Galatians 4:21-26 Live as a Free Child, For Your Mother is a Free Woman

Galatians 4:21-26 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

Though the allegorical interpretation is not one that should often be sought (for example, parables usually only have one central meaning and are teaching one thing, the details should not be pressed), Paul shows an allegory from the Old Testament to clarify his point to the Galatians. If they desired to live under the Law so badly, then what they really were desiring to do is live as slaves. To live under the Sinai Covenant, one essentially desires to be a child and an heir of Hagar through Ishmael. Ishmael, however, was not the child of promise, but rather the child of the slave woman. He was born according to the fleshly desire of Abraham—out of his lack of trust in God to provide an heir. Ishmael does not inherit the promise of the blessing to Abraham, but rather is a slave—just as those who live as a children of the Sinai Covenant.

Currently, as it was in Paul’s day so it is in our day, a partial hardening of Israel persists (Romans 11:25). They are the present Jerusalem, and they stand veiled to the promises of God because the Sinai Covenant acts as a blinder to them, keeping them from perceiving the Covenant of the promise in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14-16). “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day” (Romans 11:8). This has occurred until the fullness of the Gentiles, from every people group, comes in to Christ (Romans 11:12, 25-26). The Galatians, as all who seek to be justified by the Law and to live in subjection to it, were seeking to live in bondage. The present Jerusalem (the Jerusalem of the Law), with all who are her children, is a slave. So are you, friend, if you are seeking to be justified by the deeds of the Law.

On the other hand, those who are in the covenant of promise, the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, are free. We all are children of the heavenly Jerusalem. The Jerusalem above, represented by Sarah, is our mother. If the mother is free, then so are her children. We are the children of the promise. We have nothing to do with the present Jerusalem, for our inheritance is hidden in heaven with Christ. Store up treasures for yourself in hope! (Matthew 6:19-21). When Christ returns we shall receive our inheritance (Colossians 3:1-4). We are dead to the ways of this world and its principles (Colossians 2:20-3:11). Therefore, brothers and sisters, do not seek to live as bastard children of slavery, rather, live as adopted children of the promise of Abraham in Christ. You belong to Christ. To return to slavery would be foolishness and preposterous.