Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 21
Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 21
Scripture Reading: Genesis 21 (KJV)
"And the Lord visited Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken." Here we have accomplished promise – the blessed fruit of patient waiting upon God. None ever waited in vain. The soul that by faith takes hold of God's promise has gotten a stable reality that will never fail. So it was with Abraham; so it was with all the faithful from age to age; and so it will be with all who trust in the living God. It is a wonderful blessing to have God Himself as our portion and resting-place amid the unsatisfying shadows of this world through which we are passing; to have our anchor cast within the veil; to have the immutable word and oath of God to lean on for the comfort and tranquility of our soul.
When, as an accomplished fact, God's promise stood before the soul of Abraham, he might well have learned the futility of his own effort to reach that accomplishment. As far as God's promise was concerned, Ishmael was of no use, whatsoever. He might, and did, afford something for nature's affections to entwine themselves around, furnishing a more difficult task for Abraham to perform afterward; but he was not conducive to the development of the purpose of God, or to the establishment of Abraham's faith – quite the reverse. Nature can never do anything for God. The Lord must visit and the Lord must "do," and faith must wait, and nature must be still – set aside as a dead, worthless thing. Then God’s glory shines and faith finds its rich and sweet reward. "Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him." There is such a thing as God's "set time," His "due season," and for this the faithful must be content to wait. The time may seem long, and hope deferred may make the heart sick; but the spiritual mind seeks its relief in the assurance that all is for the ultimate display of God's glory. "For the vision is for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry . . . but the just shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:3, 4). This wondrous faith brings into our presents all the power of God's future, and feeds on God's promise as a present reality. By its power the soul is kept hangs on God, when every outward thing seems to be against it; and, "at the set time," the mouth is filled with laughter. "Abraham was an hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him." Thus nature had nothing to glory in. "Man's extremity was God's opportunity;" and Sarah said, "God hath made me to laugh." All is triumph when God is allowed to show Himself.
While the birth of Isaac filled Sarah's mouth with laughter, it introduced an entirely new element into Abraham's house. The son of the free-woman quickly developed, exposing the true character of the son of the bond-woman. In principle, Isaac proved to be to the household of Abraham what the implantation of the new nature is in the soul of a sinner. It was not Ishmael changed, but it was Isaac born. The son of the bond-woman could never be anything else but that. He might become a great nation, he might dwell in the wilderness and become an archer, he might become the father of twelve princes, but he was still the son of the bond-woman. On the contrary, no matter how weak and despised Isaac might be, he was still the son of the free-woman. His position, character, standing, and prospects, were all from the Lord. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Regeneration is not a change of the old nature, but the introduction of a new; it is the implantation of the nature or life of the Second Adam, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, founded on the accomplished redemption of Christ, and in full keeping with the sovereign will or counsel of God. A born again1 sinner becomes the possessor of a new life, and that life is Christ – born of God, a child of God, a son of the free-woman.2
The introduction of this new nature does not alter the true, essential character of the old. This latter – the old man – continues what it was, and in no respect is made better; rather, there is the full display of its evil character in opposition to the new element. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." There they are in all their distinctness – thrown into relief by the other.
This teaching of the two natures in the believer is not easily understood; and yet, as long as we remain ignorant of it, the mind flounders at sea, in reference to the true standing and privileges of the child of God. Some think regeneration is a certain change that the old nature undergoes; and that this change is gradual in its operation, until at last the whole man becomes transformed. However, this idea is unsound and can be proved so by various quotations from the New Testament. For example, "the carnal mind is enmity against God." How can something at “enmity” with God ever undergo any improvement? The apostle goes on to say, "it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." If it cannot be subject to the law of God, how can it be improved; how can it undergo any change? Again, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Do what you will with flesh, it is still flesh. As Solomon says, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him" (Prov. 27:22). In other words, there is no use in trying to make foolishness wise: you must introduce heavenly wisdom into the heart that has been governed only by folly. Again, "ye have put off the old man" (Col. 3:9). He does not say that you have improved, or are seeking to improve, "the old man;" but, you have put it off. This presents a totally different idea. There is a great difference between seeking to mend an old garment, and casting it aside altogether, and putting on a new one. This is the idea of the last-quoted passage. It is a putting off the old, and a putting on of the new. Nothing can be more distinct or simple.
