4
“When the Appointed Time Arrived”
1 Now I say: As long as the heir is still a child, he is in a sense not the slightest bit different from a slave, even though he is, in fact, the one who will inherit everything his father owns.++
2 He is subject to household managers, rather, and stewards, until the time appointed by his father.
3 In the same way, we, too, when we were children, were slaves in subjection to those lesser powers given responsibility over mankind and the rest of creation.+
4 When the appointed time arrived,+ however, God sent his Son, born as a weak and helpless baby,+ born as one subject to Torah,+
5 in order to pay the price for those subject to Torah to be released, so that we could experience adoption to sonship.+
6 That you are sons, moreover, is proven by the fact that God sent the Spirit of his Son into all+ our hearts,+ the Spirit who cries out, “Abba, Father!”+
7 As a result, ˢyou+ are no longer a slave, but a son. If ˢyou are a son, moreover, then you are also an heir through the gift and power of God.+
8 Previously, when ᵖyou didn’t know God, you were enslaved to those beings who+ by nature are not gods.+
9 Now, however, after choosing+ God (or, more accurately, after having been chosen by God),+ how in the world can you return to those lesser powers assigned over creation,+ which are so feeble and pathetic? Do you really want to be their slaves all over again?
10 It is special days+ and new moons+ and appointed festivals+ and special years+ that you are observing!
11 I am afraid of what might happen to you.+ Could it be that my hard work and effort for your sake has turned out to be for nothing?+
12 Become like me, for I became like you, brothers and sisters—I beg you!+ You previously didn’t do a thing to cause me harm!+
13 You know that it was a bodily ailment that originally provided the occasion for me to proclaim the gospel to you;+
14 despite the repulsiveness of my condition,+ you didn’t despise or reject me, but welcomed me as though I were a very angel from God,+ as though I were Messiah Jesus himself!+
15 You considered yourselves so blessed. What, then, has happened?+ For I can vouch on your behalf that if it had been possible, you would have gouged your very eyes out and given them to me!
16 So then, have I now become your enemy by speaking the truth to you?
17 Those people+ eagerly seek what you have,+ but not in a way that is honorable.+ The truth is, they aim to exclude you,+ so that you will eagerly seek what they have.+
18 Yet it is honorable to eagerly seek for yourselves what someone else has when it is something truly honorable+—always and not only when I am there with you in person!+
19 Oh, my dear children, for whom I am, once more, in the throes and anguish of childbirth, until the Messiah is formed in you!
“We Are Children Not of the Slave Woman, but of the Woman Not in Slavery”
20 I wish I could be there with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I have no idea what to think about you.
21 Tell me this, you who want to be subject to Torah: Are you to Torah+ paying any attention at all?
22 How many sons do the Scriptures say Abraham had? Two sons—one by the slave woman, and the other by his wife, who was, of course, not a slave.+
23 His son by the slave woman, though, was conceived how? By mere human strength and decision.+ His son by the woman who was not a slave, by contrast, was conceived in this way: As a result of God’s promise.
24 These things are being used as a symbolic illustration.+ These women, you see, are representative of two covenants, the first of which was formed at Mount Sinai,+ whose children are born into slavery.++ This covenant is represented by Hagar.+
25 Hagar, moreover, stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia.+ She is also a picture+ of the present city of Jerusalem, since this city+ is in a state of slavery along with her children.+
26 The Jerusalem on high, however, is certainly not in a state of slavery, and she is the mother pregnant with all+ of us.+
27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren woman,
you who are like a woman without children!+
Break into song and shout for joy,
you who are like a woman who has never gone through childbirth!+
For desolate Jerusalem will have far more children+
than she ever had before her husband deserted her!”+
28 You, brothers and sisters, are children, like Isaac, produced as a result of God’s promise.
29 But just as at that time the son who was conceived in the other way—by mere human strength and decision+—began to persecute+ the son conceived by the power of the Spirit,+ so it is at the present time, too.
30 Yet what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will certainly not receive the inheritance along with the son”+ of the woman who is not a slave.+
31 That is why, brothers and sisters, we are children not of the slave woman, but of the woman not in slavery.