Allegorical Interpretation of Law and Promise

He named the prophecy of works an allegory. In Galatians 4:25, he did not simply refer to Mount Sinai, but also noted that the Ishmaelites' desert extends all the way to it. At Sinai the law was given for the slavery of offspring, and from Mount Sinai the tablets that were given were carried among Israel, and often having been moved from place to place, they were finally established in Jerusalem. Because of this he brought it forward; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, which slaves alongside its children. Where there is the promise of land, and possession, and marriage, and human things, slavery follows; but where there is deliverance from earthly cares and from bonds, and in the heavens is the citizenship, from that citizenship comes freedom.

In Galatians 5:17, he asks why one who pulls away through the law remembers sin. Because the law commanded luxury, and because of this desire is divided and, being uncontainable toward sin, leads onward. For this reason, when there was a memory of the law, there was also a memory of sin. For in the letter to the Romans, mentioning the law, he also brought forward the correction through the Lord, for those living according to the flesh are unable to please God. And why was luxury and eating permitted? Because the abstention from the acknowledged evils would not have progressed, unless eating and drinking were given to them. For the lawgiver knew that it is impossible to restrain pleasures while living in luxury. Finally, he wished to discipline the mind, so that it might know what is good and what is bad and what is pious; for he foresaw that he who adds to what is lacking in the law was to come, I mean, not to walk according to the flesh, as Paul says.

In Galatians 6:7–8, he showed from this that many were consuming things unseasonably, providing nothing to those who keep the law and are being exhorted, and providing nothing to those who preach the teaching of Paul. Therefore he says: he who sows into his flesh; for he who is subject to the law lives in fleshly things. He who therefore, providing these things to the one teaching this, sows into the flesh, sows only.

In Galatians 6:14–15, so that it might not be thought that he is making a substitute for circumcision, and giving a pretext of circumcision and condemnation to the opponents, he most beautifully brought forward the last thing, that neither circumcision avails nor uncircumcision, but he said a new creation. Concerning which elsewhere: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. If it is new, he says, a creation, let him not become under the law; for he who lives according to the law lives in the world, but he who lives in Christ is a citizen in the heavens. Therefore the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.