A Tale of Two Sons | Galatians 4:21-5:1
Brian Hedges | November 12, 2017
Those of you who are readers know that there is a unique pleasure, a unique kind of satisfaction that comes from reading a difficult book, and it’s different from the satisfaction you get from reading a fairly easy book. Some of you, perhaps, have spent the time to work through a piece of classic literature.
I remember when I was a teenager I read Charles Dickens’ book A Tale of Two Cities. You know, “It was the best of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” That has to be the best opening paragraph of any book. I read that book when I was, I don’t know, 14 or 15 years old, and it took a long time to work through. It was difficult to read, I had to make myself keep reading it, but there came a point when all of these various storylines that seemed disconnected, you get about three-fourths of the way through the book and everything starts coming together. The plot starts to cohere, and all of a sudden lights start coming on, and it’s a really satisfying experience. You’ve worked through a difficult text and it’s yielded a kind of satisfaction that’s different than, say, reading a John Grisham novel, which I have enjoyed those as well. But you know, they basically have predictable plots, they’re fast reads; they’re exciting, but pretty forgettable, don’t really change your life.
In the same way, we find, I think, a unique kind of benefit and help in working through difficult texts of Scripture, and we’ve been doing that with the book of Galatians. And like a piece of classic literature, it’s a book that takes work. It requires thought. You can’t really be a passive listener when working through a text like the book of Galatians. Somewhat different than the more immediate, feel-good kind of benefit from what some people call “sermonettes for Christianettes.” Those are 20-minute talks, a story, a felt need, three takeaways, but not really deep wrestling with a text of Scripture.
Well, this morning I’m inviting you to wrestle. You have to put your thinking caps on, you’re going to have to pay attention, because we are approaching the most difficult paragraph in the book of Galatians. Now, we turn a corner, so it next week we start moving all into application for the last two chapters of the book, but Paul now is at the height of his argument in this letter to the Galatian in believers. We come to it in Galatians chapter four, verses 21 through chapter five, verse one. So that text I want us to read together this morning. Galatians chapter four, beginning in verse 21.
“Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 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.’
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 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. 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.’ So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
This is God’s word.
We believe that all of God’s word is beneficial for all of God’s people, and so it’s good for us to dig into this text this morning.
Three things that I want you to see as we try to unfold this paragraph. I want you to see the issue that Paul is addressing, the argument that he makes, and then the application of the argument.
I. The Issue
II. The Argument
III. The Application
I. The Issue
You see the issue in verse 21, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law,” that’s the key phrase. “You who desire to be under the law.” You remember that Paul has used this kind of language over and again throughout this letter. He said in chapter three, verse 10 that “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse,” and that Christ has then “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,” chapter three, verse 13. He has talked about the function of the law in redemptive history. There was a period of time where God’s people were held captive under the law, chapter three, verse 23. The law functioned as a guardian, but now that Christ has come we’re no longer under a guardian. That’s Paul’s argument, chapter three, verse 25.
He continues this language, this metaphor, in chapter four, when he describes God’s people as underage children who are under the tutelage of guardians, chapter four verse two, but now that Christ has come to redeem us, Christ coming under the law himself, he has redeemed those who are under the law so that we might receive the adoption as sons. We’ve come into full age. That’s been the argument so far.
The issue that Paul is addressing is a group of people who wish to be under the law, and as you know they have been seduced, or at least are in danger of being seduced, by false teachers, by those who are pushing a law agenda upon them. We might describe the issue in Galatia in this way: there were basically two main aspects to this threat. There was legalism and there was ethnocentrism.
The legalism was this insistence that they must adhere to the Mosaic law in order to be saved. “By doing the law you will be justified.” That’s what they were saying. Works of the law necessary for justification.
The ethnocentrism was seen in their adherence to the instinctively Jewish law and their insistence that the Gentiles accept Jewish practices in order to be counted as the people of God. In other words, they were insisting that males be circumcised. They were insisting that the Gentile Christians follow the Jewish calendar. They were insisting the Gentile Christians eat kosher. Those seem to be the things that, as we read this text closely, are the things that are kind of in between the lines. Circumcision is obvious, the other things a little more vague. But that seems to be the issue. The Jewish teachers were insisting that the Gentiles live like Jews. Paul is saying, “That’s going back under the law. That’s a desire to be under the law,” and that’s the issue he raises, that’s what he addresses, in the argument that follows.
Now, to make that practical, you might think of it like this, and, in fact, Paul says something to this effect. He tells us that Christ has died to set us free. Why then would we go back to slavery? The issue would be something like someone who has been in slavery and then is set free from slavery, but they are so conditioned to living like a slave that they go back to living like a slave. In fact, I thought of a couple illustrations of this.
