But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac.

And so by persevering, Abraham inherited the promise.

For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.

By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land as though it were a foreign country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise.

And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors,

For this is what the promise declared: “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.”

For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers,

But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise.

namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

Therefore we must be wary that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it.

so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.

But Melchizedek who does not share their ancestry collected a tithe from Abraham and blessed the one who possessed the promise.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son.

“But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, the people increased greatly in number in Egypt,

This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.

In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath,

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ – you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit,

that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.