These are the Two Covenants

Well, this morning we continue forward in Genesis chapter 17, our third week in Genesis 17.

Our second week, considering covenant theology. Of course, throughout our time in Genesis, we've been keeping a close eye on the covenants that we've come across, beginning in creation with the covenant

God made with Adam and all in Adam. And then also its renewal under Noah.

And so we've already considered in times past the Adamic and the Noahic covenant. And in chapter 12, we saw the great promise that was given to Abram.

In chapter 15, that promise was established through the covenant that was cut.

Remember that God himself and God alone passed through the animals that had been divided.

And then in chapter 17, we began to see this covenant that God made with Abraham. We began to see it elaborated, further instruction added to this covenant.

And we began to consider that last week. The first point last week was that the Abrahamic covenant is a singular covenant, meaning there's not more than one covenant that God makes with Abraham.

Throughout the rest of the scriptures, whenever the covenant is referenced, it is the covenant, not the covenants.

There's not more than one. It is simply the covenant God made with Abram. At the same time, the second point last week was that singular covenant is dual in scope.

It's twofold, it's dichotomous. And we began to consider that last week. We also briefly touched on the sign of the covenant, which is circumcision, and the seed, which according to Galatians 3, the true seed is

Jesus Christ. Now we're going to zoom in on points two and a little bit of three this morning.

And then next week we'll zoom in a little bit more on this same point. So as I said, this will be a triumph for note takers.

I realize for some who are just cutting their teeth on covenantal theology or reformed theology, that this is a bit like taking a sip from a fire hose.

I sympathize with that. Do not be discouraged. These things will become clear. And as I said, we're in a holding pattern.

We haven't quite landed yet. If things are a little fuzzy this morning, that's okay. They'll probably be a little more clear next week when some of these things are again rehearsed in different angles with more detail.

So we're gonna zoom in on this idea of the dual scope this morning, the dichotomy within the

Abrahamic covenant. And that's gonna lead us to understand its relationship to the

Mosaic covenant. That's the big focus for us this morning. Next week, we're going to go back and look at this dynamic and we're gonna start to distinguish why we are reformed and Baptist.

In other words, our approach to covenant theology within the reformed circle, within the reformed world is a little bit distinctive.

And we're gonna look at some of the theological and biblical arguments that our confession makes therein.

So that'll be next week. But we wanna lay the foundation, lay the building blocks together this morning.

We'll try to do that in three parts. So the first thing we'll consider is the flesh and the promise.

The flesh and the promise. Secondly, we'll consider two covenants, the two covenants.

And then lastly, heirs by faith. So the flesh and the promise, the two covenants and we being heirs by faith.

So first, the flesh and the promise. The Abrahamic covenant unfolds in Scripture really according to these two labels, the flesh and the promise.

Sometimes you might read the physical and the spiritual. That's certainly fine to use as labels.

I think it can be a little misleading to our modern ears. We tend to speak of that as though it's matter.

Matter is physical and spiritual is ethereal. That's Gnosticism, that's not Christianity.

And so I'm using flesh in a technical way and promise in a technical way. You might read about covenant theology or the

Abrahamic covenant and come across the terms physical and spiritual. God's covenant unfolds according to the flesh in the history of the physical fleshly seed, which would be the offspring immediate to Abraham, the offspring of Israel.

And then God's covenant with Abraham also unfolds according to the promise, the history of the seed, singular, capital

S, who is Jesus, the true Israel of God, the yes and amen of God.

So Christ bridges these two dimensions of the Abrahamic covenant. He is born according to the flesh as an

Israelite, born of women, born under the law, and yet he's also the child of promise.

And his culmination of the Abrahamic covenant is not according to flesh so much as according to promise.

So Christ bridges these two dimensions within the Abrahamic covenant with the spiritual or what we could say promised unconditional dimension of the

Abrahamic covenant in which all of the elements of the promise find their true completion, the blessing to the nations, the everlasting land in the presence of God.

We continue to trace this twofold dual dimension understanding of the

Abrahamic covenant. As the storyline of Scripture unfolds, moving out of Genesis 17, indeed throughout the rest of the

Old Testament, what we call redemptive history, we find these interwoven dynamics of the flesh and the promise.

And they all spring out of this Abrahamic covenant. We find the fleshly dimension progressively fulfilled in the

Old Testament according to conditional and typological purposes.

We find the promise or the spiritual dimensions progressively revealed and culminated in the

New Testament according to their unconditional and fulfillment purposes.

Now here's one point that's very important and we'll rehearse these again next week. Stay with me.

