“And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 3:9 Mean?
John the Baptist dismantles false security: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Think not to say within yourselves — John addresses the internal dialogue. The people have not yet spoken the claim aloud. John targets the thought before it becomes speech: do not even think this. The preemptive strike reveals that John knows what the audience believes: their Abrahamic lineage protects them.
We have Abraham to our father — the claim of inherited righteousness. Abraham is our ancestor. We are his descendants. The covenant God made with Abraham covers us — regardless of our personal repentance. The claim uses lineage as a substitute for faith: the ancestry does the work so the individual does not have to.
For I say unto you — John's counter-authority. The claim rests on tradition. John's response rests on prophetic authority: I say. The prophetic word overrides the ancestral assumption.
God is able (dunamai — has the power, the capacity, the capability) of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham — the demolition is complete. God's capacity to produce Abrahamic children is not limited to biological descent. God can make children of Abraham out of stones — the most lifeless, most inert, most un-human material available. If God can raise Abrahamic children from rocks, your biological connection to Abraham is not the asset you think it is. The exclusivity you claim is based on a biology that God does not need.
The stones may be a wordplay: in Aramaic, the word for stones (abnaya) and children (benaya) sound similar. The wordplay makes the point memorable: from abnaya, God makes benaya. From stones, sons.
The theological implication is revolutionary: covenant membership is not inherited. It is produced by God — and God can produce it from anything. The stones cannot repent, believe, or earn the status. God creates the children. The biological lineage that the Pharisees and Sadducees (v.7) trusted as their spiritual insurance is worthless if God's creative power can bypass it entirely.
Paul develops this in Romans 4 and Galatians 3: the children of Abraham are not those born of his flesh but those who share his faith. The stones-to-children principle eliminates every form of inherited spiritual privilege.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What false security does 'we have Abraham to our father' represent — and what modern equivalents exist?
- 2.How does God being 'able of these stones to raise up children' demolish the idea that lineage guarantees covenant membership?
- 3.How does Paul's teaching (Galatians 3:7: children of Abraham by faith) develop what John the Baptist introduces here?
- 4.What inherited spiritual privilege are you relying on that this verse says cannot substitute for personal repentance and faith?
Devotional
Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. Do not even think it. The security you feel because of who your ancestors were — the assumption that your lineage protects you, that your heritage covers you, that belonging to the right family exempts you from personal accountability — John says: that thought is worthless.
God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Stones. The most lifeless, most inert material on the ground. And God can make Abrahamic children out of them. If God can turn rocks into sons of Abraham, your biological descent from Abraham is not the advantage you think it is. The God who made Adam from dust can make Abraham's children from stones. Your lineage is not his limitation.
The claim 'we have Abraham to our father' substitutes ancestry for faith. It uses the family tree as a spiritual insurance policy: I do not need to repent because my great-great-grandfather was righteous. John says: the family tree is not your salvation. God's power is not constrained by your DNA. And the stones on the ground are as eligible for Abrahamic sonship as you are — because the sonship is God's creation, not your inheritance.
Paul unpacks this: the children of Abraham are those who share Abraham's faith, not his bloodline (Galatians 3:7). The real sons of Abraham are the ones who believe like Abraham believed — not the ones who can trace their genealogy to his tent. The stones-to-children principle eliminates every inherited privilege: your family name does not save you. Your church background does not save you. Your denominational heritage does not save you. Only the faith that Abraham had — the trusting that God counted as righteousness — produces the children God claims.
What are you relying on as your spiritual security? Your family's faith? Your church membership? Your religious heritage? John says: think not to say within yourselves. The security you feel in your ancestry is the security God can replace with stones. The only security that holds is the one Abraham had: personal faith in a God who makes the impossible real.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
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And think not to say ... - They regarded it as sufficient righteousness that they were descended from so holy a man as…
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think not to say i. e. "Do not persuade yourselves to say," "be not so proud as to say." For a similar use of the word…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture