For it is written:
"Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate as many
more children
Than she has a
husband"
(Isaiah 54: 1).
Now we, brethren, as
Isaac was,
are children of
promise.
Galatians 4:27 -- 28
Paul has
explained that if the Jewish people continued under the Sinai covenant, and now
due to the fact that they had rejected Jesus Christ and the Gospel, the
influence was that they have been influenced by this slavish spirit of bondage,
and were not acting as children of God.
Bondage comes in many forms and not just by being handcuffed, or tied to
a rack, or been forced into some sort of work-related slavery. No, one comes under bondage by the things
that they have lust, most things that take up their time and frivolous
pursuits. Many people are in bondage do
to certain doctrinal positions of the denominations that they attend. Certain doctrinal positions may seem godly, as
the Jews felt that about their Sinai covenant, that by it they could maintain their position as a child of
God, when in fact the new covenant superseded the old covenant. The old Jerusalem no longer was the center
for the worship of God, for the heavenly Jerusalem, the true Church is from
above, as Paul states was represented by Sarah, and is in a state of freedom, and is
the mother of all believers, who are born of the Spirit. Something interesting to remember is: Isaiah
51: 1; as the Scripture long before declared that the church would be made up
mainly of Gentile converts, not only just Jews, but believers, those who are
born of the Spirit and are under the covenant given to Abraham: "Listen to Me, you who follow after
righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you work you,
and to the whole of the pit from which you were dug." (Isaiah 51: 1). Paul and writing to the Roman Church explain
this further: "What shall we say
then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue
righteousness, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to
righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of
righteousness, as in not attaining to the law of righteousness. Why?
Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of
the law. For they stumbled at the
stumbling stone" (Romans 9: 30 -- 31). Are you getting the point?
Can you see what Scripture teaches us about righteousness? It is not by any works for faith is a free
gift from God and you cannot earn it by anything you say or do: "For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2: 8 -- 9). Does this mean we do nothing? No!
God gave you a brain, use it!
But don't be misled, not by any works you do, not by any amount of some
sort of gibberish revelatory speaking and so often not even done with an
interpreter, or many people doing this in public together and not singularly,
it is not running around trying to heal people by some sort of prayer, it is
not anything that you are doing by which you have received your righteousness
other than you must accept it and live by the commands of God. We have work to do as ambassadors for Jesus
Christ and we do this out of our conversion to Him and our love for Him for
what He has done for us by giving us this free gift of faith and as applied His
righteousness to us. Yes, we have
secular work that we must do as well, but in our doing our secular work we show
and manifest to the world our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ by what we do and
say. This is the Gospel being
manifested in our lives and as often as we have the opportunity we are to be
prepared to defend our faith. Don't
fall under bondage! You are free in the
Lord Jesus Christ! You're not free to
send, you are free to live for Him.
There is no excuse and we will not be able to give one when we stand
before the judgment seat. We are not to
depend in any degree for our justification on works. The Judaizers were still depending upon circumcision, and for
some even today whereby they believe in baptismal regeneration by which they
believe they are declared righteous, which is not scriptural, even your
personal obedience does not give you faith from the Lord Jesus Christ although
it does show that you are exercising that faith. We are not to hold fast to creeds, however scriptural, or be some
member of any particular church, especially those who would place you under
slavery and becoming bondslave to works.
True faith alone that is received from Jesus Christ is to be the interested
of the believer to become one with Jesus Christ. This is the living and justifying faith as distinguished from
dead faith, and this is manifested by working for Him and this is your active
principle. This shows your heart and
your love for Jesus Christ and His people.
This working by love should be everything in your Christianity. Maybe we found on the number of those who,
through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. But without faith working by love all else
is worthless, and compared with it other things are of small value.
I thank You and praise You,
O God of my
fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
and have
now made known to me
what we ask of You.
For you have made
known to us
the king’s demand.
Daniel 2: 23
God is revealed to you by Jesus Christ
Richard L. Crumb
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