That’s why the promise comes by faith, so that it can be based on God’s grace and be guaranteed to all of Abraham’s children. That means not only those who are his children under the law, but also those who are Abraham’s children because have the same faith that he did. He is the father of us all.
What should we say then? That the law is sinful? Not at all! But I wouldn’t have known what sin was unless the law had told me. The law says, “Do not covet.” If the law hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have known that wanting what belongs to other people was “coveting,” and that it was wrong.
Live in a way that shows you’ve turned away from your sins, and don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham even from these stones.
Besides, we’ve all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we obeyed them. So we should certainly obey the Father of spirits and benefit from his correction.
But some people might be thinking about this in a human way and ask, “Doesn’t the fact that we’re wrong prove more clearly that God is right? So how is it fair for God to punish us?”