Both dimensions, both the fleshly and the promise, both the physical and the spiritual, both dimensions of this unfolding redemptive history work together in God's singular purpose to save His people through His promised seed.

Both are necessary, both are vital, both are designated by God to bring about redemption.

Both dimensions are necessary to properly understand God, to properly understand

His ways and His work, to properly have a relationship to Him by blood -bought grace and grace -given faith.

So we need both dimensions. We cannot camp out on the one at the expense of the other.

We must take them both and see them as necessarily mutual. When we make either of them exclusive, when we pull them apart out of the singular purpose of God in the unfolding of redemptive history, we introduce all sorts of errors into our understanding of God, our understanding of salvation, and our application to the

Christian life. We'll talk about that a little bit more next week. These two dimensions, the flesh and the promise, these two dimensions do not represent two different purposes of God, two different ways to find

His singular redemption. And we'll continue to rehearse this. The fleshly dimension that immediately, physically follows this

Abrahamic covenant foreshadows the promise. And it becomes the corridor through which the promise is brought about.

This is Jeffrey Niehaus, who wrote some very helpful things on biblical theology. And I agree with this statement here.

He's speaking on the dual condition of God's covenant with Abraham in the same way we have for the past week.

He says, its unconditionality shows God's commitment to the accomplishment of His ultimate salvific purpose,

His ultimate purpose of salvation, the universal blessing given to all nations by the

Spirit. Its conditionality, what we might call this fleshly stream, shows

He is still the holy God with holy kingdom requirements that cannot be dismissed by cheap grace.

I think that's a correct statement about these two dimensions. So let's move into what will be the bulk of our time and consider the two covenants, the two covenants.

The best way for us to see the profound significance of these dual dimensions, the flesh and the promise, the physical and the spiritual, brings us forward in Galatians.

We spent some time last week in Galatians 3, seeking to understand the way that Paul reveals

Christ as the true seed that was promised to Abraham in the covenant.

The only obedient son who could satisfy the conditional requirements of the covenant and therefore receive the unconditional blessing that was promised in the covenant.

He's the true seed that fulfills both dimensions of the covenant. Now in order to bring these blessings upon us and bring about the promise of the

Spirit, that's what Paul equates to the promise in Galatians 3, he not only satisfied the conditional requirement, but he also took our place, our place of condemnation, and bore the furious wrath of God due to covenant breakers.

So not only fulfilled it as the obedient son, he took our place as covenant breakers and bore the curse, bore those who break the covenant, the wrath that is due them.

Galatians 3, beginning in verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

Why? So that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the

Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So you must hold these things together. Paul's thinking in terms of the Abrahamic covenant, and it's not simple enough to say

Christ took the curse of the law if you detach that law from the Abrahamic covenant.

Christ became a curse for us, Galatians 3, 13 and 14, so that the blessing of Abraham, in other words, what was promised to Abraham, could be brought about by the

Spirit upon the Gentiles through faith. We see once more that Paul cannot understand the relationship of Christ to his people, or the church to Israel, or faith to the law outside of the

Abrahamic covenant. That is the contour for Paul's understanding of these relationships.

Now, as we turn to Galatians 4, and I actually encourage you to do that if you have a Bible, as we turn to Galatians 4, we continue in this stream of Paul's understanding of the

Abrahamic covenant. We begin to trace its relationship to the Mosaic covenant, and here in the relationship of faith and law.

Not only is Paul going to address the relationship of the Abrahamic covenant apart from the

Mosaic covenant, but he's also going to address the Abrahamic covenant through the

Mosaic covenant. Very important that we recognize that. If you were a visual thinker, the best little sketch

I could have you draw would if you write out the Abrahamic covenant, or maybe an A with a circle around it, and then maybe a straight line across, and maybe another circle with a

NC, new covenant, or CG, covenant of grace. There's a direct line from the

Abrahamic covenant to the new covenant. But that's according to the promised dimension.

According to the fleshly dimension, you're gonna have to draw a line underneath it. Now, they both end at the same place, but along this line, you have the

Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant, and this is part of the stream. So there's a way in which the

Abrahamic covenant is apart from the Mosaic covenant in terms of promise, but also, vitally, a way in which it is through the

Mosaic covenant. Both of these dual dimensions must be held together. Let's read

Galatians four, beginning in verse 21, and trace out these dimensions of the flesh and the promise in redemptive history.

Galatians four, beginning in verse 21. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman.

But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise, which things are symbolic.

For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is

Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us, all us believers.

