Devotion #2: Children Of the Promise
“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Romans 9:6-8
The Jewish leaders in the Lord Jesus’s time, and then later during the Apostle Paul’s time, believed that their biological connection to Abraham was a guarantee that they belonged to God. They believed, it seems, without any doubt, that because of their genealogy, they would be welcomed into Heaven.
Their ancestor, Israel (Jacob), had inherited the covenant promises from his father, Isaac, who had been given the covenant by his father, Abraham, who had covenanted with God. Paul said, “And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named’” (Romans 9:7). Are they from, but not belonging? Are they children that are not offspring? Something deeper than genealogy is being spoken of. That is why I love the phrase “this means.”
Romans 9:8 says, “This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”
“This means” being an heir of Abraham, and, more specifically, a member of the covenant family of God, was more than just genetics, rule-following, or circumcision. The covenant was not about a human bloodline but about faith in God’s promise. More than hair color, eye color, or any other genetic similarities were being passed down the line.
In the Gospel of John, the religious elites argue against Jesus by saying, “Abraham is our father” (John 8:39). Jesus’ response must have shocked and confused them. Jesus says, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.”
Like these religious leaders, we can also rely on things other than the promise of the Gospel as our confidence in eternal life. Sometimes, people place their confidence in family connections, church membership, good deeds, a feeling of innate moral goodness, or baptism.
Faith in the promise is what makes somebody a true spiritual descendant of Abraham and, therefore, a child of God. To the Galatians, Paul wrote, “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 of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7-9).
In Abraham’s case, it was faith in a Savior that was to come, and in our case, it is faith in a Savior that has come. That faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection, His redemptive and reconciling work, brings us into the covenant. We are no longer orphans or strangers, but sons and daughters, the “children of the promise.”