Because of our relationship with Christ, we are not subject to Mosaic law; being Abraham’s spiritual descendants, we are free from such bondage.
21 Some of you desire to obey all the laws that God gave Moses. I say that you should consider [RHQ] the implications of what Moses wrote in the Scriptures. 22 He wrote that Abraham became the father of two sons. His female slave, Hagar, bore one son, and his wife Sarah, who was not a slave, bore the other. 23 Also, the sons differed. Ishmael, the son born by the female slave, was conceived naturally. But Isaac, the son born by his wife who was not a slave, was conceived miraculously as a result of what God had promised Abraham. 24 I am telling you this as an illustration. These two women symbolize two agreements. God made the first agreement, which involved obeying the laws that God gave to Moses at Sinai Mountain. Because that agreement forces those who accept it to keep obeying all its rules [MET], it is like a slave mother who gives birth to slaves. So Hagar, the female slave, symbolizes that agreement. 25 Also, the word ‘Hagar’ is associated with Sinai Mountain, which is in Arabia land. Hagar, the female slave, also represents Jerusalem as it is today. Jerusalem is like [MET] a slave mother, and those who live there [PRS] are like her slave children [MET] because they all must obey the laws that God gave to Moses. 26 But there will be a new Jerusalem in heaven [MTY], and we who will go there are free from having to obey Jewish laws. We who belong to that city consider it to be our mother [MET] city because we are God’s true children.