Heirs of Abraham (Galatians 1-3)

If you spend time reading through the Bible you quickly find out that the Israelites are God’s chosen people.  They weren’t chosen because of anything special about them but because of God’s gracious generosity.  Their story is really a story of trust because Abraham, in his wisdom, trusted God from the beginning, and it was counted to him as righteousness.  His bold trust in God paved the way for his family and then the nation to place their trust in Him, too.  The nation’s trust was imperfect, however, and God’s chosen people moved from a trust-relationship to a law-relationship.  That was until Jesus came.  After His death and resurrection, He was inviting people back into a trust-relationship with Him.  Paul makes it clear at the end of Galatians 3 that those people who enter into such a relationship God are now counted as heirs to Abraham and to the promise that he received.  That means our inclusion as Abraham’s heirs has nothing to do with our lineage or our circumcision (the means by which Jews were welcomed into the fellowship).  Rather, when we choose to trust God and what Christ accomplish through His death on the cross, we become heirs of the promise God made to Abraham, and we receive the same spiritual blessings.