Sons Of Abraham or Sons Of God?

“Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, so then, understand that those who believe are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who believe are blessed along with Abraham the believer. For all who rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” Galatians 3:6-10 NET

What Paul is stating is that there is more going on with Abraham than just his belief in God; his believing loyalty was credited to him as righteousness. In other words, Abraham’s belief in God was not about Abraham alone; there was an impartation from God for him to believe. If we say that it was Abraham’s faith alone, we make it all about Abraham which is clearly not the case. Abraham believed God with an imparted faith, for it says that it was “credited” to him as righteousness, another word for credited is “imparted” or “imputed” unto him. It is no different when we come to Christ and surrender to His will; we stand in the “imparted” righteousness” of Jesus Christ, not because of anything that we do or say. This reassures us that it is in Christ alone and His finished work that we stand, not in our own actions or words.

Abraham is venerated as a man of faith by Jews, Christians, and many other beliefs. Still, for us today looking at Abraham’s life there is nothing special other than the fact that he was the first to have and demonstrate believing loyalty in God/Christ. Abraham becomes the model for us regarding what God demands of our relationship with Him, which is our complete surrender and a willingness to obey no matter the cost, even if it means the sacrifice of our dreams and desires for life, so that God may replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh and grow into a man or woman who has a broken heart for all of God’s scattered people.

A divine council worldview is evident in the above passage, where Paul says, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” Even though God had created a nation for Himself through Abraham, it wasn’t just the physical or natural seed of Abraham God was talking about; God was speaking about all those who would receive the spiritual seed of faith that Abraham did. This faith, when embraced, has the power to transform individuals into a nation of men and women who trust God and have believing loyalty in God to restore Eden through their lives.

The deeper story is far more profound, for God had chosen a people for Himself out of all the people at Babel in the body of Abraham. His intent from that humble beginning was to have a people who would be priests who would bring God and His message to the rest of the disinherited world. That plan failed miserably not because God had failed, but because His people were trying to accomplish this priesthood through natural means through the flesh when God saw it as a spiritual priesthood.

The cosmic geography speaks of the reconciliation of not only the Jew but also the Gentile, a reconciliation of different beliefs and cultures into one belief of an eternal holy God who created everyone and everything. There were also opposing forces that sought to prevent this reconciliation; these were created beings who were part of the divine council who rebelled against God and His plan to bring unity to His earthly Kingdom. These rebellious divine beings, also known as fallen angels, and the evil spirits, their offspring, are the forces that continue to disrupt the cosmic reconciliation. The battle lines have been drawn and are still in flux because there hasn’t been a resolution to their removal until the return of King Jesus.

Paul points out that the law brings with it a curse because no one can keep the law, and the law makes no one righteous. Only believing loyalty in the savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, can bring true righteousness, for He was God in the flesh; there is no righteousness apart from Him. We can now surrender to Jesus, receive His forgiveness, be made clean through His sacrifice, and become sons and daughters of God who are now the faithful priests of God through His righteousness. Our mission is to bring other sons and daughters home to Jesus and reveal the message of God that salvation is universally available to all, regardless of their background or beliefs. The availability of salvation brings hope and inclusion to all who seek it. Through a believing loyalty to God through Jesus, they too can become sons and daughters of the living God.

So the question remains: are we sons of Abraham, or are we sons of God? We are both. Abraham had believing loyalty in God, his faith was attributed to him as righteousness, which became our model. Jesus, in his transformative sacrifice, became our propitiation (scapegoat), our substitutionary sin penalty. Now, as we die to the flesh and trust in Jesus, He becomes alive in our mortal bodies, and we live in His righteousness. Its no longer about living up the requirements of the law, its about dying to the law, and placing our believing loyalty in Jesus to become our salvation.

Stephen Barnett