The Divine Covenants

The Abrahamic Covenant

Now we will consider one of the most important characters in the Bible. He was called “the friend of God” in James 2:23. In Romans 4:11 he was called “the father of all them that believe”. The history of Abraham is closely bound up with the covenant that God made with him. Therefore it is difficult to avoid looking back at his life.

A period of more than three hundred years passed from the time God made the covenant with Noah to the time that Abraham appears on the stage of biblical history. The first thing to notice is the remarkable prophecy by Noah in Genesis 9:22-27.

· Genesis 9:22-27 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. [23] But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. [24] When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, [25] he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." [26] He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. [27] May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."

Notice in verse 26 that Noah’s announcements deal with future development of God’s purpose. This comes out first in the “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem”. This is the first time in the Scriptures that we see God calling Himself the God of any particular person. In the Bible Jehovah is used when He was dealing with the Jews. God was used when He was dealing with Gentiles. Therefore, when He dealt with Shem He was addressing Shem as a distinct segment of the human race. It was a spiritual distinction that they were to enjoy: a covenant relationship. Shem was to enjoy a special favor. His descendants were to be the line through which divine blessing was to flow: it was among them that Jehovah was to be known.

Verse 27 says May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem. The meaning of the first clause is, God would give Japheth a numerous posterity, with widely extended territories, which has been fulfilled in the fact that they have not only gained possession of all Europe, North and South America, and Australia, but large portions of Asia. The stock of Japheth was to be the most energetic and ambitious of Noah’s descendants. But it is the second clause I want you to pay special attention to. Japheth was to dwell in the tents of Shem and to enjoy fellowship in the privilege accorded to Shem. Japheth was to come under the divine protection and be admitted to the blessings which were the peculiar, but not exclusive portion of Shem.

The Shemites were to have the blessings of God firsthand. The fact that the Shemites were, according to the prophecy of Noah, the first ones to receive the blessing of God (meaning that it was through the line of Shem that the Savior would come, therefore Jewish); and that the Japhethites (meaning the Gentiles who would live in the tents of Shem, (this has nothing to do with camping tents: instead it is a reference to the fact that the Gentiles would share in that which had been entrusted to the Jews). And since God would extend the territory of the Japhethites, meaning that the Gentiles would outnumber the Jews.

So what we have here is the early prediction through Noah that it was only by entering the tents of Shem that Japheth could enter the place where divine blessing was to be found, which in the language of the New Testament is another way of saying that from the Jews would salvation come to the Gentiles.

The earth was to be possessed and populated by the three sons of Noah. Of them, Shem was the one selected to be the channel of divine gifts, but these were not for his own exclusive benefit. The kingdom of God was to be established in Shem, but Japheth should be received into its community. This implies that salvation was coming first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles.

It was the Canaanites who were to be destroyed by the Israelites when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. So we conclude that the descendants of Ham were enemies of God (Verse 25).

This prophecy of Noah began unfolding when the Lord announced to Abraham:

· Gen. 12:3, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Abraham was a Shemite and here he was given the promise that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him. This statement, as you think about it, affirms the idea that the Japhethites would be enlarged.

The next thing to notice is something that happened between the time of Noah and of Abraham told in Genesis 11:1-9.

· Gen 11:1-9, Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel--because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

This is the story of the Tower of Babel. It is a mistake to consider this as an isolated event. It should be considered as the beginning of an evil movement. What we learn from this event is that in the four centuries between the flood and the call of Abraham, the character of man remained unchanged. So the world is right back where we were before the flood. Wouldn’t you have thought that the flood would have been such a disaster that people would have learned and sin would have been reduced?

The failure of Noah himself and the evil behavior of his son Ham provided proof that not much had changed. Soon there appeared on the scene a person who further demonstrated that this was true.

· Gen 10:8-9, Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth.

Would it surprise you to learn that Nimrod was of the line of Ham? This was the line upon which the curse had been spoken. It is interesting that “Nimrod” means “rebel”. The bible says that he became mighty before the Lord and this idea of “mighty” signifies “chief” or “chieftain”.

· Gen 10:9-10 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD." The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar.

