What Galatians 4:24 really means: Children of Promise

Context of Galatians 4:24

To understand Paul’s allegory in Galatians 4:24, we need to see both the Old Testament story of Hagar and Sarah and the crisis facing the Galatian churches.

Paul is writing to believers in Galatia who are being pressured by false teachers to follow Jewish laws - like circumcision and special religious days - thinking these are necessary for salvation. These teachers, often called 'Judaizers,' claimed that faith in Christ wasn’t enough unless you also kept the Old Testament law. That’s why Paul uses the story of Abraham’s two sons - one by Hagar, the slave woman, and one by Sarah, the free woman - to show that relying on the law leads to spiritual slavery, while trusting God’s promise brings freedom.

The original story is found in Genesis 16 and 21: Hagar’s son, Ishmael, was born through human effort when Sarah tried to help God fulfill His promise. But Isaac, Sarah’s son, was born miraculously, through God’s promise. Paul says these two women represent two covenants. Hagar stands for the old covenant from Mount Sinai, which brings slavery because it depends on human effort to keep the law. Sarah stands for the new covenant, which brings freedom through God’s promise fulfilled in Christ.

Two Covenants: Law, Promise, and the Meaning of Freedom

Paul’s use of the word 'allegorically' - from the Greek ἀλληγορούμενα - signals a deeper, spiritual interpretation of the Hagar and Sarah story, one that reveals a fundamental contrast between two ways of relating to God: through human effort under the law or through divine promise by faith.

The Greek term ἀλληγορούμενα (allēgoroumena) means 'spoken allegorically' or 'interpreted symbolically,' and Paul uses it here to show that the historical events of Genesis carry theological meaning beyond the surface. He’s not dismissing the history but revealing how God’s redemptive plan unfolds through types and shadows - Hagar represents the covenant at Mount Sinai, where God gave the law to Moses, a covenant tied to obligation and consequences if broken. That covenant, while holy and good, could not give life or righteousness. It exposed sin and led to bondage when people tried to earn God’s favor by keeping rules. Paul makes this clear earlier in Galatians 3:21-22, saying that if a law could have given life, righteousness would have come by it - but the whole world is held captive under sin, so the promise comes by faith in Jesus Christ.

This contrast between law and promise is central to Paul’s message. The law, given at Sinai, was temporary and preparatory, like a guardian (Galatians 3:24), but the promise to Abraham - made before the law - was based on God’s grace and fulfilled in Christ. Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesied a new covenant where God would write His law on hearts, forgive sins, and know His people personally - something the old covenant could never do. Paul is showing the Galatians that they’ve already entered this new reality through faith, so returning to legal observances is like choosing slavery over sonship.

Hagar’s role as the slave woman producing a child 'according to the flesh' (Galatians 4:23) symbolizes a religion based on human initiative - trying to help God or earn His blessing through effort. Sarah, the free woman, represents the power of God’s promise, fulfilled supernaturally. Isaac was born by God’s intervention. Our spiritual life begins not by what we do, but by what God has promised and accomplished in Christ.

The new covenant isn’t about rules we follow - it’s about a relationship God started and sustains by His promise.

The takeaway is clear: our identity as believers isn’t built on rule-keeping but on promise-receiving. And since we are children of the free woman, we live not under fear of failure but in the freedom of being known and loved by God. This sets the stage for understanding what it means to live by the Spirit, not the flesh - a theme Paul will expand in the following chapters.

Slavery or Freedom: Living as Children of the Promise

Paul’s allegory is more than ancient history. It is a powerful reminder that our Christian life is meant to be lived in the freedom of God’s promise, not the slavery of rule-keeping.

To the Galatians, this was radical: they were being told that observing religious days and following Old Testament laws were necessary for true faith, but Paul says that kind of thinking brings us back into bondage. Instead, he points them to the new covenant in Christ, where God fulfills His promise by grace, not by our performance.

We are not saved by keeping rules, but by trusting the promise of a God who acts on our behalf.

This freedom in Christ means we’re no longer striving to earn God’s love - we’re resting in it. Isaac was the child of promise, not human effort.

The Bigger Story: How Hagar and Sarah Shape the Whole Bible’s Message

This allegory of Hagar and Sarah is more than a one-time illustration Paul uses in Galatians. It is a key that unlocks a much larger biblical theme about law and grace that runs from Genesis to Revelation.

In Romans 7:1-6, Paul uses similar language, describing how we’ve died to the law through Christ so we can belong to Him and bear fruit for God. Isaac, not Ishmael, was the true heir. Then in 2 Corinthians 3:6-18, he contrasts the 'letter' that kills with the 'Spirit' that gives life, calling believers 'ministers of a new covenant' who reflect the Lord’s glory with unveiled faces, showing that freedom in Christ fulfills what Sinai could not.

Hebrews 12:18-24 draws the same contrast: believers have not come to a blazing mountain of fear and rules like at Sinai, but to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, where Jesus speaks a better word of grace and forgiveness. And in Revelation 21:2 and 22:17, John sees the bride, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven - echoing Galatians 4:26 where 'the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother' - showing that the child of promise, born to the barren woman, becomes a vast, eternal city of redeemed people.

This means our daily lives should reflect that we’re not under pressure to perform but free to love - no more guilt-driven religion, no ranking ourselves or others by spiritual résumés. In church, we welcome everyone as fellow heirs, not judging based on rules or traditions. We treat each other with grace because we’re all children of the promise. And in our communities, we become people known for joy, generosity, and peace - not because we’ve earned it, but because we’re living from it.

Our freedom in Christ isn’t just a New Testament idea - it’s the climax of the entire Bible’s story of grace.

When we grasp this big story, it changes everything: we stop trying to build our own 'Ishmael' through effort and control, and instead trust God to bring about His work in us. This freedom is more than personal. It reshapes how we do church, how we relate to outsiders, and how we hope for the future.

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