to 5:1 Life of Legalism Portrayed, Pt. 3

All right, so here we are. We are in Galatians chapter 4, verse 21 through to 5.1. And this has been titled, The Life of Legalism Portrayed. And we're now in part 3. So Bob Eccle taught parts 1 and 2 of this. And so what we're going to do here, just so we can kind of Handle it all in one chunk and remember what we've learned through Bob we're going to kind of do some review and As you're probably getting familiar with I tend to use question answer method a lot and so we're going to use that here in review and And we're going to try to do this really quick. We're going to go through like, I don't know, 20 questions or something to just kind of review the passage, most of the stuff that Bob has already been through in detail, just to get our thinking together. Because this section, it's easy to get confused and lost in it because Paul is talking, you know, he's got this allegory and he's bringing in all these different things. We've got to stay really focused and clear on what Paul's discussing here.

Question one, who is Paul talking about in this section? Look at verse 21. Sorry, this is talking to, not about. Who is he talking to? Who is his audience? Look at verse 21. What does it say there? You. Tell me, you, who want to be under law. Right. Right?

So, this is Paul's, I mean, obviously the whole letter is written in Galatians, this should be pretty obvious, right? But specifically here, to be clear, this is Galatian believers who wanted to put themselves under the law. And if we compare this to verse 28, Just down a little bit, it says, and you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. So this is very clear here that this is Galatian believers, right? Galatian believers who wanted to put themselves under the law.

Is this, by the way, is this Jews or Gentiles in terms of their, according to the flesh? Are they Jews or Gentiles? Some Jews. Are there any, are there, this is, okay. I'm just, I'm, this is kind of, you know, I think it's a mix of both. In the Church of Galatia, right, there were both. And I think, I mean, just like today, there, you know, there are Gentile believers who want to go for the law of Moses. So, okay.

Question to you, how many fathers are there in this illustration? What does it say? Verse 22, who had two sons? Abraham, right? There's only one father. This may seem overly simple, but we're just painting the picture here. How many sons are there? Two sons. By the way, you'll kind of notice that Paul doesn't even name them here. In verse 28, he names Isaac. He actually never even names Ishmael in this passage. So it's maybe not that significant to what he's talking about.

Now, what makes these two sons different? Now we're getting a little trickier. One's a promise and one's a no. OK, good. I was thinking, like, let's think really, really basic. One father, but there are two different mothers, right? So there's two different mothers in the picture. And one, as you said, one is the bond woman, one is the free woman. So only one father, but the mothers are what makes the difference. And that's important to Paul's argument here. And we have, okay, the next question here. What was the nature of those two birds? Now, maybe my question is not super clear, but what does it say in the text? They're in verse 23. One's free and one's not free. According to the flesh. One's free and one's not free.

One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. According to the flesh. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. According to the flesh.

One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. According to the flesh. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's not free. One's free and one's Who's promise? You saw I had it up there on the screen for a second. Okay, look down at verse 29 and have a look at what Paul says there in verse 29. Okay, but it is getting a lot further along. We're not kind of paying attention to what he's saying, but just how he says it.

He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. Okay, so that's the difference. Isaac was born according to the spirit's promise. And that's really important to what Paul is setting up here. So Paul is contrasting physical birth, or birth according to the flesh, with spiritual birth, or birth according to the word of the Spirit.

So in verse 24, when Paul says, this is allegorically speaking, does this mean that Genesis is an allegory? I hope that we all recognize that that's not the case. What Paul's doing is he's taking literal history and he's applying it allegorically or figuratively under the direction of the Holy Spirit. We don't have the liberty to do this ourselves, but where scripture shows this, then we can do that. But this is literal history applied allegorically or figuratively.

So I have a question I don't have on the slide here, but what is an allegory? What is allegory, like if you had to define that? An illustration. Illustration, that's a really good way of saying it. Any other thoughts? If you had to say, what are the things, in this case, historical people, real historical people, what do they, they're used to stand for something else? It illustrates truth. Illustrates truth, good. Yeah, very good.

