Paul has demolished the lynch-pin of the Judaizers and legalists - their false claim that salvation comes by physical inheritance of the promises to Abraham. Only Christ inherits that promise by natural descent, cutting off all the Jews and everybody else from any hope of natural inheritance of righteousness and salvation.
But has Paul gone too far? Has he now cut off all mankind from the promised blessing in Christ? Does the great promise of hope to Abraham begin and end with Jesus, leaving all God's people without hope of inheritance and blessing?
Paul has been careful, even as he demolishes the hope of the Judaizers, not to leave believers without hope. He has repeatedly assured us that we are saved by faith in the One to Whom the promise was vouchsafed. Christ's righteousness is ours by faith in His blood-shedding at Calvary.
Paul has humbled all men, especially the Jews, who think their privilege entitles them to the blessing of Abraham in Christ. But are we all to wallow in the shame of no inheritance?
Paul now lifts God's people from the depths of shame to the heights of splendor, honor, and glory, when he announces that we are all sons of God by faith in Jesus!
Paul teaches what Jesus taught: that physical relation to Abraham does not make men sons of Abraham or of God. But trust in the Savior makes us God's sons as younger brethren of the only begotten Son!
Our sonship flows from our union with Christ by His Spirit upon us. That union is so tight that all Christ's perfections and righteousness and glory is made ours too.
But Paul goes further: our union with Christ makes us also children of Abraham and joint-heirs of the promises with Jesus!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
