It saith, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” It speaks
death to all who take pleasure in the beggarly elements of the world.
“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in, the book of the law to do them.” To what place shall the wicked
bond-servant be cast out?—“Into outer darkness; there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.” “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as
an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Therefore,
“Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in
Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.” Mal. 4:1, 4. All
who are under the law, whether they be called Jews or Gentiles,
Christians or Mohammedans, are in bondage to Satan,—in the bondage of
transgression and sin,—and are to be cast out. “Every one that
committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin. And the bond-servant abideth
not in the house forever; the son abideth forever.” Thank God, then, for
“the adoption of sons.”
[Sidenote: “Two Sons.”]
Those false teachers would persuade the brethren that in turning from
whole-hearted faith in Christ and trusting to works which they
themselves could do, they would become children of Abraham, and so heirs
of the promises. They forgot that Abraham had two sons. I myself have
talked with a Jew according to the flesh, who did not know that Abraham
had more than one son; and there are many Christians who seem to think
that to be descended from Abraham, after the flesh, is all-sufficient to
insure one a share in the promised inheritance. “They which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Rom. 9:8. Now of the
two sons of Abraham, one was born after the flesh, and the other was by
promise, born of the Spirit. “By faith even Sarah herself received power
to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful
who had promised.” Heb. 11:11, R. V. Hagar was an Egyptian slave. The
children of a slave woman are always slaves, even though their father be
a freeman; and so Hagar could bring forth children only to bondage. But
long before Ishmael was born, the Lord had plainly signified to Abraham,
who wished that his servant Eliezer might be his heir, that it was not a
bond-servant, even though born in his house, that He had promised him,
but a free-born son,—a son born of a freewoman. God has no slaves in His
kingdom.
[Sidenote: “These Are the Two Covenants.”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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