¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,”^(A) said Jesus, “then you would^[a] do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me,^(B) a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.^(C) Abraham did not do such things.

²¹ To this^(A) you were called,^(B) because Christ suffered for you,^(C) leaving you an example,^(D) that you should follow in his steps.

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman^(A) and the other by the free woman.^{(B) 23} His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh,^(C) but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.^(D)

²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above^(E) is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written:

²⁸ Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.^{(G) 29} At that time the son born according to the flesh^(H) persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.^(I) It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^{[b](J) 31} Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman,^(K) but of the free woman.^(L)

¹⁸ I urged^(A) Titus^(B) to go to you and I sent our brother^(C) with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word^(A) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.^{(B) 7} Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^[a](C)

²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham,^(A) have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’^(B)

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things,^(C) but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.^{(D) 26} And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them,^(E) so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses^(F) and the Prophets;^(G) let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’^(H) he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’^(A) I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.