Bible Questions and Answers

Can you explain, The bond woman and the free woman in Galatians chapter 4?

Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

There were Jews who had believed the Gospel and been baptised into Christ who didn’t understand that Jesus had inaugurated a New Covenant and thought that they should observe the Old Covenant inaugurated by Moses. Thus, they taught that Gentile converts should be circumcised and observe the dietary and ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant, which laws are done away in Christ.

The New Covenant was promised in the writings of Jeremiah: Jeremiah 31:31-34 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

The writer to the Hebrews explains:

Hebrews 8:8-13 Because finding fault with them, He says: Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbour, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. 13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant:

Hebrews 12:24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Paul writing to the Galatians uses the record of Abraham’s two sons as an allegory or symbol to show the difference between the two Covenants and how the New Covenant is better than the Old.

Galatians 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.

Abraham’s first son Ishmael was by Hagar, a bondwoman who was a handmaid to Abraham’s wife Sarai.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise

Abraham’s second son Isaac was born to his wife Sarai. He was a child promised by God despite Sarai being barren and previously unable to conceive children.

Galatians 4:24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar.

Hagar, the bondwoman, is likened to Mount Sinai where the Old Covenant, ratified by the blood of sacrificial animals, was given through Moses. Thus, the carnal ordinances (circumcision etc..) are likened to bondage – enslaving those who observe them. The Old Covenant could not give life because none could keep the law other than Jesus Christ. The Law served only to condemn and underlined the need for a redeemer - one who could make an atonement for sin.

Galatians 4:25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children

The Old Covenant / Hagar / Mount Sinai/ is further likened to the earthly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is contrasted with the heavenly Jerusalem – not a physical Jerusalem which exists in heaven, but the spiritual Jerusalem, made up of the faithful of all ages whose names are 'written in heaven'.

Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven....

These will be raised from the dead when the kingdom of God is established on the earth. Thus, in Revelation the bride of Christ appears as a city New Jerusalem descending from heaven.

Revelation 21:9,10 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

The heavenly Jerusalem, currently existing only in the plan and purpose of God, can be accessed now only through the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus and ratified by his blood. The heavenly Jerusalem is free from the ordinances of the Old Covenant and likened to the ‘mother’ of all who believe and obey the New.

Galatians 4:26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Galatians 4:27 For it is written: "Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labour! For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband.

The barren in verse 27 alludes to the Gentiles. God had been a husband to Israel, but now Gentile believers would prove to be more numerous than Jewish believers until the return of Christ.

Galatians 4:28 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.

As Ishmael mocked Isaac which resulted in him and Hagar being expelled from Abraham’s camp, so the unbelieving Jews were persecuting those who believed the Gospel.

Galatians 4:30,31 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.

Those who want to continue to observe the Law given through Moses have no place in the new dispensation. Those who believe the Gospel preached by Christ and his apostles are freed from the observance of the Law.

Galatians 4:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

This freedom from the Law was affirmed by a council at Jerusalem in Acts 15. (Acts 15:5-31)

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn