Easter Devotional - Day 15

"But the child who was born in the natural way made trouble for the child who was born because of the Spirit. The same thing is happening today. The Scriptures say, 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son! He won't be given anything. The son of the free woman will receive everything.' My friends, we are children of the free woman and not of the son." Galatians 5:29-31

The Jews prided themselves on being Abraham's descendants through Sarah. They were of the line of the son of the promise to Abraham. They were the legitimate heirs to the promise. That other son, though firstborn, was deemed unfit, unacceptable, and of lesser status and importance than their own ancestor. Reading the stories of Isaac, we might wonder what all the fuss was about. After all, the only really special thing about him was that he was Abraham's son through Sarah.

He failed the test of character. He failed the test of fatherhood. He failed the test of bringing up his own sons to honor, respect, and worship Yahweh, God of his own father. No, there was little to commend Isaac as much in the way of a patriarch. He was a conduit to be surpassed or overcome in succeeding generations of the family.

Then again, what the Jews were concerned about was not really Abrahams' sons or grandsons. They were concerned about their own importance in the larger plan of Yahweh. They were concerned with standing apart from the other nations in deserving God's attention. They were concerned with being better, superior, chosen, purer, and more worthy than others of God's blessing and attention. What they were after was status before God and backing up an arrogance of attitude before others. In such a focus, they missed the point of being God's people, becoming slaves to their categories of distinction, instead of free to serve Yahweh and live in the blessings of Yahweh's provision.

It wasn't just the Jews outside the realm of the gospel. There was also a problem within the life of the believing communities. Those old modes of self-righteousness through the observance of tradition, following rituals, and securing a pedigree did not reflect the logic of the argument that purported to claim their very superiority. Sure, the child of the free woman had higher status than the child of a slave girl. Yet struggling over the issues of pushing their superiority through a code of legalistic action just enslaved them to the designs of legalism. It did not reflect the freedom to enjoy the blessings of God's promise to the one they claimed as father.

As Judaism had been transformed into a system of legalistic ritual, the Jews had given up their freedom to love, honor, and worship God. They had degenerated into a people with a shell of claiming to know God, yet were living far removed from the attitudes of Abraham's faith. They no longer trusted God. They trusted their traditions about God. They trusted their patterns of ritual and routine. They were so focused on these that when God arrived in flesh and blood they could only see that he did not bow to their rules and regulations. Confronted with the grace of God that ignored the boundaries of their legalism, they yelled "Crucify!"

Determine where you have allowed slavery to something other than grace to interfere with your relationship with God. Release that in order to accept the freedom of Christ.

"Lord, grant me the courage to step outside my box of security to live according to the freedom of grace into which you have called me."

—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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