Theme: God’s
Fragile Covenant Proves to Be All Powerful Love
1) It seems as
fragile as ninety-year-old giving birth
2) It proves
to be powerful enough to conquer the law
To those who
live in the freedom of Christ crucified, dear fellow redeemed. Our text for
study and application today is taken from Galatians 4:21-31:
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you
not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a
slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born
according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through
promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants.
One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now
Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for
she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and
she is our mother. 27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does
not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children
of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband."
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at
that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born
according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say?
"Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall
not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not
children of the slave but of the free woman.
A couple of
weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit some friends who just had their first
child. It’s always a special occasion to visit a newborn and their parents but
this time was especially significant. Our friends had been trying to have a
child for a long time now, over a year actually. Physicians and birth
professionals told them that they didn’t have a good chance. That’s tough news
for a husband and wife who want kids and sadly many couples must cope with
infertility.
I suppose
that, to some extent, they had an idea of what Abraham and Sarah felt like in
the context of our Scripture reading from Genesis 18. For our friends, it was
truly a surprisingly joyful moment when they found out they were expecting. I
suppose they shared that too with Abraham and Sarah. It must be an uplifting
feeling, to say the least, when you go from disappointment to expectation. But
though they shared to some extent in the heartache and joy of Abraham and
Sarah, we’d still have to conclude that even they really didn’t know what it was like. Abraham was 99 years old
when God’s promise of a natural heir was realized. Sarah was 90. They waited
for a long time, much longer than any of us would have been able I’m sure. And
there was a lot more riding on the birth of Isaac than any of our children. The
heritage of the Messiah was at stake. The validly of God’s promises to His
people rested with Abraham and Sarah’s child and eventual descendent.
Today, in our
sermon text, the Holy Spirit reveals that there was much more to that story than
bare facts in time and history. Ultimately, it was a deeper picture of God’s
relationship with you. And just as unlikely as it seemed that His promise to
Abraham and Sarah would be kept, so at times it seems like His promises to us
are in question. But in both cases, God responds to our doubts with resounding
hope. What appears to be a fragile covenant, is in truth, very powerful. May
the Holy Spirit bless our study.
Even without
the allegorical interpretation of the events of Genesis 18, we’d still have
plenty about Isaac’s birth that we could relate with. There’s so many moments
in Abraham and Sarah’s life that hit home to us. In their haste to expedite the
Lord’s promise, they broke their marriage covenant with one another by
inserting Hagar into the situation. When Ishmael was born, the all too common
attitudes of jealousy and anger reared their ugly heads. This led to Hagar
disrespecting her master Sarah and Sarah despising Hagar’s honor in being able
to bear a child. Haven’t we felt similarly at times when others have something
we want, or when they receive honor that we think we deserve? Haven’t we tried
to circumnavigate God’s plan because we thought we knew better? Sure, it
happens to us all the time. In those thoughts alone, even though there’s no
direct application to our lives, we know how they felt.
We see
ourselves in Sarah’s retort of laughter at the promise that she would have a
child. Surely it couldn’t be possible. No way it could happen, doesn’t matter
what God’s Word says. We’ve been there before too, and for much lesser reasons.
But the fact
that the Holy Spirit was also working a deeper application through these
events, one that does apply directly to us, really hits home the hardest. And
it’s not just because Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and Ishmael correspond to
things in our lives. It’s because it deals directly with the gospel. Even in
these most unlikely circumstances, long before Jesus would be born, God was
fashioning and shaping the gospel’s effects in our lives. And Paul brings this
meaning out to the Galatians, at a time when they needed it most.
We know from
our reading through the letter to the Galatians that they were in immediate
danger of losing the truth of Christ crucified. Not because it wasn’t powerful
enough, but because they thought they knew better. It’s one thing to think you
know better than God when it comes to childbirth, it’s an entirely different
level to think you know better about salvation. But can’t we sympathize with
the Galatians, and with Sarah? God’s covenant, His promise of salvation in
Christ, just seems so weak at times. It’s no wonder that He not only likened it
to, but also preserved it through a ninety-year-old giving birth.
The Galatians
discredited salvation by faith in Christ alone for the same reasons. It didn’t
measure up, in their eyes, to what the rest of the world offered. It didn’t
feel right because it didn’t require enough from them. It just seemed to easy.
