The Gospel in Real Life

God’s word, the Bible, is amazing! It’s amazing to see the plan God has set in motion in human history and to see how he’s accomplishing that plan, down to the smallest detail. The flow of human history is never beyond his control or out of his control. Everything that happens in human history, happens because he pre-determined it and every detail of human history serves the bigger purpose of accomplishing what God wills to accomplish in bringing it to its climax in Christ and ultimately, to its close (Ephesians 1:11). God’s sovereign will is accomplished in every detail and the details add up to the big picture in redemptive history. In the Bible, God has graciously cracked open the door to redemptive history just enough for us to understand the big picture, minus all the secret details, of what he intends to accomplish in human history.

One of the best ways to understand the big picture of what God is doing in human history is to look at the major covenants in Scripture that God has initiated. This is especially true with the Abrahamic covenant because of all of the covenants that God has made with man, the execution of the promises in the Abrahamic covenant span most of redemptive history and this covenant reveals what God is doing in redemptive history: His plan is to save a people and bring them into a land. The rest of Scripture is the playing out of the Abrahamic covenant. In this paper, we’ll discover that this important covenant is first played out with Abraham’s physical descendants in the Old Testament, and then it’s played out with Abraham’s spiritual descendants in the New Testament. Understanding the Abrahamic covenant will help our understanding of how the Bible fits together and how the Old and New Testaments relate to one another. It also gives us a good introduction to other gospel pictures in the Old Testament such as circumcision and Sabbath rest.

The word “covenant” is a high-profile word in the Bible and it is used to describe an agreement, commitment, or contract where two parties promise, agree, or “covenant” to keep the specific terms of that covenant. The concept of “cutting a covenant” is illustrated in Genesis 15:9-18.  Animals were sacrificed and their carcasses were then cut in half and laid side-by-side with a walkway in the middle. The parties making the covenant would then walk between the pieces of the slaughtered animals, which illustrated their agreement to the terms of the covenant being made. In essence, the two parties of the covenant were saying to one another, “May what happened to these slaughtered animals happen to me, and worse, if I fail to keep the terms of this covenant.” In the case of Abraham, in the passage cited above, only God passed between the animal carcasses (symbolized in the burning pot) because the covenant that he made with Abraham was unconditional and unilateral. In the words of the book of Hebrews,

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” (Hebrews 6:13-14)

There were no conditions placed on Abraham in order to receive the promises contained in the covenant, because there was nothing he could do, or needed to do, to benefit from the gracious covenant God made with him. That is because it was a gospel covenant. God was preaching the gospel to Abraham and there was nothing that Abraham could do to earn it, add to it, or diminish from it. God loved Abraham unconditionally. Let’s unpack this.

The Gospel in Advance of the Gospel
Paul made a startling statement to the Galatians concerning the Abrahamic Covenant:

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” (Galatians 3:8)

The message of the covenant that God made with Abraham was the message of the gospel.  When God said to Abraham, “In you shall all the nations be blessed”, it translates into a promise that God was going to one day, justify the Gentiles (the nations) by faith.  In other words, through Abraham, God was going to save a people – a lot of people. When Paul says that the gospel was preached beforehand, or in advance, he means that it was revealed to Abraham before it actually happened historically – before the cross, the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, and the beginning of the Church. The covenant with Abraham is stated on three different occasions. Let’s look at each one because it will help our discussion.  All three are in the Book of Genesis. Please read these three passages thoughtfully.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the 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.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15:1-16)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8)

The version of the gospel that Abraham received was pretty veiled. I don’t think you and I would share the gospel today in those same words. I don’t think we would begin by saying, “Did you know that in Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed?” We could start it that way, but I doubt we would because in light of the New Testament, Abraham’s version is vague and unclear. There’s no mention of Jesus by name, or the cross, or repentance. And yet it’s the gospel. But it’s the gospel preached before the gospel age, making it void of all the details that you and I know about.

