The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."

I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations."

The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants." Then Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever.

I am going to give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all; it would be as easy to count all the specks of dust on earth!

The LORD took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that."

"I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants.

I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God."

But God said to Abraham, "Don't be worried about the boy and your slave Hagar. Do whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I have promised.

I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies.

All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants---all because you obeyed my command."

Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.

I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants.

And there was the LORD standing beside him. "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and Isaac," he said. "I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying.

They will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. They will extend their territory in all directions, and through you and your descendants I will bless all the nations.

Judah will hold the royal scepter, And his descendants will always rule. Nations will bring him tribute And bow in obedience before him.

You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.

If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.

In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body.

Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts.

All of you are Christ's body, and each one is a part of it.

Instead, by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head.

Under his control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint with which it is provided. So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.

(None of us ever hate our own bodies. Instead, we feed them, and take care of them, just as Christ does the church;

for we are members of his body.)

There is a deep secret truth revealed in this scripture, which I understand as applying to Christ and the church.

and have stopped holding on to Christ, who is the head of the body. Under Christ's control the whole body is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God wants it to grow.

As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.