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Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.
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So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
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Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.
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Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
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So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
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He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
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The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
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For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
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If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
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For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
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For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
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The Certainty of God’s Promise
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself,
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And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
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Melchizedek the Priest
This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him,
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and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.”
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Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!
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Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, from their fellow Israelites—even though they also are descended from Abraham.
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This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
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One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham,
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because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.
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By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
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By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,
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Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
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Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
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And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.
