Galatians 4:21-5:1

New Testament for Everyone

Abraham’s two sons

²¹ So, you want to live under the law, do you? All right, tell me this: are you prepared to hear what the law says? ²² For the Bible says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl and one by the free woman. ²³ Now the child of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, while the child of the free woman was born according to promise.

²⁴ Treat this as picture-language. These two women stand for two covenants: one comes from Mount Sinai, and gives birth to slave-children; that is Hagar. ²⁵ (Sinai, you see, is a mountain in Arabia, and it corresponds, in the picture, to the present Jerusalem, since she is in slavery with her children.) ²⁶ But the Jerusalem which is above is free—and she is our mother.

²⁷ For the Bible says,

²⁸ Now you, my family, are children of promise, in the line of Isaac. ²⁹ But things now are like they were then: the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the spirit. ³⁰ But what does the Bible say? “Throw out the slave-girl and her son! For the son of the slave-girl will not inherit with the son of the free.” ³¹ So, my family, we are not children of the slave-girl, but of the free.

Freedom in Christ

5 The Messiah set us free so that we could enjoy freedom! So stand firm, and don’t get yourselves tied down by the chains of slavery.