David Grabbe, focusing on the allegory of the Bond and Free Women in Galatians 4:21, explains the misunderstanding of some antinomian Protestants in their claim that Paul wanted to do away with the law or works. Paul never denigrates law or works but warns against depending on them to justify us'which the law was never intended to do. Far from destroying the definitions of right and wrong, the New Covenant provides a means of internalizing the law in the spirit as well as in the letter (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16), along with the power to keep them. The bondage Paul warns of is slavery to sin, not the obligation to keep God's law. The law is common to both covenants, but the Old Covenant does not address the sickness of the human heart, its inability to keep the law. The New Covenant does, by putting God's law in our hearts so we can live as He lives.

Allegory of Bondswoman and Freewoman Justification by works Justification New Covenant Old Covenant