Okay, so what, in that case, what do these two mothers stand for or illustrate? Here. Again, in the text, what does it say? This is allegorically speaking, verse 24, for these two women are to what? Covenants. Covenants. Okay, two covenants, diatheke.

And this is an interesting word, right? The Complete Word Study Dictionary called, gave it a very, this is a very broad definition. An agreement which one wishes to be, sorry, not an agreement, an arrangement which one wishes to be valid. Okay? That's pretty broad. Also, they gave a potential definition of even a dispensation or administration, which fits under that definition as well.

So, two ways of administrating or governing a thing or something. So, we've got these two covenants and one is a covenant of law, and the other is what I termed here a covenant of promise. Okay, so, this is still review, so we're gonna try to hurry through. What covenant is represented by Hagar? Okay, again in verse, yes, so again in verse 24, one covenant proceeding from Mount Sinai. So, Hagar, the bondwoman, represents the law covenant given at Sinai. And what are the children of this covenant? Bearing children who are to be?

Slaves. Slaves. Right. So, so, yeah. So the law covenant, given at Sinai, the children of that covenant are our slaves. So now in verses 25 and 26, Paul identifies these two mothers with two different Jerusalems. This is kind of interesting. So which Jerusalem does Hagar slash Mount Sinai correspond to?

Earthly? Okay, what is Paul's word for it? Earthly is correct, absolutely. Present Jerusalem. Yeah, present Jerusalem or the now Jerusalem, or the Jerusalem that now is. I think that's the way King James has it, right? And Paul tells us why Hagar and her son correspond to the present Jerusalem. It says, for she, present Jerusalem, is in slavery with her children.

St. Miles? Yes. We actually have another allegory illustrating an allegory. Yeah, this is where it gets kind of confusing, right? Now all of a sudden we're like shifting from Mount Sinai, you know, Hagar, which represents Mount Sinai, to represent present Jerusalem, right? Is that kind of, yeah.

And what Paul is getting at here is that the Jewish nation, according to the flesh, is born into slavery. Which is actually interesting, if you flip back in Galatians to 3 verse 4, what did Paul say about Jesus? When he was born of a woman, he was born under law. So according to the flesh, as he was born, he was born under law, just like every Jew. That whole nation put themselves under the Mosaic law. Them and all their descendants. So if you're born a Jew, you're born under the law of Moses. So, now that's actually really important, 3 verse 4, because the fact that Jesus was born under law is also the reason that he could die to law. When he died, you know, he was separated from the law's jurisdiction, right?

So, now what is the other Jerusalem that Paul contrasts with the present Jerusalem in verse 26? What does he call it there in verse 26? The Jerusalem above. The Jerusalem above, right? Now this is really interesting. If someone look up Hebrews 12, verses 18 through 24, and somebody else go to Revelation 21, verses 1 through 3. I don't have these on the PowerPoint, so you might want to turn there. Hebrews 12. 18 through 24.

Does someone want to read that? For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken of them. For they could not bear the command, even if a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Awesome. Thanks, Jim. So I purposely wanted you to back up to 18, because the author of Hebrews here is contrasting Mount Sinai with the heavenly Jerusalem. And that's exactly what he calls it. He calls it the heavenly Jerusalem. So here we get a different word associated. In Galatians, we have the Jerusalem above. the heavenly Jerusalem. Yes? Yeah, today's hungry heart, by the way. I mean, living above. Yes, that's exactly, yes. Okay, perfect. So, does someone look up Revelation 21? Yeah, I've got it. Okay. How many verses? Just verse... Oh boy, what did I say here? 1, 2, 3. Okay.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and also there was no more sea. Then I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned to her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, you will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. so much in these verses that we'd love to unpack, but what we're paying attention to here is this, again, we have this new Jerusalem coming from where? Coming down out of heaven from God. And so we have numerous references to this Jerusalem above, this heavenly Jerusalem, and we see that at the end of the Bible here that this Jerusalem will come down out of heaven. So this is what Paul is talking about here. This is what he's giving reference to, I believe.

