How YOU can be freed from your own prison | Jesus In Five

Are you free or imprisoned? Welcome back to the channel. We’re still learning about Sarah and Hagar from Genesis 16, but we’re going to go to the New Testament and see what Paul said about these women.

Galatians 4 starting in verse 21
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.

The slave woman is Hagar and her son is Ishmael, the free woman is Sarah and her son is Isaac.

Galatians 4:23 - But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

We know from Genesis 16 that Abraham and Sarah didn’t trust in God’s promise so instead took matters into their own hands where Sarah gave her slave, Hagar, to Abraham, and they had a baby named Ishmael.

Galatians 4:24-26 - Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

Paul here is using these historical people as an illustration for the law vs. the gospel. He is comparing Hagar to Mount Sinai where God gave the Law to Moses. The law reveals our sins to us and ultimately shows us that we can't earn God's favor. In Romans 3 Pauls says the law shuts our mouth before God. It shows that God is infinitely holy and that we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

However, heaven (or the Jerusalem from above) brings freedom from sin and from the law that condemns us.

Galatians 4:27-28 - 27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

Isaac was the result of God's promise to Abraham. He is the child of promise! When we trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become children of the promise, or the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ came as a man to live perfectly and without sin, died for our sins in our place, was buried in the earth, and three days later rose bodily from the dead.

Galatians 4:29-31 - 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

When we are born again or regenerated by the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit's work, we are freed from our sins! This means our minds have been transformed to understand that we ARE sinners. We have transgressed and violated God and His standards. God makes us aware of how our sin has caused Jesus to have to die for us. He has made us realize the consequences of our sins and how they have affected Him, those around us, and our own lives.

This truth about our sin frees us to see sin for what it truly is. Our sin lies to us constantly and tells us that what we sinfully desire will result in great power, pleasure, money, influence, or any other worldly thing we think we need or want. Instead, it leaves us empty, powerless, drained, and sometimes alone.

We lie to ourselves! Jeremiah 17 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can understand it?" The passage is saying YOUR HEART is deceitful. It deceives you.

But God's truth and the gospel helps us to see that we lie to ourselves. Jesus sets us free and in Him we are no longer slaves to our sin, we are free to love God and do good works for our neighbor.

Believe this truth and walk in it.

IF you want to see more videos about finding Jesus in Genesis click here. Please like and share this video so more people can see how Jesus truly frees us from sin. I'd also be really grateful to you if you'd subscribe to the channel.

Until next time, find true freedom in Christ alone. Amen.