That
Explains It!
Pastor
Ricky Kurth
Did you ever wonder why nominal
Christians give you grief when you insist that salvation is by grace
through faith alone apart from any good works (Eph. 2:8,9)? The Apostle
Paul understood the reason that men troubled him for proclaiming this
message, and he came up with the perfect illustration to help the
Galatians understand it. Speaking of the two sons of Abraham, he observed:
“But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it
is now” (Gal. 4:29).
When we look up the passage that
Paul is quoting here, we learn that Ishmael “persecuted” Isaac by
“mocking” him (Gen. 21:9). And, if you know the story, you know why
Ishmael was giving his younger brother grief. When Abraham got tired of
waiting for God to give him the son He had promised, he took matters into
his own hands and fathered a child by his wife’s servant, intending to
make Ishmael the heir that God had promised (Gen. 17:18). God rejected
this notion (Gen. 17:20,21) and eventually gave Abraham the son that He
promised through the miraculous birth that Abraham’s wife Sarah gave to
Isaac.
Ishmael was thirteen years old
(Gen. 17:25) when Isaac was weaned (21:8), and based on his father’s
assurance that he would be his heir, he had doubtless worked very hard to
be worthy of his inheritance. Then suddenly there appeared this
interloper, this young child Isaac, whom Sarah rightly declared would be
her husband’s heir (Gen. 21:10), and God agreed (v. 12). That meant that
after all Ishmael’s hard work his inheritance was now going to be just
handed to this infant who hadn’t done a thing to earn it other than to be
born the child of promise.
Now, if you can’t relate to the
anger that Ishmael felt toward the newly-declared heir, I certainly can!
When I was twelve, I asked my father to buy me a Schwinn Fastback Stingray
bicycle. He informed me that I was old enough to work for the money that
would be needed to make such an expensive purchase. He then reminded me
that I could work as many hours as I wanted at his tool and die shop.
To help me out, he graciously bumped my salary up to 50 cents an
hour (he had started me out at 15 cents an hour!). But while I was
working and saving for my $75 bike, my younger brother learned to ride
a bike, and was given—a Stingray bicycle! I remember feeling
angered that he had just been handed something for which I was having
to work so long and hard!
That explains how Ishmael felt
about Isaac, which in turn explains how professing Christians feel about
those of us that champion the cause of salvation by grace through faith
apart from works. Such “Christians” are angered at the notion that the
salvation for which they themselves are working so
long and so hard is being offered
so freely to men and women who haven’t done a thing to earn it
other than to be born again a child of God’s promise (Gal. 4:28).
How should we respond to such
religious animosity? Paul answers in the opening words of the very next
chapter in Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free” (5:1)! It has never been easy to stand for the
pure, unadulterated gospel of the grace of God, but as the old hymn of the
faith expresses so very well, “it will be worth it all when we see Jesus”!
King James Bible
The Preserved and Living Word of God
Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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