And so we have these two Jerusalems, the present now, earthly Jerusalem, and the heavenly Jerusalem that is in some ways hard for us to get our minds around, and yet no less real, right? And, We know that the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, 2 Peter 3, 7. And the future Jerusalem, which is above, will one day come down out of heaven. So, two different Jerusalems.

So, this is important. Who are the children of the Jerusalem above? Verse 26, The Jerusalem above is free, she is our mother, right? So Paul includes himself in this. And then further down in verse 28, he says, and you brethren, like Isaac, our children of promise. And then verse 31, so then brethren, we are not of the bond woman, but of the free woman. So what we have here is that all those who are born again by faith are children of the Jerusalem above.

You know, Miles, last week I mentioned briefly that I thought this was positional truth. That's exactly what it is. And this is why we talk, as you said, about being heavenly people. We don't belong to this earth. We belong to that, this is called here, heavenly Jerusalem. Which doesn't mean that we're useless here. We are citizens there, dwelling here, temporarily. So to sum up all this review, here's where we're at.

Paul is showing us in a very clear Old Testament illustration, the natural born son who is born into slavery and the spiritually born son who is born into freedom. And Paul's showing us how this parallels the state of all men, all mankind. Everyone belongs to one camp or the other. So this is pretty amazing, this little allegory that Paul has shown us here is actually a picture of the condition, or I should maybe say the position, of every man, woman, and child in this world.

So what this is, is a picture of Adam's race, born into slavery to sin, and the new race of men that God has created in Christ Jesus. That term there, the new race of men, that's kind of a concept that, I mentioned T. Austin Sparks earlier, and some of the stuff that Roger and Mike and I have kind of been reading through together. It's a bit of a new term for me and a little bit, you know, well, it's new. I mean, I hadn't really thought maybe in terms like that before. But more and more realizing this is exactly what scripture is portraying.

You know, you have one race of men in Adam and all those who are who put their faith in Christ are removed from Adam's race and put into this whole new kind of humanity in Jesus Christ. By the way, who set up this little allegory in history? Paul didn't just say, hey, that'll suit my purposes. No, God designed this into his historical plan to picture exactly what he's doing on a universal scale.

So what we have here is that by faith, We are severed from Adam's race and we've been born again into Christ's redeemed race, which is exactly what Jesus is describing in Nicodemus in chapter 3. You must be born again. Right? Not just of the flesh, but of the spirit. So, now moving into some new material in our last 15 minutes. You have a few more. You can go. You can go 20. You can go 20. We'll give you five more minutes.

I think it's interesting to note that when we study the Old Testament, sometimes we ask the question, would Moses spend so much time talking about Isaac and Ishmael? Who cares about Ishmael? But God knew that it was going to be illustrated in the New Testament. He knew that a couple thousand years earlier.

That's amazing. The other thing is I think you tend to The overly conclusive that Ishmael simply relates to the Muslim or the Arab world, but in fact that's not true. No, that's not true. We're talking about a different kind of citizenship. He's actually all men and Adam. Ishmael is all men and Adam. In type, right? In type, yes.

Yeah, no, that's really good. Really, really important to recognize. And I think the Lord has actually placed a lot of this imagery in the events of the Old Testament, and we see very little of it often. But here we see very, very clearly, because the Holy Spirit Himself drew out the specific details. This is what this pictures, and it's important. Miles?

Yeah. A real good illustration of this is when when they talk about Melchizedek, who cares whether he had a father or a mother? But it becomes very important when you get to the book of Hebrews. Amen, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and just to read that account in Genesis, you think, well, you wouldn't even pay attention to the fact that they didn't record any of his genealogy or anything about his You know, so, but it's very important when we realize that that was written in the scripture to picture Jesus Christ in a very particular way.

