⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift^(A) but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.^(B)

¹⁶ The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.^(A) Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”^[a](B) meaning one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷ What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years^(C) later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise;^(D) but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law,^(A) are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman^(B) and the other by the free woman.^{(C) 23} His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh,^(D) but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.^(E)

²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above^(F) is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written:

²⁸ Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.^{(H) 29} At that time the son born according to the flesh^(I) persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.^(J) It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^{[b](K) 31} Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman,^(L) but of the free woman.^(M)