Earlier this year Holly and I watched a movie that was called Room. Some of you, maybe, have seen this film; it won some awards a couple of years ago. It’s about a woman who has been kidnapped, and she has been in captivity for seven years, and during that time she’s had a child, and the child is now about five years old; four or five years old. That’s how the film opens. She’s already in captivity, she’s locked into this one room, a terrible situation. She’s had this child, and the child has never been outside the room. Never been outside the room!
So his whole world is the room. He has a TV, so he sees a few things on TV. There’s just a skylight; there’s not a window looking outside. So this woman is trying to raise this child in the room, and recognizing, of course, how desperate their condition is and the need to get out.
The interesting thing about the movie is that when they do finally escape (sorry to spoil it; it’s still worth watching!), when they do finally escape, half of the movie is concerned with how they adjust to their new freedom, and there’s one point where the little boy says to his mom, “I miss Room.” He actually wants to go back, because he’s so conditioned to that environment that he has to adjust to freedom.
Do you know what? There are a lot of Christians that are like that. You begin your religious life somewhat legalistically. You’re trying to keep the rules, you’re trying to keep the law, you’re trying to earn your salvation. You are conditioned to live like a slave, not like a free person, and then Christ set you free. You put your faith and your trust in Christ; you trust what Christ did for you on the cross, but you’re so conditioned to living like a slave that you’re always wanting to go back and look to your law-keeping, look to your works, rather than trusting in Christ. That’s the issue that Paul is addressing.
Here’s another illustration. Do you remember Dobby, the house-elf, in the Harry Potter movies? Yes, see, I got a reaction from a few people. Some of you remember this if you’ve seen the movies or you’ve read the books; this house-elf, and this house-elf is basically in servitude to this really awful family. The family abuses him in all kinds of ways. And then he gets set free, but he’s so conditioned to living in servitude that he’s always punishing himself in all kinds of absurd ways, because that’s how he’s always been treated.
And again, lots of Christians are like Dobby the house-elf. They’re conditioned, because of religion and because of legalism, they’re conditioned to thinking of themselves in terms of slavery rather than in terms of freedom, and they don’t live in the freedom that Christ came to bring them. That’s what this letter’s about.
Paul says it is in chapter five, verse one; we just read it: “For freedom Christ has set you free; now stand firm, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” That’s what Paul is arguing for, and that’s what we need to tease out the application for.
Think about it this way: do you ever judge your relationship with God on the basis of your daily performance? Do you trust in your sanctification as the basis for your justification? Do you adopt extra-biblical standards - I’m not talking about the clear biblical parameters in the New Testament; I’m talking about extra-biblical standards - do you adopt those as criteria by which you judge yourself or others?
So somebody talks about a movie or the Harry Potter novels, and you think, “Well, that doesn’t sound like a very Christian thing,” and you automatically start assessing and judging. We do that. Or you hear that someone has a different standard of dress or listens to a different kind of music. It’s so easy for us to fall into this, where we are assessing ourselves or others on the basis of extra-biblical criteria, and it’s a subtle form of legalism.
We need to resist all of those and recognize salvation is found in Christ and in Christ alone. That’s the issue. It’s the issue of those who wish to be under the law.
II. The Argument
Now, what is Paul’s argument? You see it in verses 22 through 27. Paul appeals to the law, verse 21: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” He’s appealing to the law itself; that is, to the Torah. He’s quoting now from a story in the book of Genesis.
If you know your Bibles you will know this story of Abraham. Abraham had two sons; you can find this in Genesis 16 to 21. You remember that God had made a promise to Abraham. The promise was, “In you and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed; I’m going to give you a son. Look up at the stars, Abram, and try to count the stars. That’s what your descendants will be like.”
You remember that Abram’s wife Sarai is barren, she doesn’t have children, and they wait years and years and years and years, and finally they decide they’re going to help God out. So Abram takes Sarai’s handmaiden, her slave, Hagar, and has a child by her, and the child is Ishmael.
It’s only sometime later that God answers the promise when Abraham and Sarah are both so old that it would be impossible for them to conceive; only at that point does God answer the promise, and Sarah miraculously conceives, and she has the child of promise, Isaac.
That’s the story, Genesis 16 through 21, and Paul is now working with that story, and he’s reading that story through the lens of another passage of Scripture, Isaiah chapter 54, which he quotes down in verse 27: “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.” That’s Isaiah 54, verse one.
