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YOU’VE ALWAYS HAD SOMEONE ELSE IN MIND?

That’s right, and Paul revealed this to his various charges through his correspondence with them.  We’re back to the seed principle.

HOW’S THAT?

My promise to Abraham was to him and to his seed.  While there was by necessity a natural lineage involved, what we primarily had in mind was spiritual lineage.  Our spokesman, Paul, was allowed to discover that my son was the seed in question.  Paul had studied what was then the available portion of the introductory remarks.  He saw my record of continually making covenant with key players.  Through the lens of covenant, he detected that my Israel had always been spiritual in nature.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Paul recognized that those key players and their remnant followers were just a covenant-keeping nation within a much larger nation of merely natural descendants.⁸⁶  Through his seed – my son – Abraham became the spiritual father of all who would allow faith to cause them to obey me.⁸⁷  Paul saw that it was to be through the faithful that my promise to Abraham would be fulfilled.  Of course, that’s what I had in mind all along.  My work has always been about relationships – the union of hearts, if you will.⁸⁸  It was never just keeping a bunch of rules or being of natural lineage.  True family resemblance status cannot be accessed via those things.  They are a hindrance, more often than not.

86 “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants . . . That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise (covenant) . . . not from among the Jews only, but also from among Gentiles, as He says also in Hosea, ‘I will call those who were not My people, MY PEOPLE’ . . . Of the sons of Israel . . . it is the remnant that will be saved . . . a remnant according to God’s gracious choice” (Romans 9:6b-7a, 8a, 24b-25a, 27b; 11:5b, New American Standard).

87 “(While) Gentiles . . . did not pursue righteousness . . . (nonetheless, they) attained . . . the righteousness (which is) of faith; (natural) Israel pursuing the law of righteousness . . . has not attained (it) . . . because they did not seek it by faith . . . (but) stumbled at the stumbling stone (Christ) . . . (and) because of unbelief they were broken off” (Romans 9:30-32; 11:20a) . . . Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. . . . And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (covenant)” (Galatians 3:7, 29).

88 “‘But this is the (new) covenant . . .’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (Jeremiah 31:33, New American Standard).