Abraham’s Seed
Galatians 3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Here is some great food for thought or, that is, some good meditation material. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
How are we Abraham’s seed? And what promise are we heirs to?
In Galatians chapter 3, Paul is attempting to give understanding to the Galatian church as to why they should not go back to keeping the law of Moses. This was an erroneous doctrinal issue that emerged in the early New Testament Church.
Acts 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Acts 15:2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.
The matter was ultimately resolved by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, who determined that the new converts to Christianity, the Gentiles, did not need to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved.
Acts 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
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Acts 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
But the Galatian church took the doctrine and ran with it. Now Paul is trying to turn them away from that error.
Galatians 3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Paul is making a distinction between the works of the law and the hearing of faith. The New Testament is about the hearing of faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. By grace are you saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. But the law of Moses is about the keeping of the law.
And he makes an astounding statement. He said, in the same way that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, so also those who are of faith, they are the children of Abraham.
But isn’t the nation of Israel the seed of Abraham? Well, yes, in the natural sense of being his natural descendants. But look what Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders of His day.
John 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
John 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
He told the Jewish religious leaders that they were not the children of Abraham, and in a later verse He told them that they were of their father, the devil.
Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
How was the gospel preached to Abraham? It was preached to Him when God said to Abraham, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth, all the Gentiles, be blessed.
That was a promise that God made to Abraham. Yet, when the household of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit under the preaching of Peter, the Jewish believers were shocked to find out that Gentiles could be saved. Yet God had promised it to Abraham thousands of years earlier.
Galatians 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Who are those who are of faith? All those who are saved in Christ Jesus through faith, whether their natural descent be Jew or Gentile. Faith in Christ is for all nations. And they are the ones who are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Another revelation is given by Paul here. Everyone who is attempting to keep the law is under the curse of the law, because keeping the law leaves no room for error, but requires the continuing in all things written in it. One failure to perfectly keep it results in the curse of the law, outlined in Deuteronomy 28:15 to the end of the chapter.
Deuteronomy 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do ALL his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
And then the curses are listed, which are just the opposite of the blessing of the law given in the earlier part of the chapter, and actualy much greater in extent.
The point that Paul is making here is that everyone who attempts to keep the law of Moses is under the curse of the law, because no one could ever walk it out and keep it completely.
Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Here’s another point. No man is justified by the law in the sight of God. No one could ever be made righteous before God by keeping the law. How do we know that? Because the scripture has declared that the just, the righteous, shall live by faith, that is, they shall be made alive by faith and they shall walk by faith in their lives, and not by the works of the law.
The only thing the law could produce for those who attempted to keep it was a curse.
Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Christ has redeemed those who believe upon Him from the curse of the law. How? By becoming a curse for us, because in the law it is written that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. And that’s what He did. He hung upon the tree of Calvary, the cross.
Why did He do that? So that the blessing of Abraham could come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.
Galatians 3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and you are heirs of the promise. Let’s go this far in this meditation. There is much more to see in this chapter of Galatians, but we will save that for another session.
For now, understand that the seed of Abraham to Whom the promise was made is Jesus Christ, and all who are in Him are counted as the seed. We will talk about the promise of the Spirit at a later time.