Galatians 4:21-23

Gal. 4:21-23. "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise." These verses might be paraphrased thus, by which the Apostle's reasoning in them will be understood, "Is God's giving of the Law to the children, therefore, any way contrary to or inconsistent with the constitution He had before established with Abraham, that was by a free promise? No; by no means. Indeed if the Law that had been given at Mount Sinai could have given life, so that justifying the children of Israel could have been the real design of it, the children of Abraham would have been justified that way, and it would have been inconsistent with the preceding constitution of Abraham. But this is not the case, for the design of the Law was not to justify the children of Israel, but, on the contrary, to conclude them under, to prepare them by faith to receive, the promise made to Abraham, etc., and it was not a constitution inconsistent with the preceding gracious constitution with Abraham, but subordinate to it."

Chapter 5

Gal. 5:17