Amen. And now we can turn to the scriptures. Our first scripture reading this morning begins in Genesis chapter 11, starting at verse 27.
Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nehor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nehor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nehor’s wife Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milka and Iska. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Mora. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring, I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.
From there, from the book of Genesis, we turn to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, returning to chapter 3, beginning at verse 7.
‘Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.’
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘the righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith; rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’ So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you are the author of our faith; you are the finisher of our faith. Help us to know and understand what you are telling us and how you are calling us to be faithful people and the children of Abraham. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
So what does it mean to be a child of Abraham? The expression describes a critical component of the doctrine of the church, who the elect, the chosen of God, are. Yet its understanding or interpretation is something which has become widely corrupted in the world. Simply put, the children of Abraham are God’s people.
However, we have three major world religions which claim their descent from and their origin with Abraham, each claiming to be his true spiritual heirs. The Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Much of the secular world wishes to lump all three of us together into one single group, suggesting that we all worship the same God.
But despite some similarities, we each affirm doctrines denying any cross-fellowship or any positive affirmation of the other’s validity and truth claims. However, there are three important points of agreement between each of us: the origination or foundation of our particular religion by the patriarch Abraham, our affirmation of one single sovereign creator God, and the exclusive nature of our religion, our sole possession of inerrant truth by divine revelation.
Obviously, all three of us cannot be correct when we each claim this exclusivity. So how or why does this contradiction exist? Who truly are the children of Abraham?
First, the Hebrew Jewish perspective holds that Jacob, called Israel, and his descendants are the true heirs of God’s covenant promise to Abraham, a promise inherited through his father Isaac, Abraham’s legitimate son with his wife Sarah. Jacob’s descendants were redeemed out of Egypt by the Lord and were those to whom He gave His holy law and whom God claimed as His treasured possession to be a kingdom of priests.
Thus, Israel became God’s people, serving the Lord alone, mediating on behalf of all the world and directing everyone to seek Him and His righteousness. They were promised to receive the Lord’s blessing and so owed Him obligation for faithful obedience.
Meanwhile, the Islamic perspective holds that Ishmael, Abraham’s elder son with his wife’s slave Hagar, was his true heir. Their Hadith teaches that Ishmael was the son whom Allah commanded to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah rather than Isaac and that later Ishmael received the greater blessing of God after he and Hagar were sent away by Abraham. They experienced miracles, and they can enjoy the continuing favor of Abraham, who it claims would visit them often, and that later Abraham would build the Kaaba with Ishmael in Mecca.
All of our modern Arab peoples today consider themselves to be the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael with the tradition that Muhammad was his direct descendant. The Quran declares itself to be the final divine revelation as told by the angel Gabriel directly to the illiterate Muhammad. Then Muhammad recited it to others who wrote it down.
The Muslim religion also affirms the Jewish Torah and Christian Gospel, affirming that they have some spiritual authority but are now corrupted to them. To them, the Quran is the corrected authoritative revelation.
Furthermore, although Islam considers both Jews and Christians to be fellow people of the book, as dimi, a protected class of people, both peoples are still considered to be blasphemers and apostates because we deny the prophethood of Muhammad and the authority of the Quran.
So although all three religions claim Abraham as our forebear, it is a grave error to believe or suggest that we each worship the same God. Jews believe in the one Lord Yahweh alone. Christians believe that Jesus is both God’s Son and also the Lord, the complete revelation of Yahweh Himself, who along with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, are the one Lord God, co-equal, co-eternal, and without division.
That Jesus is the only way, truth, and source of life, while Muslims believe in Allah, who the Quran asserts is the same God as Yahweh. They deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the deity of Christ, just like the Jews. Although Muslims will elevate Jesus to the status of a prophet, like but subordinate to Muhammad, they also deny both the crucifixion and the resurrection.
Whereas Christians and Jews will deny the character of Allah as being the same as the Lord. Allah does not care for, relate to, or possess for Himself a chosen or beloved people. Allah is not believed by Muslims to be good and is portrayed as a dispassionate and capricious sovereign God concerned only with human obedience and His own justice.
