Children Of Promise

"As Isaiah said, 'Rejoice, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into a joyful shout, you who have never been in labor! For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband!' And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit. 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." (Galatians 4:27-31 - New Living Translation)

Paul now quotes from the prophet Isaiah. In early New Testament times, the number of people who were under the Law of Moses far outnumbered those who understood the freedom of Grace. Over time this has become the exact opposite. Those who are under Grace far exceed in number those who still observe the Law of Moses. There are probably no more than 20 million Jews today. It is estimated that there are more than 500 million Evangelicals in the world today. The children of promise outnumber the children of works.

Christians are children of promise. We are born not of works or of the flesh but of the Spirit. As Ishmael mocked Isaac, so those who are legalists mock and persecute those who are free in Christ. Yet it is the legalists who will be cast out. God cannot be pleased through works of the flesh. Spirituality is not measured by the set of rules that we keep.

It is faith that pleases God. It is the humble that He lifts up. Spirituality is based upon what is in our heart. It is based upon our private personal relationship with God. If our heart is right then our lifestyle will become more and more righteous.

In Galatians 4, Paul contrasts the son of a slave woman and the son of a free woman; ordinary birth and birth of promise; old covenant and new covenant; earthly Jerusalem and new Jerusalem; slavery and freedom; persecutor and persecuted; natural birth and supernatural birth; rejected and accepted; few children and many children; outside God’s will and God’s plan.