Seeds of Abraham- BY FAITH!

 

Genesis 3:15 As in the previous verse, the figurative sense overshadows the literal. True, women and snakes are bitter enemies, but the real hostilities are spiritual - between Satan and the woman, a symbol of the church (see Galatians 4:21-31; Ephesians 5:22-32; etc.). Some ask, "If this is so, how can Satan, who cannot reproduce, have 'seed'?" The answer, again, lies in the spiritual realm. Paul says in Galatians 3:26-27, 29: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. . . . And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. No matter what their racial makeup, members of God's church become Abraham's spiritual descendents because, as Jesus says, "Abraham's children . . . do the works of Abraham" (John 8:39). Jesus goes on to explain that Satan has spiritual offspring also: But now you [those in Jesus' audience] seek to kill Me. . . . You do the deeds of your father. . . . You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. (verses 40-41, 44) Satan's seed are those who do Satan's will in rebellion against God. In Ephesians 6:10-12, Paul writes of this enmity between seeds: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Genesis 3:15 prophesies of this spiritual war between God's people and Satan's. "Seed" in verse 15 is collective (like "team" or "family"), but the following pronoun, "He," is singular. As Christ's body (Romans 12:5; I Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:22-23), we are included as participants in the "enmity." However, the subjects of the "bruising" clauses are strictly Christ and Satan, the two leading opponents in the battle. Paul also uses "Seed" in a singular sense in writing of Christ as "Abraham's Seed" in Galatians 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." Revelation 12:5 illustrates the connection between the woman and the Seed: And she [the woman] bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. Interpreting itself, the Bible shows that the singular "Seed" of the woman is indeed the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Genesis 12:1-3 God made a twofold promise to Abraham. The first was a material promise that he would be the father of many nations and that kings would descend from him. God promised him that his progeny would inherit the land of Canaan, an expanse that He defined as stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers. The second, but more important, promise was spiritual. God promised Abraham that in his Seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This promise encompasses the life and work of Abraham's best known and most revered descendant, Jesus Christ. This promise was later extended to include the inheritance of the whole world (Romans 4:13). Abraham's physical descendants, the nation of Israel, inherited the land of Canaan. This was a type of Abraham's spiritual descendants inheriting the earth. Genesis 12:1-3 God remembers the Gentiles when He calls Abraham, promising that every nation, "all the families of the earth," will be blessed in the blessings of Abraham. Paul, "the apostle to the Gentiles" (Romans 11:13), carries the thought to its conclusion when he asserts that the line demarcating Jew and Gentile disappears in Christ: "[T]here is neither Jew nor Greek; . . . for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:28-29). Genesis 12:3 A turning point in the saga of God's people occurred when God called Abram to leave Mesopotamia for a land he knew little or nothing about, Canaan. He promised him great blessings of wealth and rulership, as well as spiritual blessing: "And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3; also 22:18). This could only be a reference to the work of the Messiah. Paul mentions this prophecy in Galatians 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." It is evident from the genealogies in both Matthew 1 (Joseph's) and Luke 3 (Mary's) that both legally and naturally Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. "And if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). We Christians are also children of God through our faith in Jesus (verse 26), and this makes us spiritual descendants of Abraham and co-heirs of the promised blessings. Genesis 14:20 Abraham is the father of the faithful. He is a type of God the Father; Isaac was a type of the Son, Jesus Christ. Humanly, he is the head of the family—of those who are loved by God, who love God, and are obedient to Him. Abraham is the patriarch. He is the leader and elder. He is the primary example among men. Considering the way God speaks about him, there has been nobody on earth as great as Abraham, except for Jesus Christ. What an example we have here! If we are Christ's, we are Abraham's seed and no other's (Galatians 3:29). Because we are Abraham's children, we are heirs according to the promise. In Abraham, we are looking at one of the prime examples in all of mankind. In Genesis 26:5, the promise is repeated to Isaac, and God says to him, "Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." That covers everything, does it not? Consider this