Section 6
the seed." According to God's economy, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are reckoned as the seed. Not all the seed of Abra ham are the children of God. The natural birth is inadequate to make them children of God; they need to be born again (John 3:7). The phrase "children of the promise" denotes the second birth, for it is only by the second birth that they can be the children of the promise and thus be reckoned as the seed.
"For this is the word of promise, About this time next year I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but Rebecca also having conceived of one, Isaac our father, the children not yet being born, nor having done anything good or bad, (that the purpose of God according to selection might remain, not of works, but of Him Who calls,) it was said to her, The greater shall serve the less; as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (vv. 9-13). These verses unveil to us the fact that God's selection is not according to man's work, but absolutely according to His choice. We are told that of the one man, Isaac, Rebecca conceived and brought forth two sons, Esau and Jacob. Before the children were born and before they had done either good or bad, God told