The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians Quotes

“These women are two covenants, which are the old and the new covenants.[90] Hagar is Mount Sinai, bearing children of slavery. She is the present Jerusalem. “Present” Jerusalem takes us back to the earlier reference to the “present” evil age (Gal 1:4).[91]. The present Jerusalem and her children are in slavery. Her children (4:25) are those who are dependent on her. She is no longer our mother. Our mother is the Jerusalem above, and she is free. To say that the Jerusalem above is our mother is to say we belong to the new age. We are the children of the new creation – the Judaizers are of the old creation. We are the people of the new age, the children of promise (4:28). Tom Schreiner writes, “The Jerusalem above, according to Paul, is the eschatological Jerusalem that has reached down into the present evil age, so we have an example here of Paul’s already but not yet eschatology.”[92] The Judaizers claimed Abraham for their father and Jerusalem for their mother, and Paul says that Christian identity is bound to Christ and the Jerusalem above.”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“Anthony Hoekema writes, “the reception of the Spirit means that one has become a participant in the new mode of existence associated with the future age, and now partakes of the ‘powers of the age to come’.”[79] Their experience of the Spirit (Gal 3:1-5) is a sign that God’s eschatological restoration of Israel has begun. The Spirit is the way the promised blessing made to Abraham is being realized in all of Abraham’s true children.[80] This is why the Spirit is referred to as the "guarantee of our inheritance" (Eph 1:14; 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5) of the world to come.[81] The gift of the Spirit is the first fruits of the eschatological harvest. The first fruits stand for the beginning of the harvest; it is an experience in part of the harvest now and a pledge of more of the same kind and quality to come (Rom 8:23). The coming of the Spirit means the age to come is here.[82] The Abrahamic covenant finds its fulfillment in the new covenant and the gift of the Spirit is at the heart of the new covenant.”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“We must be canonical exegetes, interpreting the former revelation in light of the latter. If the “grammatical-historical” method of exegesis excludes or ignores the redemptive-historical setting of the fulfillment of God’s purposes in Christ, then we need to jettison or at least adjust our hermeneutic.[73] Dennis Johnson writes, “When any hermeneutic method disqualifies – or seems to disqualify, by pitting an Old Testament text’s ‘original’ meaning against its interpretation in the New – the ways that Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, interpreted the Word of God written and taught his apostles to do so, this dissonance is a signal that something is seriously amiss.”[74]”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant, which is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Jesus as the final covenant Mediator brings significant typological advance.[48] What Covenant Theology tends to miss is the determinate role of the mediatorial head of the covenant. For example, Covenant Theology teaches that the sign of the covenant is applied to the believer’s offspring rather than to the mediator’s offspring. Israel circumcised the offspring of Abraham, and the church is to baptize the offspring of Christ.[49] As R. Fowler White writes, “The genealogical principle continues without revocation, but not without reinterpretation under the new covenant.”[50] Inclusion within the covenant community can no longer be decided by interpreting the genealogical relationship between the covenant community and the covenant head in physical terms. The death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ the new covenant Mediator necessitate a spiritual relationship between the covenant community and the covenant head.[51] In other words, Christ has no physical offspring. He has no grandchildren. One becomes “of Christ” through union with Christ, which is appropriated through faith and baptism (Rom 6:4; Gal 3:27-28).”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“For the new covenant apostles, Jew-Gentile unity is pivotal to the early church. It is about more than human relational harmony. Instead, it acknowledges that God’s kingdom purposes are in Christ. He is the last man and the true Israel, the bearer of the Spirit. A Jewish person who clings to the tribal markings of the old covenant acts as though the eschaton has not arrived, as though one were still waiting for the promised seed. Both Jews and Gentiles must instead see their identities not in themselves or in the flesh but in Jesus Christ and in him alone. Jesus is the descendant of Abraham, the one who deserves the throne of David. He is the obedient Israel who inherits the blessings of the Mosaic covenant. He is the propitiation of God’s wrath. He is the firstborn from the dead, the resurrection and the life. Those who are in Christ – whether Jew or Gentile – receive with him all the eschatological blessings that are due to him. In him, they are all, whether Jew or Gentile, sons of God – not only in terms of relationship with the Father but also in terms of promised inheritance (Rom 8:12-17). In Christ, they all – whether Jew or Gentile – are sons of Abraham, the true circumcision, the holy nation, and the household and commonwealth of God (Gal 3:23-4:7; Eph 2-3; Col 2:6-15; 3:3-11; 1 Pet 2:9-10).…”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians