OUR FATHER WHOSE PROMISE SETS US FREE FROM SLAVERY TO THE LAW

Galatians chapter 4 verse 9 says this;

But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, was concerned about them because they had reverted to observing special days and months and seasons.

There were people who had come among them who were influencing them towards a form of legalism that included adopting practices that were not part of the gospel that Paul had taught them.

Paul called these, "weak and miserable forces" and asked the Galatians if they wished to be enslaved all over again by them.

Paul clarified the matter by conscripting the two women from the household of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar into an analogy.

Hagar was the slave woman who had a son with Abraham by the initiation of the flesh.

Sarah, Abraham's wife, was the free woman who had a son born by the power of the Spirit.

Whereas Hagar's son, Ishmael, oppressed and persecuted Sarah's son, Isaac, Ishmael was the son of slavery and was ultimately to be turned away. Isaac, the son of the promise, on the other hand, was himself, free and the heir of the promise.

Paul encouraged the believers in Galatia and us in the present time to understand that we were freed from slavery to the law and now, having been born again into the promise, are children of the promise and also heirs of the promise.

Amen.