Do family resemblances run deep in your family? Is there a characteristic feature that passes down from generation to generation, that you can see clearly when you look back at old photographs and portraits? An aquiline nose, perhaps, or a distinctive hairline?
I have my mum’s nose and my dad’s broad shoulders, while my mum clearly got her looks from her own mother. It is fascinating how some features can skip generations, though. Neither my wife nor I are particularly tall, for example, unlike our two boys, who must get their height from their maternal grandparents.
The way that features pass down in families did not escape the notice of people in biblical times, of course. Although the Bible does not concern itself much with physical inheritance, it uses the idea of inheritance to describe people’s behaviour and attitudes: their spiritual inheritance, as it were.
For instance, Jesus called his disciples James and John the “sons of thunder” on account of their stormy temperaments (Mark 3:17; Luke 9:54), and he told some of the Pharisees of his day that their father was the devil because they loved to do the same things as him (John 8:44). More happily, Jesus also promised that those who make peace will be called “children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
On Sunday, we will hear a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which Paul uses this way of thinking (Romans 4:13-25). In the passage, Paul corrects the false teaching that non-Jews who want to follow the way of Jesus must be circumcised (the men, that is) and obey the laws that God gave to the people of Israel through Moses. Paul argues to the contrary that God made all his big promises to Moses’s ancestor Abraham, who received them simply on account of his faith in God, before the laws existed and even before Abraham himself was circumcised. God made the promises to Abraham and all his descendants, Paul argues, not only to those who physically descend from Abraham, but also to his spiritual descendants: those who inherit Abraham’s faith. Abraham is the spiritual father of all who have a faith like his, Paul affirms, and all of us who share Abraham’s faith share in God’s promises to Abraham (Romans 4:13, 16).
Now, perhaps this raises questions in your mind: What kind of faith did Abraham have that God would make these promises to him? What does it mean for us to share Abraham’s faith and thus share in God’s promises? These are questions we will explore at St Mary’s on Sunday. I look forward to seeing you there.
Matthew Briggs
Ministry Team