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The next paragraph concludes this section with Paul using the OT account of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah allegorically to contrast slavery under the law with freedom in the promises of God. The allegory builds on the thought of two groups claiming descent from Abraham. Hagar was the slave girl who gave birth in a normal, physical way, without any divine intervention. Sarah was the wife who gave birth in an extraordinary way—through a conception that occurred when she was well beyond the age of childbearing. This happened because God had promised a son to Abraham and Sarah. Paul’s point is that a follower of Christ is a child of promise and a true heir, but the child of the slave is not an heir; he is another slave. The allegory is pushed to an extreme. Hagar represents the old covenant as seen in Jerusalem and its temple and its laws, which equals slavery. Sarah represents the new covenant as seen in the new or heavenly Jerusalem and its promise, which equals freedom in Christ (Bruce, 158-61).
In v.27 is a quotation from Isa 54, from the context of the Babylonian captivity. Jerusalem before the Exile is portrayed as a woman living with her husband and capable of producing children. During the time of the Exile, however, Jerusalem is pictured as a woman thought incapable of having children, who suddenly becomes joyful as she realizes that she is again capable of bearing children. This word of Isaiah is meant to provide hope for a return from exile with its concomitant restoration. A double metaphor is employed. The barren woman is the heavenly Jerusalem, which in turn is the joy of becoming the people of God. The woman with the husband, on the other hand, is taken to be the earthly Jerusalem, which is inferior to the heavenly Jerusalem.
The chapter ends with one final comparison between Abraham’s two sons—the one who receives the inheritance and the other who is dismissed to fend for himself. Even as Isaac is the child of promise, so are those who have become God’s children through trusting in him. As Ishmael, the naturally conceived child, is the child of the flesh, so are those who through trusting in their own ability to secure God’s blessing have been dismissed by God as though they were slaves. “Have nothing to do with the servile Mosaic dispensation, . . . being free from the curse and the bond of that Law,” wrote Wesley (Notes, 4:31).