Study Desk

God made promises both to Abraham and to his descendant. God did not say, "and to your descendants." That would mean many people. But God said, "and to your descendant." That means only one person; that person is Christ.

This is what I mean: God had an agreement with Abraham and promised to keep it. The law, which came four hundred thirty years later, cannot change that agreement and so destroy God's promise to Abraham.

If the law could give us Abraham's blessing, then the promise would not be necessary. But that is not possible, because God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise he had made.

But a mediator is not needed when there is only one side, and God is only one.

Does this mean that the law is against God's promises? Never! That would be true only if the law could make us right with God. But God did not give a law that can bring life.

Before this faith came, we were all held prisoners by the law. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming.

In other words, the law was our guardian leading us to Christ so that we could be made right with God through faith.

You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This means that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham's descendants. You will inherit all of God's blessings because of the promise God made to Abraham.

But when the right time came, God sent his Son who was born of a woman and lived under the law.

God did this so he could buy freedom for those who were under the law and so we could become his children.

Since you are God's children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and the Spirit cries out, "Father."

So now you are not a slave; you are God's child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child.

In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real.

But now you know the true God. Really, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to those weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again?

Though my sickness was a trouble for you, you did not hate me or make me leave. But you welcomed me as an angel from God, as if I were Jesus Christ himself!

Abraham's son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.

This story teaches something else: The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai, and the people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement.

If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is over—you have left God's grace.

But we have the true hope that comes from being made right with God, and by the Spirit we wait eagerly for this hope.