God’s Plan in Redemptive History: Save a People and Bring them into a Land
In each of the three passages that I sighted above, the gospel message in the Abrahamic covenant, the promise that all nations would be blessed, will be executed like this: God is going to create a people, rescue them from slavery, and bring them into a Promised Land where they will experience rest. The rest of Scripture is a record of how this covenant with Abraham is executed, or played out. This is important to our discussion and to our understanding of what God is doing in redemptive history: God’s plan to save a people and bring them into a land is played out in two parts or two halves in Scripture. First, it is played out with the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac, in the Old Testament nation of Israel. Second, it is played out with the spiritual descendants of Abraham, the church. The first half is accomplished under the Old Covenant (historically, from Exodus 19 – Acts 2) and the second half is being accomplished now in the New Covenant (Acts 2 – the second coming). We can say that the promises to Abraham are first pictured under the Old Covenant with a physical people, and then fulfilled under the New Covenant with a spiritual people, the church. Under the age of the Old Covenant, we see God’s promise to Abraham physically pictured or illustrated as he redeems Israel from slavery in Egypt and brings them into Palestine, the physical Promised Land. Under the New Covenant, God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled in a spiritual people (the church) as they are redeemed from slavery to sin and brought into a spiritual land, heaven (cf. Galatians 4:21-31). As I mentioned earlier, if we can wrap our minds around this two-part structure, it will help us see that the Abrahamic Covenant is one of the most significant covenants in Scripture because it not only reveals God’s redemptive intention with mankind, but it also gives us a very helpful glimpse into how Scripture fits together. The promises to Abraham are played out in two halves, the Old Covenant physical descendants of Abraham and the New Covenant spiritual descendants. Both of those covenants are contained within the Abrahamic Covenant. Let’s look more closely at this.

Abraham’s Physical Descendants
The Abrahamic covenant is first played out in physical types and pictures with Abraham’s physical descendants, beginning with Isaac. As we noted above, the promise is given to Abraham this way:

And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” (Genesis 15:3-4)

While Abraham had many other physical descendants, the promise of the gospel is specific to Isaac, then Jacob, then Joseph, eventuating in the Old Testament nation of Israel in the closing chapters of Genesis and the opening chapter of Exodus. We see God’s promise to create a people, redeem them from slavery, and bring them into the Promised Land played out first with the physical nation of Israel as they are physically created through Isaac and the Patriarchs, physically redeemed from slavery in Egypt, and physically brought into Canaan, the physical Promised Land. All of this is in fulfillment of the literal, physical promises made to Abraham and God delivered on his promises flawlessly (Acts 7:1-7). This is the story that is played out for us in most of the Old Testament and more specifically, in the era of the Old Covenant, beginning in Exodus chapter 19. God created a physical people, Israel, redeemed them from physical slavery in Egypt, and brought them safely into a physical land, Palestine. In fact, when reading the book of Joshua, we might be tempted to think that the story is finished and that the promises to Abraham are all completely fulfilled because Joshua plainly tells us that Israel rested in the land and every promise was fulfilled (see Joshua 21:43-45). But the New Testament gives us more information by telling us that there is also a spiritual fulfillment to the Abrahamic Covenant that was dependent on the inauguration of the New Covenant and the cross of Christ.

All of the physical descendants of Abraham were included in the covenant made with Abraham.  All who received the sign of the covenant (circumcision) were a part of the covenant physically (Genesis 17, 21:13, Joshua 24:1-4).  Through Isaac, the Old Covenant nation of Israel served as a physical picture of God’s plan to save a people and bring them into a land.  The nation of Israel enjoyed special national status and a national adoption (Genesis 17:15-22, Romans 9:6-9, Exodus 4:22). James Haldane stated this well in his commentary on the book of Hebrews:

God adopted Israel after the flesh to be his peculiar people, in virtue of their being the seed of Abraham, and consequently related to Christ; but it was a carnal relation; hence Israel were blessed with all carnal blessings in earthly places, namely, the land flowing with milk and honey.  But the true Israel, in virtue of their spiritual relation to Christ, are blessed in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  James A. Haldane, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Particular Baptist Press, 2002), 214

Abraham’s Spiritual Descendants
The history of the physical offspring of Abraham as recorded in the Old Testament is only the first half of the story. The story gets better. There is a New Covenant. Israel served as a physical picture of the true people of God (the church – comprised of both Jew and Gentile) that would fully emerge in the era of the New Covenant.  The special privileges that Israel enjoyed as Abraham’s descendants through Isaac illustrated the spiritual blessings that would one day be enjoyed by the church (1 Peter 2:9-10).  The promises in the Abrahamic covenant are the gospel message that all nations (Jew and Gentile) would be blessed by Abraham’s offspring and his ultimate offspring is Christ and those in Him, the church (Galatians 3:29).

We can summarize what we’ve said thus far by saying that God’s plan in human history to save a people and bring them into a land has two parts. First, it is physically PICTURED in the Old Covenant by the physical redemption of Israel from Egypt and their deliverance into a physical land, Palestine. Once the time of the physical picture was over and the New Covenant began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), the promise to Abraham is FULFILLED spiritually and ultimately in the Church, the true people of God. In the picture of redemption under the Old Covenant, the promises to Abraham were physically pictured and illustrated in the nation of Israel. Under the New Covenant, the promises to Abraham see their full and ultimate fulfillment in Christ, the one true seed of Abraham, and all of those in Christ (the church) are Abraham’s true the spiritual descendants (Galatians 3:29).

