Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed."

I mean this: The law which was given four hundred and thirty years later could not annul the contract which had already been ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.

For if our inheritance depends on the law, it can no longer depend on the promise. But it was by promise that God so graciously bestowed it upon Abraham.

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary.

And if you belong to Christ, then you are real descendants of Abraham, and heirs in accordance with the promise made to him.

But the child of the slave girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born to fulfill the promise.

Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children born to fulfill the promise.