Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Genesis 12:1-3 | Date: October 23, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Wonderful songs and wonderful singing this morning. Before we begin, a couple of notes. First of all, I want to add my two cents worth. Isn’t it great to see Amelia here this week? It’s just a wonderful answer to prayer. Two Sundays ago, we were asking that God would be gracious and give healing. We’re thankful to see her today. Good to see Deborah Fossett back from college. It’s great to have her back. We take that every chance we can, that’s for sure.

Last week, as I mentioned in an e-mail to you this week, I had a senior moment. It’s getting to be more frequent. But I started talking about Pastor Boyd and intended to mention that it was his 75th birthday and somehow forgot that part of it. It’s kind of late now to sing happy birthday or any of that, but I do want to mention it again and just publicly say thanks to Pastor Boyd for his faithfulness here. We appreciate his service so much. Yes. Oh great, congratulations. I might have teased Pastor Boyd for getting so old, but then when I forgot the announcement, my memories, I kind of lost the ground for that.

I also wanted to mention the YRR this afternoon, the Young Reading Reformed meeting. Make sure that your kids are involved in that. It’s a wonderful opportunity for your kids. Take advantage of that. And then finally, I wanted to mention the Bible Doctrines class that I had offered to teach. Several of you have mentioned interest in that, and we’re kind of divided on when to meet, whether Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon. It seems like it’s tilting back to Sunday afternoon, Raul. If I ask again, it’ll probably tilt back the other way. It’s going back and forth. So please, if you’re interested in that, let me know. And now the question is, let me know if Sunday afternoon does not work for you. Right now, it’s kind of looking like that might be what we do. It would be like a Sunday afternoon, 4:30, 5 o’clock, just before the evening service. And again, that’s just once a month.

All right. Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. The title of the message this morning is “Abraham, the Covenant, and God’s Saving Purpose.” We’re trying to track out the Bible’s presentation of the doctrine of salvation, first of all, by showing that the Bible itself is a story of salvation. Two weeks ago, or three, whatever it was, we began with the Bible story, a gospel story, and we tried to survey the entire story of the Bible in one shot, showing that it is a story and that it is a story of rescue—a story of rescue that centers on the person of Jesus Christ and his work.

Then last time we began tracking that story again through the major covenants of scripture. We saw the Noahic covenant in which God promised Noah after the judgment of the flood that he would not destroy the earth like that again, but that he would preserve it. In short, that his creation purpose to bless still stands. And now we come to Genesis chapter 12 and the Abrahamic covenant, which is, again, a theme that is just about as big as the Bible itself. So sit back and get comfortable. I’ll try to let you get home for lunch today.

Genesis 12, let’s begin just with verses one through three:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to a land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'”

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer.

Our Father, we are grateful again for this time to meet together with the people of God and to direct our attention to your word and be instructed again from it. We ask that you will use this time for your glory and for our benefit. Direct our attention to Christ through this. Help us to see more deeply the great saving purpose of our God, and by it to come to love you more and to trust in our Lord Jesus more deeply, we ask in his name, amen.

Reflections on Genesis Chapters 1 Through 11

I’d like to begin by going back just a couple of pages in your Bible to Genesis chapter nine, an event that I did not mention. I think I might’ve alluded to it once in the message last time, but didn’t mention it really at all. And that is in Genesis nine, at the end of the chapter, after God establishes this covenant with Noah, there’s this incident, a shameful incident with Noah and Canaan, his grandson. And in the aftermath of that, Noah pronounces a judgment on Canaan, and also some prophecy here regarding Japheth and Shem as well. And what I want to focus on simply is verse 26 of chapter 9, where Noah says also, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”

It would seem that this prophecy was fulfilled in the Israelites’ conquering of the Canaanites. But what we want to focus on is, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.” That is, God is promising some kind of particular relationship, a special relationship with Shem. Now not a lot of other information is given to us at this point yet, but we have that, that Shem and his descendants will be particularly blessed.