For it is written, rejoice, O barren, you who do not hear, break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now.

Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be the heir with the son of the free woman.

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. The whole thrust of verses 21 through 31 is to establish the contrast between this dimension of the flesh in the unfolding history and purpose of God and the dimension of the promise or of the spirit.

And where does Paul take us? Remember that Paul is being inspired by the spirit of God, and he does this by taking us to Genesis 16 and Genesis 17.

So he's introducing this contrast by bringing us back to the difference between these two chapters.

Genesis 16, where we were when he goes into Hagar, and the product of that illicit union is

Ishmael. And then he takes us to Genesis 17, where God establishes the covenant in further detail and says,

Ishmael will not be your heir, but rather the child that I will give you, the child that I promised. So what is the contrast here?

It's between the child of the flesh and the child of the promise. Between Hagar and Sarai, between bondage and freedom, between Sinai and the

Jerusalem above. This is the great contrast that Paul's holding in view. Contrast, contrast, contrast, that is the emphasis.

Now he says in verse 24, these things are symbolic. And then he says, these are two covenants.

These are the two covenants. What are the two covenants in view? We'll go into more detail about this next week because it's very significant.

The two covenants in view are the Mosaic covenant, typified by Sinai, where God gave the law.

Remember, as soon as Moses came down, the people had already broken. And so in his fury, he threw the tablets.

And the covenant had to be reestablished, literally recut immediately after. And that doesn't give you a foretaste of what that ministry of condemnation looks like.

The Mosaic covenant, and then the new covenant, the covenant by grace, which is typified, not by Sinai, but by the

Jerusalem above. These are the two covenants that Paul is contrasting in Galatians four. Notice that Paul is looking at the

Abrahamic covenant according to both flesh and promise. The contrast of fulfillment boils down to Abraham's two sons,

Ishmael versus Isaac. So regarding these two sons, in the most basic terms, which

Paul is developing theologically, Ishmael is the seed, according to the flesh.

Isaac is the seed, according to promise. These two seeds correspond to the flesh and the promise, the physical and the spiritual dimensions of the

Abrahamic covenant, according to Paul. Ishmael represents the fleshly, physical descendants of Abraham that take up the remaining historical unfolding of the

Old Testament. Please keep in mind what I just said. Ishmael represents the fleshly, physical descendants of Abraham.

That is a stunning statement, as we'll see in a moment. Isaac represents the promised, spiritual descendants of Abraham.

Having been foreshadowed by the physical descendants, they realize the fulfillment of this unfolding promise toward the

New Testament. Paul comes to understand the purpose of God through the mystery of Christ.

And of course, this, for Paul, doesn't mean there was not an advantage in being a Jew. Romans 3, beginning in verse one, what advantage then has the

Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way.

Chiefly, because to them were committed the oracles of God. In other words, he says it was a tremendous advantage for them to have proximity to God's revelation.

To be able to hear the Word of the Lord. To partake in all of that God had prescribed to them by way of the oracles.

To hear the Word of the prophets. To partake in the sacrificial system. That was a great advantage.

He says later in Romans, in chapter nine, Israelites to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh,

Christ came. These are the advantages. Paul's not spurning this at all. The historical progression of this fleshly dimension reaches its height in the coming of Christ.

And so that's what Paul's doing in shorthand in Romans nine. Through whom, according to the flesh,

Christ came, who is over all, eternally blessed. This is the seed of the promise to the woman.

And this is why Paul comes to view believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, as the reason for this unfolding fleshly dimension.

This is an incredible development in the life and theology of Paul. As a former

Pharisee, this is not the way he would have understood God's purpose in history, or God's purpose for the world.

He comes to understand that believers in Jesus, the people that are cobbled together in the basements and insulae of the ancient churches, are the reason that this whole fleshly dimension and all of the kingdom of Israel unfolded throughout history.

Listen, 1 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 11. Paul's just described the

Israelites falling in the wilderness. All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

So, baseline for Paul, what happened to them was written for us. What happened to them was for our sake,

Paul says. That's the difference between the shadow, the foretaste, and the fulfillment, the reality.

Moreover, Romans 9, 6, they are not all Israel, who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham, the fleshly seed of Abraham.

But in Isaac, your seed shall be called. You see? Not according to the flesh, but according to the promise.

They are not all Israel, who are of the flesh, but they are Israel according to the promise. And that's why

Paul can say some of the most shocking language about his heritage. And we just glaze over this.

We can't understand how world -shifting this would have been for Paul the

Pharisee. Look at this language from Galatians 4, beginning in verse 24.

