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People are saved because of their faith in Christ, not of what they do. Paul uses the story Hagar and Sarah in order to communicate to the Galatians a crucial message. Paul contrasted those who are enslaved to the law (represented by Hagar, the slave woman) with those who are free to law (represented by Sarah, the free woman). Sarah’s abuse toward Hagar was like the persecution that the Gentile Christians were getting from the Judaizers who insisted on keeping the law in order to be saved. Paul explains that what happened to Sarah and Hagar is an allegory or picture of the relationship between God and mankind.

Galatians 4:21-24
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.