Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Galatians 4:21-31

²¹Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman. ²³However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. ²⁵For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you that don’t travail. For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.” ²⁸Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. ³⁰However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman.” ³¹So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I say Hagar and Sarah stand for two covenants, I am reading the old account as an allegoria (Galatians 4:24) — not denying that these were flesh-and-blood women who lived and bore sons, but seeing in their story a deeper likeness God set there. Mark the two births: Ishmael was born "according to the flesh," Isaac "through promise" (Galatians 4:23). The one came by human contriving, Abraham and Sarah taking the matter into their own hands; the other came when the womb was as good as dead and only God could give the child. That is the whole quarrel in one image — flesh versus promise, striving versus gift.

Where else you say this

I press this same distinction wherever the argument goes: that it is the children of promise, not of the flesh, who are counted the seed (Romans 9:6-8). I set the two mothers' logic against the whole scheme of law-keeping, for "if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose" (Galatians 2:21). And I tell you plainly which mother you were born of — "you also were raised up with him through faith" (Colossians 2:12), not by any work of your own hands.

The situation

Men had come among you in Galatia insisting that faith in Christ was not enough — that you must also be circumcised and take up the law of Moses to belong to God's people. They wore the name of Abraham proudly, as though the law were their mother. So I turn their own boast against them: the present Jerusalem, in her slavery to the law, answers to Hagar the slave woman, while the Jerusalem above, the free mother of all who believe, answers to Sarah (Galatians 4:25-26). You who trusted them were being drawn back into bondage; I wrote in the anguish of one in labor for you again (Galatians 4:19).

The hard question

Does not Scripture say Abraham loved Ishmael, and that God himself blessed the boy? Then is it not harsh of me to say, "Cast out the slave woman and her son" (Galatians 4:30)? Hear me: I am not despising Hagar's child, nor any person. I am telling you what cannot share one inheritance — bondage and freedom, earning and receiving, flesh and promise cannot both be your standing before God. Go back and read the words I quoted (Genesis 21:10); they are Sarah's, and God told Abraham to heed them. So do not add to Christ the very yoke he came to lift. You are children not of the slave but of the free woman (Galatians 4:31) — stand there, and do not be enslaved again.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

← back to the word