These are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is

Hagar. The very badge of identity as a

Jew, he now associates with Hagar. And he says it's all bondage. For this

Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and it corresponds to the Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

In other words, the inhabitants, the unbelieving Jews of Jerusalem are Hagar in bondage with her children.

Jews are children of Hagar, according to Galatians 4. No wonder he was dragged out of cities and stoned.

This is utterly shocking language. This is a stunning message. He used to be a

Pharisee of Pharisees. What do we know from John the Baptist's ministry? The Pharisees, like the

Sadducees, viewed themselves as secure simply because they were fleshly descendants of Abraham.

We're in, we've got it, because the promises of Abraham are ours. We're his children, we're his flesh.

And so what does John the Baptist say in Matthew 3? When he saw many of the Pharisees coming to his baptism, he said to them,

I am a brood of vipers who warns you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves, he's a prophet, he knows what they're trying to think to themselves.

Do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Something that God goes on to do in the New Covenant. He raises up children to Abraham from people who are stone dead in their trespass and sin.

And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. You see, John was forcefully rebuking this confidence in the flesh.

We have Abraham as our father. And he says, you brood of vipers, bear fruits worthy of repentance.

Show yourself to have the faith of Abraham. That's how you become a child of Abraham. And so Paul, the

Pharisee, he comes to a place in his understanding of the purpose of God and the redemptive unfolding of God's purpose.

And he can say in Philippians 3, beginning in verse four, if anyone thinks he can have confidence in the flesh, I'm more so, you know, you want to go down that Pharisaic route?

I've been there, done that. I've done that better than you could. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin.

I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning zeal,

I persecuted the church. That's how zealous I was. Concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless.

I did all that the law required me to do. But what things were gained to me, these

I have counted loss for Christ. He understands the fundamental shift that Christ has made in his erroneous understanding of what

God was doing in the covenant of Abraham. And so he comes to Romans 3.

Remember, he's already said, is there an advantage to having been a Jew? Is there an advantage to circumcision? Much in every way.

What does he say a few verses later? Romans 3 .9, what then? Are we, Jews, better than they,

Gentiles? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they're all under sin.

In other words, the fundamental problem remains. It didn't matter whether you were born according to the flesh of Abraham.

The fundamental issue is still here, sin. And all that sin brings with it separation from God and the certain expectation of judgment.

The fundamental problem respects all peoples, all tribes, all tongues. It's a problem that affects the whole of humanity through the first man's sin.

And it's the problem that only the last Adam's obedience can rectify. Paul has come to understand that.

So Abraham's fleshly children, this dimension of the flesh as it unfolds throughout the biblical storyline.

They may have been born privileged, having access and advantages in God's proximity, in God's great deliverance, in God's profits, in God's manifestations of His power.

But the fundamental issue remained. They, just like those who are far off, are dead in trespass and sin.

So if that's the case, then why does God establish the Mosaic Covenant with Israel?

The answer is so massive, we could spend many weeks unpacking it. So I'm just gonna make one point off of it.

Realize this is not exhaustive. I might give several points, but.

The Mosaic Covenant was, this is one of the answers. The Mosaic Covenant was given to Israel to manifest their sinfulness, to expose it,

Romans 3 .20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

It was meant to manifest it. Come to know it. The condition, in other words, the law, the condition of the

Mosaic Covenant was given not to save the children of Israel, but to condemn them.

So that they would see, along with all who heard their witness, as they went about being a light to the nations, that all stand guilty before God, and like Abraham their father, must walk before Him in sincerity by faith, trusting that He will bring about what

He has promised. Because He Himself, He alone passed through the slaughtered animals.

Romans 3 .19, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, that all the world may become guilty before God.

That's why Paul can say to the church at Galatia, with these Galatians wanting to become

Judaizers, Galatians 4 .21, tell me you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

You want to be under it, do you not hear it? The condition of the law,

Paul explains in Galatians 3, in terms of redemptive history, was a tutor. It was meant to lead

Israel to Christ. Now this is a little footnote here, we're not going into the third use today. As a reformed gentleman,

I am fighting every instinct I have to jump into the third use of the law, but that's not the purpose here in Galatians 3 and 4.

That is a little footnote if that means anything to you. The law was given to be a tutor to lead

Israel to Christ. Galatians 3 .24, therefore the law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith,

Paul understands that. This is the stumbling stone that Israel stumbled at. They tried to establish righteousness by works of the law, they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

They didn't pursue it as righteousness really comes about, by faith. Galatians 3 .21

and 22, is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not.