So, awesome. Oh, that's great. Thank you guys. This is good discussion. So, let's look at that now. We've got this interesting quotation in verse 27. So, where is Paul quoting from and why? There's a lot more here than I realized when I began. So we're going to, but we'll try to cover it relatively quickly. Anyone know where that quotation comes from? Isaiah 54. Very good. Yeah. Isaiah 54. So now does anyone know what comes before Isaiah 54? Isaiah 54. Very good. I can't snap. I'm glad, yeah.

We don't know, yeah, we won't get talking about education. That's really important, because does everyone recognize what Isaiah 53 is about? It's the chapter that all the Jews ignore and push aside because it so clearly reveals the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. Most Jews that realize Isaiah 53 is in their Bible and read it with an honest and open heart, recognize who it's talking about, right? So now if you've turned there to Isaiah 53, 54, and you look back at chapter 53, and I didn't write this in my notes, so I'm gonna have to turn here as well.

And if you look down at verses 10 and 11, there's some really interesting little phrases in here. We've talked about how he's crushed for our transgressions and so forth. And in verse 10, and we recognize these words, but there's a little word in there that we want to catch. It says, but the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. That's the Hebrew word seed. There's a seed of this suffering servant. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. And then notice in verse 11. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify...

How many? Many, the many, not a few, but many. And so what we see is that there's depicted there in chapter 53, this seed, which is many, a multitude. And then what we have in chapter 54 is very interesting. I think it follows in response to those words there, because what you have, if you were to read all of chapter 54, is Zion. a description of Zion, and it's depicted or personified, you could say, as a barren woman who will rejoice because her offspring are many, they're numerous. And it's picking up on that at the end of chapter 53. So Paul saw this, he understood this and he's applying that here in the letter.

So Isaiah 54 pictures the New Jerusalem as a barren woman and Christ's death and resurrection as it opened the womb, so to speak, of the New Jerusalem. If the cross had not happened, there would be no There would be no seed of Christ. There would be no one to populate the New Jerusalem. And so in response to Christ's suffering, crucifixion, death in chapter 53, we have Zion, this heavenly Zion, rejoicing because she has children.

And they're numerous. And so it's really, there's a lot there, and we really don't have time to get much more into it than that. But Paul brings up this little quotation there. You rejoice, barren woman, which is a reference to Zion, this heavenly Jerusalem, who does not bear, break forth and shout you who are not in labor for more. Numerous are the children of the desolate woman than she who has a husband.

Great, great teaching. Thank you. Yeah, that's good. It's just there. I just... So, verse 28. Thanks, Bob. Well, that's why I left that one for you. So, verse 28. Isaac was born according to the Spirit's word and not according to natural birth. And in the same way, we have been spiritually born or reborn, right, as Christians. So, I just gotta find, I got so excited there about Isaiah 54. Gotta make sure, yeah. So verse 28 is pretty straightforward, right? That believers are like Isaac in this allegory.

That's, Paul's making it very clear that we are to be compared to Isaac. And what this is, is our unchangeable position in Christ, okay? We've been united to Christ. We share in his death and resurrection. That's the new birth. And so we've been spiritually born as Christians, not just physically, as Nicodemus got so confused and hung up about, right?

And now in verses 29 and 30, Paul brings in this really interesting reference to Isaac and Ishmael. And he makes an important application for the Galatian church. And so, verse 29, what are the corresponding phrases at the beginning and the end of this verse? Just so we see what Paul's doing linguistically, and we're really clear, what does he say? He says, what are the first words in the verse?

But. Okay, but. Keep going. Born according to the flesh. Okay, depending on your translation. I've got NASB. But as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh. And he closes it by saying, so it is now also. Okay, so as at that time, so it is now also. And so Paul's comparing what happened between Isaac and Ishmael to something that is happening in Paul's day. That's the point. So what is the point of comparison? What was happening then that is happening now? So what's in the sandwich there? What's in between those two phrases?

