Who is your mother?

This is a very simple and interesting question which we could all answer in the natural…yes there are some who never knew their mothers but generally speaking we could all give an ‘appraisal’ of our natural mothers. A natural appraisal – hopefully a picture of one who nurtures and cares, who puts her children way ahead of all things, and before her own life. As I watch my wife and her interaction with our children I definitely see this picture.

However the Bible encourages us to not look at the natural things for these are passing but rather to look at the spiritual things which are eternal in nature and will never pass away for they are established in the truth of God who is spirit and the Father of us all.

Think then with me of our spiritual mother.

The Bible is made up of two sections – the Old and the New. Often we avoid the Old because it is difficult but the truth is that seeking the truth of God, revealed in Jesus, in the Old Testament brings wonderful new light to the truth revealed in the New Testament. Often we need the Old to reveal the New and we definitely should never reject the Old because as we seek Jesus in the Old the Jesus in the New is revealed in greater truth. Whenever you read the Old Testament please always seek a revelation of Jesus because everything points forward to Him, just as everything in the New Testament reveals Him. Beloved, Jesus is EVERYTHING. He is THE centre, THE way, THE truth, THE life…I could go on and on. Read the gospel written by John and find the ‘I am’ passages; the places where Jesus says ‘I am…’ They are a worthy investigation.

So let’s look in the Old and think about two women, Sarah and Hagar.

Remember the question is ‘Who is your mother?’

Now I could write reams and reams in ‘analysing’ the story of Sarah and Hagar but I want to cut to the point and hopefully you will see why these two women are so important for any who have received Jesus today, in 2012, nearly 2013.

One woman represents to us law and the other grace.

If you have spent any time in ‘churchland’ then you will have heard it said that this is the ‘day of grace’. Sadly I believe that ‘churchland’ has a very limited understanding of what this actually means and so it has become one of those ‘cliches’ that we, well, just ‘use’. The sad truth is that ‘churchland’ has taken law and alloyed it with grace and produced something that has a smattering of grace but in reality is law which is clearly revealed in the Bible as being ‘bondage’. Do I need to remind you that the Bible is clear that ‘it was for freedom that Christ has set us free?’ An alloy of law and grace will not do. It is a lie and can only come from the father of lies, the thief, who is stealing from you. You see the enemy, the father of lies and deceipt, the great thief and murderer has stolen from you the truth of grace and he has used verses of the Bible to deceive you by presenting law and having us receive it as for today (the day of grace). ‘Churchland’ has received this ‘teaching’ and produced the great edifices of religiosity that we see before us who stand and claim to be ‘the Church’ but instead are feeding teaching that is an alloy of the truth and bring to the people only bondage.

How can I represent this work of deceipt and abuse to you? The enemy does not want you to know you are loved…that you are the Beloved. That is the bottom line. He tried the same on Jesus Himself. When Jesus was baptised heaven opened and God Himself declared that ‘This is My beloved Son in who I am well pleased.’ God declared His love. A short time later the enemy, in his temptation, said to Jesus, using scripture, ‘If you are the son of God command these stones to be made into bread’. He was using scripture to tempt…Jesus was hungry having not eaten for forty days and could have easily been tempted to command and eat but if He had then death would have been confirmed. But please note that the enemy left out the word ‘beloved’…only a short time before Jesus had been declared by God as ‘beloved Son’ but the enemy chose to leave this out. Beloved he is doing that today constantly to us…diverting us away from the love of God and leading us into teaching based on scripture but based in law and therefore bondage comes.

My hope is that with this blog you will reject law and receive grace and in that receiving receive freedom.

Have you watched the movie ‘The Avengers’? When Loki comes he declares that real freedom for people is to be controlled and he commands the people to kneel down before him. But one man refuses…let us be that one man! You see an alloy of law and grace even that which is taught in our churches is a means of control, and control is NOT of God.

So who is your mother?

Hagar is law. Hagar represents the old covenant which is the law, all that is bound in the Ten Commandments and everything associated with it.

 Sarah, on the other hand, is grace. Sarah represents the new covenant which is grace and nothing more.

As I said there is much analysis that could be made about this story but suffice to say this at this time. If you want a Bible passage to read along with this then look at Galatians 4: 21 – 31.

The promise of God was a son. There was much more but it was all based in Sarah, who was old and barren, giving birth to a promised son.

Ishmael came through self-effort as Abraham and Sarah tried to help God fulfil the promise He had made. Sarah gave her bondmaid to Abraham and Ishmael was born. Galatians 4: 23 says that Hagar, who represents the law, gave birth to Ishmael ‘according to the flesh’. The ‘flesh’ represents self-effort and human strength and human performance. Romans 8: 8 says that ‘those who are in the flesh cannot please God’. God isn’t pleased to see us trust in ourselves not because He is angry with us but because as a good Father He knows there is such a better way which we are missing.

Sarah gave birth to Isaac. It is really interesting to note that Ishmael was a teenager by the time Isaac arrived so by this time Sarah was well past it and so was Abraham. Human performance certainly had nothing to do with the arrival of the promised son Isaac. Self-effort and human strength could not achieve the result that was Isaac and he was born of the Spirit totally and only out of the promise of God.

Beloved don’t play around with the law; you are children of grace. What does this mean practically for you? Simply don’t trust in your self-effort, your human strength, your performance to get right and remain right with God. Instead look to His promises, the promises of a Father who loves you without end, who looks at you daily, moment by moment, and sees you in the beauty and perfections of His Son who He gave up freely to bring you back.

Beloved, Galatians 4: 30 concludes that we are to cast out the bondwoman. Hagar and Ishmael were cast out…I once thought that Hagar and Ismael got a rough deal but there is much that I could share within this story from the Old Testament but the type for us today, right now, is this…we must cast her out…we must remove the law. Beloved you are no longer under it…you are the righteousness of God in Christ. Say it out loud…YOU ARE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST if you are in Christ…if you believe in Him and mustard seed size faith is enough.

 Practically we must reject the alloying of law and grace, we must stop listening to law preached, we must accept that we are loved and that love is not based in what we do but totally in the unquenchable love that the Father has for the Son, and in the totally and completely finished work of Jesus.

The law brings death. When the law was given 3000 people died (Exodus 32: 28), when God gave His Spirit 3000 people were saved (Acts 2: 41). Choose life, receive grace and nothing more. Receive the promises of God, they are not based in your efforts, they are based in the grace (unmerited favour) of God and the undeniable fact that He loves you (John 3: 16). You are His Beloved!

Who is your mother? Sarah is your mother for Sarah represents grace to you and you are a child of the promise. Cast out the bondwoman (law) and receive the free, the beautiful, wonderful grace of our God.

God bless you.