And if you are Christ’s, 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.
- BSB And if you belong to Christ, 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 3:6that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News,
- Rom 9:7–8Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”
- Gal 3:7Know therefore that those who are of faith, the same are children of Abraham.
- Rom 8:17and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
- Rom 4:16–21For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
- Gal 4:22–31For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman.
- Gal 4:7So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
- Titus 3:7that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
- Rev 21:7He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
- Jas 2:5Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
- Rom 4:12–14He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
- 2 Cor 10:7Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also we are Christ’s.
- 1 Cor 3:22–23whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,
- 1 Cor 15:23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
- Gal 5:24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
- Heb 6:17In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;
- Gal 3:16Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants ”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring ”, which is Christ.
- Heb 1:14Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
- Heb 11:18to whom it was said, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac”;
- Gal 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Heb 11:7By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
- Gen 21:10–12Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir 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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