1I will tell you a picture story. There was an old man with a young son, and that old man was sick and going to die. He knew that after he dies that little kid will get everything he owns, but the kid will not know how to look after it. So the old man got his workers to agree to hold all his things and look after them till the boy grows up. He told them how old the boy has to be before he can take over and control those things. After they agreed to that, the old man died. Then that kid owned everything that his father left, but that kid couldn’t do anything with it. He was no different from his father’s workers.
2He had to do what his teachers and the other bosses told him to do, until he grew up. He had to wait for the right time to come, the time that his father told them before he died.
3This is what I mean by my story. We were like that little kid. The bad spirits, that are the bosses of this world, they were our bosses too.
4But when the right time came, God sent his own son from heaven to the earth. He was born from a normal woman. He was born into the Jewish tribe, and he did what the Jewish law said.
5And we were like that too. We had to do what Jewish law said. But, when God’s son came, he bought all of us, and he made us free, and God took us into his family to be his proper kids.
6And when we became God’s kids he sent his son’s spirit to live right inside us. His spirit in us gets us to call out to God, “My Dad, you are my father.”
7So those bad spirits are not your bosses any more, but you are one of God’s kids, and you will get everything that God gives to his kids.
8At first you didn’t know God. Those other bad spirits were your hard bosses. Those spirits are not gods at all.
9But then you heard about Jesus, and now you do know God, or really, God knows you. So don’t turn back to those weak and useless spirits that are the bosses of this world. Don’t let them be your bosses again.
10You think you make God happy if you follow the Jewish ceremonies for special days, or months, or times, or years. But you are wrong.
11I’m worried about you. I worked really hard to help you and now I think, “Maybe I wasted my time.”
12Look, my friends, I ask you to free yourselves from that law, just like I did. You see, I used to think I had to follow that law, but now I’m free, just like you. Do you remember the first time I came to you mob in Galatia? You didn’t do anything wrong to me at that time,
13even though I was sick. And I told you the good news about Jesus.
14Yes, I had a problem in my body, and this made me look bad to you. But you didn’t turn your back to me or say bad things to me. No, instead of that you were good to me, and you said, “Thank you for coming here.” You were happy with me, like I was one of God’s angel messengers, or like I was Jesus Christ himself.
15But now you are not happy with me any more. What went wrong? Back then you loved me so much that you did everything for me, no matter how much it cost you.
16But now something is wrong. I’m telling you what is true, and you don’t like it. It looks like you turned around and now you are calling me your enemy.
17Some people want you to follow the Jewish law, and they are trying hard to get you to join them. But that will not be good for you. They just want to pull you away from me. They want you to listen only to them, nobody else.
18It is good to follow somebody if they teach you something good. Yes, if it is good, follow it all the time, not just when I’m there with you. But that mob don’t teach you good things.
19Listen, I got you to believe in Jesus, so you are like my own kids to me. But now you are hurting me a lot. You know, when a woman has a baby, that baby gives her a lot of pain. Well, just like that, you are giving me a lot of pain. And I will keep feeling this pain till you properly change to be like Jesus Christ.
20You see, I really worry about you. I wish I could go there and be with you now, to talk with you the right way, and help you.
21Listen, you mob that want to follow the Jewish law, you don’t really know what that law says.
22You see, we read in God’s book that Abraham had 2 sons. The mother of one son was Hagar. She was a working woman. She was like a prisoner and she had to work all the time for Sarah, Abraham’s wife. And Sarah was the mother of the other son. She was always a free woman.
23The 1st son was born after Abraham and Sarah talked about it, and then Abraham and the working woman got together and had a son. But it was not God’s idea. That 1st son came from the working woman. But the 2nd son came after God promised to give Sarah a son. That 2nd son came from the free woman.
24That old story has another meaning. Those 2 women are like pictures of the 2 agreements that God made with his people. Hagar is like the agreement that God made on the mountain called Sinai, where he gave the Jews their law. That agreement makes people like prisoners. They are not free. They have to work all the time to follow that law.
25Hagar is a picture of mount Sinai in Arabia country, and she is like the city here on earth called Jerusalem, where people have to follow that Jewish law. That city and its people are like prisoners that have to work all the time. They are not free.
26But there is another city called Jerusalem up in heaven. The people that live in that city are free. And we belong to that city, so we are free.
27There will be a lot of people with us in that city, in heaven. You see, this is what God got one of his men to write in his book, “Be happy, you woman that hasn’t got any kids. You didn’t have to feel all that pain from having a kid. You can be so happy you can shout out loud. You used to be sad and lonely, but now you will have a lot more kids than the woman that has a husband.”
28You see, my friends, you are like Sarah’s son called Isaac. God promised to give that son to Abraham and Sarah. Well, just like that, God promises to make you his kids too.
29And think a bit more about that story. The 1st son, called Ishmael, came from what people did. The 2nd son, called Isaac, came from the power of the Holy Spirit. And you know, at that time, long ago, Ishmael gave Isaac a lot of trouble. And it is like that now, the people that reckon we have to follow the law give the free people a lot of trouble.
30But we read this about Hagar and Ishmael in God’s book, it says, “Chuck out the working woman and her son. That working woman’s son will never get what God promised to the free woman’s son.”
31So I’m telling you, my friends, we are like the free woman’s kids. We are not like kids of the woman that had to work all the time like a prisoner.
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