The portion of Scripture I wish to draw the subject of my letter from for this month, you will find if you read the sixteenth to the twenty-first chapters of Genesis.
As God tested Abram’s faith when he trusted Him for his land, by sending a famine, after he as a pilgrim, had reached the country to which God called him, when he was dwelling in Ur of the Chaldees; so after Abram believed God concerning the gift of a son, God tested his faith for fifteen years before what He told Abram on the starry night was fulfilled in his tent. It seems that Abram’s faith broke down the same year in which he believed God. and God counted it to him for righteousness. The tempter was his own wife, Sarah, and the instrument she used was ready to hand. Abram had an Egyptian slave in his tent; most probably she was purchased when Abram and Sarah were in Egypt, for the child of God never gets into a wrong course without reaping in the end some evil thing from his unfaithfulness.
Sarah, like Eve of old, throws the blame on God, that the promise of a son was not fulfilled. But unbelief always limits God, and never waits on Him. God had not spoken to Abram of a time, as He did fourteen years afterward, when Sarah bare Abram a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Gen. 21:2. Therefore it was the reasoning of an unbelieving mind to doubt the promise, because she and Abram were still childless.
When a believer ceases to trust God for His blessings, he will be ready to listen to the tempter, should he propose some carnal means to secure these blessings independently of God. Therefore, the Apostle Paul in the fourth chapter of Galatians, speaks of Hagar and her son to illustrate the evil principle of adding anything to God’s salvation, to make the soul of the believer more secure than Christ has made him. False teachers had troubled the Galatian Church by teaching that they must keep the law of Moses, or they could not be saved. Thus had they given up the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and instead of waiting for the blessed hope of heavenly glory through Christ’s work (that righteousness of God apart from works) by faith, they were seeking to be made more perfect by adding to Christ’s work their own doings. Now God allowed Abram to use his own efforts to gain the promise, but when Ishmael was born, and he loved the child, trouble broke out in the tent. His beloved Sarah was despised by her bondservant Hagar, and after fourteen years of home trouble, God tells Abram that Ishmael is not the child He promised, and He repressed Abram’s cry, “O, that Ishmael might live before Thee,” and bids him wait for Sarah’s son, Isaac, who should be born the following year. And then according to God’s faithful word, the promised seed is given Sarah, and God fulfills to Abram the word He promised fifteen years before. But can there be two sons in the same house—one born after the flesh, and the other the son of God’s promise? Abram earnestly hoped that this might be, but Ishmael mocks God’s precious gift, and God bids Abram cast Hagar and Ishmael out of his tent. And Abram obeys God, though the thing was very grievous, because of his sons.
We, who by grace believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and are only righteous in Him, only wise in Him, only holy in Him, only accepted in Him, and in ourselves ever remain helpless, sinful, and foolish, are subject to Satan’s wiles, who seeks to bewitch us as he did the Galatians, (Gal. 3:1), and to get us to trust in self in some form or other. Now those who do so sin against the truth and make Christ of no effect.
Beware of any hope out of Christ, any righteousness out of Christ, any holiness out of Christ. “Christ must be all, or not at all,” as an old writer says. Happy the believer who can say, I am eternally satisfied with Christ. I would not have holiness, wisdom, righteousness, or heaven itself from any or through anyone but Christ. May God drive out of our hearts the son of the bondswoman, and make us to glory only in Christ, who of God is made unto us who believe, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption haven itself from any or through anyone but Christ. May God drive out of our hearts the son of the bondswoman, and make us to glory only in Christ, who of God is made unto us who believe, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Your affectionate friend,
UNCLE R.