Now back up again, some reflections on chapters 1 through 11 of Genesis that bring us to chapter 12. In Genesis 1 and 2—and I want you just to think in broad strokes here of what’s been happening and what Moses is recording for us so quickly in these first 11 chapters—in chapters 1 and 2, God steps into a ruined creation and establishes order. Genesis chapter 3, in response to rebellion and in the midst of judgment, God makes a promise of a champion who will come. In Genesis chapter four, in the aftermath of fratricide, God establishes a strange protective relationship with the guilty party, Cain. In Genesis 6 through 9, we find that humanity has progressed in sin to the point that God must destroy it. But God saves a remnant out of it and makes a promise: “I’ll never destroy the earth like this again.”

Do you detect a trend? Creation is in disorder; God brings it into order. In the aftermath of human rebellion, an attempted coup as it were, God promises a champion to come and fix the whole problem. Genesis 6 to 9, we’ve got the judgment of the flood, and in the aftermath, God makes a promise that this won’t happen again. “I’ll preserve the earth. I’ll preserve the world order. I’ll preserve humanity to carry on the blessing that I’ve determined to give it.” God is determined to carry on with his purpose to bless his creation.

Then we come now to chapters 10 and 11. We have more sin. We have the Tower of Babel. We have man’s supreme self-assertion against God, progressing more into sin. And if the theme continues that we’ve seen this far, we would expect some kind of blessing to come through a descendant of Shem because God made that promise through Noah regarding Shem: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.” And that is the backdrop now to chapter 12, in fact, when God comes and we have the call of Abram. God chooses Abram, makes a promise with him that he’ll bless the world through him. And so it’s narrowed a bit further.

Backing up again, Genesis chapters 3 to 11, the overarching theme of the whole thing—repeated several times over—is that of sin and the moral failure of humanity progressing more and more into its sin and rebellion against God. And so we have humanity in rebellion, humanity estranged from God, humanity unwilling and guilty. We’ve come a long way from Genesis chapters 1 and 2, and a stark contrast between them. And by the time we get to the end of chapter 11, we might wonder, is God going to continue this purpose to bless or not? Humanity is progressively worse and worse and determined in its sin. And in response to all of that, God does not just, as we sang, rip out the page, but rather he chooses one man from the family of Shem, makes a promise that through you, I’ll bless the whole world.

In fact, there’s something of a setup for that as well in chapters 10 and 11. If you’ll glance back at chapter 10, you’ll see these are the descendants or the generations of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. That is, now he’s going to track out for us the descendants that come from the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And so we have, first of all, look at the expression in verse five from these: “the coastland,” this is from Japheth’s line, “from these the coastland people spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their families in the nations,” or by their clans in their nations. Next, verse six, we come to the descendants of Ham. And that is summarized for us down in verse 20: “These are the sons of Ham by their families,” or by their clans, “their languages, their lands, and their nations.” And then verse 21 picks up with Shem, and verse 31 summarizes: “These are the sons of Shem by their families and clans and their languages, their lands and their nations.” And then another summary, verse 32: “These are the families of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies.”

So we have this setup for us of how humanity has spread into its various clans. In fact, secular archaeologists and historians look at this and find it just a fascinating document because of the detailed accuracy with which it tracks out the migrations and the formations of the various people groups of the world. We look at that—we believe the Bible is the word of God—and we say, “Well, duh, what did you expect?” But they look at that with great surprise, that, wow, this has really tracked out humanity in a highly accurate way. But notice how it tracks this: by the families of Noah, the families of Shem, the families of Japheth, the families of Ham. And then we come and we have that expression, “the families of,” one more time, and that’s chapter 12 and verse 3: “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

So he’s tracked it out for us. He’s shown us the rebellion of the Tower of Babel in chapter 11. And now these very families of the earth, having been scattered to their various places after Babel because of their sin, still God is determined to bless them and in fact to bless them all. “In you shall all the families, all the clans of the world will be blessed.”

The Covenant With Abraham

Now, in that respect then, the covenant with Abraham in chapter 12, that’s introduced for us in chapter 12, is a great turning point in redemptive history. I think I mentioned in our first message, in Genesis 3:15, we have a real moment in the history of redemption. And in fact, there’s a sense in which we ought to say that all the rest of the Bible and all of the rest of history is an outworking of Genesis 3:15. Well, now we have another moment like that in Genesis chapter 12.

