children of the free woman

I think it’s human nature to want to be in control. Even small children soon get to the “let me do it” phase. As school kids we chafe at being told what to do and where to go, and as adults we avoid situations where we can’t call the shots.

That’s why salvation is so hard sometimes. We control none of it. We want to do something. We want to know the standard; we want a yardstick to measure ourselves against. We want goals we can throw ourselves into. We, in the end, want the law because that’s how we know if we’re doing it right, and better than others.

But Paul writes this, in Galatians 4:21-26: “Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.”

The law says that if we fail, we die - the wages of sin is death. And we’ve already failed, and will never be able to get back on top of our corruption. When we want the law, we want to be children of Hagar, who was Abraham’s earthly solution to his lack of a heir. We want to be our own solution, but that way we die.

Paul reminds us that in Jesus we’re children of Sarah, the free woman, the rightful wife and intended mother. That’s where we find love and forgiveness, in the family of God. 

Why, then, having tasted grace, do we go back so willingly to legalism? That’s Paul’s question, and it’s a good one. If we want abundant life, and eternal life, all we have to do is give up control.

That might be too much. But I’m going to try.