Galatians 4 - Plain English Version(PEV)

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 some people to be the bosses, and they agreed to look after his things until 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.

3Now I’ll tell you what that picture story is all about. We were like that little kid. We had bosses too. The bad spirits that are the bosses over this world, they were our bosses.

4And just like that little kid, we had to wait for the right time to come. Then, when the right time came, God sent his own son from heaven to the earth. He was born from a normal woman into the Jewish nation, and he did what the Jewish law said.

5And then he took the payback for all of us, the payback for the bad things we did, and he set us free. So God took us into his family to be his proper kids, and we don’t have to follow that law any more.

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.”

23The 1st son was born after Abraham and Sarah talked about it, and then Abraham and the worker got together, and after that she had a son. But it was not God’s idea. That 1st son came from the woman that was like a prisoner. But the 2nd son came after God promised to give Sarah a son. That 2nd son came from the free woman.

24That old story teaches us something else too. 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 big hill 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 the big hill called 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. That city’s people are free. And we belong to that city, so we are free.

27There will be a lot of people with us in that city. You see, this is what God says 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 really happy, and 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 Christian friends, you are like Sarah’s son. His name was 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. Remember Ishmael, the 1st son. He was born because of things people did by themselves. But Isaac, the 2nd son, he was born by 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 too. The people that reckon we have to follow the law, they give the free people a lot of trouble.

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.