If there had been a law which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.

Paul's saying that was never the intent of the law, never the design of the law. For the

Israelite, for all apart from Christ, there was no way to attain life and righteousness through the law.

Paul says if there was a law that could be given in that way, it would have been given. But because the fundamental issue of man's sinfulness remains,

Galatians 2 .21, I do not set aside the grace of God. If righteousness could come by the law, for me,

Christ died for nothing. If righteousness could come by my attempts to strive and to meet the bar and to pursue the very reflection of God's perfection, then

Christ didn't need to come. And certainly Christ did not need to die on the cross and bear the curse.

And so this condition of the law that was established with Abraham, we see that moving forward in Genesis 18.

He uses this conditional language that Abraham would keep all of the statues and decrees, keep in other words, the covenant that God made with him so that the promises could be brought about.

And we know that as we said last week, there was only one seed, one obedient son who could actually do that.

And yet the Mosaic covenant, in other words, opens up now to Israel and clarifies and presses its burden of condition upon the people as a yoke that neither we nor our fathers could bear.

Acts 15. The condition of the law was part of the witness, part of the tutelage to point everyone to faith in the promised seed, faith in Christ, who alone fulfills its righteous demand.

The law is holy and good. And so the whole sweep of redemptive history in this fleshly dimension comes to the fulfillment through its zenith where these two dimensions meet in the person of Christ and in his work.

And as a result of that work, Romans 3, 21, but now, now that all of the world stands guilty before God, now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been made known, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, right?

The tutelage of the law and the prophets. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.

The key point is that for Paul, all of this revelation begins in the

Abrahamic covenant. That's the framework. Next week, we're gonna show how even the

Abrahamic covenant is very closely building off of the Adamic covenant in terms of a covenant of works, but we'll save that for next week.

All of this revelation is framed in by the Abrahamic covenant. And that brings us back to Galatians 3 and 4.

Now we can understand what Paul's argument is. The first thing to note is that the condition of the law cannot unknow what

God gave by promise, right? This fleshly dimension, this condition, this requirement in order to receive the blessing.

The fact that that law, that condition came after the promise means that what came after cannot unknow what was promised.

Galatians 3, beginning in verse 17, this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot unknow the covenant.

In other words, cannot make void or cancel out the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

You see the contrast again? What purpose then does the law serve?

It was added because of transgressions. All of those dynamics we just talked about from Romans 3.

Until the seed, capital S, until Christ should come, to whom the promise was made.

So then how does the Abrahamic covenant relate to the Mosaic covenant? In terms of the conditional or fleshly dimension, the

Mosaic covenant simply clarified what was already contained in the Abrahamic covenant.

It elaborated upon what was already demanded by God in the

Abrahamic covenant. If you don't understand that point, you cannot make sense of Paul's argument in Galatians 4.

And so all of this, for example, is contained in the sign of circumcision. Remember that according to Galatians 3, 7, and 18, both the

Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants run concurrently until both are abrogated in their completion in the new covenant, which is in the blood of Christ.

And so what's already demanded in the Abrahamic covenant is clarified, brought into focus, elaborated more fully in the

Mosaic covenant. How that connects to Adam in the covenant of works is very significant.

We'll talk about that next week. So then in seeking to understand these two covenants, in seeking to understand the relationship between the old and the new covenants, the dual dimension, the flesh and the promise of the

Abrahamic covenant, we have to understand that the Abrahamic covenant contained the promise that would become fully manifest in the covenant of grace, fully manifest.

And it did that even through its conditional fleshly dimension. Its condition was clarified in the

Mosaic covenant such that grace could not come through the law for God's people, right?

Galatians 2 .21. But without that condition, without that stipulation being fully satisfied by the seed, by Christ, there could be no grace at all.

So again, you see this contrast. In order for grace to be grace, God established this dimension of promise so that since no flesh can be justified by the works of the law, we might be justified by grace through faith.

And yet it was also the whole unfolding purpose of this fleshly dimension that the seed would come, that he would fulfill and satisfy this holy requirement and thereby unleash the blessings that had been established by God's covenant.

In other words, the promise was not according to the flesh and the flesh was not according to the promise as it pertains to believers.

The promise was not according to the flesh and the flesh is not according to the promise.

And this again brings us to Galatians 4. Hagar represents the conditional fleshly dimension of the

Abrahamic covenant just as Ishmael was born from Hagar, the slave woman.

So it is for all who are born of the flesh and not of the promise. In other words, those who are born according to the flesh, dead in trespass and sin and not according to the spirit of God.

