August 20 - Galatians 4: Child of Promise

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. (4:21-26)

I've been pondering this story of Sarah and Hagar from Genesis. The two births represent two ways to relate to God, as Paul says, but I find it interesting that Sarah was an integral part of both sides of the story. She was the human conniver in Ishmael's story, forcing her maid to sleep with Abraham, yet she was also the recipient of God's promise and grace in Isaac's story.

I can totally relate to Sarah these days because sometimes I'm the conniver, and other times I'm able to trust God in the midst of disappointments, hard circumstances, and tempting lies of the enemy. I know my actions must confuse others because I often confuse myself.

God promises freedom, but I live in bondage far too often. I feel harassed by my expectations of myself, by my angry responses, by my sin patterns. I know a lot of truths about God - who He is, what He's like, and who He says I am - but like the Galatians, I don't always operate out of those truths. I can easily be influenced by my own selfish desires. Rather than trusting God to work through me or to provide for my needs, I strategize and I manipulate to make life go as I want, and then I'm angry, or at least "in a funk," when things don't go my way.

But Paul continues to impress upon me that's not how God wants me to live. It's not about getting my way or making life work. God calls me to act like the person I truly am, a child of promise, in spite of my circumstances or feelings:

Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain 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. (4:7) 

Isn't it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise?...Isn't that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. (4:28, 31)

And yet I know that trying harder doesn't get me there. My good behavior doesn't make me a child of promise; God's Spirit alone does that.

"Simple as it is, [Isaac's] birth story sends an important message to people of faith, one that needs repeating over and over again. The message is that God invades us with new life and that life changes who we are. God isn't a means by which we solve problems. And he isn't a means to avoid problems. God creates new life - he is a Creator of persons, not a Solver of problems." Eugene Peterson, Conversations, pg. 49

I'm believing God today that His Word is faithful and true. I am a child of promise; His life in me will continue to change who I am and set me free to live and love.