It is clear from the Scriptures that Nimrod organized a government over which he presided as king and that he introduced idolatrous worship of himself. As such we see him as a type of the Antichrist. And his ambitions went beyond Babylon. But as the king of Babylon he had an idea. Nimrod wanted to establish a name for himself and his people, and to do this it was important to build a city for his headquarters and a motive to inspire the people. The plan then, was to build this amazing tower.

God was obviously not pleased with Nimrod’s plan.

· Gen 11:5-9, But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel--because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The effect of God’s action was to create the different nations of the then existing world. Since their language was “confused”, we see the beginning of different languages in the world. It was from this event that we get our word “babbling”. It might also be noted that throughout history people of different languages have warred with each other. Just think about things you can recall in your own lifetime where language is at the root of what separates people. Sin continued to abound and then it was that the way was cleared for the next stage in the outworking of His plan of mercy.

Having temporarily abandoned the nations, God now singled out one man, Abraham, from whom the chosen nation was to come.

There is a special order in all of God’s works and His timing is perfect. He is not hampered by the actions of His creatures, but His ways are more admired by those who may spiritually understand them if He waits until the circumstances are right.

Having dealt in judgment with Babel, God chose then to manifest His grace. His judgment only serves to prepare the way for a greater outpouring of His love. God determined to have a people of His own by graciously calling a people who would be privileged to a special nearness to Himself.

It was not until the total depravity of men had been fully demonstrated, first by those before the flood and then again by the apostasy at Babel, that God now dealt in sovereign grace and mercy. Abraham belonged to a family that was not religious at all. In fact, his parents were idol worshipers.

· Josh. 24:2-3, Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.

So there was nothing in Abraham to commend him to God and nothing that merited God’s choice of him. You see, the cause of election is always of grace. If that were not so, it would not be grace. One of the first lessons we are to learn from the story of Abraham is the concept of “election”.

· Acts 7:2-3, To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'

Notice that Peter here says that “the God of glory appeared to Abraham”. It is not too much of a stretch to believe that the shekinah itself appeared to Abraham! Can you possibly imagine how this must have impacted him? We think that God always suits the revelations which He makes of Himself according to the effect that He wants to produce.

Here was a man in the middle of a heathen city and raised in a heathen home. Something striking and supernatural was used by God in order to suddenly change the course of His whole life. This theophany was the first that we read of in the Bible. If this was the first (that is, God appearing in human form) that we read in the Old Testament, and if this theophany was accompanied by the majesty of the shekinah glory, then this certainly was intended to place special attention on Abraham.

There was nothing in Abraham that merited such attention.

· Isa 65:1, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; was found by those who did not seek me.

What a revealing statement by God Himself. The counterpart of this is found in the parable of the lost sheep in the New Testament. The “lost sheep” did not seek and find the shepherd; it was the shepherd who went and found the lost sheep. This should speak clearly to the definition of “the elect” and “the chosen”.

God tells Abraham to leave his home and family and go to a place that God will lead him. This call to Abraham came to him in Ur, a city of the Chaldeans, near the Persian Gulf. It demanded absolute obedience. It was a call for him to be separated from the world. This was no ordinary call. It was an effectual call. Do you know what an effectual call is?

If a person is elected to the office of elder or deacon he or she receives training in the role they are to assume. Included in this training is the matter of effectual calling.

That part of our church constitution called the Westminster Confession of Faith describes effectual calling as follows:

“At the right time, appointed by Him, God effectually calls all those and only those whom He has predestined to life. He calls them by His word and Spirit out of their natural state of sin and death into grace and salvation through Jesus Christ. He enlightens their minds spiritually with a saving understanding of the things of God. He takes away their hearts of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. And so He effectually draws them to Jesus Christ. But they come to Jesus voluntarily, having been made willing by God’s grace.”

This is the official position of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Arthur Pink says it simply: it is a call accompanied by divine power. He goes on to say that there are two kinds of divine calls mentioned in Scripture, the one which falls only on the outer ear and produces no definite effect; the other which reaches the heart, and moves us to a real response.

The first of these calls is found in such passages as Prov 8:4.

· Prov 8:4, To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.

It reaches all who hear God’s Word. It is a call which makes the claims of God and the Gospel and reveals Jesus as the Mediator. This call is universally ignored because it is not palatable to the fallen nature of the unregenerate.