Ishmael was born through sinful disobedience, complete lack of faith.

Remember we talked about Abraham's Adamic failure in Genesis 16. Ishmael was born in slavery.

All those outside of Christ, outside of this fulfillment are likewise born according to the flesh, born into bondage, born under the dominion of sin.

Abraham disobeyed and he brought forth a child of the flesh. In Adam's disobedience, we are all born children of the flesh, born into bondage, born under the yoke of sin.

But God intervenes. He gives Abraham a child of promise.

And so it is with all those who are born according to the promise and not according to the flesh.

That is those who are born again by the spirit of God. I hope this point is becoming clear.

It's so important. In the same way that Ishmael was not the promised seed,

God is emphatic about this and Paul takes it all up. And this is how Paul reasons. All of Abraham's fleshly seed, all of his physical descendants, if they have not been born again by the spirit of God are not the promised children.

They're born according to Abraham's flesh, not according to the promise. And so consider, according to Paul, this

Sinai covenant typified by Hagar was conditional. It led to bondage, but the

Jerusalem above, the mother of believers, typified by the promise given to the woman was unconditional.

And it doesn't begin and end in bondage, it leads to freedom. We see the same exact dynamic in John 8.

Remember the Jews are, are having this exchange with Jesus. And they say, we are

Abraham's descendants, right? We're in, we're in the bloodline, we're secure. We're Abraham's descendants.

We've never been in bondage to anyone. I mean, give me a break, guys. There's like Roman guards on the

Antonia Fortress. You've never been in bondage to anyone? Do you not know your own history? We're Abraham's descendants.

We've never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will be made free? And Jesus answered and said, "'Most assuredly,

I say to you, "'whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. "'And a slave does not abide in the house forever.'"

Do you see how Paul takes this very concept into Galatians 4?

You're a child of the flesh, but you're a slave. And a slave does not abide in the house forever.

Think of that in covenantal terms. But a son abides forever.

Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Paul, in his own way in Galatians 4, would tear that declaration to shreds.

Were there an unbelieving Jew to say, "'I've never been in bondage to anyone,' Paul would say, "'No, you're born into the bondage of Sinai.

"'You're a slave, you're a child of Hagar. "'You're a child of the flesh. "'No, we're

Abraham's descendants. "'No, you're not. "'You're not the promised children.'" So who are the promised children?

Who are those born according to the promise and not the flesh, born by the Spirit? Romans 9, 6, 7, and 8.

"'They are not all Israel, who are of Israel, "'nor are they all children, because they are the seed, "'the fleshly seed of Abraham.

"'But in Isaac, in the promise, your seed shall be called. "'That is, those who are the children of the flesh, "'these are not the children of God, "'but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.'"

Galatians 4, 28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

How does this righteous standing come about? Through faith.

Galatians 3, 7, "'And therefore, no, only those who are of faith "'are sons of Abraham.'"

Galatians 3, 26. "'For you all are sons of God, "'through faith in Christ Jesus.'"

The true children of Abraham have always consisted of those who have been born by the

Spirit, children of promise, exercising faith as a result of the Spirit, inwardly circumcising their heart, which is what circumcision was always pointing to.

Romans 2, 28 and 29. "'For no one is a

Jew who is merely one outwardly, "'nor is circumcision outward and physical, "'but a

Jew is one inwardly, "'and circumcision is a matter of the heart, "'by the

Spirit, not by the letter.'" This is a fundamental redefinition of all

Israel ever thought about what it meant to be Abraham's children, and yet it's all contained in how

God allowed the Abrahamic covenant to be displayed. "'We as believers in Christ through faith "'are the true seed, the children of promise, "'because by faith we are united to the true singular seed, "'who is

Christ Jesus.'" Galatians 3, 29. "'And if you are

Christ's, "'then you are Abraham's seed, "'and heirs according to the promise.

"'If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, "'and heirs according to the promise.'"

So moving to our last point, heirs by faith. Heirs by faith, let's add according to the promise.

We've seen the significance of contrast that Paul puts between these two covenants in Galatians 4.

He goes to Genesis 16 and Genesis 17, and he turns that symbolically into the contrast between the old and the new covenant.

If I can lean forward a little bit where we're going, let me summarize. Ishmael represents the fleshly seed of Abraham, Israel in her bondage.

Isaac represents the promised seed of Abraham, Christ, the true Israel, and all those united to him by faith.

In this way, the fleshly seed were circumcised in the flesh. The promised seed have been circumcised in the heart.