in reference to Genesis 18. This is God speaking: Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him [meaning "by experience I know him"], that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken to him. (Genesis 18:18-19) Genesis 22:16-18 Genesis 22:16-18 records God's embellishment of the promise on the occasion of Abraham's "sacrifice" of his son Isaac. God promises to multiply Abraham and to give him control of strategic military and commercial positions, "gates," in his enemies' territories. As we will see, this promise speaks of the geopolitical advantage God later gave Abraham's descendents. God bases this promise on Abraham's obedience of the command to sacrifice his son, Isaac, a sacrifice God of course stopped just before the knife fell. Note, too, that this promise has the effect of an oath, in that God swears by Himself. Since this is the last recorded promise to Abraham, it is fitting that God should refer to His first promise, recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. God reminds Abraham of His promise that his seed would be a blessing to all nations. In Galatians 3:16, Paul makes it plain that this "Seed" is Christ. Christ, who is in the lineage of Abraham, blazed a trail by which all peoples could ultimately develop a relationship with the Father. Christ's work makes it possible for God to be our God, according to the promise of Genesis 17:7-8. Christ is indeed a blessing to all nations. Joshua 24:2-3 When Abraham was called, he was literally living in Babylon on the plain of Shinar in the city of Ur. He did not come from a God-fearing family, and there is no evidence that he was converted at the time of Genesis 12:1. Every indication is that he, too, was a heathen. As we shall see, every called person begins in idolatry. God had in all likelihood begun to work with him, preparing him for his calling by guiding his thinking to begin to question areas of life he had previously accepted without question. Historical traditions indicate that his family was of a priestly caste, and perhaps he was already questioning the validity of the false gods he served. Acts 7:2-4 clarifies a few things relating to the early period of his calling: And [Stephen] said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.' Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell." What is included in God's appearance is not known. Whether it was literal, in a vision, or by dream is not explained anywhere else. The element we need to understand is that, as with us, Abraham did not earn his calling. He had done nothing to earn or deserve God's notice. Isaiah 51:2 adds a further piece of information worth considering: "Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him." While Sarah is at least mentioned, no other family members are included within the scope of this statement. It appears that several members of Abraham's family depended on him, since much of his family left with him, yet God makes clear that Abraham was the only one spiritually called. To how many of us has a similar thing happened? Why does this happen? Nobody knows! It is unanswerable. God shows mercy to whom He shows mercy. He loves Jacob but loves Esau less by comparison, despite their being twins. He accepts Abel and rejects Cain. He chooses only Noah among millions of others to whom He could have given grace. This we know: At some time before leaving Babylon, God became a living reality to Abraham to a degree no one else near and dear to him experienced. Even amidst his personal self-seeking and self-pleasing, he was motivated to leave his set routines of life. It must have been similar to what Job experienced when he said, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You" (Job 42:5). Whether the opening of Abraham's mind was gradual or sudden, God had graciously revealed Himself enough to make him move, and he did so to the extent of leaving his homeland and journeying over 1,200 miles, probably on foot or at best by donkey or cart, to a land known for violent weather, especially for its high temperatures. Abraham was already 70 years old, yet he severed virtually every relationship that matters to normal human concepts of life and well-being. For a long time, stability became a thing of the past, considering that he never again dwelt in a home with foundations. This may seem an unusually hard and harsh requirement. Nevertheless, he embarked on a journey into an utterly unknown future. What can we learn from this God-engineered example? Undoubtedly, He was testing Abraham, a process we should expect a measure of in our calling as well. We may never have to leave our homeland and set out on a long journey without knowing where we are headed, but it is highly likely that disruptions will accompany our calling. A primary instruction God wants us to understand from Abraham's calling is that we must make a complete break from our old lives. We must clearly begin to sever ourselves from the old, "inner" life that was implanted in our character by our living according to the course of this world (Ephesians 2:2). Luke 16:22 A son who is heir