· Prov 1:24-26, But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster;

· Acts 7:2-3, 2 To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'

· Luke 14:16-18, Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'

The second of these calls is found in such passages as Rom 8:30.

· Rom 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The first call is general; the second, particular. The first is made to all who hear the Word; the second is made only to the elect. It is by the effect produced that we are able to distinguish between them.

· John 10:3-6, The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

So here is the grand effect that comes to the soul when it receives the “effectual call” of God: the understanding is illuminated, the conscience is convicted, the stubborn will be conquered and the affections are drawn to God. Such an effect is supernatural! But be sure you understand that nothing but the immediate power of God working on the heart can produce such a miracle. Nothing external acts to change the depraved heart of fallen man.

Now it is this effectual call that Abraham received when God suddenly appeared to him in Ur. Think of what this call involved for him: he was to forsake his parents and family, sever all ties with those that were closest to him, make a complete break with his manner of life and step out on faith and go to some place, not knowing where that would be. What was his response to God’s call?

· Heb 11:8, By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

While regeneration is a wonderful experience, yet it is only the beginning of God’s work in the Christian. The further work of sanctification is required for the Christian to mature in his faith. Even though we have a new nature as new Christians, we still have the old nature. So there is not only a continual conflict between these two natures, but their presence prevents the soul from fully attaining its desires and doing as it would like to.

· Gal 5:16-17, For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

Now Abraham did not precisely follow God’s instructions. He disobeyed by taking his family with him and he stopped at Haran.

· Gen 11:31, Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there

God had instructed Abraham to go “alone”. It is interesting that Abraham’s father Terah’s name means “delay”. They stayed in Haran for five years.

The first thing we read of Abraham after he actually entered the land of Canaan is God appearing to him, and he built an altar to the Lord.

· Gen 12:6-7, Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Now notice that Abraham did not settle down in the land and possess it, but “he passed through it”.

· Acts 7:4-5, He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground.

Also there were the Canaanites to challenge Abraham’s presence there. So it is with the believer; the devil and the world unite to oppose his enjoyment of the inheritance that has been promised him. Again we see that “the Lord appeared to Abraham”. We earlier saw that God appeared to him as the “glory of God” back in Ur; but now that God’s instructions have been fully obeyed, He appears again and Abraham is rewarded by the promise that the land would belong to his offspring.

There are two important principles that we need to keep in mind as we look at God’s dealings with Abraham.

· First, God’s grace never ignores His righteousness. In other words, He never shows mercy at the expense of His holiness.

· Secondly, in exercising His sovereignty He never enforces the responsibility of the creature. In other words, though God is sovereign and can do anything He pleases, he never forces His will on an unwilling human, who is accountable for his own behavior.

These two principles are the key to understanding the Abrahamic covenant.

Some commentators like to speak of this as a “covenant of pure grace”, and surely it was that, because there was nothing in Abraham to cause God to so much as notice him. But it would be equally correct to call this a “covenant of righteousness”, for it demonstrated the divine character of God.

At this point we need to consider what God required of the person He was making covenant with. It was not until after Noah did all that God required of him by building the ark to save his family that God said that He would establish a covenant with Noah. Once Noah fulfilled the stipulations that God laid down, He was ready to fulfill His promises.

We see the same thing in the case of Abraham. There is no hint in Scripture that God entered into a covenant with Abraham while he was in Ur. Instead, there was a provisional statement made to Abraham.

· Gen 12:1, The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

First, God acted in sovereign grace by singling out Abraham from his idolatrous neighbors. Second, the responsibility was on Abraham to do what God called him to do. Third, there would be a reward to follow his obedience. These three things are put together in Hebrews 11:8.

· Heb. 11:8, By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

He was to receive an inheritance. In the Everlasting Covenant, God promised a certain reward to Jesus upon the completion of the conditions set forth by God. And while Jesus did perfectly fulfill all of the requirements placed on Him by that covenant, that does not mean that the law has been repealed and that the saints are free of the law.

Grace reigns, but it reigns through righteousness, and not at the expense of it. The obedience of Jesus does not mean that ours is unnecessary. Rather it means that our obedience, though imperfect, is acceptable. The obedience of Jesus does not provide license for us to be lawless and careless about the claims of God in the law. And this limited obedience is enabled by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The same standard of obedience exists for the head of the church and for the members of the church. Jesus was our example and we are to follow in His footsteps.