The fleshly seed inherited an earthly land. The promised seed are of the

Jerusalem above, a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. The fleshly seed were established as an earthly kingdom, and like an earthly kingdom, it crumbled and failed.

But the promised seed have been borne by the Spirit into the kingdom of God, which triumphantly partakes in the kingship of the

Son, whose dominion is everlasting. What flows out of these two covenants according to Galatians 4,

Galatians 5? In part, beginning in verse 4, verse 4, you've become estranged from Christ.

You who attempt to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace. For we, through the

Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. You see, this is the outflow of these two covenants.

The rest of chapter five really is Paul's explanation of what eagerly waiting through the

Spirit looks like, eagerly waiting through the Spirit looks like walking in a certain way and not walking in a different way.

Notice that the promise is ours by faith in Christ through the Spirit.

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. This is Galatians 3, 21 and following.

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly, righteousness would have been given by the law, but the

Scriptures has confined all under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who have faith, those who believe.

So Christ, the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, was born under the law so that both

Jew and Gentile can be saved in Him alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

And all of the covenants, the whole sweep of redemptive history fulfills this promise.

All of the covenants correspond to the promise. Paul says this in Ephesians 2.

It's so beautiful. We miss this sometimes. You read past a little plural and you don't realize that it's just the tip of an iceberg theologically.

Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 11. Remember that you, you Ephesians, was once Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hand.

So, so bitterly ironic. I love Paul. That at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.

Notice, strangers from the covenants, plural, of promise.

Having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

When I say all of the covenants correspond to this great promise, that's what

Paul is saying in Ephesians 2. The covenants of promise. All of the covenants correspond to the promise, such that they can be called the covenants of promise, of which

Christ is the yes and the amen, of which we are heirs, according to the promise by faith.

And so the Abrahamic covenant has now been fulfilled. It's been fulfilled in the new covenant.

It no longer, therefore, functions as a covenant, but its great promise, the promise that it carried out of the garden in Genesis 3 .15,

down through the corridors, along the Mosaic and Davidic, all the way to the new, that great promise continues to be fulfilled.

Every day, the spirit of God circumcises a fleshly heart, makes a stone into a child of Abraham, and Abraham is the father to all those who have faith.

Closing reflections. Let me go back.

This is now where we end the lecture and hopefully go into preaching for a few minutes. Let me go back to the opening question that Paul asks in Galatians 4 .21.

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

Do you not hear the law? You say, well, Ross, I actually have never desired to be under the law.

Too bad, you're under the law. If you're not in Christ, you're under the law. But we all have this subtle Pharisaic instinct to live under the law, to take its yoke and live as though we can strive and maneuver, manipulate and meet its demands.

We do that by saying, I'm better than the rest. I'm better than some people I know. I haven't gone that far.

Look at all these good things I have about my life. I'm a decent person. I try to be kind and thoughtful.

I bring home the bread and I put it on the table. I have the same sins and temptations that all red -blooded males have, but I'm a decent guy.

Isn't that enough, God? And what is Paul saying? You desire to be under the law? Do you not hear the law?

Do you not hear the righteous demand of perfect obedience?

Do you not hear the terror of its condemnation? Do you not hear the deafening silence of the law?

Because it will not make a plea for you. It will not recuse you. It will not acquit you.

It will not come to your defense. It stands forthright before God to condemn. Guilty.

That's what the law does. It exposes sin and unrighteousness before a holy

God. Do you not hear that law? And if you hear the law, do you not hear the gospel that we preach?

Do you not hear of the grace of God in Christ by the Spirit? Do you not hear of Jesus and his power to save you?

Do you not hear of Jesus and his willingness to take those who are guilty, condemned by the law and vile in God's sight and cover them in his own torn body from the tree?

Do you not hear the voice of the good shepherd calling out for the one who's willfully rebellious, stubbornly lost, refusing to heed the call of the

Savior who bleeds and dies for sinners? Didn't we sing this?

We sang this earlier. I was so glad. I was hinting to Kenny, this would be a great hymn to sing.

And he did it. Thank you, Kenny. The law is good. Romans 7, the law is holy.

It's good. It's just. It reflects the infinite perfection of a holy

God. And as image bearers, we were created to reflect him, to display him in the world that he had made.

The law is good. But since the fall, that holiness condemns us all.

It dooms us for our sin to die. It has no power to justify.

So then what? What does the hymn say? What does Matthias Loy say? To Jesus we for refuge flee, who from the curse has set us free.

And when you're in that refuge of Jesus and you know it, what do you do? Humbly worship at his throne.

