave, and coming out of the grave in resurrected form.  As new creatures presently still living in the flesh, our nature should be one of loving others, especially the brethren.  John expresses this love clearly in his first letter to the church.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  (1 John 4:7-12)  Our breakfast companions, how great is that.  Love will not hurt others, betray others, corrupt others, abuse others.  Love will sacrifice one’s life for the benefit of others.  Paul knows this truth.  His life was a complete sacrifice for God.  When God stopped this murderer on the road to Damascus, he struck Paul blind.  The crucible of hopelessness and fire burned into his life.  Paul thought his life was over when for three days, he lay sightless.  His life was over, finished, nothing but death lay before him.  But God had other plans for his life.  He left that grave of sightlessness as a new creature, filled with love for the world.  From that time on, he fought slavery to sin that men and women were under at a great cost to him: beatings, nakedness, stoning, whipping, starvation, coldness, loneliness, and the like.  He fought the good fight for his righteous Lord.  Now Paul is telling the Galatians, let nothing cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?  The truth is Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life.  Dear friends, do not let anything move you away from Jesus Christ only.  No other way will make you pleasing to God.  No other way will make you children of the Living God.  Only Christ and his works on the cross, in the grave, and through the resurrection.  Paul is pleading with the Galatians to keep the faith; we are pleading with you, KEEP THE FAITH IN THE ONE AND ONLY SAVIOR, CHRIST YOUR REDEEMER AND LORD!  

 

                         

   

  

Galatians 4:21-31 Be Glad!

Galatians 4:21-31  Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.  His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.  These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants.  One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.  Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.  But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.  For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”  Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.  At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.  It is the same now.  But what does Scripture say?  “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”  Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Paul is wrestling with the Galatians about some of them wanting to be circumcised in order to please God.  Circumcision is a physical verification that a person belongs to God and that God’s covenant of everlasting blessing that Abraham received will rest upon him.  Abraham was dealt with directly by God, setting him apart from all the other people on the face of the earth.  As confirmation that God has set him apart from all other people, he was to be circumcised and all of his household was to be circumcised too.  As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.  This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.  You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.  For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised.  (Genesis 17:9-12)   Now we see in Galatians, Paul struggling to keep the Galatians from binding themselves to circumcision and the law.  If they do so, they will fall into bondage to their own efforts to please God, attempting to be right with God through works.  Paul knows that Christ came to fulfill the law completely, not something that people can do in their own effort.  So if the Galatians drop back into serving God by keeping the law, it is a waste of Jesus’ divine forgiveness through the cross.  Paul understands that eternal life and being right with God is a gift of grace and mercy to people, given freely by God, for sure, not earned by man’s efforts.  The cross finished the work of being right with God.  Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, the war between God and the devil is over.  Man is no longer under the Prince of the air but under God’s mercy and grace, which comes only through the works of Jesus and none of it by the works of the flesh.  In the focus, we see Paul separating the law and its works that leads to slavery from the work of Jesus on the cross, which leads to freedom.  Paul knows the law leads to slavery and subsequent condemnation.  Because no man can keep the law completely, the law actually accentuates the works of the flesh, for the law sets a standard so high that no man can satisfy it consistently.  Holiness and righteousness come only through Jesus Christ because He is the only man who could completely satisfy the law.  The demands of the law point out the weakness of the flesh to fulfill its requirements.  Because God’s law is impossible to please, the law of the flesh found in all men and women is aroused strongly, seeking the pleasures of the world.  Such incitement of the flesh, leads to more condemnation, pointing out man’s failure to please a righteous God.  Paul struggled with this confusion: law should bring righteousness to him, but it does the opposite.  It arouses the flesh.  Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.  (Romans 7:21-25)  Yes, the law which is good becomes an instrument to reveal how far man is from God's holiness and righteousness.  Therefore, the law which reflect man’s effort to please God will always lead to failure.  Without Christ’s work, bondage to fleshly deeds and thoughts will always prevail in people, condemning them of their sin and waywardness.  Paul does not want the Galatians to revert into man’s efforts to be right with God.  If they go back to the strictures of the law, Jesus’s work on the cross is meaningless.  