Passages might easily be multiplied revealing the unsoundness of the theory of the gradual improvement of the old nature, revealing instead that the old nature is dead in sins – utterly unrenewable and unimproveable. We can only keep it under our feet in the power of that new life, which we have in union with Jesus Christ.
The birth of Isaac did not improve Ishmael, but it did bring out his opposition to the child of promise. When Isaac made his appearance, Ishmael showed what he was by persecuting and mocking at the child of resurrection. Was the remedy to make Ishmael better? No; but, "cast out this bondwomen and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (8-10). This was the only remedy. "That which is crooked cannot be made straight;" therefore you must get rid of the crooked thing altogether, and occupy yourself with that which is divinely straight. To seek to make a crooked thing straight is a waste of labor. In like manner, to attempt improvement of human nature is utterly futile. Men seek to cultivate and improve human things of this world; but God has given His children something infinitely better to do – cultivating that which is His own creation, the fruits of which do not exalt nature.
The error into which the Galatian churches fell was the introduction of that which addressed itself to nature. "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." Here salvation was made dependant on something that man could be, or could do, or could keep. This was upsetting the glorious fabric of redemption, for it rests exclusively on what Christ is and what He has done. To make salvation dependent on anything in or done by man is to set it entirely aside. In other words, Ishmael must be entirely cast out, and Abraham's hopes be made to depend on what God had done and given in the person of Isaac, leaving man nothing to glory in. If present or future blessedness were made to depend on even a Divine change in nature, flesh might glory. If our nature were improved, it would be something of us, and thus God would not have all the glory. But when we are made a new creation, it is all of God – designed, matured, developed by Himself alone. God is the actor, and we are worshippers; He is the blesser, and we are the blessed; He is "the better," and we are "the less" (Heb. 7:7); He is the giver, and we are the receiver. This is what makes Christianity what it is. This is what distinguishes it from every system of human religion under the sun. Human religious systems give the creature a place, more or less; it keeps the bond-woman and her son in the house; it gives man something to glory in. On the contrary, Christianity excludes the creature from all interference in the work of salvation; casts out the bond-woman and her son, and gives all the glory to Jesus Christ, to whom alone it is due.
Let us briefly inquire who this bond-woman and her son really are, and what they shadow forth. Galatians 4 furnishes ample teaching regarding these two points. In a word, the bond-woman represents the covenant of the law; and her son represents all who are "of works of law," or on that principle. This seems plain enough. The bond-woman genders to bondage, and can never bring forth a free man. How can she? The law never could give liberty, because as long as a man was alive it ruled him (Rom. 7:1). We can never be free as long as we are under the dominion of any one. But while we live, the law rules us; and nothing but death can give us deliverance from its dominion.3 "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." This is freedom; for, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (Jn. 8:36). So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free" (Gal. 4:31).
It is in the power of this freedom that enables us to obey the command, ‘cast out this bondwoman and her son.’ If we are not consciously free, we shall be seeking to attain liberty in the strangest way possible, even by keeping the bond-woman in the house. In other words, we shall be seeking to get life by keeping the law, establishing our own righteousness. No doubt, it will involve a struggle to cast out this element of bondage, because legalism is natural to our hearts. "The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son." Still, no matter how grievous it may be, it is according to God’s mind that we should “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1, NKJV).
May we so fully and experimentally enter into the blessedness of God's provision for us in Christ that we may be done with all thoughts about the flesh, and all that it can be, or do, or produce. There is fullness in Christ that renders all appeal to nature utterly superfluous and vain.
Footnotes:
1 For information on salvation see ‘God’s Salvation’ in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
2 See Romans 10:9; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:1, 2; Galatians 3:26; 4:31.
3 See Romans 7.