We will be looking at how the various covenants gradually unfold the deeper meaning of the Everlasting Covenant. That covenant was, in its nature and contents, a mixed one, because the principles of both law and grace were operative in it. It was pure grace which ordained that any from Adam’s fallen race should ever be saved and it was grace that provided the Son of God to become incarnate and serve as our surety. But it was law pure and simple that Jesus obeyed that purchased our salvation, and therefore perfectly satisfied God’s requirements on our behalf.

The work of Jesus has released the sinner from the law as a means of procuring salvation, but it has in no wise removed the law as the rule for our lives. So divine grace does not set aside our responsibility to obey the law. Or to say this differently, we are not saved because of our obedience to the law, but it is equally true that we cannot be saved without it.

Unless Noah had obeyed God and built the ark, he and his family would have died in the flood along with everyone else. In our case, it is through Jesus and His obedience that our obedience is acceptable to God.

Some argue that this reduces the covenant of grace to the same level as the covenant of works. Not so. While there are some common parts to these covenants, there is a real and major difference. You see, the covenant of works that was made with Adam made no provision for a Mediator and there was no provision for those who failed under the covenant. The covenant of grace provides both.

In applying what we have just been discussing to Abraham it should be obvious that the law of his obedience involved both promises and threats, rewards and punishments. And at this point one may ask where are there any hints of such terms in the Abrahamic Covenant? Well in the first place, unless there were such terms, there would have been no covenant. Secondly the very brief account of the story in Genesis needs to be kept in mind; and instead of a full categorical statement, we need to carefully piece together the details we find there. And thirdly, in Genesis 12:1 Canaan was provisionally set before Abraham.

We have not talked about the sign or seal of this covenant with Abraham. But we find in Genesis 17:9-14.

· Gen. 17:9-14, Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

Here it is clear that a condition was stipulated, and that failure to meet this condition would break the covenant.

From the divine side, the covenant of grace is a certainty. There is no possibility of anything in it failing. However, this does not alter the fact that while the elect are left here in the world they are required, according to 2 Peter 1:10-11:

· 2 Peter 1:10-11, Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, [11] and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

You should notice the word “if” in verse 10. What do you make of that? I want you to consider several passages of Scripture.

· John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

· Rom. 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now contrast,

· Rom. 6:22, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

· Rom. 8:13, For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

· Gal. 6:8, The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

· Jude 21, Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

The issue here is one of obedience. A “Christian” would not enter heaven if he entirely neglected the means of grace that is available for his spiritual preservation. The call of Abraham was a very important step in the out working of God’s purpose. It was one of those remarkable events in the history of the church which produced a new order of things. The line from which the Messiah, the promised Seed, was to come was now more definitely defined.

For two thousand years the believer’s faith was based on the words spoken in Eden when God promised that the Seed of woman would destroy the serpent. And until Abraham nothing more was revealed about the Seed. But in the covenant which God made with Abraham, the promise was renewed and the family from which He would come is revealed. John Kelly said that “We must bear in mind that everything that occurred to Abraham, from his call to the close of his life, was intended to explain and illustrate the nature of the covenant.”

When he was called only a bare hint was given of God’s purpose, yet it was enough to create faith in him. The actual covenant was not to come for some years.

· Gal 3:16-18, The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Four hundred and thirty years prior to the giving of the law at Sinai takes us back to the beginning of God’s dealings with Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, but we do not see the establishment of the covenant until Genesis 15:18-21.

· Gen 15:18-21, On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

Just what did the Abrahamic covenant mean to the minds and hearts of God’s people of old? And how does this apply to us today?

· Gen 12:1-3, The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

In this simple statement we have the original promise made to Abraham that the Messiah would come from his family. It was made at a point midway between the creation of the first Adam and the birth of the last Adam, Jesus.

The first great purpose of the Abrahamic covenant was to make known the stock from which the Messiah would come. When God said that “all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you”, we have the first intimation of this.