He who was born according to the flesh, what? Persecuted. He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. Okay, so just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so now those who are enslaved to law persecute those who are free from the law. Now, if you remember who Paul is, every now and then you have to remind yourself who Paul is. Paul personally knew about this persecution because he had been engaged in it. Probably more than anyone else. And in his case, it was a violent persecution, though I don't know that this is necessarily always a violent persecution.

Do you know what I'm saying? What does it look like in the church today? In terms of, because are there not a lot of people in the church when we talk, you know, big, you know, big church, what we call churchianity or Christendom. Are there not a lot of leaders who live enslaved to law? and there is kind of a constant antagonism against grace.

So, which may not be violent, necessarily, but... Well, it seems like people have a disdain for, quote, fundamentalists. Oh, you're a fundamentalist. Right. You believe what the Bible says explicitly, or, you know, that seems to be not a popular... If you want to comment about a Christian, if you say, well, you're... You're an evangelical, fundamental, Bible-thumping believer. You're usually not at the top of the list of Christians. But also look at the difference in size of the mainstream church, who are the ones persecuting and thinking those who are Bible-believing Christians. We're out in left field, is what they think, and that's the majority of people.

Well, the quick point is that because it makes the flesh feel good when you're doing good things. Sure. It's true. And when someone else is, you know, yeah, no, there's exactly good, there's a lot in there. So, okay. So what does Paul quote in verse 30, and what's his point? Does anyone know who he's quoting there? It's kind of an interesting one. He says, what does scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. It's from Genesis, isn't it? It's from Genesis. Who knows? Does anyone know who? 2110. 2110, good. I don't know. It's not those are the words of Sarah Abraham's wife. She's now. She says it of her, right?

She says with my son so Paul's kind of altered a little bit here But he says drive out the maid and her son for the son of the mage shall not be heir with my son Isaac And so what is Paul telling the Galatians through this should should they should the Galatian? church allow the Judaizers to hang around in the church? No. That's his point. That's his point. There's no room for that in the Galatian assembly.

What's going to happen if they do? If they leave? This isn't to be harsh or unreasonable. This is because there's a danger to the church that they will go exactly the way that they've been going up to this point. They're going to get pulled into legalism totally pulled away from grace. And Paul's going to get into talking about that in the next verses in chapter 5. But one other thing we want to really notice here in verse 30, something else in Sarah's quote.

What should catch her attention in what she says? What does she call Isaac. She says that Ishmael, or the son of the bondwoman, shall not be an heir. Shall not be an heir with Isaac. So that's exclusive. The heir, heirship, inheritance, is exclusive to Isaac.

And isn't an heir exactly what God had promised Abraham? It takes us back to Romans. We're all heirs. Right. And what this actually does here, it's been a little while since we were in chapter 3, but Paul talked a lot about the heir of the promise made to Abraham. What did Paul say in 3.16? Who is the heir, ultimately? I'll let you glance back. To whom do the promises come? Who is the heir of the promises, ultimately?

316. The many. The seed. Okay. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say and to seeds as referring to many, but rather to one and to your seed, that is Christ. So Christ is ultimately the heir. Now, you know, Isaac was the promised heir, but ultimately it is Christ who descends through Isaac who is the heir of the promises. And this is, and you know, we've been through all this and not chapter, but those who are united to Jesus Christ are partakers in His inheritance.

You look at 3.29 for that. So, okay. important to pick up on these things that Paul's connecting here. But briefly on verse 31, it says, so then brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman. So Paul draws, this is kind of his concluding statement on his allegorical illustration here. And what he does really is he's stating the believer's position.

It's this clear, indicative statement, we are not But you can apply we are. We are of the free woman. So this is true of us in Christ. We are free from slavery to the law. That's inherent in our position. Now, in our last five minutes, we've got this amazing verse.

And maybe, who's up next? Maybe you'll want to review this a little bit. Andrew's next. Andrew's next. So Paul makes this amazing statement. He says, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. So what we see in that is that Christ wants you and I as believers to live as those who are freed from the law. It is for freedom or for liberty that Christ set us free. That's his intent.