Here we have a turning point in redemptive history. God had promised a peculiar relationship with Shem, and that seems to be telling us that he’s going to continue with his promise of Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. Hope is resumed again. Centuries now have passed. Sin continues to deepen and spread. And now with Abraham, the hope is renewed once again. So chapters 1 through 11 narrate the creation, the fall, and the consequences of it all. And it raises the question, how can this problem of human sin be remedied? How can God continue with his purpose to bless humanity that began back at creation?

And the answer is given to us in chapter 12, that God has made a promise to Abraham that he will do it. And all from Genesis 12 on through the end of Genesis, through Exodus, through Leviticus, through Numbers, and through Deuteronomy, we have the tracking out, sketching out the answer to this problem that is set up for us in Genesis 1 through 11. How shall fellowship with God be reestablished with sinful humanity? Well, the answer to that is sketched out, and the answer is rooted in this promise that God makes to Abraham that’s introduced in chapter 12 here.

And in fact, it tracks it beyond Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In fact, the rest of the Bible is an unpacking of this promise God has established in an oath that he will bless the world through Abraham. And so in Exodus, all through the rest of Genesis, we have the establishing of the nation, the people. Chapter 8, in the book of Exodus, we have the nation itself established before God at Sinai. We have the worship of the nation established in Leviticus. We have the wilderness wanderings coming back in now to enter the land then finally in Deuteronomy. And then we take it into Joshua where they take the land, and then through the kings, and failure after failure, and yet behind it all is this promise that God would bless the world through Abraham and through his seed.

And so the covenant here that God makes sets the agenda for the rest of world history and really for the rest of the scriptures. It’s the turning point, or you might say the focal point, of redemptive history. God has said he will bless the world through Abraham.

Concerning Abraham himself, we’re introduced to him here as a man of the Ur, a resident of Ur of the Chaldees. Ur was a wealthy, populous, sophisticated pagan center of southern Mesopotamia. We are told from Joshua chapter 24 that the residents of Ur—and the implication is Abraham and Terah, his father, also—worshiped the moon god. There’s no hint here in the genealogies or anywhere else that Abraham is a particularly faithful man when God comes to him. But God comes to him out of the blue, as it were, and so this is another study in divine initiative and another study in divine grace. Whatever else we know about this covenant, we know already that this is a covenant of grace. This is a gracious promise that God has given. And he selects a man who doesn’t know him, and God makes his promise.

So if in Genesis 3:15 God promises a champion, and if in chapter 8 and chapter 9 God promises to preserve humanity, now in chapter 12 verses 1 through 3 he promises to bless the whole world through one man, Abraham. All right then, the covenant itself is introduced to us in chapter 12. It is formally made in chapter 15. It is reaffirmed through other chapters and passages in Genesis as well. But here it’s introduced in chapter 12.

Look at verses two and three again. Chapter 12, verse two, he’ll make Abraham a great nation. At this point, Abraham has no son, no heir. Verse two again, “I will bless you and make your name great.” Again, he’ll make Abraham not only a blessing, but he’ll make his name great. He will, the rest of verse two, make him a blessing to others. Not only will Abraham be blessed, but he will be the channel of blessing to others. Verse three: Blessing and curse will depend upon their treatment of Abraham. A great protective relationship is established with Abraham. And then verse three at the end, “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Verses four and following, Abraham and Sarah travel to Canaan. God appears to him again in verse seven and reaffirms the promise. And that is, “I’ll give you lots of descendants, and I’ll give you this land.” The Lord appeared to Abraham: “To your offspring, I will give you this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord. And with this emphasis on the seed of Abraham, the offspring of Abraham, that multiplying theme from Genesis chapter one and two is resumed again. Remember the command, the creation mandate to Adam was to multiply: be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth. That is as God’s vice-regents imaging God in the earth to spread his reign throughout the earth. That is picked up again here now with Abraham and the promise of seed.

Chapter 13, if you like, verses 14 to 17, God appears to Abram again, this time at Bethel, and again he promises land and innumerable descendants. He says your descendants will be like the dust of the earth. Keep in mind, Abraham still has no son. And then chapter 15, God speaks to Abram again, and he says, “You will have innumerable descendants.” And you remember he takes them out and says, “Abram, look at the sky. You see all those stars? That’s how many children you’ll have.” And again, Abraham, an old man with no son yet.