When we take a close look at the events in the life of Abraham we conclude that he was raised to a pre-eminent position and he became the root and center of the future history of the world. This is a big statement! The peculiar honor given him was that the great fountain of blessing was to be in him. However, the divine promise could not be realized in him personally. This will get better definition as we go along. There was at the most a beginning made in his own experience regarding the promised blessing. But the blessing was to spread out from him to the whole world. “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

The promised blessing was to occur in its widest sense not by Abraham individually and immediately, but through him by means of the seed that should be given to him. Jesus, then, as the essential core of the promise and the Seed of Abraham, rather than Abraham himself, was to have the honor of blessing all nations.

Not only was Jesus, according to the flesh, “the son of Abraham”, but every believer in Jesus is of Abraham’s seed; and the entire group of the redeemed will be considered along with Abraham.

· Gen 12:6-7, The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

I think it is unfortunate that the NIV uses the word “offspring” here. The New American Standard Bible uses the more appropriate word.

· Gen 12:7, And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him.

Now there is a reason why the latter is preferable. That which now concerns us is the meaning of the word “seed”. The word “offspring” has a different connotation than ‘seed” in this verse.

Here the NIV properly uses “seed”. We need to explore the deep meaning that is intended here. It is important that we look here to the spirit of what is said rather than just the “letter”. To rely on the letter we will miss something very significant.

Notice again verse 16 above: The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Abraham was the “father” of a twofold “seed”, a natural and a spiritual; and if we pay attention to the context here, there is really no difficulty in determining which of them the Holy Spirit had in mind. Now note verse 6,

· Galatians 3:6, Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

From this it is altogether safe to draw the conclusion that,

· Gal 3:7, Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.

What could be plainer than that? That is, genuine believers are the children of Abraham. It cannot possibly mean his literal children because generations come and go. But we are children of Abraham because of our faith, we are believers. Sinners today are justified by God in precisely the same way as Abraham was---by faith.

· Gal 3:8-9, The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Once again we see the same truth reaffirmed in this passage. It was God’s purpose to justify the called among the Gentiles so He proclaimed this good news to Abraham himself, saying that “All nations will be blessed through you,”

· Gal 3:13-14, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Believers receive the same spiritual blessing that Abraham did, namely, the righteousness of Jesus imputed to their account, so that they now measure up to every requirement of the law. And that is so because Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. But you say that Jesus had not even come to earth in Abraham’s day! How could the righteousness of Jesus be imputed to the Gentiles of Abraham’s day? You are forgetting two things:

1) God is sovereign.

2) God’s plan in the Everlasting Covenant was already an accomplished fact before creation, including His plan for Jesus to die for our sins and that we were chosen before the foundation of the world.

Paul in Romans says much the same thing.

· Rom 4:16-17, Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

The passages we have been looking at have referred to the “seed” of Abraham. This has caused many commentators a lot of trouble because many have thought of “seed” as being without limitation. We need to understand the scriptural idea of “seed”. Notice that in an earlier passage in Galatians 3 we read that the Spirit said, Seed, not seeds. The reason for that is that the promise made to Abraham was the idea of a single person, and that single seed was Jesus.

Now it is important at this point to remember that the term “Christ” literally means “anointed”, but is also used as a special title of Jesus Himself and is given to Him as a public person including both the head and members of the church.

The promises of God were never meant to be by human procreation and the other by divine regeneration. But the promises were made not to both of his seeds, but to one of them only, namely the spiritual, mystical “Christ” the redeemer and all who are spiritually united to Him. So we need to think in terms of the “unity” of the seed in contrast to the diversity of the seed.

Let me give some examples of what we are talking about here. Abraham had two sons; but one of them, Ishmael, was excluded from the high privileges:

· Gen 21:11-13, The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."

So it is through Isaac that God intends to bring forth the blessing to all nations. But there is no indication that all of Isaac’s descendents would be blessed.

Later, the line from which the Messiah would come was better defined. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau was rejected and Jacob chosen. Out of Jacob there were twelve sons. Judah was chosen as the tribe from which Jesus would come. And out of the thousands of families of Judah Jesse was chosen; and of Jesse’s eight sons David was appointed.

So we see that as time went on, the channel through which Abraham’s Seed should come was more and more definitely narrowed, and thereby God gradually made it known how His original promises to Abraham were to be fulfilled. The limitation of the promises was evidenced by the rejection of Ishmael and Esau, which clearly intimated that all of Abraham’s descendants were not included.

