Galatians 3:7-9 7Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8And the Scripture foreseeing that that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
The Jews boasted in being the children of Abraham. They were the special children of promise and covenant. God had blessed them with the patriarchs and the law. Paul turns that understanding over now and expands the promises made to Abraham to include the Gentiles. Children of Abraham are defined by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and not works of the law. Paul gets this conclusion by a literal reading of God’s promise in Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18. This promise included the Gentiles because God said, “all nations.” This is inclusive of Gentiles. The word for “nations” is translated also as “Gentiles” (ethne). The Gentiles become part of this promise by faith. As Paul argues in Romans 9-11, even Israel must believe in Jesus as the Messiah to participate in this promise. Attempting to be righteous by the law is not sufficient. One also cannot be physically born into this family; all of Israel is not necessarily children of this promise. This promise only applies to those who believe.
The reason Paul can make this argument is that God gave this promise to Abraham before the law was given and even before Israel was a people. Abraham was essentially a Gentile himself. The blessing came before the law and before the nation. That makes it potentially inclusive of all people of the world. This conclusion is verified further in v. 9. Abraham received the blessing of being counted righteous for his faith. This blessing is available for all who believe in the promise of God. This promise is centered on salvation in Jesus Christ. Paul will expand this idea in the coming verses and chapters.
This is good news for most of the world today. It shows that God’s plan is for all people. God so loved the whole world, not just a small group of people. The mission of the church is to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Paul had a strong sense of mission to take the gospel everywhere he could, planting seeds in many places across the Mediterranean region. Not everyone can be like Paul, but every believer can share in this mission right where we are at.
For older posts, click here.