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And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 3:29 *

Premise

All those Jews and Gentiles who put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation are the children of Abraham, the Israel of God, and members of the body of Christ.

Background

Since college one of the most common questions I have experienced Christians wrestling with is the relationship between blood relatives of Abraham (Jews) and Christians. Is God saving the Jews differently than non-Jews? Should Christians think of Jews as closer to God than anyone else? What is the relationship between the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God in the New Testament? Do Jews go to Heaven by nature of their being Jews? Are any of the promises to Abraham helpful for us today?

The goal of this short article is not to critique my brothers and sisters in Christ who hold to a dispensationalist view. The goal rather is to demonstrate to Christians that the answer is not as complicated or mysterious as it may sometimes appear to be. That which God would have us to know about ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ through history is set down very clearly in Scripture so that we can rejoice in the Lord who brings all His elect to salvation by faith.

Abraham

A discussion of the children of Abraham naturally begins with Abraham. Abraham’s name was not always Abraham as history generally remembers him but for the first ninety-nine years of his life he was named “Abram “(Genesis 11:26). Then in Genesis 17, God changed Abraham’s name from Abram to Abraham for a specific purpose:

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

Genesis 17:5

From the introduction of Abraham’s name to history, God tells us that his name is significant because it reminds us that Abraham was never to be the father of just one nation but many nations. The children who would have the Lord as their God (Genesis 17:7-8) would be children not limited to one nation but a multitude of nations united by one faith in one Lord Jesus Christ.

From the beginning of Scripture, the Lord helps us to discern the children of Abraham with the very name of Abraham. Whenever we hear the name Abraham we should think “Father of many nations.”

Abraham’s Faith in Christ

Abraham believed God and His promises. Hebrews 11 ties together the Old Testament church and the New Testament church by the Hall of Faith telling us that as of old so now we live by Faith. Even Abraham obeyed God not by his own will but “By faith” (Hebrews 11:1). Abraham didn’t look for God to fulfill His promises in an earthly kingdom in the Middle East but “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (11:10).

Sometimes we are tempted like the Jews in John 8 to think that Abraham didn’t know anything about Jesus 2,000 years before Jesus was born. But we find in Scripture something very different. Abraham had faith in the promised Messiah to come. Jesus tells us in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Two thousand years before Christ, Abraham believed in and was looking for the coming of the Messiah, the Christ! Jesus who was before Abraham tells us, and Abraham saw Christ’s coming by faith! Abraham is remembered above all as a man who had faith in Christ alone for salvation – a faith that God calls all men, Jews and Gentiles, to share.

And he [Philippian jailor] brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Acts 16:30-31

The Promise of God to Abraham

God’s promise to Abraham to be his God and the God of his seed after him, to justify him, to give him eternal life, was not through the law or by blood but by faith. From the beginning, the promise was through the righteousness of faith.

Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

Romans 4:9-10,13

So then Abraham is the father of “us all” who share in this like precious faith. He is the father of the Jew who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and he is the father of the Gentile who has faith in Jesus Christ. To reiterate this truth, the writer of Romans reminds us again of Abraham’s name – he would be the father of many nations, Jews and Gentiles, even all who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed – God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

Romans 4:16-17

Limited (Definite) Children

Are all Jews ever born children of Abraham? Are all people in all nations ever born children of Abraham? While certainly all those in the blood line of Abraham could claim to be children of Abraham, the Scripture does not have that in mind when it speaks of children of Abraham. God places a limitation on the children of Abraham.

Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:7

So that the Scripture might be fulfilled, all nations of the earth are blessed in Abraham (Genesis 18:18) but not every person in every nation, not even in Israel.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Galatians 3:9

From Abraham to Christ

It may seem odd at this point to have so much discussion of father Abraham as if our life’s goal is to be related to Abraham over God. The point of Abraham as a father figure in Scripture is that he is a father of the faith and an example to us all of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So then we who believe in Christ are following in the path of that father in the faith and the very fulfillment of the promise to Abraham more than 4,000 years ago that in him all nations of the earth would be blessed. We who believe in Christ are the promised children of Abraham who are like the stars of the sky in number. But notice, Abraham is an example of faith, but Abraham is not the author or the object of faith.

Abraham’s faith was in the promised Messiah. Abraham’s faith was in the Christ, even Jesus Christ the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. Abraham points us to the Savior and we must then look where Abraham points. We should never stop at the one pointing but always go to the one being pointed at. If you stop at the sign in Georgia telling you 500 miles to Disney World you will never arrive at Disney World. If you stop at Abraham and don’t look to the Author and Perfector of faith (like most Jews sadly do today – though God is faithful and saving a remnant) you will never come to Christ and never be saved.

Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

I John 2:23

So the Lord takes us in Galatians 3 from Abraham the lesser to Christ the greater and takes us directly to the point, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” So then, there is no distinguishing characteristics among Christians by means of the flesh.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 3:28-29

In the Old Testament, the elect believed in the Messiah and Savior who was to come and were saved. In the New Testament, the elect believe in the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Savior who has come and are saved. In both testaments there is one and the same Lord, one and the same faith, and one and the same church.**

From Christ to Glory

We who are the children of Abraham by faith are heirs of the promise to Abraham and thereby an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:7). There are many glorious implications of being a part of the body of Christ through faith. Here are a few:

1. Those who have saving faith in Christ are collectively the “Israel of God.” But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16).
   
   
2. The promises to Abraham’s seed individually are promises to Christians, the promises to Abraham’s seed collectively are promises to the church – Jews and Gentiles – even all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation as He is freely offered to us in the gospel.
   
   
3. There is one people of God in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Faithful Israel was the church of the Old Testament and the church is the Israel of God in the New Testament. (Galatians 3:29, 6:16, Hebrews 12:1-2).
   
   
4. The time of harvest for Jew and Gentile is not past or future, but rather, it is present. Go and call both to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Without Christ, we have nothing. No blood line will save us. With Christ, crucified, dead, and risen again, we have everything. He is our all in all. All power is His and He has said, “Go.”
   
   
5. On that great day of the Lord’s return, we will be standing with the saints of the Old Testament and the saints of the New, together looking at our Savior Jesus Christ in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and in whom we are complete. We will be doing so having been all washed by His same blood which was shed on the cross 2,000 years ago for His people, Jew and Gentile. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

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*All references are from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted.

**The administration of the church / covenant in the Old and New Testament was of course different as the church in the Old Testament looked forward to the Savior to come and the New Testament Church looks back on the Savior who has come.

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