The Two Covenants and the Two Sons of Abraham

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar -- for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children -- but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all… Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. Gal 4:21-26, 28

The danger for Christians today is not that of being enticed to observe the law, but of neglecting to fully comprehend the truths about the New Covenant that Paul and others have revealed. There are two items in this present passage that demand our further attention, for they are foundational truths upon which much of New Testament prophecy rests. This is especially true when we consider that Paul’s allegory is a divinely inspired commentary, in which the Holy Spirit is pulling back the veil from the Old Testament types, to reveal the substance. These two are: 1) the nature of the New Covenant, and; 2) the end of the Old Covenant, which was ready to vanish away in the New Testament days. These two truths are like hinges, anchored to the framework of the Old Testament, and upon which the door of New Testament prophecy swings.