Children of Abraham

Question PQRC 3 — Children of Abraham

Is it essential to be descended from a literal Adam to have salvation in Jesus Christ, in light of his own statement that "God [could] make children for Abraham out of ... stones"? (Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8)

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P, Q or RC?	Question (Biblical interpretation)
Description:	Is it essential to be descended from a literal Adam to have salvation in Jesus Christ, in light of his own statement that "God [could] make children for Abraham out of ... stones"? (Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8)
Comment by proposer:	This arises from discussion about common ancestry here.

PQRC 3: Question of Biblical Interpretation

Is it essential to be descended from a literal Adam to have salvation in Jesus Christ, in light of his own statement that "God [could] make children for Abraham out of ... stones"? (Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8)

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Colin, please distinguish your own annotations from what Melva Purkiss wrote!

• by Christadelphians

Melva Purkiss – A Life of Jesus, p52

“In marked contrast to the teaching of the scribes, John laid emphasis, not on what men did, but upon the spirit behind their actions. He condemned the smugness of the rulers in the delusion that they were the children of the patriarchs, and declared that God was able of the stones around which the waters of the ford were swirling to raise up children to Abraham. It as useless to claim to be of Abraham unless they were like him. The only true test was in the fruit which a tree brought forth, and the time has at last come when the axe as to be laid at the root of the tree.”

Context: John is speaking particularly to the Pharisees and Sadducees who came “to his baptism”al message of repentance -Matt 3/2,6. His question of them warned of coming judgement (“who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”; and “the axe is laid to the root” - v10, 12) and true repentance was required to live acceptably before God.

Their thinking was privileges of birth ensured acceptance with God, but John points out that availed nothing where there was no righteousness of life. Descent from Abraham is no foil against the judgement of God soon to come. God will not be beholden to their conniving if they remain unrepentant. Being the seed of Abraham did not mean they were the only people God had in the world: God did not stand in need of them. It was not as though descent from Abraham would guarantee their safety if they were unrepentant. They could all perish in the judgement, and God could raise up faithful children from the Gentiles.

John identifies in the descendants of Abraham arrayed before him, their hypocrisy (v8), their national pride (v9), and their speedy judgement soon coming (v10).

“stones” – possible play on the Greek words, banim (children) and abanim (stones). From the most insensate of things, quite removed from created things (stones, like Israel, stone dead in their sins and unconscious of their state), God could as easily make men as make Adam from the dust of the ground and make of them faithful children of Abraham, believers of Him, in Christ.

There is no mention of Adam in these verses, so to introduce him into the question is to imply a thought out of context, and is misleading. The simple answer to the question is ‘Yes’, but this verse has no relevance to this question. It is dealing with the mindset of the Jewish Pharisees & Sadducees compared to a right view of what God was calling for through His messenger, John Baptist.

Descent from Adam is most relevant to a need for salvation, and that arose from Adam’s disobedience and subsequent sentence of death that passed upon all people from him onwards – Romans 5/12, (“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”) I Cor 15/21-22(“For as by man came death, by man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”) - Quotes from ESV. Colin (talk)

• by others

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