Chapter 17, we have another confirmation that Abraham will have seed, an innumerable number of children that come from him. Still, he hasn’t had any children of his own yet. And in fact, in chapter 17, God changes Abram’s name from Abram to Abraham. Abram means “exalted father.” We might say, in Southern speak, Pastor Greg might say, “big daddy,” exalted father. And then he changes his name: “You’re no longer going to be called exalted father. You’re going to be called Abraham, father of a multitude.”

Can you imagine Abraham in his travels meets somebody? “What’s your name?” “Big daddy.” “How many children do you have?” “Oh, well, I don’t have any yet.” “And how old are you?” “75.” That’s pretty funny. And now he’s going on—”What’s your name?” “Really big daddy.” “How many children do you have?” “I don’t have any.” That’s pretty funny.

And throughout then the rest of Genesis, we have this theme of the threat of the development of Abram’s seed. How can it ever come? And you’ve got the barrenness. You not only have the old age of Abraham and Sarah, but you have the barrenness of Sarah, the barrenness of Rebecca, the barrenness of Rachel. You have the family hostilities late in the book. You have the question in chapter 22, is Isaac—finally he’s here—is Isaac even going to live? You have the threats from the Egyptian and the Philistine monarchs. You have the whole Hagar incident. How about through Hagar? No! It’s going to be through Sarah. Sarah laughs. You remember back in chapter 17, 18? Sarah laughs. You remember how God responds? “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” Do you really think that this God who created the world by speaking can have any trouble giving an old woman a baby?

God reaffirms the promise in chapter 22. From chapter 17 and 22, he goes to great lengths to emphasize, “I’ll multiply you greatly. You’ll be the father of a multitude of nations. I’ll make you exceedingly fruitful. I’ll make you into nations. Kings will come from you. I’ll multiply your offspring like the stars, like the dust of the earth. And in you and in your seed, all of the nations of the world will be blessed.” In chapter 22 it says that God swears on an oath. And he says he swears, “I swear by myself,” which is an interesting statement. Hebrews picks up on that, you remember in chapter six, when someone makes an oath and swears an oath, we swear by someone greater. In that world, you swear by an ancestor or something like that. But how does God swear by anything greater? So he swears by himself: “I’m going to make you a great multitude of children.” The writer of the Hebrews, by the way, picks that up and grounds our gospel promise and gospel hope in that, but I’m getting ahead of myself with that.

And so in Genesis, Moses carefully tracks out for us the numerical growth of Abraham’s seed. When we come to the end of the book, late in the book, we finally see that with his children and their children, God has been faithful to the covenant in establishing this. And again, the whole flow of Genesis is tracking out the Abrahamic family through his seed. And again, that is tracked out as what lies behind not only the book of Genesis, but then through the rest of the Pentateuch and establishing the nation of Israel, bringing them into the land in Joshua, the kings and so on.

And even in light of Israel’s constant rebellion against God, God continues faithful with his promise to Abraham. And in fact, we find the statement in Malachi, “I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore,” get the logic, “I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” If this thing depended on you, you’d have been goners long ago. But God says, “I made a promise. I made a promise to your father Abraham, and I don’t change.”

The Seed of Abraham

So Israel is the seed of Abraham. It is the nation that was promised. But the promise is broader than that. In virtually all of these passages we have it emphasized that not only will a nation come from Abraham, but in him all the nations, all the families, in fact, of the world will be blessed, and many nations will come from him. He’ll be the father of a multitude. It’ll be like the stars and like the sand, if you can count that far. God has bigger plans than just the nation of Israel.

Later Old Testament writers begin to pick up on all of this. I don’t have time to track it out—already I’ve gone longer on this than I expected. Later Old Testament writers pick up on all of this. For example, in Isaiah, in the servant song, the fourth servant song, we have the servant giving himself an offering for sin and by that establishing his seed. And in the introduction to that, we have the statement, “So shall he sprinkle many nations.” And in fact, through the Psalms and the prophets, we have this theme of the nations rejoicing at the coming of God and the coming of his Messiah, and so on. So this theme is big. God will bless Abraham. His family will expand. And in fact, in his seed, the whole world will be blessed. Huge purview.