And then Paul gives us an imperative command. What is it? He says, stand firm or stand fast, right? Yeah, we'll get to the therefore. I know I jumped ahead of that. But what does it mean to stand firm or to stand fast? What would be a military term, maybe? Not back down. Not back down. Believe. Believe, yes. You're right to the end. You guys just go down the logical train all the way. But to hold your ground. To hold your ground, right? And then, therefore, is really important.

Why should we stand firm in freedom? because of the fact that Christ has freed us. Because of the fact that Christ has freed us, we should therefore stand firm, not back down, hold our ground. So what you notice is that the imperatives of the Christian life always rest on the indicatives or the statements of fact. So our walk this imperative command to keep standing firm, which kind of is kind of, it's almost funny to call it our walk, you know, standing, you know, the standing firm walk, you know. But our walk always rests on our position.

And then what does he say? And do not subject, sorry, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Now, what's implied in that command? It's also imperative. It reminds me of what Christ himself said, when I will set you free, I'll make you free indeed. And what's that freedom? The freedom's not sin. The freedom's that you're made to be free from sin or the penalty of sin. Freed from everything to which we were enslaved out of. Right? Sin, the law. the whole deal.

So what's implied in this when it says, and do not be subject again, one, is that we were formerly enslaved, right? And two, is that it's possible to be enslaved again. Now this is interesting. So we're going to deal with this just a little bit. So in the next verses, following verse one, Paul's going to explain how a believer can become subject again to a yoke of slavery, right? And for them in particular, it had to do with accepting circumcision and putting themselves under the whole law of Moses. That's next week.

So it's possible to enslave yourself to law as a believer, okay? But the good news here is that you don't have to. Okay, we were slaves to sin in the law. We are no longer slaves to the law, right? That's our position, but we can subject ourselves to the yoke of slavery.

So this is the kind of conundrum here that we, you know, do we lose our freedom from law if we subject ourselves to it? Okay, this is a little bit tough there, okay? What exactly is Paul saying? So let's think about this. What is our freedom from the law based upon? What is our positional freedom from the law? What is it based upon? The cross. The cross, right? Christ died on the cross. And our identification with him in that. So can we lose that? No. No. Unless you can separate yourself from Christ, which you cannot, right?

So freedom is interesting, right? Because there's judicial or legal freedom, which we would call our standing or our position. And then there's the exercise or the experience of that freedom. And if you think about it like this, it'll make sense, right? Is a free man able to willingly act as a slave? Sure. Sure.

As free-born Americans, you know, you actually subject yourselves to slavery. I mean, there are a lot of ways you could illustrate this, but it's possible to be free and yet live as if you're in slavery. So as believers we can never lose our freedom from the law, that's ours as a gift by grace, but we can still subject ourselves to the law. And we don't lose our freedom, we lose the practical exercise and enjoyment of that freedom.

Final closing thought, now we're one minute past. How do we keep standing firm or standing fast? And this is what Bob and Roger already commented on. As we said, it's the idea of staying put on the ground or even placed. It's not a feeling thing. We often feel like we need to measure up. We feel like we are under law or should be under law.

But what it really comes down to is what does the word of God say? versus what you may think or what you may feel, did God really say? And God has said that you are free from law as a fact, and that's something we have to receive by faith. So it always comes down to faith in Christian life. All right. How about I pray and then we can have questions after that. You got it. All right. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus.

Not something that we have to hope to arrive at or attain to or achieve, but it's right now. It's our position in Christ Jesus. We thank you for that because all the law could do is enslave us to the sin nature, not because there's anything wrong with the law, but because there's something deeply wrong with who we were in the old man, in our flesh. That every time a perfect righteous law came at us, the sin nature was shown to be exceedingly sinful. And so Lord, we thank you that you've separated us from that whole way of operating and functioning, and you've freed us into this amazing liberty, not to sin, but to have the life of Christ lived out in us moment by moment by faith. We thank you for that wonderful grace gift in your son's name. Amen.