Israel’s Physical Rest is a Picture of Spiritual Rest
Old Covenant Israel enjoyed physical rest in the Promised Land, but not true spiritual rest (Joshua 21:43-45; Acts 7:1-7). Once Israel took possession of the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership, they experienced physical rest from their physical enemies. We’re clearly told this in the Book of Joshua:

Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45- Emphasis added)

A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them… (Joshua 23:1-2 – Emphasis added)

Part of the experience of entering the Promised Land was rest. But the rest that Israel experienced as a nation was physical and temporary. It was not an end in and of itself, but it was a picture of true spiritual rest. The New Testament gives us more information and tells us that Israel’s rest was only a temporary physical picture that pointed to something greater.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:14-19 – Emphasis added)

In the book of Joshua, we are told plainly that Israel experienced rest in the Promised Land. But in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, we are told that they didn’t enter into rest. This is because the writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 95:7-11 and he is reminding us that the generation that came out of Egypt was condemned to wander for 40 years and then die in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land. In Psalm 95, God swore on oath that the Exodus generation whom he had rescued from Egyptian slavery would never experience the physical rest provided in the Promised Land because of rebellion, sin, disobedience, and unbelief. But the generation that followed under the leadership of Joshua did enter the physical rest that God provided in the Promised Land. But that physical rest was only intended to illustrate true spiritual rest. The writer of Hebrews continues:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” …. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:1-3, 8-9 – Emphasis added)

This might look like a contradiction in Scripture because in the book of Joshua, we’re told that Israel rested after taking the Promised Land, but the book of Hebrews says they didn’t enter into rest. But it’s not a contradiction. Here’s what’s going on. The generation that came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership didn’t go into the Promised Land at all because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). The subsequent generation did enter the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership and they did enjoy physical rest (Joshua 21:43-45), but physical rest isn’t the point. The writer of Hebrews is telling us that Israel’s physical rest is only a picture of true spiritual rest – salvation and ultimately, heaven – that only the true people of God receive. If Joshua had been able to give them that kind of rest, the story would be over because the promise to Abraham was the promise of the gospel (Galatians 3:8) and in the gospel, we receive true rest, salvation and heaven, and Joshua couldn’t give them that kind of rest. Israel entering the Promised Land is a picture of a believer entering salvation rest and ultimately, heaven. The Promised Land was a picture of salvation and ultimately, heaven.  Israel’s rest was a physical picture of true spiritual rest, the forgiveness of sin, salvation, and ultimately, heaven. In this way, the Abrahamic Covenant contains both the Old and the New Covenants and the Old is a physical picture of the New.

The Abrahamic Covenant Introduces Imputation and Justification by Faith Alone
The Abrahamic Covenant is a covenant of promise. The gospel was announced in advance and imputation is introduced in the Abrahamic Covenant.  Abraham experienced the forgiveness of sin, received the gift of saving faith and imputed righteousness, apart from anything he did – apart from works.  All who believe get everything Christ purchased for them placed freely into their account (imputed righteousness) apart from law or works.

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. (Romans 4:1-5)

There was nothing that Abraham did or could do to earn the righteousness that was freely placed into his account, or imputed to him. Abraham was justified by faith alone. Paul continues his discussion about Abraham,

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:9-12)

The message of the gospel is that a person can have their sins forgiven and be accepted by God by faith alone, apart from what they do. Paul illustrates this with Abraham by telling us that he was justified and experienced the forgiveness of sin and imputed righteousness before he was circumcised. In other words, he was justified apart from works to show that those who would be justified after him would also be justified apart from works. That’s the gospel and that is what was preached to Abraham. The Abrahamic covenant introduces imputation and justification by faith alone.

Summary
We can summarize what we’ve said about the Abrahamic covenant as follows:

• The Abrahamic Covenant is God’s promise to save a people and bring them into a land (Genesis 12:1-3, et al)
• It is first pictured or illustrated with Abraham’s physical descendants under the Old Covenant (1 Corinthians 10:6-11, Hebrews 4:1-11)
• It is fulfilled with Abraham’s true spiritual descendants under the New Covenant (Galatians 3:6-29)
• Jesus Christ is Abraham’s true Seed.  The promise of the Abrahamic Covenant pointed ahead ultimately to Jesus Christ, the one true Seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16).
• All of those who belong to Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile, are the true recipients of the promise spoken to Abraham (Galatians 3:29).
• The church is the true holy nation in Scripture.  Old Covenant Israel was only a temporary physical picture of the true people of God, the church (1 Peter 2:9-10).
• The Promised Land is a physical picture of heaven.  The New Testament treats the land promise made to Abraham as a promise of true spiritual rest for God’s true people.  Joshua only gave them physical rest in the physical land (Hebrews 4:8-11).
• The Abrahamic covenant introduces imputation and justification by faith alone, apart from works (Romans 4:1-12, Galatians 3:6-14).