Gal. 4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. 23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. 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. 27 For it is written,
“REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR;
BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR;
FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE
THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.”
28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. 30 But what does the Scripture say?
“CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON,
FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”
Are you a child of the bond woman, or the free woman. The better question, if you are a Christian, is do you live your Christian life like a child of the free woman or the bond woman? To live like a child of the bond woman is to live the Christian life by the flesh; that is to live by your own best self-effort. To live like a child of the free woman is to live by a promise; that is to live totally dependent on the activity of God. Which one of those lives do you think will be supernatural as opposed to exhaustion?
The life of slavery described in these verses is to be enslaved to the consequences of your own adequacy and will power. The life of freedom isn’t dependent on your own adequacy or effort; instead it is the freedom of admitting your own weakness (without being ashamed) and acknowledging your total need for His miraculous, promise-keeping, divine activity every minute of everyday. The consequences of that kind of life is supernatural.