https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+4%3A21-31&version=NIVUK

³¹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Galatians 4:31

Whether the sister Christians like it or not, (hu)man’s state of not knowing God fully (4:8) through Christ’s intervention is figuratively described as ‘born of woman’. It is just the way it is said. The synonym would be ‘born under the law’ (4:4); the antonym would be ‘born of God’ (John 1:13) or ‘born of the Spirit’ (John 3:8). It is no offence to womanhood but only to describe our (i.e., humanity’s) nature, which was in sin and was sin without Christ.

But even if they all look like they are born of woman, some are permanently so, while others are only temporarily so. What determines the difference is the lack or abundance of freedom—the state of mothers even before their sons are born. The promised word of God—the Law, which sometimes means the whole of the Old Testament—was a foreshadow of his intention to give life, changing even what was before we were born. Such ‘predestination’ and ‘foreknowledge’ only became valid for us and known to us in Christ, who took the trouble of transforming us from ‘of Hagar’ to ‘of Sarah’—still a woman, but whose name now represents the Spirit who freely gives birth to Abraham’s true, legitimate descendants through Christ. What grace that brings laughter!

Lord, thank you for transforming us even to the point of our origin. With you, we are the children of promise, the children whom you have born through the Spirit in Christ from the beginning. Let us honour our true and legitimate sonship by knowing and remembering you and your work, marvelling at it, and giving thanks for it. Let not only that thanksgiving and awe but also that authenticity come through in our ways of living.

• Is there any privilege or disadvantage you have because of your birth, e.g., the place of birth, year of birth, family origin, etc.?
• Now that Christ has spiritually transformed your origin and background, does it make any difference to the things you were physically born into?