Then there is the obvious conclusion that the spiritual descendants of Jesus are the only ones to inherit the blessings promised to Abraham. The promises were originally limited and the same is true today. Hence the unbelieving descendants of Jacob were as much excluded as the descendants of Ishmael. And likewise the unbelieving descendants of the gentiles in our own day.

We have just been looking at material that is of basic importance, not only to an understanding of the Abrahamic covenant, but a sound understanding of the much of the Old Testament. Once it becomes clear to us that the type (Abraham) merges into the antitype ,Jesus, and, that believers in Jesus are Abraham’s children, it will be seen that we have a reliable guide for getting us through the maze of prophecy.

· Romans 4:16, Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

· Gal.3:6-7, Consider Abraham; “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham

The promises of God to Abraham and his Seed were never made to his natural descendants, but belonged to those who had a faith like him. All the promises were left in the hands of the Mediator, and none of those who are not believers in Jesus can lay claim to the promises.

So the unbelieving descendants of Jacob were as much excluded from the Abrahamic covenant as were the descendants of Ishmael and Esau; whereas those promises belonged to the truly believing Gentiles as they did to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. What we want to emphasize here is to insure that we know WHO ARE THEY THAT ARE ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN!!!!!

Believers in Jesus have the same heritage as Abraham.

· Gal 3:28-29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Therefore,

· Rom 8:17, Now if we are children, then we are heirs---heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

In that last verse in Galatians 3 that we have just seen Paul draws the unavoidable conclusion that true believers are spiritually children of Abraham. Or to say it another way, we are Abraham’s spiritual seed. And so is Jesus.

So the inheritance given to Abraham was given by God long before the law. Now the question is, What was the inheritance which God gave to Abraham?

Well, Genesis 12:7 seems to tell us that the inheritance was the “land of Canaan”. There are many examples in the Old Testament where the event seems to say one thing but the truth is revealed in the New Testament. For example, the 14th chapter of Genesis tells the account of Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, bringing bread and wine and blessing Abraham, to whom Abraham paid tithes. But there is a spiritual meaning here that is revealed in Hebrews 7 that Melchizedek was intended as a striking example and type of Jesus in His official capacity.

So we should learn from this that the Old Testament events had a higher meaning than their literal significance. In other words, the historical was simply an earthly foreshadowing of that which has its reality in heaven.

So why not apply this reasoning to the promise God made to Abraham and his seed regarding the land of Canaan? Since believers in Jesus are Abraham’s children and “Heirs according to the promise”, then it follows that they are interested in all the promises to him. It is a mistake to think of some of the promises as being simply temporal and to Abraham’s natural descendants, and that others had heavenly meaning and pertained to his spiritual children, In the Bible the outward and temporal must be consistently viewed as the shell or shadow of the spiritual and eternal.

Let’s look at Hebrews 11:8-16.

· Heb. 11:8-16, By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age-and Sarah herself was barren-was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

It is clear from these verses that they looked beyond the literal promises to a heavenly and eternal inheritance. Now this leaves open the question of, what was God’s intention as to the earthly land which He seemed to promise, even giving natural boundaries? We do not intend to deal with that question now, rather to dwell on higher spiritual interpretation.

In closing this portion of our study, I would like to quote a significant passage from John Calvin’s comments on Romans 4:13:

· Romans 4:13 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

“Since he now speaks of eternal salvation, the apostle seems to have somewhat unseasonably led his readers to ‘the world’; but he includes generally under the word ‘world’, the restoration which was expected through Christ. The chief thing was indeed the restoration of life; it was yet necessary that the fallen state of the whole world should be repaired. The apostle, in Hebrews 1:2, calls Christ the Heir of all the good things of God; for the adoption which we obtain through His favor restores us to the possession of the inheritance which we lost in Adam; and as under the type of the land of Canaan, not only the hope of a heavenly life was exhibited to Abraham, but also the full and complete blessing of God, the apostle rightly teaches us that the dominion of the world was promised him. Some taste of this the godly have in the present life; for how much soever they may at times be oppressed with want, yet as they partake with a peaceable conscience of those things which God has created for their use, and as they enjoy through His mercy and good-will His earthly benefits no otherwise than as pledges and earnest of eternal life, their poverty does in no degree prevent them from acknowledging heaven and earth, and the sea, as their own possessions.

