Our Liberty In Christ by Philip Mauro

descendants of Jacob, while Isaac stands for the spiritual people of God, the house­hold of faith, “the Israel of God.” Both, we say, could equally claim Abraham as their father; and Ishmael had the prior claim by fourteen years, during which time he was the only child of Abraham, and also the heir-apparent of the promise. But the great difference between the two is that Ishmael was born “after the flesh,” whereas Isaac was supernaturally born, “after the Spirit.” Isaac was, in one word, a miracle, and so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

There was a brief time (from the birth of Isaac until he was weaned) during which the two sons lived under the same roof; and it is written that, during that time, “he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit” (Gal. 4:29). This is applied for us by the brief comment, “Even so it is now.” The apostle applied the illustration primarily to the persecution being then carried on by the Jews, the earthly Israel, against the saints, the true Israel. Paul had been the the leader of this persecution, but now he had become the chief sufferer from it. Was he proving in that way the truth of what he declared in chapter 6:7, that “Whatso­ever a man soweth that shall he also reap’’?

But the illustration of the two sons of Abraham reaches much farther than that. It applies to a situation which ever confronts the spiritual seed of Abraham. It is a situation out of which persecution is sure to arise if they refuse to conform to the desires of the flesh and the ways of the world in regard to religious customs and observ­ances, particularly the observance of so called “holy days,” and seasons, such as the “Christmas season.”

What should be impressed upon us first of all is the sharp line of separation which the Word of God draws between all that Ishmael stands for and all that Isaac stands for. This difference teaches us that we should keep ourselves “free” from everything that is of the works of the flesh, and particularly its religious works. Those things are absolutely foreign to us who arc the children of promise. They belong exclusively to the children of the bondwoman. To adopt them, therefore, or to take part in them, is to deny our heavenly birth and our citizen­ship in the New Jerusalem, which is “free,” and to sur­render the liberty we have in Christ, wherewith lie has “made us free” through His death on the cross.

When Christ came to the nation Israel, there were in the mass of that nation many Ishmael’s and a few Isaac’s. Rut they were not separated; for all counted- themselves Abraham’s seed, and boasted of it (John 8: 33). But now there was to be a separation. For the Isaac’s were to come out from among the Ishmael’s, and the Ishmael’s were to be “cast out” (Mat. 8:12). Those who heard the voice of the Son of God and believed