18 It is always a fine thing [of course] to be zealously sought after [as you are, provided that it is] for a good purpose and done by reason of purity of heart and life, and not just when I am present with you!
19 My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,
20 Would that I were with you now and could coax you vocally, for I am fearful and perplexed about you!
21 Tell me, you who are bent on being under the Law, will you listen to what the Law [really] says?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid and one by the free woman.
23 But whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise.
We are born again, we are born into the fulfillment of the promise of freedom. Our Father chose to have us, He willed our birth, we did not will it, Matthew 22:14. Our Father birthed us into absolute and eternal freedom, John 8:36. We are now as Jesus is, even though we are in this world, 1 John 4:17.
There will be those who try the argument against our freedom in Christ by saying that we proclaim that we are to just sit back and do nothing. These people, and this argument, fail to realize the glory of our new birth. To be born again means to be united and made one with Christ, John 17:20-22. Jesus is not lazy, He ever lives to serve so that we might be saved to the uttermost, Hebrews 7:25. We are now Jesus’ body, we are now flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, Ephesians 5:30, so we too will ever live to serve our Father’s Kingdom and the world.
Our Head, Jesus, will cause us to do the will of our Father and our Father so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to it. If we are born again, we will, regardless of our flesh, serve the Kingdom of God. We will be used to by the Holy Spirit to serve, because Jesus now empowers and directs our paths. We do not enable Jesus to do this through us by our works or our efforts. The hand does not direct the head, the head directs the hand. A branch does not direct and empower the vine, the vine empowers the branch. The clay doesn’t will what it will be, the potter does and the Truth is that Jesus is our Head and we are His body. Jesus is now our Vine and we are His branches, and our Father is the Potter and we are His clay. This is the freedom that we have been born into, to be just as Jesus is. Jesus is One with God, the Two are not separate in any way and neither are we. Jesus can’t stop being God and we are now perfectly united with Jesus. Jesus is the flesh of God. Our Father’s flesh does not have a separate will and purpose from His Spirit and the works of God’s flesh do not keep them one.
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