“Though the ungodly swallow up the riches of the world, they can yet call nothing their own; but they rather snatch as it were by stealth; for they possess them under the curse of God. It is indeed a great comfort to the godly in their poverty, that they fare slenderly, they yet steal nothing of what belongs to another, but receive their lawful allowance from the hand of their heavenly Father, until they enter on the full possession of their inheritance, when all creatures shall be made subservient to their glory; for both heaven and earth shall be renewed for this end,---that according to their measure they may contribute to render glorious the kingdom of God.”

We have established the basic fact that the promises of God to Abraham were never made to his descendants in the flesh, but rather to his spiritual seed---that is, to those possessing a like faith with his. So the unbelieving descendants of Jacob were as much excluded from the spiritual blessings of the covenant as were the offspring of Ishmael and Esau. All who belong to Jesus have a joint heritage with Abraham. And the promises made to Abraham were not merely earthly promises. The following from Robert Haldane should be helpful in this respect:

“The land of Canaan was a type of the heavenly country. It was the inheritance given by promise to Abraham and his posterity: as his descendants after the flesh inherited the one, so his spiritual seed shall inherit the other. Canaan was the land of rest, after the toils and dangers of the wilderness. To make it a fit inheritance, and an emblem of that inheritance which is undefiled, and into which there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, it was clearly of the ungodly inhabitants. As the introduction of the people of Israel into this land was not effected by their own power or efforts, but by the unmerited goodness and power of God; so the children of God do not obtain possession of the heavenly inheritance by their own power or efforts, but by the free grace and power of God (Romans 9:16). As those who believed not were excluded from Canaan, so all unbelievers will be excluded from heaven. As Moses could not lead the people of Israel into Canaan, that honor being reserved for Joshua, so it is not by the law that the people of God shall enter Heaven, but by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the true Joshua. No other country on earth could have been selected as a fitter emblem of heaven: it is called in Scripture ‘the pleasant land’, ‘the glory of all lands’, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’.

This idea of Canaan as a type of heaven was understood by the patriarchs as is evident from a couple of passages.

· Heb 11:8, By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

That place which he was later to receive for an inheritance could not have been earthly Canaan as is clear from Acts 7:5.

· Acts 7:5, He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.

No, Abraham’s hope concerned a “heavenly country”. Our hope is the same as Abraham’s as is evidenced in Hebrews 6:17-20.

· Heb. 6:17-20, Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

So here in the Abrahamic covenant was a fuller unfolding of God’s plan made in the Everlasting Covenant. Just as a reminder, you will remember that the “Everlasting Covenant” was an agreement made in heaven between God the Father and Jesus, before creation, and it was an outline of God’s plan for the world and the salvation of the elect. These covenants that we are now studying are the gradual unfolding of that Eternal Covenant.

Now the promises to Abraham receive a double fulfillment: a “letter: and a “spirit”.

· Gen 17:4-7, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

In addition to the Israelites, Abraham was the father of the Ishmaelites and various others. These were all literal children.

The actual and ultimate accomplishment of Genesis 17:7 is in connection with the spiritual Israel, Abraham’s children by faith, and this by a “better covenant”: for with the true house of Israel He says,:

· Heb 8:10,12, This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. , For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

· Gen 17:8, The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

Israel’s conquest and occupation of the earthly Canaan in the days of Joshua was the figurative fulfillment of this promise. As we have just said, its spiritual fulfillment lies in the possession of the “better country” which those who are of the faith of Abraham will eternally inherit.

One thing we must keep in mind as we study the Old Testament, namely, that the things of earth were used to shadow the heavenly realities, types pointing to the antitypes. Just as Jesus was used by God in His earthly form to show us what God was like, so the stories and events of the Old Testament all have a spiritual meaning. Otherwise there is no value in their presence in the Scriptures. Take for example the “temple”: it was the “house of God” in the letter, but Jesus and His church are the house of God in the spirit. To call an earthly building “the house of God” is far below the sense in which that expression is used to describe the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ body (personal and mystical) is the only temple of which it is fully true.

