The Blessings of Abraham

“1 Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’”          Genesis 12:1-3

Over 2,000 years before the Messiah would come to the earth as a man, God made some incredible promises to a man from a pagan part of the world who would be willing to obey “by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). Simply on the basis of this kind of faith, God made promises to Abram, to be renamed Abraham, that not only was he to be blessed, but that through him “all the families of the earth will be blessed”!  God also promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a child when it was an impossibility by sight since Sarah was elderly and baron. This kind of faith places its total confidence in God’s ability and trustworthiness, recognizing the greatness of God in light of man’s shortcomings. As Abraham considered his life as he was elderly, he recognized that “the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way” (Genesis 24:1). But how would “all the families of the earth” be blessed through the faith of a single man?

The Apostle Paul gives us an answer to this question in his letter to the Galatians in chapter 3. His argument to the church at Galatia is that our connection to the blessings that God promised to Abraham would not be through keeping the Law (of Moses), but through the Messiah and one’s faith in those promises. He was stating, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that through our confidence in what Jesus Christ had accomplished, we could receive the inheritance of these blessings. But how? Paul further explains this promise in Romans 4.

Righteousness of faith

“13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; 15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. 16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”                  Romans 4:13-16 

Paul states that it is through the righteousness of faith! Righteousness (e.g. justification) does not come to us through the works of the law, but always it is by faith alone in what God does (Romans 3: 20-21). This means that man cannot attain to God’s righteousness on the basis of enough works or the right kind of works, but through the agency of grace alone, meaning God’s free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). In fact, Paul tells us in Romans 11:6 that, “but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace”. What a relief!. This means that the blessings of God intended for “all families of the earth” are not dependent on human ability or effort. The Old Testament saints who operated by faith and were considered “the children of the promise” (Romans 9:8) were also to be recipients of these blessings. Abraham’s faith becomes the foundation of faith for the Jew and the Christian alike. It is no wonder that the location of Solomon’s temple would be the very site of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice the promised child, Isaac in Genesis 22. Hebrews 11:19 tells us, “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead”, that God would have to raise Isaac from the dead since he was the avenue through which the blessings of God would be realized and God cannot lie. 

When God introduced the new covenant as the Jews were being prepared for captivity in Babylon, He promised both the Northern (House of Israel) and Southern (House of Judah) Kingdoms to be recipients of this everlasting covenant. This covenant would be mediated by the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah), so its fulfillment would take place at some future time on behalf of the Jews. That time would be when the Messiah takes up His throne during the Millennial Kingdom. Yet the fact that this new covenant promise is repeated to the Hebrew Christians tells us that it is also intended to define the Christian and his relationship to God.

Christ’s blood

“14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance”.                           Hebrews 9:14-15 

The sacrificial offering of Christ’s blood on the cross would be the spiritual provision for the believer’s service to God. To fully appreciate this new relationship with his God, the spiritual man must recognize that the Messiah’s blood has cleansed his conscience from dead works, meaning works like those commanded by the Old Covenant that can never provide freedom from the bondage of the covenant itself (Galatians 5:1). In fact, “you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh (e.g.dead works), but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

Role of works 

“21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;”     James 2:21-22 

To complete this consideration of dead works, James tells us when our works line up with God’s will, as was the case with Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22, then our faith and our works are working together, complementing each other with God’s will and the end result is the completion, fulfillment, perfection of our faith. This Greek word “teleios” can have the meaning of being fully developed or being carried to the end. In either case, it brings us back to finding its ultimate conclusion and therefore brings us to serving one another in love.

Blessings of Abraham found in the new covenant

The blessings that God promised to Abraham that he would be a blessing to “all the families of the earth” are fulfilled in the new covenant, particularly the church age. Just as Abraham was blessed in every way by the end of his life, so the believer is promised “every spiritual blessing” in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Since the gospel is intended for anyone who believes in the person and work of Christ, the entire world (see John 3:16) is the intended recipient. These spiritual blessings, which have already been given, provide the enrichment of life that every believer seeks and is referenced by Peter in 2 Peter 1:3: “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” These spiritual blessings cannot be measured in a material way as some merchants of spiritual blessings and those preaching the prosperity message might claim, that somehow God is interested in prospering every believer with material blessings. 

The conclusion we can make from consideration of the blessings of Abraham is that the greatest blessings God has prepared for His people since He promised them to Abraham and his descendants are realized within the new covenant, which includes believers in the church age as well as the Millennial Kingdom and that these blessings are spiritual, meaning they have eternal value. When a Christian ministry promises someone blessings of God to those who will invest a certain amount or purchase a particular product, beware! The real blessings are found in an open, honest, and transparent relationship with God through King Jesus. Jesus warned us all that, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4).

Like so many Biblical principles that are the inverse from what the world values, the greatest in the kingdom is also a child in his/her heart. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 1:27-28, “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are”. The deepest relation with God and His real blessings are a paradox! The methods of the world and even the religious mind will never understand.