Just like Sarah, they doubted because they couldn’t understand why God would
have it that way. And when they doubted, they were led to try things on their
own. So Paul led them back to that story in the Old Testament that they knew so
well. A story of God’s faithfulness. A story of miraculous power. And also a
story about God’s grace. Paul implored them to look beyond the details and see
what God intended them to know. It was more than an account about Sarah and
Abraham. It was a message of God’s love. See beyond the details and you see the
real meaning.
Beyond Hagar
and Ishmael was the law of God and its righteous demands. But even further was
death and condemnation because no man can escape them. Beyond Sarah and Isaac
was the gospel of forgiveness. But even further was life and immortality
because it Jesus conquered over the curse of the law. The Galatians saw earthly
Jerusalem, with its outdated customs and festivals that were fulfilled in
Christ. They focused on those temporary things because they were something they
could do; something to make the story of salvation more believable to their
ears. Paul saw the heavenly Jerusalem, the true home of freedom. Yes, often
despised, rejected, and forsaken. Often foolish and fragile in the eyes of
world. But, a covenant of God, sealed with His own Son’s blood.
Everywhere
this contrast exists, the contrast between Sarah and Hagar, between Isaac and
Ishmael, between the Old Covenant and New, there will always be those who feel
that God’s way is too fragile to make it. Those that think they know better;
that God’s plan has failed. Sometimes those doubters are you and me. It’s an
easy thing to do, as easy as doubting that a couple of ninety year olds could
have a child. In fact, it’s much easier to doubt than even that. At least we
could imagine that happening. But that Almighty God, whom we’ve never met face
to face, would send His Son in our likeness and in our place, even when we did
exactly that opposite to deserve that kind of treatment. Furthermore, that Son
went against every earthly inclination and made His entire life all about
others. He acted and spoke in ways that no one ever has or ever will again. He
taught direct truth that pierced so deeply that it couldn’t even be argued
against, even by His strongest opponents.
This Savior,
heir of Abraham and Isaac, champion of God’s promise of salvation, was the
strongest human the world has ever witnessed. Not strong by human definition.
He came in fragile circumstances. Before He could even walk His life was
threatened. It seemed to hang so closely on the edge of destruction. Even as
Jesus grew His disposition was meek and mild. It took years for people to
notice His power. Lesser men would have grown anxious about the Lord’s plan,
for attention and fame were non-existent in the young Savior’s life.
But even in
His greatest moments, what many would consider to be great examples of power;
perhaps the raising of the dead, the calming of the storm, or the many
healings, it was His love that spoke loudest and strongest, for it was His love
that broke the shackles of the law. The law was always mankind’s greatest
hurdle. It was the obstacle that everyone sought to overcome but also the very
one that revealed our defeat before we even began. Without the love of Christ
there is no hope over this barrier. It’s more challenging than being able to
call life forth from a barren womb. And perhaps that’s why God chose to reveal
this message of salvation in the story of Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, Hagar, and
Ishmael. Speaking again of Abraham and Sarah, one Bible commentator had this to
say about the end result, “…God was about to display His power in making nature
subservient to His grace.”
True words
indeed. God’s power to grant physical life was definitely in play. But as we
are reminded in our text, it was ultimately a measure of the power of His love
in our spiritual lives, to call us back from the brink of hell. For in that
story of Isaac’s conception, we have the entire gospel promise, revealed and
protected for us.
God displayed His power in making nature subservient
to His grace.
We don’t often think about God’s grace as making things subservient or putting
other forces in their place. Usually, grace is a comforting thought, one that I
might nestle up to in a moment of need and dwell safely in. But grace is only
comforting in so far as it is powerful. Grace indeed breaks the bondage of the
law with great force and keeps the devil and all his host at bay. Grace is all
that separates you from your comfortable life and the disposition of Job at his
worst. It is the shield of God that says “no” to Satan. It says that all
wickedness, sin, evil, demons, and the like can come this far but that is it.
No more, no further, no effect on you.
That’s power.
Don’t be duped by your own limited perception or the weakness of others into
believing that God’s plan is too fragile. God has it in control. The day of
battle is His and He has conquered. He doesn’t need you to adjust His plans. He
doesn’t need you to think past each problem. He doesn’t need you to plan for
contingencies. He asks you to trust. When all things seem lost and beyond
control, leave your problems in His hands. In fact, always leave it with Him,
not just when it seems beyond your control. Think how many heartaches you could
avoid if you did.
Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus
the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and
death. 3 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. (Romans 8:1-3)
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment