By Pastor Yomi OGUNTUWASE
(yomioguntuase@gmail.com, +447946506659)
Galatians 4:21-26 NLT
“Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother.”
God promised Abraham a son but because his body was getting weak , in attempt to help God fulfil His promise, he had a son Ishmael with his slave Hagar .
But God still had to fulfill his promise and miraculously gave Abraham and his wife Sarah a son Isaac at age 100.
Galatians 4:30-31 NLT
“But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.”
God told Abraham to send Hagar and her son Ishmael out of his house. the slave woman and her son can never get an inheritance. Isaac can never share his inheritance with Ishmael
Sarah and Hagar can be likened to the two covenants of the Law and the Messiah Jesus Christ. Those who are under the law are enslaved to the law and God sees them how Abraham sees Hagar and her son as slaves. They will never have an inheritance; the promise of God which is eternal life (1john 2:25).
While the covenant of Jesus Christ is that of freedom and an inheritance entered into through faith like Sarah and her son Isaac, we are an heir if we believe in Christ.
Galatians 5:3-4 NLT
I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”
Do you know what the law of Moses says? If you break one rule, you’ve broken all. God wants nothing to do with those people who break His law.
Whether or not you try to find favour by your works, it’s never good enough. Perfect obedience of the law is all that is good enough for God. God says those who try to obey the law and fail to do so have been cut off from Christ meaning eternal damnation.
If you go down the road of works, you are finished. Like Hagar who was cut off from Abraham because she is a slave.
Slave is someone who does things in order to get to the promise land. There is no inheritance for such people. Don’t do things to get right with God but do things out of love.
No slave has an inheritance (everlasting life in heaven). Slavery strips a person off heaven. And we become slaves when we try to please God by obeying the law as opposed to believing in His son Jesus.
Galatians 4:7 NLT
“Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you, his heir.”
Now that we have become children of God not by attempting to obey the law but by believing that Jesus the son of God is our saviour, and through this new covenant of faith, God has made us His heir .
Galatians 4:8-11
“Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.”
Paul is saying that he fears for those who try to please God by obeying the law .
Luke 17:7-10 NLT
“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me, you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.”
A slave works all day for his master and when he gets home, he still has to cook for the master and the master has to eat before the slave can eat the remnants.
This scripture is related to people who put in works in order to be in right standing with God. Since you have enslaved yourself to the law, you can never make heaven. You have no inheritance in God’s house.
1 John 3:1 NLT
“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”
A son is accepted for who he is and a slave for what he does. God calls us his children but the people of the world don’t know this.
How do I then become a son?
John 1:12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…
In order to be a child of God and not a slave to the law, we must believe in the name of Jesus and with this, we can receive Him.
*Oguntuase, a nutritionist and a reflexologist, is a Pastor of Christ in Me Ministry, Windsor UK.