Such a conundrum! What a problem we have. How could three such divergent claims of thought have come about from the same spiritual source? How can we know or believe which is true?
All three religions ground their ideology from the same promise given to Abraham: ‘In you all the nations will be blessed.’ Remembering that Abraham was also born the son of a gentile pagan, thus to bring about the blessing to the nations, Jews believe that it is their duty to direct all the world towards the Lord, being righteous exemplars so that one day everyone will glorify and obey Him.
Muslims believe that it is their duty to convert all the world to Islam, to make everyone submit to Allah’s divine will and rule. Now both of these ideologies are decidedly works-based. Their relationship and status before God is entirely dependent upon what they do or do not do.
The Jews expect a reward for their obedience—entrance into heaven, paradise, or Abraham’s bosom—while the Muslims hope that they may be brought into paradise if they’re good enough and if Allah so wills it. Neither possess confidence that they are sure to receive. There is no surety to their faith; they must live and perform their good works with the goal of earning their way into heaven, so long as their good outweighs their bad.
But Abraham was a man of faith. His entire relationship with God was predicated upon his faith. Abraham’s works did not earn God’s favor, but God showed him favor anyway, and because God said it, that settled it for him.
So then Abraham did it. Therefore, we should expect that Abraham’s children, his heirs, will also be people of faith—not doing good works in hopes of a reward, but being faithful and obedient because of what they have already been given.
Christians, we believe that the blessing of Abraham comes through his singular heir, Jesus, and what He has done on behalf of all God’s people. We believe in and have our hope in a risen Savior who, by His self-sacrifice, has rescued us from our own sins, justifying us in love before the Holy Lord.
Thus, now we are able to do good works from our gratitude to and our love of Him. Christians do good works because we have the guarantee of heaven, not because we hope that we might go to heaven.
Out of all the known religions in the world and from ancient antiquity, Christianity is the only religion built upon the foundation of divine grace. Ours is the only religion with faith being the sole requirement of one’s salvation, where our good works and morality become the consequence of our faith rather than the hope for salvation.
So what makes us different? What is it that makes the Christian religion, our faith in Jesus, to be so unique? The concept of atonement.
While other religions and cultures emphasize and even encourage forgiveness and reconciliation between people, restoration is never total. Forgiveness without forgetting perpetuates meaning that there is always something negative lingering within the relationship. That which is done cannot be undone; wounds may be healed, but a scar always remains.
See, our human nature prevents personal reconciliation from ever being just as it was before. The human problem is: if true and complete restoration is an impossible practicality between ordinary people, then surely it is impossible for man to reconcile himself with God.
It must require a miracle, and that miracle is what the Apostle Paul explains for us here: that the Lord God reconciling His people to Himself, God atoning for our sins, and then gifting to us by our faith in Christ.
Paul grounds his argument here in both the scriptures and human understanding, beginning with the universal principle of justice. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.’
Everyone who does not obey the law, who does not transgress or break the rules, and also do that which is commanded, is cursed or condemned. Failure to obey the law has specific consequences which are known and accepted.
Do this and do not do that; otherwise, you will be punished. This is the rule of law that everyone—individuals, governments, and other entities—are held accountable to the same law. It is the key foundation of every ordered society.
The only question is: whose law is it, anyway? Justification, de kayos, was a legal term well understood by Paul’s audience. Personal righteousness and adherence to the law were what separated civilized folk from the barbarians. The spread of law and order across the world was an integral part of Rome’s empire building.
But whose law is greater—Caesar’s and Rome’s or God’s? To the mind of every rational person of the time, or of any time, divine law must take absolute priority over human law; otherwise, it wouldn’t be divine law.
However, Paul was writing during a period when Caesar was considered to be semi-divine, being a son of God, meaning Jupiter or Zeus. So Paul continues his argument with a very provocative statement: ‘Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.’
