Heavenly Jerusalem.

Heavenly Jerusalem.

Galatians 4.

Do you realize as a saved, blood bought Son or Daughter of God, you have heavenly Jerusalem living within you. (Christ in you... you have become the temple for the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 3.16.

Galatians chapter 3 & 4 teach us that before Jesus Christ, we were slaves to this world and slaves to the law.

However, now because we are his children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts.

Galatians 4:21-27NLT “Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? 22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. 23 The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.

You know what human attempt produces? Ishmael.

Diapers. (Buy a lot).

Reaping Ishmael can effect the future.

Mount Sinai is impossible to climb.

Ishmael eat. (Ishmael eats more).

The free son is free because of his free father. For the free son was born as God’s fulfillment of his promise, (Gal 4.23).

Galatians 4:24-26 These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. 25 And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. 26 But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother.

So until this day, Jerusalem is held in slavery by the law. As of today, Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai!

They have neglected being free through the freedom-maker and speaker, Jesus. PH.

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John 1.17NLT  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love (grace) and faithfulness (truth) came through Jesus Christ.

If you compare the Law verses the Holy Spirit, you’ll find that when the Law came down, 3,000 people died. That’s in, Exodus 32:28.

However, when the Holy Spirit came down, 3,000 people were saved. That’s in, Acts 2:41.

That’s the difference between God’s Law and God’s Grace!

Victor Hugo, in his book, Les Miserables, gives a great example of grace. Victor Hugo writes, An ex-convict named Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, is forced to carry around a yellow ticket for everyone to see that he’s an ex-convict. With that ticket displayed, he tries to get a room at an inn, even offering to sleep in the barn. But the innkeeper throws him out, telling him that they are law-abiding, Godly people. In despair, Valjean sits outside a house and laments: And now I know how freedom feels, The jailer always at your heels, It is the law! This piece of paper in my hand, That makes me cursed throughout the land, It is the law! I walk the street, The dirt beneath my feet. Just then the bishop steps out of the house, sees Valjean, and invites him inside for food, drink, and rest, offering him a bed sleep in, and shelter from the cold outside. So Valjean accepts the Bishop’s offer, eats a hearty meal, and steals the silverware in the middle of the night. When the police catch him, he tries to tell them that the bishop gave him the silverware as a present. So the police bring him back to the bishop’s house to prove he’s lying. When they arrive at the house, the bishop comes running out the door holding two silver candlesticks, which he gives to Valjean, telling the police that he forgot to give the candlesticks to Valjean when he gave him the rest of the silverware. -So the police release Valjean and they walk away.

Bishop say’s to Valjean, “Now that’s the grace given to you by acceptance of Jesus, and now live likewise to yourself, and with others.”

And that’s just what Jesus did for us. We were imprisoned by the law, sentenced to eternal death for our sins against God, but while we were still sinners, Jesus rescued us from our accuser, Satan, and offered us His free grace, upon acceptance, Romans 5.8.

Say, “Free grace, not cheap grace, free grace.”

The Law condemns; but Jesus gives life. -John 1.17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Because of this grace and truth given freely to all who choose to receive this eternal gift, the apostle Paul writes to these privileged:

Galatians 4.27NLT As Isaiah said, “Rejoice, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into a joyful shout, you who have never been in labor! For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband!”