![\"Ministry](\"\/Banner-MOG-60.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Galatians 3:16 16<\/span><\/sup>Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your seed,” who is Christ. Truth to Learn Faith in Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the means of God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n The Greek word translated \u201cseed<\/span><\/em>\u201d is \u201cspermati<\/span><\/em>\u201d from which we get our English word sperm. In this instance, it is a singular noun. Later in the verse the word appears in the plural, \u201cspermasin<\/span><\/em>\u201d and is translated \u201cseeds<\/span><\/em>.\u201d This word can refer to a seed that is planted in the ground or it can refer to a person\u2019s posterity, his descendents. The problem is that neither the Greek word for \u201cseed<\/span><\/em>\u201d nor the Hebrew equivalent of this word, \u201czera\u2019<\/span><\/em>\u201d is found in the plural anywhere in the Bible when referring to a person\u2019s posterity, except in this passage.<\/p>\n So, why does Paul go to an extreme like this to claim the promise to Abraham was to a single person when in natural language it could refer to all of his descendents? Many Biblical scholars, throughout the centuries, have wondered about this, and opponents of Biblical inspiration and inerrancy have used this verse to try to prove their point. The difficulty of defending Paul\u2019s use of the singular to refer only to Christ has caused at least one expositor to say:<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps the following remarks may show that there is real force and propriety in the position which the apostle takes here. If not, then I confess my inability to explain the passage.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained Paul is referencing a passage in the book of Genesis where God spoke to Abraham after seeing that he (Abraham) was willing to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac, in obedience to God\u2019s word:<\/p>\n Genesis 22:18<\/span><\/strong> <\/span>18<\/span><\/sup><\/strong>In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Paul\u2019s thesis is that the singular use of the word \u201cseed<\/span><\/em>\u201d was intentionally referring to a single person, Jesus Christ. Had God intended \u201cseed\u201d to refer to Abraham\u2019s posterity it would have included all the descendents of Abraham including Isaac, Ishmael, and all the children of his second wife, Ketura. But, the blessing of Abraham is conferred on all those who believe God\u2019s promise of a single redeemer, as Paul pointed out in:<\/p>\n Galatians 3:9<\/span><\/strong> <\/span>9<\/span><\/sup><\/strong>So then those who are<\/span> of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Today, those who believe God\u2019s Word and His promise of eternal life receive God\u2019s blessing. That is, they are accounted as righteous, not because they have earned it in any way, but because they believe in Abraham\u2019s seed, the son of David, the root of Jesse, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God!<\/p>\n To the Galatians Christians, who were fooled into believing that they also had to keep the Law of Moses to be completely saved, Paul could not have made it any clearer.<\/p>\n So What? Now, I ask you, \u201cWho do you say Jesus is?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In God’s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2007 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Galatians 3:16 16Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your seed,” who is Christ. Truth to Learn Faith in Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the means of God\u2019s blessing. Behind the Words The Greek word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-3"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
<\/p>\n