The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.(Galatians 3:16)There is neit...View MoreThe promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.(Galatians 3:16)There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.(Galatians 3:28-29)After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.(Romans 2:28-29)God calls all mankind to repentance and continuing, obedient faith in his Son, Jesus the Christ. Only those who answer his call and obey his Son (who, with the Spirit, reveals the truth about God the Father) are become his Chosen. The New Testament plainly teaches that the true Israel is God`s church of all the truly redeemed in Christ Jesus.For God does not show favoritism.(Romans 2:11; Colossians 3:26; Galatians 2:6; Acts 10:34)22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:“Be glad, barren woman,you who never bore a child;shout for joy and cry aloud,you who were never in labor;because more are the children of the desolate womanthan of her who has a husband.”Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.(Galatians 4)
