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From the Church on the Hill by D. Eric Williams Pastor, Cottonwood Community Church pastor@CottCommChurch.com What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith (Galatians 3:8-9 NLT). The Jews looked to Abraham as the ancestor of their people. As far as they were concerned, the only ones who could enjoy participation in the blessings promised to Abraham were his offspring. This was accomplished through natural descent and (grudgingly perhaps) by proselytization. In any case, Jews believed they were the only ones who could enjoy the covenant promises. This strong conviction remained intact for the Judaizers. Thus, if one wanted to participate in the covenant promises one must become a Jew – in addition to believing in Jesus. But Paul identified the children of Abraham differently; the real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God (Galatians 3:7 NLT). For Paul, it was of utmost importance the Galatian Christians understood they belonged to Abraham’s family already. If they placed faith in Jesus Christ, they were children of Abraham. Later in the letter Paul will develop the idea that the Mosaic dispensation was a parenthetical era and once it had served its purpose, it was set aside. On the other hand, the Judizers said the Mosaic dispensation embodied true Israel – it defined the children of Abraham. Thus, for them, the Abrahamic blessings were realized via the Mosaic law. For Paul, continuing in that dispensation was a denial of Jesus Christ and resulted in a forfeiture of the covenant blessings. Just as Jesus said, Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw and was glad (John 8:56 NKJV), Paul makes the claim that God informed Abraham the blessing of all nations would take place through Jesus. Thus, he says, now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "AND TO YOUR SEED," who is Christ (Galatians 3:16 NKJV). This was directly contrary to the view of the Jews or the Judaizers. They believed the promises of God were spread to the various nations through the many descendants of Abraham without recourse to the Messiah. Yes the the Christ was needful - they argued - but he was not the singular conduit for the covenant blessings. Again, this was a denial of Jesus. For, Paul is saying in essence, Israel has ceased to exist outside of Jesus the Christ, the true son of Abraham, the true Son of Man, the true Son of David - the true Israel (cf. Galatians 6:16). This had tremendous ramifications for the church in Galatia. It has tremendous ramifications for us as well. We who have placed faith in Jesus share the same blessings Abraham received because of his faith. I challenge you, go back and read what was promised to Abraham. For that matter, Paul has already summed it up; Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith (Romans 4:13 NLT). God has promised the whole earth to the descendants of Abraham. The one true descendant of Abraham is Jesus the Christ. Moreover, those who have placed faith in the Lord Jesus are counted as descendants of Abraham as well. Therefore, we have been promised the whole earth. And we realize that promise as we take the gospel into all the world. We actualize that promise as we bring our life and arena of activity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We will return to this topic next week. |
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