CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Galatians 3:6-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul was trying every conceivable way to get his point across and discourage the Galatian Christians from being deceived by the Jews who were trying to convince them that compliance with the law was a requirement for salvation.

How far was Paul willing to go?

So far that he played the Abraham card.

You remember Abraham, right?

When you survey the covenants that God made with chosen people in the scriptures, we find the Abrahamic Covenant falling second, right after the promise that God made Noah, the promise that He would never again send a flood to eradicate humanity. You’ll recall that God pledged to place a rainbow in the sky as a sign of His covenant and indeed today we still get His reminders.

Well, the covenant with Abraham was different. God commanded Abraham to pick up everything he owned and move to a place unknown, a place where God would lead him to. In turn, God promised to give Abraham a large family who would inherit nations and bless the land. Even though Abraham had no children at the time and he and his wife Sarah were advanced in age, God promised that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). All Abraham had to do was believe and trust that God would do and could do what He said He would do. Because he did this, God credited Abraham with righteousness because he believed out of faith (Genesis 15:6).

Now, the Law wasn’t present at the time of Abraham. Yes, God required that males be circumcised on the eighth day after birth but this was a sign under the old covenant. Righteousness wasn’t credited to righteousness through works but rather because he chose to trust God.

This is what Paul wanted the believers in the churches of Galatia to know. God didn’t expect anything else from them to gain salvation except a belief that He would save them through placing their trust in Jesus, His Son, who He sent to save mankind. If simple belief was enough to keep Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, firmly in God’s favor then it was enough for the Galatian Christians as well. And because of this belief grounded in faith alone, Paul wanted the believers in Galatia to know that they would be considered to be children of Abraham, offspring of his confident trust in God.

Friends, today the Lord continues to see us as Abraham’s offspring when we choose to place our faith in Him alone to save us through Christ Jesus. There isn’t any other requirement needed to gain salvation and this is what makes the Gospel so simple and yet so gloriously accommodating. One doesn’t have to have riches or status to gain the kingdom of Heaven forever. All that is required is a trust that the God who promised us resurrection from death into eternal life possesses the power to do it.

We only need to look to Jesus, our Savior, to find the proof.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com