How is it evident? Recall that since he is writing to a bunch of formerly pagan Gentiles, he must have certain assumptions concerning what they already know, understand, and believe when he makes his declaration. He expects his audience to remember the foundational principle of Roman law: ‘Ignorantia juris non excusat’ or ‘ignorance of the law excuses not,’ which originates within Aristotelian ethics and is still commonly accepted today as a valid legal principle.
So, affirming that no one can be justified by the law, Paul now speaks good news concerning how man may be justified. As the prophet Habakkuk first proclaimed, ‘The righteous or the just shall live by faith.’
Here again, he draws the contrast of faith versus law, saying, ‘But the law is not of faith; rather, the one who does them shall live by them.’ Meaning that life is preserved for the just by their faith; life is maintained as a means of divine grace and favor. Whereas for all others, their life shall be preserved by their obedience to the law or lost by their disobedience.
So the law is harsh, unyielding, and an unforgiving master because one’s life and liberty may be lost on account of any transgression against it. This is the curse of the law.
Now, if the just have hope because of their faith, then it cannot be reasonably expected to be faith in just anything to receive such a blessing as this. Surely it must be a belief in something specific, because a person cannot be justified for merely believing that the sky is blue or water is wet.
Everyone wants to be righteous, to be justified. It’s in our human DNA. Look around you; everyone in the world is constantly seeking their justification. And now Paul tells our eagerly waiting ears what we must believe to be justified before the Lord: the good news of Jesus Christ.
That Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. The word used for redemption is that of a commercial purchase. Jesus bought us from ownership of the law as slaves to our sinfulness, and the purchase price was Him taking our place by becoming a curse for us.
He became cursed, becoming accursed on our behalf, taking the curse and punishment for our transgression of the law upon Himself. So if the curse of the law is the suffering of judicial punishment whereby justice is satisfied, then Jesus, God’s holy and righteous one, died under the law’s curse so that we may live as people justified before the Lord.
We are redeemed from the law by Christ taking our place and suffering the full weight of our deserved penalty upon the cross. Jesus is our perfect substitute, and so He is that particular object of faith which Paul directs us towards.
Why would Christ redeem us? Why would He purchase Abraham’s children in this manner? So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
What is the blessing of Abraham? All of that which Christ gives to us by our faith in Him: salvation, rescued from death, the penalty due us for our sins; justification, being declared righteous before the Holy Lord; the blessing of Emmanuel, God with us; the restoration of the elect to a positive relationship with the Lord; the inheritance of Abraham; the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within each and every believer; and entry into the kingdom of heaven, the true promised land whose capital is that New Jerusalem.
So who are the children of Abraham? God’s people, called Israel, the elect. Who are they? No longer confined to just Jacob’s descendants. This includes all whom the Lord calls unto Himself, all these people called out of the many nations—those Jews and Gentiles whom God has engrafted into His treasured possession, Israel by faith.
As Paul writes in Romans, ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.’
So now we are the righteous who live by faith. Do you believe in and trust in Jesus Christ as your only Savior? Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell within you? Then you may know that you are a child of Abraham. You may know that your sins are forgiven and that you have received a pardon from the Lord and stand before Him justified.
You are numbered among the righteous elect and have the promise of eternal life because you have received Jesus by grace through this faith. Neither the Jews nor the Muslims nor the adherents of any other world religion have this assurance.
They are all trapped under an unyielding system of works, hoping and trusting in their own efforts and attempts to keep God’s law, always failing to even meet their own standards.
It is perhaps the greatest lie of Satan, convincing mankind that we need to or even can earn our way into God’s favor when the Lord is holding redemption out to us in His open hand. He offers this to everyone: the free gift of divine grace, giving it to all who hear and respond in faith.
Everyone without Christ in their heart is under the curse and condemnation of the law. But we who trust in Him—we alone are the children of Abraham. We have become like our spiritual father, who believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness by God’s grace and power alone.
So that we too are made to be the righteous who live by our faith in Jesus Christ alone. Amen.