Think about this: Solomon declared in 1 Kings 8:13, I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever." Now can you imagine a God who is greater than all the earth should live in an earthly and material building forever? The temporal things promised in the covenant are but images of better things which God has promised to bestow on Abraham’s believing children.

Now let’s review where we have been. The first great purpose of the covenant was to make known the stock, or line, from which the Messiah was to come. Second, this covenant revealed that God’s ultimate design was the worldwide diffusion of the benefits it announced. Before Nimrod, the whole race spoke one language and had a rather easy time communicating with each other. But when God confused their language at Babylon, they were scattered abroad, and as a result defected from God. When Abraham was called, and his family selected as a people to whom God was to communicate a knowledge of His will and call into His service, it would be natural to believe that God had abandoned all the other nations. But such a conclusion would be incorrect. The theocracy of Israel was only a temporary arrangement because “in Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed.”

So the Abrahamic covenant, taken as a whole, not only defined the particular line from which the Messiah was to come, but it placed in clearer light the relation which God was to condescend to redeem His people. It was a great enlargement of revelation; it was the Gospel in type. Paul refers again and again to the Abrahamic covenant as illustrating the privileges bestowed on Christians, and the basis of such favors---that being faith, as was the case with Abraham.

The covenant with Abraham was “one”, having a special spiritual meaning as well as a lesser temporal meaning. It is true that the contents of the covenant were of a mixed kind, involving both the natural descendants and the spiritual seed of Abraham. The promises were to receive a minor and major fulfillment. There was to be a temporary accomplishment of those promises to his offspring here on earth, and there was to be an eternal realization of them to his spiritual children in heaven.

All of Abraham’s descendants did not participate in the spiritual blessings promised to him. Nor do all the children of Christian parents enter into the privileges promised to Abraham, but only those which were eternally chosen, and who they are cannot be known until they believe.

The great thing that the covenant secured to Abraham was that he should have a seed, and that God would be the God of that seed; but Christians have no divine guarantee that He will be the God of their seed, nor even that they shall have any children at all. As a matter of fact, many of them have no descendants and therefore cannot have the covenant of Abraham.

Look at the original promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3.

· Gen. 12:2-3, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Now, has God promised every Christian that He will make him a great nation? or that He will make His name great? or that in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed?” Nothing could be further from the truth.

If we carefully examine these statements in Genesis 17:5-8, it will at once appear that they were not to be fulfilled in the case of all believers, in addition to Abraham himself. In that covenant God promises that Abraham should be a father of many nations, that kings would come out of him, God would give the land of Canaan to him and his descendants for an everlasting possession.

· Gen 17:5-8, No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

The covenant establishes no spiritual relation between Abraham and his offspring; and even less does it establish a spiritual relation between every believer and his children. Spiritual qualities cannot be propagated to carnal generations. Was Abraham the spiritual father of Ishmael or Esau? No indeed. Instead he was the father of all them that believe.

Abraham is called a “father” neither in a federal nor a spiritual sense, but because he is the head of the “faith clan” the prototype to which all believers are conformed. Christians are not under the Abrahamic covenant, though they are “blessed with him” by having their faith counted as righteousness.

Well how did the Abrahamic covenant relate to the Everlasting Covenant?

· It proclaimed the scope of divine mercy: some out of all nations were to be included in the election of grace.

· It made known the stock from which the Messiah was to come.

· It announced that faith alone was the basis for an interest in the promises.

· In Abraham being the father of all believers, shadowed the truth that Jesus is the Father of His own spiritual seed.

· Abraham’s call to leave his own country and become a sojourner in a strange land was a type of Christ leaving heaven and tabernacling on earth.

· As the heir of the world, Abraham foreshadowed Jesus as the heir of all things.

· Iin the promise of Canaan to his seed we have a figure of the heavenly inheritance which Jesus has procured for His people.

If there was one word that we should keep in mind regarding the Abrahamic covenant it would be “Promise”. This idea of promise will become much more significant as we get into the next study of the Sinaitic Covenant. It is well, also, to remember that the promises made to Abraham were to him and him alone, though a casual reading of the Scriptures seem to make the promises made to Abraham’s descendants also. This is a mistake, as we will take up in more detail later.