The Divine Covenants

The Abrahamic Covenant (Part 5)

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.