Study Desk

A short time ago God chose you to follow him. He chose you through his grace that came through Christ. But now I am amazed that you are already turning away and believing something different from the Good News we told you.

You have heard about my past life in the Jewish religion. I persecuted the church of God very much. I tried to destroy his people.

But God had special plans for me even before I was born. So he chose me through his grace.

It pleased him to let me see and know his Son so that I could tell the Good News about him to the non-Jewish people. I immediately prepared to do this work without asking for advice or help from anyone.

Does God give you the Spirit because you follow the law? Does God work miracles among you because you follow the law? No, God gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you because you heard the message about Jesus and believed it.

God made promises to Abraham and his Descendant. The Scripture does not say, "and to your descendants." That would mean many people. But it says, "and to your Descendant." That means only one, and that one is Christ.

Can following the law give us the blessing God promised? If we could receive it by following the law, then it would not be God's promise that brings it to us. But God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise God made.

This is what I am saying: When young children inherit all that their father owned, they are still no different from his slaves. It doesn't matter that they own everything.

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, who was born from a woman and lived under the law.

God did this so that he could buy the freedom of those who were under the law. God's purpose was to make us his children.

Since you are now God's children, he has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. The Spirit cries out, " Abba, Father."

Now you are not slaves like before. You are God's children, and you will receive everything he promised his children.

This true story makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai. The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement.

But what do the Scriptures say? "Throw out the slave woman and her son! The son of the free woman will receive everything his father has, but the son of the slave woman will receive nothing."

In Christ, he chose us before the world was made. He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault.

And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. This was what God wanted, and it pleased him to do it.

And this brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely. He gave us that grace in Christ, the one he loves.

In Christ we are made free by his blood sacrifice. We have forgiveness of sins because of God's rich grace.

he let us know his secret plan. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ.

God's goal was to finish his plan when the right time came. He planned that all things in heaven and on earth be joined together with Christ as the head.