of the verse is the same. ' Not all the children of Abraham were made the heirs of his blessings, but Isaac was selected by the sovereign will of God to be the recipient of the promise.'
(8) That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. The simplest view of this verse would seem to be, to regard it as an explanation of the historical argument contained in the preceding verse. ' The Scriptures declare that Isaac, in preference to Ishmael, was selected to be the true seed and heir of Abraham, that is, or this proves that it is not the children of the flesh that are regarded as the children of God,' &c. This suits the immediate object of the apos- tle, which is to show that God, according to his good pleasure, chooses one and rejects another, and that he is not bound to make the children of Abraham, as such, the heirs of his promise. It is very common, how- ever, to consider this passage as analogous to that in Gal. 4: 22 — 31 ; and to regard the apostle as unfolding the analogy between the history of Isaac and Ishmael and that of the spiritual and natural children of Abraham ; Isaac being the symbol of the former, and Ishmael of the lat- ter. As Ishmael, "who was born after the flesh" (Gal. 4 : 23), i. e. according to the ordinary course of nature, was rejected, so also are the children of the flesh ; and as Isaac, who was born " by promise," i. e. in virtue of the promised interference of God, was made the heir, so also are they heirs who, in like manner, are the children of the promise, that is, who are the children of God, not by their natural birth, but by his special and effectual grace. This passage is then designed to point out an instructive analogy between the case of Isaac and the true chil- dren of God : he was born in virtue of a special divine interposition, so now, those who are the real children of God are born, not after the flesh, but by his special grace.
The children of the promise. This expression admits of various ex- planations. 1. Many take it as meaning merely the promised children, as child of promise is equivalent to child which is promised. But this evidently does not suit the application of the phrase to believers as made here, and in Gal. 4 : 28. 2. It may mean, according to a common force of the genitive, children in virtue of a promise. This suits the con- text exactly. Isaac was born not after the ordinary course of nature, but in virtue of a divine promise ; Gal. 4 : 23, where the expressions born after the flesh, and born by promise, are opposed to each other. It is of course implied in the phrase children in virtue of a promise that it is by a special interposition that they become children, and this is the sense in which Paul applies the expression to believers generally. " Who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John 1 : 13. Comp. Gal. 4 : 28. 3 : 18, 29. .ire counted for the seed, i. e. are regarded and treated as such. ' Not the natural descendants of Abraham are the children of God, but those who are born again by his special interposition, are regarded and treated as his true children.' See the same form of expression in Gen. 31 : 15.