Now just a couple of things to note about the context. Isaiah 51 through 54 is really all about the suffering servant. It’s about God’s people in captivity, they’re in Babylonian exile, and about a servant who will come and who will suffer on behalf of the people. Isaiah 53; we know that, right? Isaiah 53. He bore our iniquities. God smote him. He carried our iniquities. God’s wrath revealed against the Son, or against his servant, there in Isaiah 53.
And Isaiah 54, then, has this wonderful word, “Rejoice, O barren woman.” The idea seems to be that because of what the servant does for the people, the people who have been in exile (characterized as barren) are now fruitful again; they are restored; they are saved. That’s the idea.
Paul is reading the Genesis narrative through the Isaiah passage. What he does, I think, is very interesting here. He gives us a series of contrasts. You remember A Tale of Two Cities? You have a contrast between two cities. Well, in this passage you have a tale of two sons. And in fact you have two sons, you have two mothers, you have two cities, and you have two covenants, and there’s a very clear series of contrasts as you read through this passage, and you can see this contrast in two parallel columns on the screen.
The contrast is really between Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac is never actually - well, Isaac is named; Ishmael is not actually named, but Isaac is, but Ishmael is very clearly the son of the slave woman, Hagar, whereas Isaac is the son of the free woman, Sarah. There are interesting differences between the two.
For one thing, they have different mothers; that’s clear. But note also this, that Ishmael is born according to the flesh, whereas Isaac is born through promise. Now, this is what that means: Ishmael was born through natural procreation processes, right? There’s no miracle involved. There’s no miracle involved in the conception and in the delivery of Ishmael. It wasn’t a miraculous birth, it was a natural birth. Now I know that sometimes we say that every birth is a miracle, and I get what we mean by that, but strictly speaking a miracle is a suspension or an interruption of the laws of nature. Birth is a natural thing; it’s not a miraculous thing, it’s a natural thing, and Ishmael was a natural-born child.
Not Isaac. Isaac was the son of promise. It was a miracle. It was God intervening in doing something supernatural and miraculous in order for Isaac to be born. There’s the contrast.
But not only that, Ishmael is born into slavery, whereas Isaac is the freeborn son, and Paul says that these two sons and their mothers stand for two covenants. Look at what Paul says; let me read verse 22 and following.
“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman, but the son of the slave was born according to the flesh while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically,” or figuratively. He’s not denying the historical nature of the narrative, but he’s making a theological point from it. So he interprets them figuratively. “These women,” he says, “are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.” Now, what’s the big thing that happened at Mount Sinai; do you remember? The giving of the law! So he’s saying Hagar represents Mount Sinai, the law.
And then get this in verse 25: “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.” Now why is he saying that? “She corresponds to the present Jerusalem.” Well, you remember that in chapters one and two Paul has made a big deal about the fact the he got his gospel directly from Christ himself, not from the Jerusalem apostles. In fact, the agitators in the Galatian church, the false teachers, were making their appeal that they represented Jerusalem, they represented the true apostles!
Now, Paul has already made it clear that that’s not the case, in chapter two. Peter and James and the rest were agreed in him in the essence of the gospel. But the false teachers were bringing in this Judaizing tendency, where they’re saying, “You have to be circumcised, you have to follow the Mosaic law. If you don’t do that you’re not a true Christian. In fact, you have to be a Jew in order to be a true Christian.” Paul says, “No, that’s going back to Sinai and this law covenant, this legal covenant, this Sinai covenant, and that corresponds to the present Jerusalem.”
Do you see what he was doing here? He’s battling the ethnocentrism that’s saying, “You have to be a Jew,” or act like a Jew, or live like a Jew, “in order to be saved.”
Then in verse 26 he says, “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” The Jerusalem above. What does he mean by that? He’s using eschatological language. There’s an expectation in Scripture of this city of God, the Jerusalem above, the city of God that will come down from heaven to earth. You see it Revelation 21 and 22, the new Jerusalem. Paul is saying, “We belong to that! We belong to the new Jerusalem.” In other words, “We already belong to the end time people of God, and Gentiles do as well.” “She is our mother.” And then in verse 27 he quotes this passage from Isaiah 54.
Now that’s the basic argument. There are two sons and they correspond to these two covenants; one is a covenant of law that leads to slavery; the other is a covenant of grace, we might say. It might be more appropriate to call it the new covenant, so a contrast between the old covenant and the new covenant, and the new covenant is not based on the principle of law or of works; it’s based on the principle of faith and of grace.
Paul is saying, “Don’t go to the law. Don’t live under this old covenant; be a new covenant Christian. Live by faith and trust in God’s grace. And in so doing, you are a freeborn child of God, not a slave.” I think his argument there is that those who really trust in Christ, they actually are the true Israelites, the true children of Abraham. He’s already said that, right, in chapter three? “Those who are of faith are the children of Abraham.” They are the seed of Abraham; they actually belong to Abraham’s family.
