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The promises of God concern the spiritual descendants of Abraham:
v. 6. Not as though the Word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel,
v. 7. neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
v. 8. that is. they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
v. 9. For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
From what the apostle had said in the first verses of the chapter the Jews might argue that he was setting aside the very promises of God which he had just mentioned as a privilege of the Israelites. He therefore proceeds to show that the rejection of the Jewish people does not prove that the promises of God given to them are not being fulfilled. He makes his meaning clear: But I do not mean to say that the Word of God has fallen to the ground, has come to nothing. The promise of God that Israel was to be the people of God and the bearer of the prophecy concerning Christ was still valid and reliable. The Prophet of Nazareth was the Savior of Israel also, He was to be given to all children of Abraham. And pet the external Israel has become a curse and an abomination before the Lord. This apparent contradiction Paul now solves: For not all that are of Israel, that belong to the Jewish race by carnal descent and relationship. are really Israel in the sense in which God uses the expression: meaning the spiritual descendants of Israel, those who followed the patriarch in his faith. Neither are those that are the seed, the children of Abraham according to the flesh, all children in truth, and acknowledged as such by God; but: In Isaac shall be named to thy seed, Gen_21:12; after Isaac shall thy seed be called; Isaac's descendants, speaking literally, are to be considered the true children of Abraham. A mere carnal descent from the patriarchs cannot be made a basis of boasting, for Ishmael was rejected in spite of his natural descent from Abraham, and therefore God may well reject the Jews, though they can trace their lineage back to Abraham.
In addition to the proof from history to which Paul has just referred, he now brings out the spiritual meaning contained in the promise of God to Abraham: That is to say, Not the children of the flesh, that are born according to the regular course of nature, are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed, as the true descendants of Abraham. For the word of promise is this: According to this time, the time required by the course of nature, I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. Viewed from the historical side only, these words, Gen_18:10, might mean that Isaac was born by virtue of a special promise. But the apostle includes here the wider, spiritual sense. The children of the promise are those that have accepted the promise, the prophecy and message of the Messiah, by faith, Gal_4:24-28, in this sense Isaac is the type of the spiritual children of promise, those that have become children of God by virtue of their acceptance of the divine promise in Christ Jesus, the believers of all time. So the trend of Paul's argument is, that just as God made a distinction between the children, the offspring of Abraham, so He is discriminating still: the fact that many people, the great majority of the Jews, do not receive the Gospel and are cast away by God no more proves that the promise has failed than the fact that God of old chose Isaac only and set aside Ishmael.