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Children of Abraham
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Galatians 3:26  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) This statement would have been a bombshell—and high heresy—to the average Jew of Paul's time, who would have had it in his mind that the people of Israel were the only children of God.  Paul here is beginning to explain that physical lineage is not relevant where God's calling is concerned, because under the New Covenant only God can give the summons (John 6:44), and if He summons a Gentile, it is just as valid as if He gave it to an Israelite.  The faith of Jesus Christ is the important factor rather than heredity. This faith is also a part of what God gives (Ephesians 2:8)—again, only to those whom He chooses.  But if God has given this living faith (James 2:20) to a man, that man is then a begotten—but not yet born—child of God.  God is the real father, rather than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. David C. Grabbe

Galatians 3:26  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) We become children of Abraham once we are justified by faith in Christ's sacrifice. The Abrahamic Covenant and the promises God made, then, are still in effect. He is going to fulfill those promises. Abraham will have multiple billions of descendants. Now we see the real purpose of the covenant: Abraham's children actually, under God's spiritual purpose, also become God's children. John W. Ritenbaugh The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 27)

Galatians 3:29  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) The apostle directs our understanding of Abraham's offspring away from the usual biological definition and toward one pivoting around a relationship with Christ. A few verses earlier, he shows that faith is the crucial substance (see Hebrews 11:1) of that relationship: "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7). Operatively, then, "the faith of Christ" (Galatians 2:16, KJV), not a faith we inflame within ourselves, is the source—we could even say, the functional cause—of our spiritual kinship with Abraham. Through our exercise of Christ's faith in us, we become Abraham's children. Regardless of lineage, we are not his spiritual children by birth. For the purposes of spiritual salvation, reconciliation with God by the faith of Jesus Christ renders irrelevant the genetic, national, social, and gender differences among Homo sapiens (see Galatians 3:26-29). Thus, the apostle stresses the importance of faith over genealogy. Israel, from God's viewpoint, is first and foremost a spiritual entity, a nation and people (I Peter 2:9) of faith, and only secondarily—subordinately—a physical or natural entity. Charles Whitaker Servant of God, Act II: God's Gift of Faith

 

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