The Children of Promise

January 9th, 2025
by Dr. D. Lance Waldie

Romans 9:6-9 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Paul immediately set out to clarify that, in spite of Israel’s rejection of Jesus as Messiah, God’s word had not “failed” (Gr. ekpiptō). “Israel” is used twice in v. 6, for the physical-racial Israel and to spiritual Israel. To be sure, racial Israel indeed failed, for when Jesus appeared as the Messiah, Israel rejected and crucified Him. Even Paul initially joined in this rejection prior to being saved. But God keeps His promises (Isa. 55:11; Jer. 32:42), so what Paul sets out to clarify is who those promises were actually given to. For not all Israel (physical descendants of Abraham) are the true recipients of the promise God gave to them. His promises were not based on race but would be realized through the spiritual nation that descended from the physical nation—the elect chosen by grace (8:33). These alone are the true Israel.

In v. 7 Paul illustrates his point, namely that the racial and national promises made to Abraham were not made to every child his wives bore to him (i.e., Hagar and Keturah), but only to those who came through Isaac (Gen. 21:12) who was the son of Abraham’s first wife Sarah. Since Isaac was born miraculously to Sarah when she was 90 (Gen. 17:17-19), he was the child of promise—the son God promised to give Abraham 24 years prior when barren Sarah was 66 years of age. It would be Isaac’s descendants who would be Abraham’s offspring, for only they would inherit the racial and national promises of God (Gen. 17:19-21). It was through this physical nation that the ultimate “Seed” was born in fulfillment of the promise—Jesus of Nazareth (Gal. 3:16). Only those who trust in this Seed, no matter their race, are saved.

Now if salvation were based on race through “children of the flesh,” then all Abraham’s progeny would be saved by simple virtue of having descended from him since he was the heir of God’s promises. What God did with Isaac, however, was produce a promised nation through miraculous circumstances. He promised Abraham and Sarah, “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son” (v. 9; cf. Gen. 18:10), giving them Isaac as an example of how people are truly saved—not through progeny but through promise. So, theologically it is the children who are born in fulfillment of the promise, not those born in the natural way (cf. John 3:5-8), who are regarded as Abraham’s true descendants. Even though Isaac himself was a child of promise, not even all who descend physically from him (Israelites) are the true spiritual people of God. As Isaac was born in a spiritual and miraculous way, so too are all who come to faith in Christ and inherit the eternal promises of God. Salvation is always and only through faith.

God made a sovereign choice among Abraham’s physical “seed” (Gr. sperma), and He established a spiritual line of promise through that seed. Abraham begat Ishmael through Hagar (Gen. 16) and also six other sons through his later wife named Keturah (Gen. 25:1-4). Yet none of these were counted as Abraham’s children according to promise. Therefore, Paul’s point is that the physical progeny of Abraham is insufficient for salvation. One must be chosen by God as Isaac was. And all those chosen by God are saved in and through Jesus Christ alone.

Food for Thought

Apart from God’s divine enablement, Isaac would never have been born. Abraham was impotent (99 years old), and Sarah was barren (90 years old). Yet God made it happen! So too with our salvation. We are powerless, yet God enables His elect to trust in Christ (John 6:44, 65).