The One New Man and the Seed of Abraham
Question
Are we the one new man all Abraham’s seed?
Originally published in Vol. 1, Number 9, September 2026, Ask The Theologian Journal.
Answer
Believers today, in this dispensation, are collectively the “one new man,” the body of Christ. Paul also says that those who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed. The key question is whether those phrases are strictly identical and what is meant by being “Abraham’s seed.”
The one new man
In Paul’s teaching, the “one new man” is a new creation in which:
Jew and Gentile are reconciled in one body by the cross,
Neither group is absorbed into the other,
It is not Gentiles becoming part of Israel, nor Israel losing identity and merging into Gentiles.
The one new man is a new entity, the body of Christ, distinct from Israel as a nation and from the Gentile nations.
Christ as the singular seed of Abraham
Galatians 3:16 states:
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
Paul is very precise:
The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed,
He explicitly denies that this refers to “seeds” (many),
He identifies the seed as Christ.
So in the strict sense, Abraham’s seed—the heir of the promises—is Christ himself, not a multitude of individuals.
Believers in Christ as Abraham’s seed
Later in the same chapter, Paul writes:
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. …There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:26–29
Key points:
We are “children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,”
We are “one in Christ Jesus,”
Our being Abraham’s seed is conditional: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed.”
We are not each independently Abraham’s seed in the way Christ is. Rather, because we are in Christ, who is the seed, we are reckoned as Abraham’s seed. It is our union with Christ—the true seed—that grants us that status.
Answering the question precisely
The question asks: “Are we the one new man all Abraham’s seed?”
We can answer on two levels.
1. As individuals considered apart from Christ
Individually, if we think of ourselves as separate “seeds” of Abraham, inheriting his promises in our own right, we contradict Galatians 3:16, which denies that the promises were made to “seeds” as of many. The promises focus on one seed, Christ.
So in that sense, we should not think of ourselves as multiple Abrahamic “seeds” standing alongside Christ.
2. As the one new man in union with Christ
Collectively, believers form the body of Christ, the one new man. This body is:
United to Christ, the singular seed of Abraham,
Counted as Abraham’s seed because we are “Christ’s.”
Thus, as the one new man—understood as the body of Christ—we can say “we are Abraham’s seed” in a representational or participatory sense: we share in what belongs to Christ because we are in him.
So:
The one new man (the body of Christ) is Abraham’s seed by virtue of being in Christ, the seed.
We are not each, in isolation from Christ, Abraham’s seed in the same primary sense that he is.
Therefore, if “all” in the question means “each believer as an independent Abrahamic heir apart from Christ,” the answer is no. If “all” refers to the entire one new man as united to Christ, then yes: the one new man is reckoned Abraham’s seed because it is the body of Christ, and Christ is the seed to whom the promises were made.