His Burden is Light

What is the difference between the manner of conception of Isaac and Ishmael? I ask this question because they are often used as an allegory for faith versus works. Isaac was born through faith in the promise of God and Ishmael by human works attempting to fulfill God's promise on His behalf. Ishmael turned out to not be the promised son and became instead the figurative father of works-based, legalistic religion such as Judaism and Islam (Gal 4:21-25), and indeed the literal father of the false prophet Muhammad. Isaac, on the other hand, became the only begotten son of Abraham (Heb 11:17), a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The thought that Isaac was born through faith in the promise of God and Ishmael, through human works to fulfill that promise, omits something very important and this omission leads to an error that denigrates works in the Christian life. The error is corrected when we recognize the fact that Isaac was not a virgin birth. Abraham slept with Hagar, Sarah's ...

I'm always searching for new ways to express not only the Gospel itself but man's need for the Gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. I often contemplate in relation to myself and my own experience, and I realize that for a long time I didn't understand my need for the Gospel or its power to really transform my life. When I did get an inkling of both my need and its power, I received it by faith. Before that, as someone raised nominally Christian, I only gave my mental assent to key statements, that is, I decided to agree that Jesus died for my sins and rose again for my justification. This most important thing I did not understand: that He died not just to forgive my transgressions but to enable me to receive by faith His Spirit, who transforms the believer progressively into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18) and gives the power to preach the Gospel and walk in daily victory over sin. He died to break the bonds of sin around me (Rom 7:14), to set me, the captive, free (Isai...