to his father's property cannot inherit and possess it before his father inherits it. Lazarus could not inherit either eternal life or the land before his father Abraham received the promises. Abraham, however, died without actually inheriting these promises (Acts 7:2-5; Hebrews 11:8-13). He was still dead at the time of Christ's earthly ministry, and he still is in his grave today (John 8:52). He will inherit the promises at the time of the resurrection of the just. Human beings in Christ, living and dead, receive eternal life at Christ's second coming, Abraham among them (Luke 13:28). Romans 9:7-13 "The children of the promise are counted for the seed" means Abraham's seed, and "the children" are Esau and Jacob. Jacob was chosen or elected by God, but Esau was not. So through whom would God work? Obviously, it was Jacob, who on the surface was the weaker of the two—perhaps in character and certainly bodily. The question immediately arises, "Is it fair of God to do this?" Christians are children of Abraham In Genesis 12:7 the Lord said to Abraham after he had reached the land of Canaan, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” If we but hold to the Scriptures we should have no difficulty in determining who the seed is. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Galatians 3:16 This should settle the matter, the seed of Abraham, to whom the promise was made is Christ, He is the heir. And as Christians we are joint-heirs with Christ. “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29 Now we should know, that although there are possibly many millions included in the seed, there is only one seed, for we are all one in Christ, as He is “the Seed.” If anyone belongs to Christ, then they are Abraham’s seed; as was Isaac. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” [Genesis 21:12; Romans 9:7; Hebrews 11:18] for Isaac was born after the Spirit, and is the true seed. Therefore all the children of Abraham are they alone who are born of the Spirit. For “We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Galatians 4:28 Isaac was freeborn; and none but those who are free are the children of Abraham, “So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” Galatians 4:31 So if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit by which Isaac was born, he is not a child of Abraham, and has no claim to any part of the promise. But as the inheritance is wholly a gift, and the Holy Spirit is the first-fruits or pledge of the inheritance, so the Spirit is freely given to all who believe; and with the Holy Spirit comes the righteousness of God, and therefore the surety of the resurrection. For “if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Romans 8:11 Another point that must be considered is that the Gospel is the preaching of the cross, which is the good news of salvation from sin by the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand unto Abraham.” (Gal 3:8) This verse can suffer much scrutiny, in understanding it we will be protected from many errors. Fortunately it is not difficult to understand; simply hold to what it says, and you have it. For one thing, the verse shows us that the Gospel was preached at least as early as the days of Abraham, in fact the first rendering of the Gospel was in Genesis 3:15, and in both instances it was God Himself who preached it; therefore, it was the true and only Gospel. It is the same Gospel that Paul preached; and there is none other. The Gospel differs in no particular now from what it was in Abraham’s day; for his day was the day of Christ. [John 8:56.] Therefore, we can be absolutely certain that Abraham was a Christian, because Jesus Himself testified of the fact. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” John 8:56 And don’t we all rejoice to see His day? And so the Gospel of the Old Testament is the same as that of the New Testament, and that is “Christ in us” (Col 1:27; Rom 9:23) Therefore Abraham was a Christian as much as anyone who has ever lived since the crucifixion of Christ. “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” But the disciples were no different after they were called Christians from what they were before. In the days when they were known only as Jews, they were also Christians, just as much as they were after; the name is of little account. The name “Christians” was given them because they were followers of Christ; but they were followers of Christ before they were called Christians, just as much as they were afterwards. Abraham, hundreds of years before the days of Jesus of Nazareth was just what the disciples were who in Antioch were called Christians; he was a follower of Christ. Therefore he was in the fullest sense of the word a Christian. All Christians, and none others, are children of Abraham. “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” Since Christ was called out of Egypt, all who are Christ’s, that is, all the seed of Abraham, must likewise be called out of Egypt. And that is the work of the Gospel. Therefore we ask the question, to whom were the Ten Commandments given, the Ten, including