And yet I want you to notice, with all of that in mind—and it was much too brief, but with all of that in mind—look over at Matthew chapter 1. And I want you to see how the New Testament writers pick up on this theme, and in a sense, narrow it. Matthew chapter 1, verse 1: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, the son of Abraham.” Wow. This is an Israelite. It’s a Jewish man. Of course he’s the son of Abraham. What is the point of mentioning that? Is he assuming here that Jesus is the seed of Abraham that was promised? Why else would he mention it like this? Except as to say, just like he is the promised seed of David, he is also the promised seed of Abraham.

In fact, look over at Galatians chapter three. We’ll see how the Apostle Paul makes this point as well. Galatians chapter three. A lot of discussion, a lot of ink has been spilt on this verse. What kind of an exegete is Paul to draw this kind of conclusion? Notice what he says, Galatians 3:16: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed,” to his offspring. And notice what he presses here: “It does not say ‘to seeds’ or ‘to offsprings,’ plural, referring to many, but to one, ‘and to your offspring,’ who is Christ.”

So he takes one tiny grammatical point from God’s promise to Abraham. It was singular. And therefore, it has to refer to one person, and therefore, that has to be Christ. Now that is really tough. How does Paul get there? Because in fact, “seed” is what we call a collective noun, right? When you say seed, you can mean one or you can mean many just as easily. It’s like hair, a collective noun. You don’t say, “I’m going to go get my hairs cut.” Well, at least most people don’t talk like that. And you don’t usually say, “Oh, she has beautiful hairs.” Hair is a collective noun. Beautiful hair. It’s the same with seed. It can be a collective, speaking of many. Or I can speak of one.

How does Paul know that it should be taken in a singular way? Well, there have been a lot of studies on that, and one of the most compelling that I’ve seen is that he’s referring here to Genesis 22 verse 18, which must be taken in a singular way. But I think there might be an easier explanation, and that is Genesis 3:15: “He, he will crush your head.” And picking up on that in the Abrahamic promise, it must mean that that promised champion will come through Abraham and he will be the seed through whom the world is blessed. There’s some hints of that, by the way, in the prophets as well, where the servant of the Lord or the Messiah is pictured as the quintessential Israelite who becomes the representative Israel in whom Israel inherits her promises and so on.

So the New Testament writers narrow the promise of Abraham to one, to Jesus. But yet, what’s interesting is you’ll find here in Galatians 3, and other places as well, that they understand Abraham’s promised seed still in a broader sense as well as in the narrower sense with Jesus. So look, for example, let’s start with verse 6. Paul in Galatians 3 is speaking of the fact that salvation has come by grace through faith and not by works. And here in verse 6, he gives Abraham as the illustration: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Here he quotes from Genesis chapter 15 and verse 6. That’s the language exactly out of Genesis 15:6. God makes a promise to Abraham. This is when he makes the covenant with him in Genesis 15. And Abraham in response, it says, believed God. We might even say, Abraham “amened” God. Because in fact, the Hebrew word for believed is amen. He “amened” God; he said, “That’s great, amen, I believe you.” Abraham believed God and through faith he was justified.

Verse seven: “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Is he saying that we then enter the promises of Abraham by faith as he did? Well, it would certainly seem so. Look at verse 8: “And the scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles,” there we are, “would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” He characterizes the Abrahamic promise as God proclaiming the gospel to Abraham, which when Abraham believed it, he was justified. And now he is saying, verse seven, or verses six through eight, that by our faith, we enter into the Abrahamic promise as well and become his children. So he draws that conclusion, verse nine: “God preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then,” so he’s drawing a conclusion, “those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

So by faith, we are joined to Abraham and enter into the promises made to him and to his seed. Now, how is that? Answer, beginning with verse 10, he begins to speak of the work of Christ. For—notice the connector there; he’s explaining himself—”For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse because it’s written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all things written in the book of the law and do them.'” That is, you might have thought that if you keep the law, you could belong to Abraham’s children and be blessed with Abraham. No, Paul says, that’s not going to happen because the law demands more than you can ever do. If you go trying to keep the law as a basis of fellowship with God, you’re under a curse. The unspoken assumption here is that because you’ve never kept it that well.