You see this in many other passages of Scripture, in Philippians three, when he says, “We are the true circumcision who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh,” or in Romans chapter two he makes the same contrast between circumcision of the flesh and circumcision of the heart. Or in Romans chapter nine. There are lots of places in Scripture where Paul is drawing this contrast, and he is saying, essentially, that it’s those who believe in Christ who are the true people of God, the true children of Abraham, the true Israel; indeed, the new Israel. Well, that’s his point. That’s his argument.
III. The Application
That brings us, then, to the application in verses 28 through 31, and then chapter five, verse one. Here’s the conclusion, verse 28: “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” You’re children of promise. That is, if you believe in Christ, if you believe in Christ like Isaac, you owe everything to the promise of God, to the grace of God, to the intervention of God, to the gracious, supernatural work of God. You are the children of promise.
And that means that you then inherit the promise. You see that in verse 30: “But what does the Scripture say? ‘Case out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.’” The inheritance comes by promise. Ishmael did not inherit the promises made to Abraham. Ishmael was not a part of the Abrahamic covenant. Ishmael was not the father of God’s people; Isaac was. Paul is saying it’s not through law that you get the inheritance; it’s through promise, it’s through grace.
Now, a couple of things are interesting to note here. In verse 29, Paul alludes to a conflict between Ishmael and Isaac that we have, I think it’s in Genesis 21, where Ishmael is found mocking Isaac, the true-born son. Notice what Paul says in verse 29. He says, “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.”
Now obviously, he who was born according to the flesh in the story is Ishmael; he who is born according to the Spirit in the story is Isaac. But he’s drawing an analogy from this, and he’s saying just as then Ishmael antagonized Isaac, so now those who are born according to the flesh persecute those who are born according to the Spirit.
And in the letter to the Galatians, Paul alludes to persecution a number of times. In chapter five, verse 11, Paul says, “If I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.” In other words, he’s saying, “If I preached circumcision I wouldn’t be persecuted, but because I don’t preach it and I preach the cross I am persecuted,” and that’s exactly what happened to Paul when he planted the churches in the Galatian territory. He would go to the synagogues, he would preach the gospel, they rejected it, the Jews by and large rejected it, they persecuted him, he turned to the Gentiles. Paul’s being persecuted for his preaching of the cross of Christ and for his faith in Christ.
Then in chapter six, verse 12, he applies it to the Galatians. “It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.” This seems to be the agenda of the false teachers. They want to avoid persecution! Therefore, to avoid persecution they’re going to be circumcised, so they can conform to the Jewish law.
And then finally, in chapter six, verse 17, Paul says, “From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus,” probably an allusion to the scars that Paul had because of terrible persecution.
Now here’s the point. There is a vast different between religion and Christianity. Religion actually persecutes true Christianity. Paul says it, doesn’t he? Those born according to the flesh persecute those born according to the Spirit. There’s a big difference! A religious person has so much at stake personally that very likely they will persecute the true Christian. They come after them. I think it also shows us that the basic principles of the law is a principles that is antagonistic to the believer.
You remember in The Pilgrim’s Progress, you’ve read that wonderful book, I allude to this often. Here’s a story I don’t think I’ve told before. One of Christian’s companions is Faithful, and when Faithful tells Christian about his journey and his experience he talks about how he went to this man’s house and the man offered to let him marry any of his three daughters. Now the man’s name was Adam the First, and his daughters were the Lust of the Eyes, the Lust of the Flesh, and the Pride of Life. Faithful’s tempted to do it, but he doesn’t; he doesn’t, and he goes on his way.
And then he comes to Hill Difficulty, and when he comes to Hill Difficulty this guy comes by and just beats him up! He just beats him up, and he leaves him there lying on the ground. And Faithful musters strength and picks himself up again, and the guy comes back and he beats him down again. He does this again and again.
And guess who the guy was that’s beating Faithful up? It’s Moses. It’s Moses. It’s the law. You see, that’s what the law does. The law beats us up. The law casts us down. The law has this antagonistic element. That’s not what Christ does. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, John says in John chapter one.
Christ comes. He doesn’t merely show us our need and show us our sin and condemn us; Christ comes and he takes the condemnation himself! The cross of Christ; he takes the condemnation for himself and he heals us and he restores us and he lifts us up. He doesn’t beat us down; he lifts us up. It’s the difference between religion and Christianity.
