As a child, you may have played a game called “Chose your parents”. The aim of the game is to decide which parent you will be born to if you had a choice. Players of this game usually day-dream and wish they were born into a rich family or one whose family name is prestigious/famous.
If children of a Sunday school class were to play this game, it will be unlikely that anyone would want to claim Hagar as a Mother. This is why...
Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman according to the flesh (human impulse); the other by the free woman as a result of the divine promise. Being a slave already, all the descendants of Hagar were made slaves too by the laws of the land. Sarah, on the other hand, represents heavenly Jerusalem – the city of the living God – and she is the mother of us all (children of promise).
Although Paul uses symbolic figures to paint new meaning on an old story (Genesis 21:1-12), it is important to note that Judaizers are to be cast out of the church like Hagar and her son were cast out of Abraham’s home.
Those who insist on the law will have no inheritance of grace from God the Father. Do you still hold on to the law as basis of your justification or have received the grace Christ gives?
We are not children of the slave woman but of the freewoman; thank you, Jesus!