And so, verse 11: “It is evident that no one is justified by God by the law, for ‘the righteous shall live by faith.'” There he quotes Habakkuk. “But the law is not faith, rather ‘the one who does them shall live by them.'” The law demands something out of you that you can’t do well enough. So then how do we fix the problem? Verse 13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'” And here we have the marvelous doctrine of substitution—that Christ, the seed of Abraham, took to himself the sins of his people and became a curse in their place, thereby redeeming us from the curse that was ours.

There is a hint of this—we don’t have time to go back through it—but there is a hint of this in Genesis chapter 15. God makes a promise to Abraham: “You see the stars? That’s how many children you’re going to have.” Abraham says, “I believe you.” How in the world is that going to happen? And to confirm it, God says, “I’m going to make an oath.” And you remember that strange ceremony that they go through in Genesis chapter 15? That’s how covenants were cut in the Old Testament world. That’s the language they used, to “cut a covenant.” Because, it seems, because the ceremony went like this: you take a ram and you take a heifer, you cut them in half and you lay the pieces on each side over here. Same with the heifer, same with the goats, the rams. And you lay the pieces of animals on either side, and then the parties walk through between them, affirming that, “I will keep the terms of this covenant, and if I don’t keep the terms of this covenant, may it be to me like it’s been to these animals here that have been cut in half.”

So we have the ceremony, and the animals are cut, they’re laid on each side, and God makes Abraham take a nap. And you remember God himself passes between the animals, taking to himself the responsibilities for both sides, saying to himself and saying to Abraham, “May it happen to me as it has happened to these, if either of us shall fail in the responsibilities of this covenant.” So God himself takes the responsibilities of both parties, even the failures, and he offers himself up here in Galatians 3, described in terms of taking our place as bearing our curse, taking our sin.

And so he says, “Cursed is everyone,” verse 13, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” And now verse 14, notice the purpose clause: “So that,” all of this for what purpose? “So that in Christ Jesus,” there’s our union with Christ, “in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.” Look at that. “So that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.” That is, the promise made to Abraham becomes ours through faith in Christ, who is the seed of Abraham, and joined and in union with Christ, the seed—that’s verse 16 that he emphasized, the seed of Abraham—joined to him by faith, we become Abraham’s children and enjoy the promises made to him.

And so Abraham’s covenant, the covenant that God made with Abraham, was a promise of grace that finally finds its realization in the gospel. Paul says that here in Galatians 3. Christ is the promised seed of Abraham and in him believers also receive the promise. And that’s why, by the way, at the end of the chapter, if you’ll glance down to verses 28 and 29, Paul can say, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there’s neither slave nor free, there’s neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” All of these distinctions are erased by union with Christ. Abraham’s seed, we come to take part in the promises made to Abraham.

So this then is a gracious covenant. God himself will do what is necessary in order to secure the promises made to Abraham so that it will be given freely. And that is why the whole emphasis of this entire chapter, Galatians 3, and so much of the New Testament is that the promise is by faith alone, by faith alone. And the promise comes to us by faith alone precisely because it is by grace alone. Paul makes that point in Romans chapter 4 verses 16 and 17, that it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace. You see that? It depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the inheritance of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written—and here he connects it to the covenant—”I have made you the father of many nations.”

And so Christ then is the pivot. He’s the promised seed in whom by faith both rebellious Israel and the pagan Gentiles inherit the Abrahamic promise. In him, in Abraham’s seed par excellence, all the families of the earth are blessed.

We find this reflected in an interesting way, I think. We won’t take time to turn. An interesting way, I think, in John chapter 12. Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem. Some of the Greeks come to the disciples and say, “We would see Jesus. We want to talk to Jesus.” And here we have this lovely example of how not to do evangelism. Greeks come and say, “We want to see Jesus.” And the disciples respond, “Hold off on that. Not sure. Greeks, Gentiles, not so sure about that. Just wait.” So they go see Jesus. “There’s some Greeks out here that want to see you.” You remember how Jesus starts talking? “You don’t have a plant unless you drop the seed in the ground and it dies. And then it brings life and you have a harvest. And if I be lifted up,” and John clarifies for us this as he spoke concerning the death he would die, “if I be lifted up,” that is, lifted up on a cross, “if I be lifted up, I’ll draw all peoples to myself.”

