Sons and Heirs 1 UDB Now I will further discuss children and heirs. An heir is a son who will later possess all that his father has. But as long as that heir is a child, he is like a slave whom others control. BSB BSB: What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he is the owner of everything.
2 UDB Until the day that his father has previously determined, other persons supervise the child and manage his property. BSB BSB: He is subject to guardians and trustees until the date set by his father.
3 UDB Likewise, when we were like young children, we were under the evil rules that everyone in this world lives by. Those rules controlled us like masters control their slaves. BSB BSB: So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.
5 UDB God sent Jesus to rescue us from the law controlling us. He did this to adopt us as his own children. BSB BSB: to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
6 UDB Because you are now God's sons, he sent the Spirit of his Son to live in each of us. It is his Spirit who enables us to call God, "Father, our dear Father!" This shows that we are God's sons. BSB BSB: And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
7 UDB So, because of what God has done, no longer is each of you like a slave. Instead, each of you is a child of God. Since each of you is now God's child, God will also give you all that he has promised. God himself will do it! BSB BSB: So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians 8 UDB When you did not know God, you worshiped gods that did not really exist. You were their slaves. BSB BSB: Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
9 UDB But now you do know God as your God. Perhaps it would be better, however, to say that now God knows each of you. So why are you returning again to follow the weak and worthless evil rules of this world? You do not really want to become their slaves all over again, do you? BSB BSB: But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
10 UDB It actually seems that you do! You are once more obeying what others insist you should do on certain special days and at special times in certain months, seasons, and years. BSB BSB: You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
11 UDB I worry about you! I worked so hard for you, but it seems that it was all for nothing. BSB BSB: I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.
12 UDB My fellow believers, I strongly urge you to become like me because I became like you Gentiles when I became free from the law. When I first came to you, you did not harm me at all. BSB BSB: I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.
13 UDB You remember that the first time I told you the good news, I did it because I was sick. BSB BSB: You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.
14 UDB Although you might have despised me because I was sick, you did not reject me. Instead, you welcomed me like you would welcome an angel that came from God. You welcomed me like you would welcome Christ Jesus himself! BSB BSB: And although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself.
15 UDB But now you are no longer happy! I know for certain that you would have done anything to help me. You would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me, if that would have helped me! BSB BSB: What then has become of your blessing? For I can testify that, if it were possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
16 UDB That is why I have become so sad now. You seem to think that I have become your enemy because I have continued to tell the truth about Christ to you. BSB BSB: Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17 UDB Those who are insisting on obeying the Jewish laws are trying to get you to follow them, but they are not doing it for your good. They want to keep you away from me because they want you to follow them, not me. BSB BSB: Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.
18 UDB Well, it is good to insist on doing the right things; you should do this always, and not only when I am with you. But make sure it is the right people who are teaching you what to do! BSB BSB: Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose—at any time, and not only when I am with you.
19 UDB You who are like my children, once again I am very worried about you, and I will continue to be worried until you become like Christ. BSB BSB: My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
20 UDB But I do wish that I could be with you now and that I might talk more gently with you because right now I do not know what to do about you. BSB BSB: how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.
Hagar and Sarah (Genesis 21:9–21)
21 UDB Let me try to explain this again. Some of you desire to obey all the law of God, but do you really pay attention to what the law says? BSB BSB: Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says?
22 UDB In the law we read 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 son. BSB BSB: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23 UDB Ishmael, the son born by Hagar the female slave, was conceived naturally. But Isaac, the son born by Sarah, who was not a slave, was conceived miraculously because God had promised Abraham that he would have a son. BSB BSB: His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.
24 UDB Now these two women symbolize two covenants. God made the first covenant with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. That covenant requires the Israelites to live like a slave to the law. So Hagar the female slave symbolizes this covenant. BSB BSB: These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar.
25 UDB So Hagar symbolizes Mount Sinai in the land of Arabia. But Hagar also symbolizes the city of Jerusalem as it is today. This is because Jerusalem is like a slave mother: She and all her children—that is, her people—are like slaves because they all must obey the law that God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai. BSB BSB: Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26 UDB But there is a new Jerusalem in heaven, and that city is like a mother of all of us who believe in Christ, and that city is free! BSB BSB: But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27 UDB It is like what the prophet Isaiah wrote: "Be glad, you women who have no children! Shout out loud and cry out, you who have never had labor pains! You will have more children than any woman with a husband could have borne." BSB BSB: For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
28 UDB Now, my fellow believers, you have become children of God because you believed in what God promised to give to us. You are like Isaac, who was born because Abraham had believed in what God promised to give to him. BSB BSB: Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 UDB But long ago Abraham's son Ishmael, who was born naturally, caused trouble for Abraham's son Isaac, who was born because the Holy Spirit made it happen. It is the same way now. The people who are slaves to God's law persecute those of us who trust in what Christ has promised to give us. BSB BSB: At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now.
30 UDB But these are the words in the scriptures: "The son of the woman who was not a slave will inherit what his father owns. The slave boy will inherit nothing. So send away from this place the female slave and her son!" BSB BSB: But what does the Scripture say? “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”
31 UDB My fellow believers, we are not children who have a slave woman as our mother, but we are the children who are born from a woman who was free, and so we are also free! BSB BSB: Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.