Yet, before we would jump to Paul’s explanation of Abraham (Rom 4:3; Gal 3:7), it is good to consider a step earlier than the realization that Abraham represents faith. It is eye-opening to re-read some of the Abraham texts in the gospels with an eye for first century Jewish ideas about election, covenant, and afterlife. Let’s begin with three texts:

Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt 3:8-10; cf. Luke 3:8-10).

When Yeshua heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” And to the centurion Yeshua said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” (Matt 8:10-13).

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ (Luke 16:22-26).

In all three of these texts, Abraham represents Israel’s election as the Chosen People and the idea, current in Yeshua’s time, that being born a child of Abraham put a person in a privileged position with God.

Modern scholars, following E.P. Sanders, have called this belief covenantal nomism. Nomism refers to the Greek word for Law (nomos) and it is the idea that every Israelite, already being in covenant with God and privileged with inclusion in the afterlife already, would keep at least enough Torah (nomos) to remain Jewish. Sanders rightly dismissed the idea that first century Jews were like the Pelagians that Augustine fought or the medieval churchmen that Luther fought. They were not by the merit of their deeds thinking they gained position with God.

Yeshua’s problem (and John the Baptist’s problem) with the idea of Abrahamic privilege is much the same as Yeshua’s problem with what Temple and Torah had become. Yeshua did not reject Temple, Torah, or the Abrahamic promise. In every case, he rejected the false sense of privilege and entitlement that people felt as “the Chosen.”

John said to his audience at the Jordan that their rightness with God depended on repentance and living according to justice as in the Torah and prophets. Yeshua said that “sons of the kingdom” would be excluded from Abraham’s table in the messianic age while many gentiles from “east and west” would be included, because of faith. In the Lazarus and the Rich Man parable, both are Israelites and standard thinking would be that both would be at Abraham’s bosom (a reference to reclining at a table next to Abraham). Yet Yeshua says the rich man will be excluded because he ignored day after day the beggar at his gates, proving his hard heart was not for God.

Nearly every use of “Abraham” in the gospels, including John, is a reference to this notion of carnal election, privilege by birth, and is a vehicle for Yeshua to say, “Election in Abraham is not an invitation to the banquet to come, but a calling to be like Abraham in making this world like the one to come.”

See also a treatment of more Abraham texts in “Abraham in the Gospels.”

Israel’s story begins with Abraham, the one who was chosen by God. His children would be in covenant relationship with God without regard to merit (free election) and forever without condition (irrevocable election). Being an Israelite meant secure covenant standing with God.

Yet the story of Abraham is not merely about national privilege for Israelites, but blessing to all the families of the earth as well. At several places in the gospels we see how this dynamic idea, being a child of Abraham, means holding a special place in God’s covenant. But there is more. Both John the Baptist and Yeshua hint that Abraham has other children. Paul, who wrote after Yeshua said these things, but before the gospels were written down, has much to say about the “child of Abraham” theme and Jews and gentiles in covenant with God. This very Jewish issue is very much alive for gospel readers with eyes to see.

ABRAHAMIC COVENANTAL LANGUAGE IN THE GOSPELS

…do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’ (Matt 3:9; Luke 3:8).
John the Baptist knows his audience assumes a special place with God by virtue of being Israelite. But he indicates that there is more to being right in God’s eyes than covenant membership.

…as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever (Luke 1:55).
…the oath which he swore to our father Abraham (Luke 1:73).
The first is in Mary’s song. She sees the birth of the messiah-child as part of God’s covenant with Abraham, to bless Israel and make Israel a blessing. The second is in Zechariah’s song. God has shown mercy to Israel to raise up the messiah-child (Yeshua) and the prophet-child (John). Israel does not deserve these blessings, but the promise to Abraham is the reason they have come to pass.

CHILDHOOD IN ABRAHAM IN THE GOSPELS

See Matt 3:9 and Luke 3:8 listed above.

…ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond (Luke 13:16).
Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham (Luke 19:9).
In both of these references, Yeshua applies the childhood in Abraham to people who were marginalized. This is perhaps ironic for his critics who had a tendency to be elitist. The Abraham doctrine could become national pride but could also be used to include the outcast in Israel.

We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one (John 8:33).
A simple example of national pride. The comparable sin today is Yeshua-followers who assume that Yeshua came for “my personal salvation.” Owning the promise is not our calling but giving it away and setting people free.

REMNANT THEOLOGY AND ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN

See Matt 3:9 and Luke 3:8, listed above.

…when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out (Luke 13:28).
…he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:23).
In a sharp and cutting reversal, Yeshua indicates that being a child of Abraham is not sufficient to be right with God. This does not go against the free and irrevocable election of Abraham’s children, but simply indicates that election as a nation is not the same as being right with God.

If you were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did (John 8:39).
The principle, stated here simply, is that Abraham had faith and a heart to seek God. This is virtually identical to Paul’s repeated talk of being children of Abraham by faith, Jew or Gentile (see Gen 15:6).

LANGUAGE CONCERNING ABRAHAM’S GENTILE CHILDREN

…many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 8:11).
Certainly Matthew has a theme of the legitimacy of gentiles being included in God’s plan (the story of Israel, properly understood, has always been about blessing overtaking the whole world). Yeshua utters this saying in response to a gentile’s amazing faith. Some of the language is from Isaiah 49 and 59, in both places the role of the nations in God’s salvation is in view.

YESHUA AS THE SEED OF ABRAHAM

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt 1:1).
…all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah fourteen generations (Matt 1:17).
The prominence of Abraham in the genealogy has to do with the theme of Yeshua as messiah (son of David) and the Israelite who will at last bring the Abrahamic covenant to its completion (son of Abraham). In Abraham’s descendant (can be plural or singular) all the families of the earth will be blessed. Matthew more than hints that this is who Yeshua is.