In the past, I used to have many questions when reading Apostle Paul's letters, especially the book of Romans. That was when I wasn't exposed to the gospel of grace and the finished work of Christ on the cross. And in particular, there was this passage in Galatians 4:21-31 that I was puzzled. Paul talked about Abraham having two sons: one by a bondwoman (Hagar) and the other by a freewoman (Sarah). These things are symbolic of two covenants: the one from Mt Sinai which gives birth to bondage and the other is the Jerusalem above who is free, which is the mother of us all. We are like Isaac who are the children of promise.
Pastor Prince preached in his Sunday sermon about this from Genesis 16:4-9. He explained that Hagar represents the law while Sarah represents grace. When Hagar became pregnant, she despised her mistress Sarah just like how law despised grace. In Galatians 4:29, it says that he who was born of the flesh (those who relied on the law) persecuted the one who was born of the spirit (who is of grace). But when Hagar escaped from the mistreatment by Sarah, the Angel of the Lord told her to return to her mistress and submit herself to Sarah's hand, meaning that law will always be subordinate to grace.
Fast forward to the time after Isaac was born and weaned, in Genesis 21:5-13, Sarah noticed Ishmael scoffing at Isaac and she told Abraham to cast out the bondwoman with her son for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with Isaac, the son of promise. In this picture, there are two issues of significance.
Firstly, those who propagate the law will always persecute those who believe in grace, just like how Ishmael mocked Isaac. Secondly, there was persecution not at the point of Isaac's birth but when he was weaned. This meant that he was no longer a baby and was ready for his inheritance as a mature son. At this point in time, there was no room for the law to even co-exist with grace. God wants the law to be totally cast out or put away just like how Hagar was to be put away.
In Hebrews 5:13, the bible says that everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. So right now, the church is becoming more skilled in the teaching of righteousness which is a gift from God, just like salvation and we cannot earn it. Righteousness is right believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ and it is not right doing. Hence we cannot be more righteous just as we cannot be 'more saved'. But Pastor Prince always says 'Right believing leads to right doing', so we can be sure when we believe right, we will always do things the way God wanted.
As a result of the church becoming more skilled in the teaching of righteousness, we are increasingly under fire from those who preach the law or a mixture of law and grace. This is truly an exciting time because the church has now grown from a spiritual babe to an adult and this meant that our inheritance is coming! Not only that, there is no room for the church to tolerate teachings of the law because God wants the law to be totally put away. We must not put up with teachings that condemn us or promote self-efforts in realising God's promises. We must preach that there is no condemnation in Christ and because of His finished work on the Cross, we have a right standing with God. That, my friend, is the true definition of righteousness.
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