Evangelista says to Antinomista concerning the Abrahamic covenant it was “the very voice itself of the gospel, it being a true testimony of Jesus Christ.” How then was this so? Well, in the first place God initiates a relationship with Abraham (Gen. 12:1). He then promises to Abraham a people, a land, and that in his offspring all the nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3 7; 15:5, 7). Abraham believes the promise and it is counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). God then asks him to take some animals and to cut them in half and separate the two halves. God then puts the patriarch to sleep and appears in the form of a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch and passes through the dead animal halves. And on that day, God made (literally “cut”) an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his offspring.
You ask, “what in the world was that all about, and how does that relate to the gospel?” Well, much in every way (Gal. 3:8 ff)! Notice the theme of grace in this covenant. God initiates it, makes all the promises (just add up all the times God says “I” in Gen. 15), and God alone passes through the dead animals while Abraham snoozes away. The fulfillment of the promises have nothing to do with Abraham. Abraham simply believes and he receives the blessings by grace alone through faith alone (Rom. 4:1-4).
You may still be thinking, “but what’s with the dead animals?” Well, those had to do with curses. In essence God was saying “if I don’t do this, may what happened to these dead animals happen to me.” It’s like when children try to confirm their promises on the playground and say, “cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” The only difference is that this oath that God takes is a much more solemn occasion than the kind that kids make on the playground. Not only did the dead animals confirm and emphasize the solemnity of God’s promises, they ultimately pointed forward to the death of Christ on the cross. Even though he was without sin, He bore the judgment of the dead animals that we deserve for our sin when he was cut off from the land of the living on the cross (Isa. 53:8).
And we ourselves share in the promises made to Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul says, “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). Or as many of us used to sing “father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s just praise the Lord!” Indeed, the Abrahamic covenant contained the very voice of the gospel in seed form. We who have the full flower ought to savor its pleasant aroma all the more and offer up our whole lives in praise and thanksgiving to God for the grace that we have received in Christ, the offspring of Abraham (Gal. 3:16).
{ 2 trackbacks }