It must have pained Sarai to no end that she had given her slave girl to Abraham, and that her slave had given birth to a son. Sarai had thought she might have a son by the labors of her servant. She reasoned that if servants were for their master’s use, Hagar’s labor to bear a son would make that son hers, and by this, God’s promise would be realized. But this was not so. Sarai could not give Abraham a son of promise by the works of her slave girl. Neither the law, the works of man, nor the will of man can produce children to God. All who teach and preach and practice salvation by the will or work of man, whether in the beginning of it or in the middle or in the end, are slaves that can produce no fruit to God. God’s promises are not fulfilled by man's contribution, but by God's grace alone (Gal. 4:21-31). God’s work alone accomplish His promises.

​Abraham married Sarai. He did not marry Hagar. Sarai was free. Hagar was a slave. Hagar’s son was born in bondage. Only the son of the free woman can be the heir of promise. Only the children of promise, the sons of God, are heirs of God's promises in Christ. Only the work of grace makes children to God.

But from Genesis 16:5, notice what Sarai said when the pain of her mistake pressed sorely upon her. She appealed to her husband. She spoke these most profound words: “My wrong be on thee” (Gen. 16:5). How could Abraham bear her wrong? Because he was her husband. We might reason that in human terms it was really Abraham’s fault that Hagar bear him a son. But that is not the point. Sarai owned the deed as her own wrong, as her sin. “My wrong be upon thee.” Oh, the pain that mistake must have inflicted on her mind! If only she could undo it all! If only she could put back into the bag all the feathers that her act of unbelief, like the wind, had scattered abroad! But she could not. There was nothing she could do to return things to the way they were. No amount of hand wringing and wailing could undo her wrong. And there is nothing that any sinner can do to undo the offense to God's justice, or to remove the consequences of his sin. And so, Sarai did the only thing she could do, and what she was driven by grief to do. She appealed to her husband. If she would have relief, he must bear her wrong!

Everyone born by the Spirit of God does as Sarai did. She represents the mother of all who are born of the Spirit of God, all who are children of promise (Rom. 9:6-8). When the Gospel is preached through the ministers of Christ’s Church, the Church, as a mother, as the wife of Christ, bears children of promise to God by His Spirit (Eph. 5:23-32; Gal. 3:2, 13-14; 4:4-6, 29). Every believer is a member of Christ’s Body. Every believer is collectively the wife of Christ. All of them individually are the children of promise. They are the sons of God by the seed of His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ (1 John 3:9; Rom. 8:9-17). They are God’s by the electing love of God the Father, by His gift of them to Christ, by the purchase of Christ’s redeeming blood, and by His Spirit of life in them, by whom they are born of God (James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23; Gal. 4:4-6). All of them are taught that their wrong would have ruined their hope of receiving any blessing from God, unless, in the everlasting covenant of grace, their Husband, Christ, could bear their wrong.

We see our sin. We feel the pain of it. Nothing gives us more pain than our unbelief, which bears fruit of the flesh! Yet as Sarai’s children, we come to our heavenly Husband Jesus and cry, “My wrong be upon Thee!” (Isa. 53:4-12).

Only a sinner enabled by the Spirit of God will so plead to His Savior who made Himself the sinner’s Surety in that everlasting covenant, in which He promised to do the will of God, to bear His wife’s wrong, the sin of all of His people, and to answer God for it, and in so doing, actually fulfilled that covenant in His own blood (Heb. 13:20; Matt. 26:28; Rom. 7:4; Heb. 7:22; 8:6)!

The prophet Micah summarizes the cry and hope of every believing child of God under the felt consciousness of sin:

“Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness” (Micah 7:7-9)!

May the Spirit of Christ give to you and me this comfort, that He who knew no sin, was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. By God's act of imputation, Christ was counted guilty of all the wrong of all of His people. This is the consistent testimony of scripture (Isa. 53; Rom. 5:6-21). This explains how He must suffer for His people. And do you and I find it to be our case, that  this heavenly Husband is all glorious for His love that offered Himself for us (Eph. 5:2; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:6-10; 1 John 4:9-10; Eph. 5:25-27)?! May His love for us bind our hearts to Him in love (Col. 3:14).

The LORD instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Let my people go that they may serve me” (Ex. 8:1). This command to Pharaoh foreshadowed the Gospel. Moses gave the law to Israel. The law requires personal obedience for life and blessings. It curses us for anything short of complete and perfect obedience. The law directs our attention to ourselves. It holds over us the threat of punishment. It holds out the hopeless promise of reward for obedience: hopeless, because we are sinners, and already under its curse, and because as sinners, we are disinclined and unable to do what it demands. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The obedience required in the Gospel is faith in Christ. Faith directs all of our attention outside of ourselves to Christ. In believing, we see God has reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son. This truth believed, is the spring of all worship. Believing Christ crucified, we know God. Believing Christ, we love God. Faith sees that Christ tore through the veil to reveal a reconciled God by His own blood. God dictated the conditions of peace. God was in Christ reconciling the world of His elect to Himself by the blood of His Son. To see God in Christ in His intention and work of reconciliation to us who made ourselves His enemies in our minds and by wicked works, and to see the cost He paid to fulfill His purpose, how can we not desire and love our God and Savior? Thus, “Let my people go that they may serve me” foreshadows Christ’s redeeming work. He destroyed the works of the devil. He redeemed us from all iniquity. He overcame the world. He subdued our iniquities. He cast our sins into the depths of the sea. We receive all of this grace through God’s gracious gift of faith. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). We want to serve our gracious God. None has ever been good to us but He. He is unchanging in His goodness (Rom. 11:29). He is eternal in His love (Jer. 31:3). He determined and accomplished our reconciliation in the death of His Son. You may wonder what you must do to make peace with God, to silence your screaming conscience. But God Himself has already made peace. He made peace in Christ (Col 1:20) when we were His enemies (Col. 1:21; Rom. 5:10). He tells this to us in the Gospel of Peace, through ministers He has sent. He even gives us faith, that persuasion of heart and conscience, that Christ is enough, that He is all in our salvation (Isa. 52:7; Rom. 10:15-17; 2 Cor. 5:18-21). This calls forth our heart’s admiration and worship. This is irresistible grace, given by the unfailing call of the Gospel to sinners (1 Tim 1:15)! All who hear this call (Acts 2:39; 1 Cor. 1:2; Heb. 9:15), see their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage of this world (Gal. 1:4), from satan (Luke 11:20-22; Col. 2:14-15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 12:9-11), of sin (Micah 7:18-20) and unbelief (Rom. 6:17). We are free and therefore now want to worship God in Christ and serve Him who released us from our sins and the curse of the law and captivity to satan!

Rick Warta