Galatians 4:28-31

Faith alone pleases God……let that sink deep into your spirit. FAITH in God’s abilities and not our own! Faith that He provided a way where there was no way to eternal life with Him. The perfect Lamb was given in sacrifice to do that which the Law could never do….His body given up for us so that we could have life and that abundantly! All glory belongs where it should, squarely on the mind, body and spirit of God. We will never be able to earn through our works that which only comes by faith.


This portion of Paul’s allegory is based on Gen. 21:9, 10. Isaac was continually persecuted by his older half brother Ishmael. Eventually, Ishmael and his mother Hagar were expelled because Ishmael had no standing in God’s eyes as heir of Abraham. In creating a parallel between the story from Genesis and the Galatians’ situation, Paul points out that (1) the persecution by the Jewish legalists of his day was not unexpected, and (2) it would not go on indefinitely because the legalists would soon be cast out.

To be children of the bondwoman is to be enslaved to the covenant from Mount Sinai, the Law of Moses. To be of the free is to follow Abraham’s example of faith, to be “born according to the Spirit, and to be destined for the “Jerusalem above . Understanding such realities, the believer in Christ must continually stand fast in the liberty of not having to keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. The Galatians were on the verge of becoming enslaved to the law again.

Galatians 4:28-31

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.