OUR FATHER WHOSE PROMISE IS FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE

The Apostle Paul, in Galatians chapter 4 verses 21 - 31, continuing with his teaching about the insuficiency of the law to bring about righteousness,  uses for a sublime metaphor from the story of the two sons of Abraham one of whom was born to a  bondwoman (Hagar) and the other to a freewoman (Sarah).

Ishmael was born to the bondwoman by an action of the flesh while Isaac was born to the freewoman through the promise God gave him.  The bondwoman represented the route of trying to gain righteousness via the Law of Mount Sinai while the freewoman represented the route of gaining righteousness by believing the promise of God.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren,

You who do not bear!

Break forth and shout,

You who are not in labor!

For the desolate has many more children

Than she who has a husband.”

28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

We, who came to believe in Christ, are represented by Isaac who was born of the freewoman and was thus himself free from the bonds of the law but also an heir  to the promise. In fact, the son of the bondwoman was to be cast out so that he would not in anyway have a share of the inheritance that was coming to the son of the freewoman.

Paulˋs summation to the Galatians was that they were children of the freewoman having believed in the pomise of salvation through Christ and therefore were heirs and as such, needed to avoid the retrogression to the obligations of the bondage of the law.

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