This article is part of the continuing series, Inheritance & Influence: Women of the Promise.

As we continue from our Sunday sermon on Sarah and Hagar, our focus will remain in the New Testament. This article will focus on a passage of scripture from Galatians, written by the Apostle Paul. The text does not expound on the nature of Sarah and Hagar or their relationship with Abraham. Rather, the Apostle Paul utilizes their lives and experiences to teach a New Testament congregation through allegory. 

When the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the churches of Galatia, which would eventually become the book of Galatians, the young church faced a difficult situation. The Apostle Paul and other ministers had taught this group of believers about the completed work of Jesus Christ. However, a faction of false teachers, desiring to hold onto Judaism, were insisting and teaching that justification by Christ without adherence to the Mosaic law was insufficient. The Apostle Paul seeks to expose the fatal flaw of their legalism. He begins by clarifying his audience.

“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.”

Galatians 4:21-22

Paul is addressing those who “desire to be under the law,” and he poses a sharp rhetorical challenge: do you really understand what the Law teaches? He bypasses formal legal codes and directs his readers back to Genesis 16 and 21. By examining the origins of Abraham’s two sons, Paul demonstrates that reliance on human effort does not complete God’s covenant plan but rather that it produces spiritual bondage.

The Apostle Paul brings into focus the mechanism behind the birth of each son. The impatience and alternative plans of Sarai and Abram brought Ishmael’s conception and birth in Genesis 16. Sarai’s barrenness and their impatience with the divine timing cause them to resort to what was a culturally normal shortcut. They attempt to manufacture the promise of God, of an heir, through Hagar the Egyptian bondwoman.

“But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory…”

Galatians 4:23-24a

We have to move to Genesis 21 to find Isaac’s birth. Humanly speaking, Isaac was an impossibility; Abraham was as good as dead, and Sarah’s womb was long past the childbearing age. Isaac arrived purely “by the promise,” brought forth by divine power. The Apostle Paul’s allegory is that Ishmael represents the futility of works-righteousness, while Issac represents the unmerited work of grace. When a disciple attempts to secure righteousness and salvation through self-effort, they are repeating the mistakes of Abraham with Hagar rather than trusting in God.

The Apostle Paul’s foundation for the allegory in Galatians 4 is the understanding of two covenants given by God. The first was the Covenant of the Law given at Mount Sinai. The law, as with any legal system, binds those who are under it. It allows certain actions and forbids others, with penalties for mistakes. The second covenant, based in heaven, is the Covenant of Grace. This covenant includes the unmerited salvation of the elect by the completed work of Jesus Christ.

“For these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar… But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” 

Galatians 4:24b, 26

The Apostle Paul links the two mothers to the two covenants. Hagar represents the covenant established at Mount Sinai. Hagar was a bondwoman, and her offspring inherited her status. That bondage demands absolute perfection without supplying the power to fulfill it. That is a picture of the law given at Mount Sinai. Sarah, although not explicitly named in the verse above, corresponds to the Covenant of Grace given from heaven. Divine grace, unmerited salvation, and liberty rather than legal coercion characterize this covenant. The Apostle Paul draws a comparison that requires his readers to confront a reality — turning back to the law is not a step toward maturity but rather a movement towards bondage. 

Law and grace cannot co-exist in the mind of the disciple. Many today try to hold onto elements of self-justification — accepting Christ, being baptized, etc. — while believing in the grace of God. The Apostle Paul, through his allegory, tells disciples that these two ideas cannot co-exist. 

“Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” 

Galatians 4:30-31

The members of the elect family of God are the children of the promise (made before the foundation of the world) rather than the children of the law. Our assurance, comfort, and hope are in the finished work of Jesus Christ. The saints must cast out every lingering impulse toward self-justification, recognizing that our standing before God rests entirely on the miraculous, supernatural work of Jesus Christ.