Sons and Daughters of Abraham: Galatians 3:7-9

For all who believe, we are credited with righteousness.  The words are easy to say, but the concept is still foreign.  My employer pays me based on what I do.  I only pay for products and services from which I benefit.  Almost every part of our life is built on a contract mentality where goods and currency are exchanged based on something done.  God’s not like that.  We receive righteousness for free.  Only then do we go out and join God in His work.

Paul makes an incredibly bold statement in these verses, and it is sometimes unbelievable how many people don’t talk about his boldness.  Paul speaks about Abraham and the sons and daughters of Abraham.

Paul was a Pharisee.  He would have known the Law.  He could no doubt trace his genealogy back to Abraham.  He knew where he sat with respect to Jewish circles of influence.

This is the background of the man who now declares that Abraham’s faith was the important part.  This pharisee who knows the Law claims the sons and daughters of Abraham and not biological sons and daughters but spiritual sons and daughters.  Paul establishes a break between being a Hebrew person and being a son and daughter of Abraham.  For a Pharisee, this is practically heresy.

Not everyone on the planet can be born a Jew, tracing their lineage back to Abraham.  I certainly cannot.  Paul’s claim is that anyone can become a son or daughter to Abraham.  After all, being a son or daughter of Abraham is based on one’s faith, not one’s biology.  Believe God created the world?  Believe Jesus’ death is the only path to salvation and eternal life with God?  Then you are a son or daughter of Abraham regardless of your genealogy.  Abraham believed, and it was counted to Him as righteousness.  When you or I believe, we receive the grace of God and it is credited to us as righteousness.

Now we understand how all nations can be righteous.  As Christians, we often assert that as Jesus came from the descendants of Abraham and the world is blessed because of Jesus’ death on the cross, the world is blessed through Abraham.  That’s true, but it isn’t Paul’s point.  In Abraham’s example, we see that righteousness comes through faith, not genealogy.  Like Abraham, we who believe God and receive His grace are blessed regardless of our color, gender, lineage, or nationality.

This idea Paul puts forth demonstrates a huge shift in his own understanding.  The amount of change Paul accepted and endured to get to this point is considerable.  No wonder he had to leave Damascus and spend considerable time in Arabia meditating and growing in his understanding.

Thanks be to God, though, that Paul’s words are true.  Righteousness is accessible to all.  Race doesn’t matter.  Nationality doesn’t matter.  Gender doesn’t matter.  We can all be sons and daughters of Abraham.  For all who believe, we are credited with righteousness.