If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
//The apostle Paul was known for taking Jesus to the multitudes ... the
gentiles. How did he get away with this? By what authority did he steal
the Jesus story from a very Jewish setting and give it to gentiles?
Through
some very insightful theological wrangling, that's how. The Jews were
the children of promise, through the covenant of Abraham. More than
that, this covenant dictated circumcision, a practice Paul didn't even
bother to try to talk gentiles into. This is hardly a minor issue, as
the covenant makes clear:
This
is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant
you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to
undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me
and you. -- Genesis 17:10-11
Indeed, three verses later, God makes it clear that anyone who doesn't submit to circumcision has broken the covenant.
Yet
in Romans 4 and Galatians 3, Paul twice makes the argument
that uncircumcised gentiles can be children of Abraham, too! How can this
be?
The answer tomorrow.
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