Sons and Heirs 1 UST Now, I will further discuss children and heirs. An heir is a person who will later possess and control all that his father has. But as long as that heir is a child, others control him, with the result that he is just like a slave. 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 UST 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 UST Likewise, when we were spiritually immature{ because we did not yet believe in the Messiah}, we submitted to the 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 UST God sent Jesus to rescue us who had to obey God’ s laws he gave to Moses from being condemned for not obeying these laws. God did this so that we might all receive from him the status of being his children. BSB BSB: to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
6 UST Furthermore, God sent the Spirit to live in our inner beings because we are now in such a close relationship with God it is as though we are his children. It is his Spirit who enables us to fervently call out{ to God},“Father, Father!” BSB BSB: And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
7 UST So, because of what God has done, no longer is each of you like a slave. Instead, each of you is like a child of God. Furthermore, since each of you is now like God’ s child, God has also made each of you his heir, one to whom he will give all that he has promised. 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 UST When you did not have a relationship with God, you served gods that really did not exist. You were like slaves at that time, because you were in spiritual bondage. BSB BSB: Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
9 UST But now you have come to intimately know God. Perhaps it would be better to say that now God intimately knows each of you. So now you are acting foolishly! You are again believing that by obeying rules and rites you will benefit spiritually! Those rules are ineffective and inadequate! You are wanting to obey them again like slaves obey their masters. 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 UST You non- Jews are carefully practicing Jewish rules and rituals regarding what you should do on Jewish 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 UST I am concerned about your mistaken ideas! I do not want to have so strenuously served you in vain. BSB BSB: I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.
12 UST My fellow believers, I strongly urge you that you do as I do.{ Stop thinking that you have to obey the Jewish rules and ceremonial laws prescribed by the law of Moses.} When I was with you, I did not obey all the Jewish rules and ceremonial laws, just like you did not obey them. At that time you treated me entirely as you should have. BSB BSB: I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.
13 UST You remember that I originally told you the good news because I was physically weak{ and was recovering}. Because of the opportunity which that sickness provided I was able to tell you the good news. BSB BSB: You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.
14 UST Although you might have treated me contemptuously because of my physical malady, you did not treat me contemptuously or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me like you would welcome an angel that came from God. You welcomed me like you would welcome the Messiah 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 UST I am disappointed that you have forgotten that then you declared that you were pleased with me. I know for certain that you would have done anything to help 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 UST So I am very disappointed that you now act as though I have become hostile to you because I have kept speaking the true message about the Messiah to you. BSB BSB: Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17 UST Those who are insisting on obeying the Jewish laws are eagerly showing interest in you, but they are not doing this because they have good motives. They are doing this because they want you not to associate with me and others who teach what is true about the Messiah. They desire that instead of you associating with us, you will eagerly show interest in them, not in us. 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 UST But, it is an honorable thing to eagerly desire to do the right things at all times. I would like you to eagerly desire to do the right things, both when I am with you and when I am absent. 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 UST You who are like my children, once again I am very concerned about you, and I will continue to be concerned about you until you become like the Messiah in your thinking and in your conduct. BSB BSB: My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
20 UST 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 UST Some of you desire to obey all the laws that God gave Moses. I say that you should consider the implications of what Moses wrote in the Scriptures. BSB BSB: Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says?
22 UST 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. BSB BSB: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23 UST Also, the sons differed. Ishmael, the son born by Hagar, the female slave, was conceived naturally. But Isaac, the son born by Sarah, his wife who was not a slave, was conceived miraculously because God intervened in order to fulfill what he had promised Abraham. 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 UST 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 Mount Sinai. Because that agreement forces those who accept it to keep obeying all its rules, it is like a slave mother who gives birth to slaves. So Hagar, the female slave, symbolizes this agreement. 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 UST Also Hagar symbolizes the agreement, with its laws and rituals, that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, in the land of Arabia. Hagar also symbolizes the Jewish religion. The Jewish religion is like a slave mother, and those who practice the Jewish religion are like slave children because they all must obey the laws that God gave to Moses. 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 UST But there is a heavenly Jerusalem, and because we belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, it is like a mother to all of us{ who believe in the Messiah}. Those who belong to the heavenly Jerusalem are free from having to obey the laws of Moses and free from being condemned for failing to obey those laws. BSB BSB: But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27 UST Our new city will have more people than those who live in Jerusalem now. It will be just like Isaiah foretold{ about the people whom he expected would come back to Jerusalem from exile}.{ He expected that they would be more numerous than those who were taken into exile.} He wrote: You who live in Jerusalem, you will rejoice! Now you have no children, like a barren woman who does not give birth to children! But some day you will shout joyfully, as loudly as you can, even though now you are few in number, like a woman who cannot give birth to children, and you feel deserted. You will be very happy because you will have many children who will come to you. Those children will be more than the children 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 UST Now, my fellow believers, you have become children of God because God has fulfilled what he promised to Abraham. You are like Isaac{, who was born because God fulfilled what he promised to give Abraham}. BSB BSB: Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 UST Also, long ago Abraham’ s son Ishmael, the one who was conceived naturally, caused trouble for Abraham’ s son Isaac, who was conceived supernaturally. Similarly, now those who think that we must obey the laws that God gave to Moses in order that God will save us are causing trouble for those who are trusting Abraham’ s descendant, the Messiah. 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 UST But Moses wrote these words in a scripture passage in Genesis:“The son of the woman who was not a slave will inherit what his father owns. The female slave’ s son will certainly not inherit those things. 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 UST My fellow believers, Hagar symbolizes the laws that God gave to Moses. But we are not those who must obey all the laws that God gave to Moses. So we are not the female slave Hagar’ s spiritual descendants. But Sarah’ s descendants are those who were born as a result of God fulfilling what he promised to Abraham. So we are the spiritual descendants of Sarah, the woman who was not a slave. 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.