24 This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.
An allegory is a “representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another” (Dictionary.com). Paul used the story of Hagar and Sarah to illustrate a crucial difference between law and grace. The meaning he gave does not arise from an unbiased analysis of the story itself. But he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and therefore his illustration carries the authority of God.
Paul applied the story to Law and grace. Hagar represents the Law, that which Moses received on Mt. Sinai. Hagar was a servant (slave) of Abraham, not a wife. Her children, then, were also slaves. The analogy is that those who live under the Law are slaves to the Law like Hagar’s children who were slaves. That is the covenant of Law. Paul extended the analogy to Jerusalem at that time representing Sinai and the Law. This is an indictment on Israel of his day, who saw Jerusalem as the central of their religious life. They were slaves of the Law and were not truly free.
On the other hand, grace found in the Lord Jesus Christ is likened to Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and her offspring. She represents the line of promise, and ultimately those who come to faith in Christ. Paul likens that to a new and different Jerusalem, that which is above. Or to put it another way, the true spiritual Jerusalem, not the earthly one run by legalist religious rulers.
Jeremiah spoke of this new covenant that would come, “ ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’ ” (Jeremiah 31:33). This is the new covenant that Jesus spoke of in the last supper, “He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood’ ” (Luke 22:20). This covenant sets people free from slavery to the Law! So believers now trace their roots back, not to the Law, but to grace—the spiritualized Jerusalem! For the Jews this was also significant, because in Christ their connection to Abraham is not one primarily of physical lineage, but of spiritual heritage by grace through faith. It is in this sense that there is no difference between Jew or Greek (Galatians 3:28).
Lord, thank You for the covenant of grace written in my heart! What a heritage!
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