Gal.3:7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith (-the faith stream) are sons of Abraham...29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
What follows is a personal interpretation of what I call, "The Faith Stream", which is representative of people who have believed in God's instructions (the gospel) to save them. I call it the faith stream because the Bible refers to these people as "those who are of faith", going up the timeline of history.
The faith stream is a separate branch of humanity (indicated by the blue and
green colours, and running above the red wavy
'river of unbelieving and lost humanity', as seen in the image
below). The faith stream in made up of all people (Jews and Gentiles) who have
believed the gospel of their time and have been saved.
Please note that although people like Adam and Noah and Enoch, etc have also been saved by believing in God, the chart focuses on those saved from Abraham simply because of the scriptures I reference, like: Therefore know that only those who are of faith (-the faith stream) are sons of Abraham.
With this picture (or understanding in mind), lets now look at our key verse (below) that will consolidate and clarify this stream of believing humanity. I trust that this understanding will help you to see details in the passage below that you may have missed before, or simply did not understand. I will use a colour legend to identify the people groups who make up the faith stream starting from Abraham. The purpose for this is not to teach a concept or topic, but simply for discovery. Once you begin to see the people groups and how they connect, so much more of the Bible becomes clear, and you start to see gems of truth that you may have missed for years.
LEGEND: Saved Jews; Saved Gentiles; ALL (Refers to Combined Jews and Gentiles [Saved])
* Rom.4:11-17 And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal (Eph.1:13) of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of ALL those who believe (faith stream), though they are uncircumcised [Gentiles], that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 AND the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision [Jews], but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. [ie: the 'little flock' (Lk.12:32), those Jews who believe in the ID of Jesus (as their Messiah). Rom.2:25-29; Rom.9:1-33]
13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (See Gal.3:6-9) …16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to ALL the seed, not only to those who are of the law [Jews], but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham [Gentiles], who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
This legend can be applied to many other verses and passages of scripture. Have a look at another verse that has reference to the faith stream,
Eph.3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
Comments
Post a Comment