Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 4 Study # 6
December 16, 2012
Dayton, Texas
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• I. The "Mother of Freedom".
  • A. Paul identifies this "mother" as "the Jerusalem which is above".
    • 1. This terminology automatically puts the current Jerusalem and the "above" Jerusalem into a precursor/reality setting.
      • a. The biblical reality within Paul's reasoning is that the current physical creation is a staging ground for the development of a future physical creation that has one major difference: freedom.
      • b. This precursor/reality setting automatically involves the fact that "creation", by its own nature, has some built-in consequences for the overall thesis of Eternal Life that are not considered by God to be acceptable.
        • 1) These consequences all revolve around certain limitations to the experience of Life.
        • 2) The most crucial of all of these limitations, apparently, involves the facilitator of Life called "freedom".
      • c. Because the Scriptures possess an enormous emphasis upon "faith" as the key issue of methodology, the precursor reality is, by default, supposed to be a setting in which "faith" can be developed.
        • 1) Paul's terminology is that it is a "tutor to bring us...".
        • 2) Paul's consistent exhortation in all of his letters is to come to a pervasively different way of thinking; a renewal of the mind in terms of its content.
        • 3) Paul's perception is that everything in this current, precursor, setting can be explained in terms of "things we need to know".
    • 2. The New Testament revelation regarding the "above Jerusalem".
      • a. Hebrews 12:22 calls it "the alternative" destination in opposition to Sinai.
      • b. Hebrews 11:10 says that it was not only Abraham's focus, it was also the root motivation for his behavior.
      • c. Colossians 3:1-2 summons us to this focus and behavior.
      • d. Revelation 21 goes into extensive detail in description that is supposed to get us to understand that our destination is a relational universe wherein both Love and Truth are completely fulfilled.
        • 1) The names of the sons of Jacob all have relational fixations.
        • 2) The stones set in the breastplate to refer to those sons were chosen by God to link the physical creation to the relational realities.
        • 3) The foundation stones of the New Jerusalem are linked to the breastplate.
  • B. The chief characteristic: freedom.
    • 1. "Freedom" has two basic areas of experience.
      • a. One has to do with the absence of all "Life-negatives" -- sin and its automatic repercussions from those sinned against (most particularly, "wrath").
      • b. The other has to do with the absence of all "compulsion-negatives" -- internal triggers of behavior that overrule rationality and produce irrational activities.
    • 2. As a primary subset of "Life", "freedom" has to do with the reasons for motivation wherein a person is "free" if "desire, motivation, and outcome" produce no conflict in the relational world.
      • a. As long as a person is "constrained" so that his/her behavior is conflict driven and produces conflict, he/she can be said to be "in bondage".
      • b. Thus, Paul's long-standing characterization of the Kingdom of God as "righteousness, peace, and joy" is seen most clearly in "freedom".
  • C. The issue of "motherhood".
    • 1. In Paul's allegory, the children's experience is set by their relationship to their "mother".
    • 2. For the "above Jerusalem" to be "our mother", we have to be "the children of promise" through the "free woman".
      • a. This is, fundamentally, a concept reality wherein "promise" dominates and "faith" provides the link between the participants (God and those who believe Him).
      • b. Thus, as the present Jerusalem was an Egyptian heresy, the above Jerusalem is a heavenly Truth.