“Where do I belong?” It’s a question that had a built-in answer for a first-century Jew. “We are children of Abraham, children of the promise.”

In Genesis, God promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and that all the people of the earth would be blessed through him. For first-century Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders of the Jews, their faith was in their genealogy. They believed their connection to Abraham and his righteousness earned them favor with God. What they failed to realize was that God chose Abraham, not because of the blood in his veins or his good deeds, but because of the faith that was found in him.

One day while John the Baptist was baptizing along the Jordan, a group of Pharisees and Sadducees approached him and stood on the river’s bank. They had come to observe John and to put their holiness on display for the sinners standing in line to be baptized. John immediately saw their hypocrisy and said, “Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our Father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9).

The words of John the Baptist give us a glimpse of God’s incredible power. If God can speak into the darkness and call forth light, surely he can say to the stones in the river, “Rise up, and become children for Abraham,” and they will do just that.

John’s words capture the essence of what God does when he creates faith in us. By the power of his Word and his Holy Spirit, he penetrates the hardened hearts of nonbelievers, people as helpless as the stones in the river, and they are transformed into children of Abraham, children of the promise—not by birth, but by faith. 

Romans 4:13-17
“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

Unlike Abraham, Jesus Christ was chosen precisely for the blood in his veins. He is God in the flesh, and yet a descendant of Abraham, sent to the cross so that the world might receive the blessing promised to Abraham. After Jesus rose from the dead, his story spread through the earth, creating faith where faith had not been before, turning stones into children, and expanding Abraham’s family into incredible numbers.

“Where do I belong?” Have you asked yourself that question? For us who believe, it’s a question with a beautiful answer. We are children of Abraham, heirs to the promise of salvation. Once dead in our sin, now alive by faith. Once rejected, now restored by the perfect blood of Christ. Once orphans, now members of an eternal family promised long ago. Transformed by faith into children of Abraham, we are sons and daughters of God.

By Troy Tysdal

Troy Tysdal is Church Resource Coordinator for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren and serves as associate pastor at Stavanger Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls, MN.