Matthew 3:9 Cross References

Matthew 3:9

9: Don't just say, 'We're safe--we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham.

Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God. Don't just say, 'We're safe--we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham.

And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him.
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians--you are one in Christ Jesus.
And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.

Just the fact that they are descendants of Abraham doesn't make them truly Abraham's children. For the Scriptures say, "Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted," though Abraham had other children, too.
This means that Abraham's physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. It is the children of the promise who are considered to be Abraham's children.

"Brothers--you sons of Abraham, and also all of you devout Gentiles who fear the God of Israel--this salvation is for us!

"But we are descendants of Abraham," they said. "We have never been slaves to anyone on earth. What do you mean, 'set free'?"

The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave-wife and one from his freeborn wife.
The son of the slave-wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise.
Now these two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. Hagar, the slave-wife, represents Mount Sinai where people first became enslaved to the law.
And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery.
But Sarah, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. And she is our mother.

Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What were his experiences concerning this question of being saved by faith?

Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, "Why do you think this is blasphemy?

Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Are you greater than the prophets, who died? Who do you think you are?"

"The rich man shouted, 'Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in these flames.'

"Our father is Abraham," they declared. "No," Jesus replied, "for if you were children of Abraham, you would follow his good example.
I told you the truth I heard from God, but you are trying to kill me. Abraham wouldn't do a thing like that.

"Son of man, the scattered remnants of Judah living among the ruined cities keep saying, `Abraham was only one man, and yet he gained possession of the entire land! We are many; surely the land should be given to us as a possession.'

For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

The circumcision ceremony was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous--even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are made right with God by faith.
And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
It is clear, then, that God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not based on obedience to God's law, but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith.
So if you claim that God's promise is for those who obey God's law and think they are "good enough" in God's sight, then you are saying that faith is useless. And in that case, the promise is also meaningless.
But the law brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)

When the Pharisee who was the host saw what was happening and who the woman was, he said to himself, "This proves that Jesus is no prophet. If God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She's a sinner!"

Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself.

Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important,

He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!"

In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from God's people, Israel, and you did not know the promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
But now you belong to Christ Jesus. Though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought near to him because of the blood of Christ.

And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.
But many Israelites--those for whom the Kingdom was prepared--will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Home