the Sabbath of rest? There were Ten Commandments given at Sinai, but there are many who don’t believe that the Sabbath is for the Christians. Galatians 3:26 We become children of Abraham once we are justified by faith in Christ's sacrifice. The Abrahamic Covenant and the promises God made, then, are still in effect. He is going to fulfill those promises. Abraham will have multiple billions of descendants. Now we see the real purpose of the covenant: Abraham's children actually, under God's spiritual purpose, also become God's children. Galatians 3:26-29 True Christians exhibit the faith and righteousness of Abraham. God considers them to be the patriarch's spiritual descendants regardless of their race or sex. Consequently, they will inherit the same promises made to Abraham. Galatians 3:27-29 In making the New Covenant—once we have proceeded through the process of repentance and baptism and have received God's Spirit, which baptizes us into Christ—we are then Abraham's children. We become Abraham's descendants regardless of race or national origin. We become, therefore, part of the one Family into which God is drawing all of mankind, and we become heirs of the promises made to Abraham as part of the Abrahamic Covenant. All the Old Covenant did was bridge the gap from the time the Israelites were released from their bondage until the promised Seed came. Galatians 3:29 The apostle directs our understanding of Abraham's offspring away from the usual biological definition and toward one pivoting around a relationship with Christ. A few verses earlier, he shows that faith is the crucial substance (see Hebrews 11:1) of that relationship: "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7). Operatively, then, "the faith of Christ" (Galatians 2:16, KJV), not a faith we inflame within ourselves, is the source—we could even say, the functional cause—of our spiritual kinship with Abraham. Through our exercise of Christ's faith in us, we become Abraham's children. Regardless of lineage, we are not his spiritual children by birth. For the purposes of spiritual salvation, reconciliation with God by the faith of Jesus Christ renders irrelevant the genetic, national, social, and gender differences among Homo sapiens (see Galatians 3:26-29). Thus, the apostle stresses the importance of faith over genealogy. Israel, from God's viewpoint, is first and foremost a spiritual entity, a nation and people (I Peter 2:9) of faith, and only secondarily—subordinately—a physical or natural entity. Galatians 3:29 In Galatians 3:29, Paul lists two results of being "Christ's." First, we become "Abraham's seed." Second, we become "heirs according to the promise." In Romans 4:13, Paul makes plain that this second consequence of being Christ's also pivots around faith: "For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Once more, advantage of birth, as real as it may be to the people of the world, is irrelevant to God for the purposes of salvation. Anyone with the faith of Jesus Christ becomes an heir to the blessing of the promise. "But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:22). The promise, given to Abraham and repeated in various forms to Isaac and Jacob, is in fact one promise, but has a multitude of ramifications. The various statements of this promise appear in a collage of passages in Genesis (Genesis 12:2-3; 13:14-15; 15:18-21; 17:4-9; 22:16-18; 26:4-5; 28:13-14). Hebrews 9:15-17 “The promise of the eternal inheritance” harkens back to the inheritance that God promised to Abraham, of which we become heirs through having the same faith as Abraham. It includes justification by faith, being part of a spiritual nation, and eternal life. As Paul writes in Galatians 3:29, “if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gilbert Wakefield offers an alternative translation of Hebrews 9:16-17 that brings out an important detail: For where a covenant is, there must be necessarily introduced the death of that which establishe[s] the covenant; because a covenant is confirmed over dead things, and is of no force at all whil[e] that which establishe[s] the covenant is alive. Similarly, Young's Literal Translation finds a commonality between the two covenants by using the term “covenant-victim” rather than “testator”: . . . for where a covenant [is], the death of the covenant-victim to come in is necessary, for a covenant over dead victims [is] stedfast, since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim live[s]. In verses 16-17, most translations use “testament” and “testator,” which are indeed possible meanings of the Greek words. Like a “Last Will and Testament,” the New Covenant goes into effect only when the testator dies. This nuance, though, can apply only to the New Covenant, while the context of Hebrews 9 is both the Old and New Covenants. Both of them were sealed with “covenant-victims”—living beings that had their blood shed for the sake of establishing the respective covenants. In the covenant with Israel, the covenant-victims were oxen and goats (see Exodus 24:5-8; Hebrews 9:19). The New Covenant, though, was confirmed