You're no longer living according to the law, the works of the law, but by grace, through faith.

And so you humbly worship at his throne, saved by his grace, through faith alone.

And this is the gospel that we preach. Paul says in Romans 8, what the law could not do and that it was weak in the flesh,

God did by sending his own son, the promise. You see the flesh in the promise?

He sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Are you walking in the flesh this morning? Have you not heard the law? Are you walking in the spirit of God?

Has your heart been circumcised so that you're walking sincerely before him? Totally disarmed, not like Adam hiding behind foliage, but here

I am, Lord. Here I am again, another Lord's day in the midst of your people and I'm coming to you in my sins.

Save me, show mercy to me. I humbly worship at your throne for at your throne you renew mercy every day.

I have nothing to bring, no claim. Your law is right and it's shown all of my sin before you, more sin than I can recount and confess to you.

But by faith, I sit at the shadow of your cross and I say, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Are you humbly worshiping at his throne this morning? As you sit where you are, are you humbly worshiping at his throne?

Saved by grace through faith. Do you know with all of your heart that his wounds have paid your ransom?

Do you know with your heart how deep the

Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure?

How great the pain of searing loss the Father turns his face away as the wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life.

I know that it is finished. Do you know why should

I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer.

You cannot sit humbly at his throne if you think there's an answer to give. The only way to sit at his throne is to realize

I cannot give an answer. I do not know why he saved me. I do not know why I'm standing in grace this morning.

I do not know why he's persevered to reveal himself to me and give me a faith.

However weak and fragile that faith may be, he has sustained it. And though often, often that has languished, he will not stamp it out.

Though often the reed is bruised, he will not break it. I know that it is finished.

I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart, his wounds have paid my ransom.

Do you know that with all of your heart this morning? Listen to me, unbelievers.

You have been born according to the flesh. You are under the law. You have been born into the bondage of the sin.

You sin and therefore sin is your master. You have no say in this. You are a slave to sin.

If you're in the flesh outside of Christ, you're born a child of the bond woman in Galatians four language.

And that day is fixed to keep going with Galatians four when you will be cast out along with the bond woman.

There's no inheritance for you in the kingdom of God. You will be cast out into an everlasting wilderness of God's wrath.

Cast out the bond woman and her son for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.

You're either in the flesh or by the spirit. This is true of you.

Outside of Christ. But if you have been born by the spirit of God, the son has made you free.

Remember what Jesus said, a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

If the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Are you tired of being a slave to sin?

It seems like it's your own agency, your own activity at the beginning. Sin's always fun in some way.

Until the chains begin to bruise and grip and you realize you're in a bondage, you can't escape. And then the misery and the consequences and the taste of damnation begin to crop up in your life as it slowly strips away everything from you.

But if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. If the son makes you free, you become an heir by his grace.

You become an heir of the promise. You become a child of Abraham by faith. And so brothers and sisters, this is our glorious truth.

This is our glorious truth. And I close with this from Galatians four. When the fullness of the time had come,

God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law.

So that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out,

Abba, Father. Therefore, you're no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your wisdom, your majesty, to think that this was your eternal counsel, your singular plan from the very beginning.

To think in this great sweep of redemptive history that concerns all humanity, the rising and toppling of all of the kingdoms that we know of and that we don't know of.

To think of the great multitude of the stars in the heavens or the sand on the seashore.

To think of all of the immense weight of your work by your spirit throughout the world.

And to think that that has rested upon us who believe in Christ. That you have given us this faith when your spirit brought us to life, took a dead stone and made us a child of Abraham, circumcised our hearts, gave us a sincere desire to love you and to dwell with you, to walk according to your ways and your will.

That we wouldn't have to do that according to the yoke that we could not bear. That you've established not the way of the flesh but the way of the spirit.

We thank you for the covenant keeper. We thank you for the obedient son. We thank you for our savior, the one that you sent to take our curse and redeem us from it.

I pray that we all, Lord, would hear your law clearly this morning. That as believers,

Lord, that that hearing of your law would only drive us further into the refuge. That we might delight as we sit humbly at your throne.

That we might be so close to you in your throne that we begin to see the law not as that which condemns but as that royal law of liberty.

And Lord, I pray for those born in the flesh here among us this morning. We know that those in the flesh cannot partake of the things of your spirit,

Lord. We pray, open their eyes. Unstop their ears. Let the terror of the law rattle in their hearts,

Lord, until they know with all of their heart that their sins have been forgiven.

That they've been justified simply by coming to you as they are and crying for mercy the way that you receive all of your people.