Galatians 4:30

Howbeit what saith the Scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman.

This is the dramatic and blunt conclusion Paul enforced by his appeal to this allegory. "When the Judaizers pride themselves on the fact that they are `sons of Abraham,' let it be remembered that Abraham had two sons."[27] In Paul's times, and until now, there are still two classes of "sons of Abraham"; and the significant question is, "Who is a real son of Abraham?" Paul had already given the answer in Galatians 3:26-29. The reason why all natural religious systems are bound to come in conflict with Christianity is that Christianity is supernatural, and the natural systems cannot coexist as parallel paths to the same goal."[28] The law of Moses and the gospel of Christ cannot be blended, and as Wesley said "It is the Law which must go, and the gospel which must enjoy an unshared supremacy."[29]

MacKnight was surely correct in the thought that "In this allegory, Paul prophesied the rejection of secular Israel, the natural seed, from being the church and people of God."[30] Paul never pointed that analogy out, but it is surely there; and "Lightfoot remarked that Paul's confident application of verse 30 is a striking tribute to his prophetic insight."[31] This is true, because when Paul wrote, it was to human eyes far from certain that the old Jewish system would be cast out of its inheritance, an event, however, that was dramatically and violently fulfilled in the total destruction of Jerusalem about twenty years after this letter was written.

[27] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 189.

[28] R. Alan Cole, op. cit., p. 135.

[29] John Wesley, One Volume New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), in loco.

[30] James MacKnight, op. cit., p. 186.

[31] F. Roy Coad, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 453.