Neville Goddard on Galatians 4:21-31 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Galatians 4 in context

Scripture Focus

21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

30Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Galatians 4:21-31

Biblical Context

Paul frames two births as an inner choice: bondage under the law and freedom by promise. The 'Jerusalem above' represents the liberated consciousness within.

Neville's Inner Vision

Two births are not two people but two states of mind: bondage to the law and freedom by the promise. The bondwoman stands for a consciousness caught in effort, fear, and external performance; the freewoman is the awareness that rests in grace, in the promise already fulfilled. Jerusalem above, not a place on a map, but your inner capital where you awaken to your real inheritance. As Isaac represents a child of faith, so you are the child of the Promise when you identify with the I AM that is already complete. The flesh-born 'they persecute'—the old self resisting change—disappears when you cast out the mental bondwoman by choosing the state of freedom. Your true heredity is not a chain of commandments but the liberty of awareness. You are not directed by outward law, but by the inward revelation of your divine sonship. When you inhabit this, the external appearances rearrange themselves to reflect your inner truth.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Close your eyes and assume the feeling of being the free-born child of the promise now. Repeat and feel, 'I am the Jerusalem above; I am free,' until the sense of constraint dissolves.