In and through the cross, men and women are completely free from the law of sin and death.  Following the law and its dictates over the flesh is a path of slavery.  But God’s love to humanity through the gift of Jesus to the world sets men free from the bondage of slavery.  God’s love is so great for people that He has provided people with the opportunity to be free in and through Jesus, his Son.  In and through Christ, nothing can separate God’s love from people.  In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:38-39)  However, faith in our own efforts will separate God’s blessing from us.  In the above focus we see Paul pointing out to the Galatians that people’s effort to be right with God will fail.  He points out that Abraham and Sarah decided to fulfill God’s promise to them by having Hagar, a slave in the household of Abraham, become impregnated by Abraham.  Then the promise of God to Abraham’s future generations would happen through Hagar’s son, Ishmael.  For Abraham and Sarah, Ishmael would fulfill the promise of God to Abraham’s future descendants.  They both knew God’s promises to Abraham were not only extensive to them, but also to their future descendants.  Their answer to God’s promises to them would be Ishmael, out of Hagar’s womb.  But this was the fleshly answer to fulfill God’s promises to them.  God had another plan.  “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”  Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.  Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.  So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”  (Genesis 18:11-12)  Sarah was ninety years old, knowing she had a dead womb, incapable of bearing a child.  Abraham was ninety-nine years old, also weak in the flesh.  So Sarah’s laugh was one out of realism.  They could not have a son from her is the reality of life.  But Abraham’s faith was that God could create something out of nothing and that God could raise the dead.  In this case, the dead womb of Sarah.  Of course that is exactly what happened: Isaac was born out of her womb and the blessings of God would follow Isaac’s ancestors to the Christ who would bless all the people on earth through his coming to mankind.  Abraham and Sarah’s ideas fulfilling God’s plan through the flesh failed.  God’s plan came through a miracle birth; later we see the same kind of miracle happening in Mary’s womb, the conceiving of Jesus through the work of the Spirit.  God always works beyond man’s understanding.  Jesus proved this through his many miracles and wonders while He was on earth.

Paul is telling the Galatians to put aside the law in their daily lives.  Do not live by the dictates of the law or you will die in your sins, for the law condemns, does not have a way to redeem the flesh from sin.  Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”  Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.  Christians are not to be bound by the law and its rigidity, but by their love to God and his work through Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ’s work on the cross sets people free from the law of sin and death.  We are free indeed because Christ has won this position through his efficacious work on the cross.  Free from what?  Freedom from eternal darkness, free from the condemnation that the devil desires for us to live in.  If the Galatians believe circumcision is a necessary sign to please God, then the strictures of the law will certainly follow.  This belief will bring people in constant condemnation.  When people experience constant failure, they will choose other avenues to satisfy their souls: some cults, some other religions, some new age ventures, and others, atheism.  But those of us who are hidden IN CHRIST, we are free from the flesh’s accusation.  We are free to satisfy God’s commands on our lives.  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4)  Dear breakfast companions, you are free. You have in your possession the Holy Spirit who fulfills God’s plan of righteousness for you.  He is the power that transforms your life from slavishly trying to please God through your own efforts, to knowing you are God’s child through his power of transformation.  We know that this power is in us because of Jesus Christ and his work.  Jesus has fulfilled God’s requirement on the flesh completely.   Holiness and righteousness rest in JESUS ALONE.  Therefore, our faith in his work redeems us from the bondage of sin.  Paul is telling the Galatians to not go back into living their lives in the dictates of the law.  The law will condemn and accuse us of not being in the household of God.  But Jesus says, Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  (John 3:18)  We around this breakfast table believe in Jesus' work as the redemptive power for our lives.  Hold fast to that!  Do not even consider Hagar and her son Ishmael, for the works of the flesh will ALWAYS LEAD TO DEATH.  Amen!  Jesus is alive, and because He lives, we live also in the freedom He has provided for his beloved.