What does Galatians 4:25 mean?
Paul is creating a specific and careful allegory about two covenants. His purpose is to show the difference between attempting to obtain salvation by works, as opposed to accepting it on the basis of faith alone. Paul uses Abraham's two sons, Ishmael (Genesis 16:1–5) and Isaac (Genesis 21:1–3), to make his point. In the previous verse, he wrote that Abraham's slave-wife Hagar represents the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. This is the covenant of the law of Moses. Just as Hagar's child with Abraham was born into slavery, since she was a slave, all born under the covenant of the law are also born into slavery to their own sinfulness.Now Paul adds another layer onto the allegory. Hagar, symbolic of the Mount Sinai covenant (Exodus 19), also corresponds to the Jerusalem of Paul's day, the seat of Jewish religious authority. The false teachers misleading the Galatian Christians were from Jerusalem. As representatives of the law, they were leading the Galatians into a system of slavery to their sin. Adding to the power of Paul's allegory, the Jerusalem of his day was also slave to the Roman government. It was a place under both political and spiritual slavery.
In the following verse, Paul will point to another Jerusalem, one that is free.
Galatians 4:21–31 contains Paul's allegory about Abraham's two wives, and the two sons born through them. Paul sets out to use Scripture to show the difference between being born into slavery, by human effort, as opposed to being born into freedom, by the work of God through the Holy Spirit. Ishmael was born into slavery as Abraham's son, but he was cast out when the child of promise arrived. In a similar way, living under the law became pointless when Christ arrived. Those who trust in Him become children of promise by God's power.
In this chapter, Paul uses three new methods to teach his Galatian readers an important lesson. It is futile to follow the law of Moses in order to be made right before God, since justification comes only by faith in Christ. First, Paul shows that the arrival of Christ made it possible for all people to become God's children through faith in Him. Next, Paul makes a more personal appeal, asking what has changed to cause the Galatians to turn on Paul's teaching of the gospel. Finally, Paul builds an allegory from Scripture, illustrating the difference between being born into slavery and being born into the promise by faith in Christ.
