1 L et me say this another way. A young child who will get all the riches of his family is not different from a servant who is owned by the family. And yet the young child owns everything.

Now what I mean is that as long as the inheritor (heir) is a child and under age, he does not differ from a slave, although he is the master of all the estate;

2 W hile he is young, he is cared for by men his father trusts. These men tell the child what he can and cannot do. The child cannot do what he wants to do until he has become a certain age.

But he is under guardians and administrators or trustees until the date fixed by his father.

3 W e were as children also held by the Law. We obeyed the Law in our religious worship.

So we also, when we were minors, were kept like slaves under the elementary teachings of a system of external observations and regulations.

4 B ut at the right time, God sent His Son. A woman gave birth to Him under the Law.

But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to the Law,

5 T his all happened so He could buy with His blood and make free all those who were held by the Law. Then we might become the sons of God.

To purchase the freedom of (to ransom, to redeem, to atone for) those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have sonship conferred upon us.

6 B ecause you are the sons of God, He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The Spirit cries, “Father!”

And because you are sons, God has sent the '> Holy] Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba (Father)! Father!

7 S o now you are no longer a servant who is owned by someone. You are a son. If you are a son, then you will receive what God has promised through Christ.

Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then an heir by the aid of God, through Christ.

8 D uring the time when you did not know God, you worshiped false gods.

But at that previous time, when you had not come to be acquainted with and understand and know the true God, you were in bondage to gods who by their very nature could not be gods at all.

9 B ut now that you know God, or should I say that you are known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak old Law? Why do you want to do those religious acts of worship that will keep you from being free? Why do you want to be held under the power of the Law again?

Now, however, that you have come to be acquainted with and understand and know God, or rather to be understood and known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly and worthless elementary things '> of all religions before Christ came], whose slaves you once more want to become?

10 Y ou do special things on certain days and months and years and times of the year.

You observe days and months and seasons and years!

11 I am afraid my work with you was wasted. Living by the Law or Being Free

I am alarmed, lest I have labored among and over you to no purpose and in vain.

12 I ask you, Christian brothers, stay free from the Law as I am. Even if I am a Jew, I became free from the Law, just as you who are not Jews. You did no wrong to me.

Brethren, I beg of you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are '> a Gentile]. You did me no wrong '> in the days when I first came to you; do not do it now].

13 Y ou know I preached the Good News to you the first time because of my sickness.

On the contrary, you know that it was on account of a bodily ailment that preached the Gospel to you the first time.

14 E ven though I was hard to look at because of my sickness, you did not turn away from me. You took me in as an angel from God. You took me in as you would have taken in Christ Jesus Himself.

And although my physical condition was a trial to you, you did not regard it with contempt, or scorn and loathe and reject me; but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus!

15 W hat has become of the happiness you once had? You would have taken out your own eyes if you could have and given them to me.

What has become of that blessed enjoyment and satisfaction and self-congratulation that once was yours ? For I bear you witness that you would have torn out your own eyes and have given them to me, if that were possible.

16 D o you hate me because I have told you the truth?

Have I then become your enemy by telling the truth to you and dealing sincerely with you?

17 T hose false teachers are trying to turn your eyes toward them. They do not want you to follow my teaching. What they are doing is not good.

These men are zealously trying to dazzle you, but their purpose is not honorable or worthy or for any good. What they want to do is to isolate you, so that they may win you over to their side and get you to court their favor.

18 I t is good when people help you if they do not hope to get something from it. They should help you all the time, not only when I am with you.

It is always a fine thing to be zealously sought after for a good purpose and done by reason of purity of heart and life, and not just when I am present with you!

19 M y children, I am suffering birth pain for you again. I will suffer until Christ’s life is in your life.

My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,

20 I wish I could be with you now. I wish I could speak to you in a more gentle voice, but I am troubled about you.

Would that I were with you now and could coax you vocally, for I am fearful and perplexed about you!

21 L isten! If you want to be under the Law, why do you not listen to what it says?

Tell me, you who are bent on being under the Law, will you listen to what the Law says?

22 T he Holy Writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was born from a woman servant (Hagar) who was owned by someone. She had to do what she was told. The other son was born from a woman (Sarah) who was free to work and live as she desired.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid and one by the free woman.

23 T he son born from the woman servant who was owned by someone was like any other birth. The son born from the free woman was different. That son had been promised by God.

But whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise.

24 T hink of it like this: These two women show God’s two ways of working with His people. The children born from Hagar are under the Law given on Mount Sinai. They will be servants who are owned by someone and will always be told what to do!

Now all this is an allegory; these represent two covenants. One covenant originated from Mount Sinai and bears for slavery; this is Hagar.

25 H agar is known as Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is as Jerusalem is today, because she and her children are not free to do what they want to do.

Now Hagar is (stands for) Mount Sinai in Arabia and she corresponds to and belongs in the same category with the present Jerusalem, for she is in bondage together with her children.

26 B ut the Jerusalem of heaven is the free woman, and she is our mother.

But the Jerusalem above ( the Messianic kingdom of Christ) is free, and she is our mother.

27 T he Holy Writings say, “Woman, be happy, you who have had no children. Cry for joy, you who have never had the pains of having a child, for you will have many children. Yes, you will have more children than the one who has a husband.”

For it is written in the Scriptures, Rejoice, O barren woman, who has not given birth to children; break forth into a joyful shout, you who are not feeling birth pangs, for the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband.

28 C hristian brothers, we are like Isaac. We are the children God promised.

But we, brethren, are children '> not by physical descent, as was Ishmael, but] like Isaac, born in virtue of promise.

29 A t that time the son born as other children are born made it hard for the son born by the Holy Spirit. It is the same way now.

Yet as at that time the child born according to the flesh despised and persecuted him according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

30 B ut what do the Holy Writings say? They say, “Put the woman servant who is owned by someone and her son out of your home. The son of that woman servant will never get any of the riches of the family. It will all be given to the son of the free woman.”

But what does the Scripture say? Cast out and send away the slave woman and her son, for never shall the son of the slave woman be heir and share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.

31 C hristian brothers, we are not children of the woman servant who was owned by someone (Hagar). We are children of the free woman (Sarah).

So, brethren, we are not children of a slave woman '> the natural], but of the free '> the supernatural].