The Jerusalem Above is Our Mother
Galatians 4:26, “the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother.” In contrast to this freedom, Hagar, symbolizing the law “is in slavery with her children.” That is 4:25, but 4:28 says, “you, brothers, in the way Isaac was, are children of promise.”
Galatians 4:26-28 and 31 reveal that the New Jerusalem is the mother of the believers. This mother is the Jerusalem above, the heavenly Jerusalem. In Galatians 4 Hagar symbolizes the old covenant of the law that condemns and brings in death, producing children unto slavery (vv. 24-25), whereas Sarah symbolizes the new covenant of grace that justifies and brings in life, producing children unto freedom (vv. 26-28, 31). The New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above, is our mother, and this mother is the new covenant of grace.*
Romans 3:24 says that we have been “justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 5:17 promisees “much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Both justification and eternal life come from the new covenant of grace, not from the old covenant of law. We have the life from being born again; this life saves us now in many situations (Rom. 5:10), and brings us to reign in life inwardly now and openly in New Jerusalem.
* Life-Study of the New Testament, Conclusion Messages: The Church, the Kingdom, and the New Jerusalem, message 255, p. 2673, by Witness Lee. Published 1998 and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, California. Available in print and available online.
Posted by Don on September 23, 2024
https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/09/23/the-jerusalem-above-is-our-mother-2/
