These Gentiles were sons of God through faith in Christ. Anyone who was baptized into Christ had put on Christ. Because of this, there was no longer a meaningful religious distinction between ethnic Jew and ethnic Greek. If someone is baptized into Christ, he belongs to Christ. If he belongs to Christ, a former stone-worshiping pagan is now a son of Abraham, and an heir according to the promise given to Abraham—whether or not he was circumcised. His baptism was covenantally sufficient. As Paul states here, water baptism included the Gentiles in the visible community of the New Israel, created
...more
