Can you earn your way into God’s family?

No. In Galatians 4:21-31, the Apostle Paul uses the story of Abraham’s two sons to show that we are saved by God’s promise, received through faith — never by our own effort. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt unpacks the surprising lesson.

Abraham had two sons. Ishmael was born through human scheming, when Sarah grew tired of waiting on God’s promise. Isaac was born later, exactly as God had promised. Paul uses these two sons to picture two roads to God: one built on human effort, the other on God’s promise received by faith. The surprise is that the people trusting in their own rule-keeping were acting like children of the slave woman, not the free woman. Holt warns against every “faith-plus” add-on — whether circumcision, baptism, a prayer, or simply being a good person — because only faith in Christ saves.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why does Paul tell the story of Abraham’s two sons? He uses it as a picture. One son came from human effort and one from God’s promise, showing the difference between trying to earn salvation and receiving it by faith.

2. What part do our works play in being saved? None, when it comes to earning it. We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ, not by works, so that no one can boast.

3. Why did the Galatians need this warning? They were being pressured to add rules to their faith. Paul wanted them to see that mixing human effort into the gospel actually leaves the gospel behind.

“So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.” — Galatians 4:31 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This is Part 8 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.