And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
Parallel translations
- WEB If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.
- KJV And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
- NKJV And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
- NASB And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
- NLT And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Belonging to Christ makes one a true heir of Abraham and recipient of God's promise. The blessing promised to Abraham comes through Christ, not through the law or physical descent.
Overview
Paul ties his whole argument together: since the promise was made to Abraham and his offspring (singular, Christ, per 3:16), those united to Christ inherit that promise. Gentile believers thus become Abraham's true children by faith. This confirms that the covenant blessing is received by grace through faith, fulfilling God's plan to bless all nations through Abraham's seed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Eph 3:6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
- Rom 9:7–8Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”
- Gal 3:7Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham.
- Rom 8:17And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.
- Rom 4:16–21Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
- Gal 4:22–31For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
- Gal 4:7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.
- Titus 3:7so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
- Rev 21:7The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.
- Jas 2:5Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?
- Rom 4:12–14And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
- 2 Cor 10:7You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does.
- 1 Cor 3:22–23whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,
- 1 Cor 15:23But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.
- Gal 5:24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
- Heb 6:17So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.
- Gal 3:16The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.
- Heb 1:14Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
- Heb 11:18even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”
- Gal 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Heb 11:7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
- Gen 21:10–12and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 3:29 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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