June 2. Who are the children of Abraham? In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed,

Genesis 12, 3. You who hope in Christ and follow him in the obedience of faith are Abraham's

descendants and heirs of his covenant promises. God said to Abraham, in Genesis 17, 4,

Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

But Genesis makes plain that Abraham did not father a multitude of nations in a physical or

political sense. Therefore, the meaning of God's promise was probably that a multitude of nations

would somehow enjoy the blessings of sonship, even though physically unrelated to Abraham.

That's no doubt what God meant. In Genesis 12, 3, when he said to Abraham, in you, all the families

of the earth shall be blessed. From the very beginning, God had in view that Jesus Christ

would be the descendant of Abraham and that everyone who trusts in Christ would become an

heir of Abraham's promise. Paul says in Galatians 3.29, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's

offspring, heirs according to the promise. So, when God said to Abraham 4,000 years ago,

Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. He opened

the way for any one of us, no matter what nation we belong to, to become a child of Abraham

and an heir of God's promises. All we have to do is share the faith of Abraham, that is,

bank our hope on God's promises so much that if obedience requires it, we could give up our

dearest possession, like Abraham gave up Isaac. We don't become heirs of Abraham's promises

by working for God, but by being confident that God works for us. Abraham grew strong in his faith

as he gave glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised from

Romans 4, 20 and 21. That's why Abraham could obey God even when obedience looked like a dead in

street. He trusted God to do the impossible, like raise his son from the dead. Faith in God's promises

or today we would say, faith in Christ, who is the confirmation of God's promises,

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