Joel M Bradshaw

28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29But 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. 30But 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.” 31So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.–Galatians 4

Welcome to the hardest analogy in the Bible. It will help to remember the tension in Galatians between FLESH and SPIRIT.

TWO GROUPS:

1. One group a church who had chosen the work of the SPIRIT leading them to follow Jesus.
2. The other an outside group of Jewish influencers demanding the Christians to add the works of the FLESH to have a more pure faith.

TWO WOMEN:

1. One the wife of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.
2. The other the rejected Gentile mistress of Abraham.

TWO SONS:

1. One the child promised by God and hence of SPIRIT.
2. The other the child of Abraham’s impatience and thus of FLESH.

ANALOGY:

1. Ishmael once persecuted Isaac. Now the Jewish group was persecuting the Galatian church.
2. The Jewish influencers ironically were living like the Gentile son and the Galatian church like the child of the promise.
3. The Galatian church needed to cast out their Jewish influencers much like Abraham needed to send Hagar the mother of Ishmael on her way.
4. What the Jewish group promised to the Galatians was righteousness by slavery to the FLESH and what the Gospel preaches is freedom because the SPIRIT does the saving work!
5. The church was represented in Paul’s analogy by Isaac the true child of God’s promise and the Jewish group was ironically represented by the Gentile Ishmael.

Once again, if you think that the works of your FLESH save you then you are not depending upon the SPIRIT of God to lead you to Jesus.

Thank you to all who journey with me daily. I am honored to be your first cup of coffee. Know that you join me every day as I drink my first cup. A precious time of my day!–JMB