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Promises Fulfilled

Galatians 4:23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

God has been prompting me to write about this verse for over a month now.  I have fought Him on this one because I am not sure what to write.  Paul uses the two women of Abraham's children as a metaphor for the old and new covenants.  The slave woman represents the old covenant.  The nation of Israel had taken control of their own lives and made things happen on their own.  That was what Abraham did with Hagar.  He and Sarah got tired of waiting on God's promise so Abraham had a child with Hagar, taking God's will into his own hands.  However we know that Isaac was the promise from God.  Sarah did become pregnant, just as God had said.  The new covenant in Christ is represented by Sarah's fulfilled promise.  God's will completed by Him in His timing according to His promise.  This is our covenant and our hope.  Jesus completed God's will on the cross and in three days was resurrected by the power of the Spirit according the God's promise.  His will…His timing…His doing…His promise.  We are children of the promise.  Our debt has been paid in full.  We are children born of the free woman as a result of a promise.  Do not be enslaved by the law, but rather be freed from it through Christ and his sacrifice.  Let the Spirit work in you, for Jesus promised it would be so.  "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you." John 14:16-17

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