It is at the cross Abraham’s blessings are secured and now the message of faith goes out to the world. You too may be blessed in Father Abraham through faith in his promised seed, Jesus Christ. And so after his death and resurrection, Jesus says to his disciples, and now repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all the nations. Or as Jesus says just before his ascension, “All authority,” universal authority, “all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” And here we have this “be fruitful and multiply” theme again coming up. Take it to the nations and tell them all they may be blessed in Father Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ.

We turn the page and we have it tracked out for us in the book of Acts. “You’ll be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.” And Luke records for us Paul’s missionary travels where he takes the gospel. And we have these intermittent reviews through the book of Acts: “And the word of God grew and was multiplied. And the word of God grew and it was multiplied. And the word of God grew and it was multiplied.” And Paul takes the gospel to all of the nations, finally to Europe, and finally to you and to me. And the message goes out from Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20 through the book of Acts and throughout the history of the church. Whoever you are, wherever you have been, whatever you’ve done, you may be blessed in the blessings of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. Come and believe in him.

The Culmination of the Promise

It culminates for us in the book of Revelation. We find it in chapter 5, where men and women from every nation and tribe and tongue sit around the throne singing praises to the Lamb who has redeemed us by his blood, out of every nation, tribe, and kindred, and tongue.

This is too fast to do justice to all of this, and questions remain still with regard to eschatology, the land promise to Israel, all of those things that need to be hashed out. But there can be no question that this is the broad picture, that Christ is the pivot in whom the Abrahamic blessings are secured. Way back at the first rebellion, God did not destroy, but he determined to bless. He promised Eve a champion. He promised Noah that he would preserve the world order to carry out his blessing. He promised Abraham a seed in whom the world would be blessed, and that agenda has never been abandoned. It was reaffirmed. It was pledged on a solemn oath over and over again, and it was secured at God’s own cost.

And that is what God is doing today. The whole purpose of this age is to take the gospel out to you, to me, and to all of his people. And it really is a marvelous prospect that we have with that. A marvelous prospect with regard to the end. The prophet Habakkuk puts it this way: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isn’t that just powerfully suggestive?

In Revelation chapter 21, the Apostle John gives us a description, a fantastic description of the new heaven and the new earth. He tells us its measurements, the brilliance of it, the glory of its gates, the glory of its foundations, the glory of its streets even. He tells us with the measurements of the new heaven and new earth. He tells us the measurements are, well, you remember these great numbers, a perfect cube-shaped city. Perfect cube. Well, the only other cube-shaped anywhere in the whole Bible is the Holy of Holies. This is going to be the presence of God himself.

And he tells us there will be no temple there. Don’t need that. God is there. And the Lamb. There’ll be no sun there. There’ll be no moon there. God and the Lamb are there. There’ll be no night there because God is there. And he tells us the gates will never be closed. No threat; you don’t have to close gates. And he tells us that on the gates and on the foundations are inscribed the names of the 12 sons of Israel and the names of the 12 apostles. That this is the identity of the city. Here God’s promise to Abraham has come true. Here we have the realization of the Abrahamic promise that in his seed all the families of the earth will be blessed.

And John comments for us that by the light of this city will the nations walk. And the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. A world reclaimed to the glory of God. Men and women from every tribe and every family and every clan confessing the same Lord, blessed in the very presence of God himself. Blessing promised, blessing secured, blessing brought to culmination. And so the heartthrob of the church has been ever since, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” And in the meantime we pray:

Pity the nations, O our God,
Compel the earth to come;
Send thy victorious word abroad,
And bring the stranger home.

Amen. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we’re grateful for your saving purpose. All we can say is that this is grace like we’ve never seen. To a world of unanimous rebellion against you, you’ve determined not to save just a few, but a great multitude from every tribe and tongue under heaven. We thank you for your grace; we thank you for Christ in whom these promises are realized. We’re thankful for your grace that in him you have taken to yourself the responsibilities that were ours and have taken the punishment of our sins so that we may enjoy the blessing of Abraham. We thank you for all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Thank you.