with the bodily death of the Son of Man. Hebrews 10:5 says, “a body You have prepared for Me”—a body capable of having its blood drained out in sacrifice, both for the remission of sins and for the establishing of a covenant. For Abraham, the covenant victims were mere animals. However, despite it not being explicitly stated, that covenant also required the life of the Creator. Paul explains in Galatians 3:8 that the promise that “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” indicates that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Justification by faith is possible only through belief—trust—in a sacrifice of equal or greater value to the life forfeit due to sin. The blood of bulls and goats could never pay the life-debt of any human being; only the death of the sinless Creator could provide propitiation—justification—for all people. In this way, even though the Abrahamic covenant was confirmed only with slain animals, inherent within it was a promise of a future sacrifice so great that it would justify all those who believe in it. There exists an Israel-based hermeneutic throughout much of modern Christianity, asserting that a dichotomy exists between the physical seed of Abraham (Israel), and the spiritual seed of Abraham (the Church). Zionist brethren will argue that the Abrahamic covenant is primarily a land covenant made with Abraham and his seed. This is confusing given that Abraham is the father of “many nations (Genesis 17:5).” Rather than overthrow the New Testament with the Old it is better to use the New Testament to decode the Old Testament. Galatians 3: 15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. 16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. The entire context of Galatians 3 and the books as a whole is that Paul is rebuking false doctrine that has crept into the church of Galatia. This teaching was of the Pharisees, asserting that Christians had to keep the works of the law of Moses in order to be justified. Paul spends a great deal of time asserting justification by faith, rather than works. In chapter 3 Paul uses the example of Abraham’s faith to prove that the blessing of Abraham that will bless all nations if by faith and is spiritual in nature rather than particular to any tribe or ethnicity. See verses 6-14 for context. I am focusing here on verses 15 and 16 of chapter three to go even further and show that the physical, land inheritance covenant ultimately applies to Christ rather than the tribes of Israel and to the extent that the land previously known as Canaan was promised to Abraham’s descendants through Isaac’s line, it was all fulfilled in the Old Testament. If we believe what Paul told us in Galatians 3:16 that Abraham’s true seed is Christ, then we need to go back to Genesis and find the verse that Paul is quoting. The first promise to Abraham is found in Genesis 12, and Paul actually addresses those verses in Galatians 3:6-14 so we can rule those out. The next promises to Abraham appear in Genesis 15 and 17. “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” Genesis 15. This passage clearly does refer to a plural definition of the use of the word “seed,” so they cannot be what Paul is referring to in Galatians 3:16. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. – Genesis 17 We are getting closer to Paul's meaning but this is still not a singular seed pointing us to Christ. But notice this: in Genesis 17:8 God includes Abraham himself in that land promise. Abraham never inherited the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. When Sarah dies in Genesis 23, Abraham purchases a burial ground for her in Canaan from the children of Heth, even though they offered it to him for free (because he had so blessed the nations around him as the prophecy stated in Genesis 12). He insisted on buying the land rather than taking it for free because the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise rightly interpreted means that only God can give him that land for a possession. Clearly Abraham did not expect a literal fulfillment of that promise in his lifetime. The true fulfillment of God’s land promise to him is in the Resurrection of the just. It is in Genesis 21 that we find reference to a seed referring to individuals. “And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” - Genesis 21:12. "The Sacrifice of Isaac" - Caravaggio, Public Domain Image God is able to keep his promises and glorify his name despite our circumstances. Notice verse 13: “And also the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.” Here we have both Isaac and Ishmael being referred to as individual seeds of Abraham. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, meaning that Jesus Christ, the true promised seed will descend from Isaac. But Ishmael and Abraham’s other descendants through other wives and concubines will all go on to become nations as well in keeping with the promises of Genesis 12 and 15. The tribes of Israel are significant because the Messiah will come through them. "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." -Romans 9:6