So today is Tax Day. And, because the Hubster and I have to pay every year, we always wait until today to "do the deed"... that is, put the envelope in the mail. We pay a lot of taxes to live in this great country. Yes, America is greatly troubled and is becoming increasingly so. We need to all pray faithfully for our country to be revived and restored to the founding principles which made her that "shining city on a hill". In many countries, Christians are being murdered, simply because they are followers of Jesus Christ. I thank God for America, even with all her "warts".
On the topic of religious persecution, this evening at dusk begins Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day commemorates the six million Jews killed by the Nazi regime in Europe, in the Holocaust (the Shoah, in Hebrew) during the 1930s and '40s. May we never forget this genocide, this atrocity. Joel C. Rosenberg is one of my favorite authors and Messianic Jewish leaders. He lives in Israel now. A few short years ago he wrote a book called The Auschwitz Escape. I have been wanting to read it for some time, but honestly have been too busy to read any pleasure reading material. The story is based on the true life accounts of four courageous men who escaped Auschwitz to tell the world the truth about what was being done to Jews in Europe. In honor of this day, I am going to purchase the book via the Kindle app on my iPad, and after mid-May, it is going to be the first thing I read for pleasure. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. (Santayana)
Now to Galatians 4. Just in case the Galatians still missed the point, Paul continues speaking to them about the folly of abandoning true grace for a life of spiritual slavery. See, the legalistic Judaizers had caused the Galatians to feel "less than" because of their ethnicity. Paul plainly exposes their motivations in 4:17. Here it is in The Message version:
17 Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.
This spirit of apostasy is still evident today. It is not blatant, like the apostasy that says things like "God is dead". No, it is insidious. It seeks to enslave, under the guise of religiosity and piety. It seeks power and fame, money and control. If you look carefully at modern-day Judaizers, Jesus is not central to their message. I'm not going to "call out" any one religious figure or religious faith here. The Holy Spirit will give you discernment if you ask Him for it.
You see, the Galatians did not have an accurate picture of their identity in Jesus Christ. They had been deceived into accepting a false narrative about this. Paul effectively uses the illustration of an heir in verses 1-7 to show them that they were every bit as much "children of Abraham" as any Jewish believer.
Paul points out in verse 5 that, before receiving Christ, the Jewish believers had been "kidnapped by the Law" (of Moses). He points out that, similarly, before receiving Christ, the Galatian believers had been "enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them." (vs. 8) Same slavery, different source. You see, anything that is not the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ is a spiritual enslavement.
But, as Paul points out, we who are in Christ Jesus are heirs of the promises given to Abraham, which include the life of abundance here on earth, (the "resplendent walk" as I call it) and, even better, eternal life with God. Spiritual freedom to worship and serve Jesus here and now is ours. And, better yet, we will be with Him, forever. "Complete access to the inheritance" (vs. 7), now and forever! Paul calls this "the way of Sarah" (vs. 26) and believers in Jesus Christ "the children of the free woman" (vs. 22, 31).
I never really saw this before in Scripture, this redemptive aspect of Abraham and Sarah's choice to give Abraham an heir by the slave woman, Hagar. The story is recorded in Genesis 16, echoed in Isaiah 54:1 and reiterated in Galatians 4. Isn't it amazing that God redeems even our most egregious mistakes? We make our choices, and we experience the consequences of those choices, good or bad. But, God can take the most horrible circumstances of life and use them to bring glory to His name. He can "redeem what the locusts have eaten" (Joel 2:25), what the Destroyer has broken. He can bring beauty from ashes. I am so grateful for that! In the days of the early Church and in this present day, that fateful decision by Abraham and Hagar serves as an object lesson to us. Ishmael was the offspring that was rejected as heir. He represents a life of slavery - - - slavery to one's own fleshly desires, slavery to false religions, slavery to a me-centered life. Isaac represents the true heir, the child of the free woman, the heir to the promises of God to all true "children of Abraham". Even this "bad" decision by Abraham and Sarah was used by God to help true heirs of the promise to realize their rightful standing in Jesus Christ. Again, the unity of the Bible amazes me.
It is easy to fall prey to deceitful philosophies and lies from the Enemy if you do not see yourself as God sees you. If you have embraced Jesus Christ, if His Holy Spirit lives in you, you are a true heir. His Holy Spirit cries out to attest to that fact. Look at verses 4-7: (The Message)
But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.
I am His, and He is mine. Isn't that such a cause for rejoicing today?
Abba, Daddy, Father...you see me through the screen of the blood of Your Son. You see me as Your heir. Such mercy! Such grace! I can never fully comprehend it. Lord, I pray today that You will cause us to more fully understand just how CLEAN we are in You, how spotless, how pure...because of the cleansing blood of Your Son, that blood that washes away all of our sins. Free salvation, freely given...this produces the abundant life, the resplendent life, the grateful life. Oh, give us a fresh vision of our true position in You, Papa. In Your Son Jesus' name, amen.
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