“This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We are tribal by nature. We naturally and quickly form ourselves into groups based on pretty much any category imaginable, and then set our group apart from any other group. More than that, we fairly easily set our group against any other group. We see the world very much in terms of us and them. Because of that, when God had created a people through whom He wanted to introduce Himself to the world, they started treating their relationship with Him as something that set them apart from everyone else rather than sharing it as was always His intention. That is, they started to guard it as their own and only their own. But God always intended a relationship with Him to be for everybody. This universal intent lies at the heart of the Gospel. It is also where Paul goes next.

In yesterday’s passage, we established with Paul that salvation – righteousness before God – is and was always a matter of faith. The very last part of v. 15 pointed to why this is such a big deal. And indeed, it is a really big deal. The insistence on salvation coming by means of faith is something that sets Christianity apart from every other religious option out there. Literally everything else offers some sort of a works-based salvation. Do this or that in order to be saved. For Christians, though, faith is the thing. It has always been the thing.

This at one and the same time makes the Christian worldview both easier and harder to embrace. It is easier because absent a set of rules that have to be kept in order to join the club, membership is available to everyone. Anyone can be a part of God’s kingdom no matter who they are or where they are from. There aren’t any cultural backgrounds that result in one’s exclusion from consideration. And, because of the missionary emphasis at the heart of the Gospel, there have always been followers of Jesus out working diligently to make sure no people group doesn’t have at least the opportunity to hear the Gospel and respond to it. The Bible has been translated into more languages than any other written work and there’s not a close second. Missionaries are actively working around the world to share the Gospel with people who have never heard it before, often at great risk to their own lives. The Gospel is truly for everyone.

At the same time, it is harder because one of our most fundamental desires as humans is to save ourselves. This deceit lies at the heart of our original embrace of sin. Because of this, the idea that we can’t do anything to save ourselves (much less that we even need saving in the first place) is a hard pill for many to swallow. And yet time and time again, people come to embrace it precisely because they’ve tried and failed enough times to finally be convinced that it’s true.

Well, because God’s promise of righteousness is something granted in response to faith, it is an act of grace. Grace means unmerited favor. You and I don’t deserve grace by definition. If we did deserve it, it wouldn’t be grace. It would be payment for services rendered. That is, it would be something we were owed for our efforts at keeping whatever the currently relevant set of rules happens to be. And if that were the case, we would fall right back into the problem of the unevenness of its application. In other words, when there is a set of rules that need to be kept in order to receive the payment, some people would be able to do it, and some wouldn’t. Some people would know the rules, and others wouldn’t. That’s not fair. More importantly, that’s not just. And God is just. So that’s not the system.

The system God created is one of grace. Anyone can put their faith in Jesus, and God will graciously give them His reward for managing to keep all the rules, for – to use the Biblical language – fulfilling the Mosaic Covenant so that it could successfully be replaced with a new one: the new covenant. No one deserves this. But God gives it anyway when we place our faith in Jesus. That’s grace.

Because of this, all of Abraham’s descendants are guaranteed the promise. The genetic descendants of Abraham can receive it – by faith. And those who are not genetic descendants, but who have adopted and mirrored Abraham’s faith in God in their own lives can also receive it – again, by faith. Abraham is the father of both groups. “He is the father of us all.”

To put this in the terms we used back at the beginning, God’s plan was to create a single tribe of people. Or, to put that in still another way, God was creating a tribe that was larger than all of the other tribes into which we divide ourselves such that we can all be a part of His tribe no matter what our other tribal associations happen to be. This doesn’t mean we let go of all of our other and former tribal associations. Rather, they are all subordinated to this one, greater tribe, and there they are all redeemed so that we are united together as one body in spite of our diversity.

There is no other organization, institution, tribe, insert your preferred description of an organized group of people here, on earth that has ever come close to accomplishing what is possible in the church, what has in fact been accomplished many times over in the church. Now, does this mean we’re perfect at it. Hardly. Our inherent tribalism manages to manifest itself in spite of the larger reality of God’s kingdom. And while God redeems these departures from His original intentions when we submit them back to Him, they have nonetheless caused great and needless harm both to the reputation of the church and to the world around us collaterally. But none of this changes what God has done and what the church has accomplished when it is operating under His authority.

Let’s make this more personal. What this means is that you can be a part of God’s kingdom. You can be a part of the body of Christ. You can have a right relationship with God through your faith in Jesus. There’s nothing in your background, nothing about your identity, nothing related to your family of origin or national identification that can stand in the way. God will gladly receive you just as you are if only you will go to Him through Jesus. When you give the gift of faith, the grace of God in Christ will be yours.