I’ve talked to people who have rejected Christianity, and one reason they reject Christianity is because they have mistaken Christianity with religion. “It always made me feel guilty.” You didn’t understand the gospel if it made you feel guilty! You see, the message of the gospel is the solution to guilt.
So we have to understand this distinction between religion and true Christianity. Law-based religion leads to slavery; it is only faith in Jesus Christ and his cross that leads to true freedom, and that’s why Paul then says (again, we’re in verse 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.’” I think what Paul means by that is, “Get rid of the false teachers.”
The false teachers are saying, “You have to obey the law to be saved.” I think when Paul says, “Cast out the slave woman and her son,” that’s what he means: resist the false teaching.
Then there’s this one final command or exhortation. Look at verse 31, and then chapter five, verse one. Here’s the conclusion, verse 31: “So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.” Then chapter five, verse one, “For freedom Christ has set us free,” here’s the exhortation, “stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Now just notice two quick things about this, before we’re done. First of all, how Christ set us free. He says, “For freedom Christ has set you free.” Now how did he do that? He doesn’t answer here, but he’s already answered, hasn’t he? “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the book of the law, to do them,” chapter three, verse ten. Then verse 13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Then chapter four, verse five, “In the fullness of time God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law.”
How did Christ set us free? He redeemed us! And how did he redeem us? He redeemed us by becoming a curse for us. The cross; that’s the answer, that’s the solution. How do you get freedom, Christian? How do you get freedom from guilt? How do you get freedom from the law? How do you get freedom from sin? How do you get freedom from condemnation?
There’s only one way: you get freedom through the cross of Christ. Christ has set you free. How did he do it? He did it by the cross.
Why did he do it? Look at chapter five, verse one again; look at the text. “For freedom Christ has set you free.” That’s why. He set you free so that you would be free. He set you free so that you would live free. Therefore he says, “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Back to A Tale of Two Cities. You know the end of that book, the end of that story? The story concerns these two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. They both love the same woman, and the woman, Lucille Manette, marries Charles Darnay. But Sydney Carton cares about her, genuinely loves her, and he loves her family. Well, the whole story of A Tale of Two Cities takes place during the French Revolution, and there’s this sinister plot going on through the whole story of basically capturing and executing the aristocracy. Lucy Manette is part of the aristocracy, Charles Darnay, and Charles Darnay gets captured.
So at the end of the book, Charles Darnay is sitting in a prison, in the Bastille. He’s going to be executed on the guillotine; his head’s going to be chopped off; he’s going to be executed. Sydney Carton loves Lucie Manette, now Lucie Darnay, and her family so much that he does something amazing. He smuggles himself into the Bastille and he trades places with Charles Darnay. He lets Charles Darnay go free and he takes his place so that he can go be with Lucie.
In the last scene of the book Sydney Carton is there talking to a young woman who’s also about to be executed, and she’s struck by his composure and his peacefulness, this serenity that characterizes him. He says these famous lines; if you’ve never read the book, you’ve probably at least heard these lines. He says, “It is a far better thing that I do than I’ve ever done. It is a better resting place I go to than I’ve ever known.” It’s a wonderful story of substitution, of someone who takes the place of another to set them free.
Now, can you imagine how ludicrous it would be if some crazy-eyed modern novelist wrote a story about Charles Darnay, and the story is that Charles Darnay chooses to go back to the Bastille and live in slavery because of his guilt! I mean, that would be stupid, wouldn’t it? For freedom he was set free! The only appropriate sequel to that story is happily ever after; Charles Darnay lives happily ever after with Lucie Manette. It’s the only logical outcome; it’s the only outcome that makes sense.
In the same way, the only appropriate way for a Christian to live, given what Christ has done for us, is to live in freedom. You don’t go back to the law. You don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Let’s pray.
Our gracious Father, we thank you for the freedom that is ours in Christ, we thank you that even in difficult texts such as these there is rich truth for us to mine and to understand and to apply to our lives. We pray, Father, that you would check within us every tendency we have towards legalism, towards trust in ourselves. We pray that you would examine our hearts this morning, whether we are those born to the flesh or those born according to the Spirit.
We pray that you would help us to stand firm in the freedom that Christ has given us. We thank you for his sacrifice. We thank you that Christ our substitute, that he took our place. We pray now that you would help us live as the free people that we really are, given our redemption in Christ.
As we come to the table this morning we come to remember and to rejoice in what Christ has done for us. We come to Jesus himself. As we take the bread and the juice physically, may we also take Christ spiritually. May we by faith say in our hearts, “Lord Jesus, I trust in all that you’ve done for me. I trust your sacrifice, I trust your death, I trust your resurrection, I trust your intercession.” May we turn to Christ in these moments. So draws near to us, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
