Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Paul now poses a question to the Galatians because they have drifted form his original teaching and wants to know if they want to be under the law. He used the example of Abraham having two sons, one by a bond woman and another by a free woman. We see in this a very good argument for not going back to the law. We have discussed in a previous lesson how the law symbolized the flesh, and grace symbolized the Spirit. The law brought bondage to them. Grace had brought freedom. Ishmael’s birth was motivated by Abraham and Sarah’s lack of faith in God’s promise and fulfilled by sinful human means, but Isaac’s birth was by promise, in other words, as the result of divine promise. The comparison here is that the bond woman’s child was the natural birth of the nation of Israel and the law. This was a religion of works of the law. The free woman was the mother of the son the promise who would be the redeemer. We have shown over and over in these lessons how the seed spoken of in the promise to Abraham was Jesus, and through Him His followers. Which would you rather live under the law or the redeeming grace of our Savior?