Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 4

By John Foll, written between 8/11/2017 and 8/13/2017, 9/14/2018 - 9/25/2018.
© Copyright 2018 John Foll

List of Articles

If you have not read Part 1, we recommend that you read it first: Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 1

God Helps His People Receive Their Everlasting Possession:

What is the main point in what we are making here?

The children of Israel, after they came into the Promised Land of Canaan, after many of them lost their inheritance due to unfaithfulness to God, or all of them to death, cannot be the complete fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham, because it was to be an ‘everlasting possession!’ Therefore this implies that there must be a great change that would come over God’s people, which would enable them to live holy lives for Him, and not lose their everlasting possession due to death or sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 KJV. But how would this great change come about? Now that is the gospel message! This is righteousness by faith! This is a topic for further articles!


But we will give you a hint here:

1) God needed to provide for the forgiveness of His people:
Jesus was to be born as a babe through Isaac, Abraham’s seed, so that all nations of the earth could be blessed. Then He worked for the revival of His people and trained His disciples to be evangelists of the Gospel, and then died on the cross for the sins of everyone in the world, including Abraham’s seed. This was how He would be a blessing to all nations of the earth and to Abraham’s seed. In order for anyone to be resurrected to receive their ‘everlasting possession’ they must be forgiven by God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB. This is necessary ‘for there is no man that sinneth not’ 1 Kings 8:46 KJV. And in order for God to be able to do the second step below, His people must be forgiven of their sins.

2) God needed to circumcise the hearts of His people and give them the Holy Spirit:
Moses prophesied: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Deuteronomy 30:6 KJV. This concept is echoed in other parts of the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesied: “"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."” Jeremiah 31:31-34 NASB. This is nothing other than the New Covenant! This is the first recorded instance of the New Covenant in the Bible! There is also something similar prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel, one of Jeremiah’s contemporaries, where God said, “And I will give them [His people] one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20 KJV.

So God had a plan to save His people, Israel, and give them a new heart, which is the New Covenant promise! He had a plan to circumcise their heart, as Moses prophesied. This started to take place at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus’ death on the cross, where the Jewish Christians were given the Holy Spirit, and a huge change took place in them instantly! God wrote His law in the hearts of His people at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He gave them a heart to love Him and serve Him with all the way, with great joy! (It must be remembered that there were no Gentile Christians at this time, so the New Covenant was originally only for the Jews, until the Gospel message was preached to the Gentiles, which started about 3 ½ years after Jesus death on the cross.) But the New Covenant promise fulfillment can only be fully met in Heaven, where all of them from the least of them to the greatest of them will know Me,’ as God declared through His prophet in Jeremiah 31:34. This New Covenant promise in Jeremiah, which started at Pentecost, was the means that God used to help save His people to help them obey Him, so that they could eventually receive their ‘everlasting possession’ that He had promised Abraham! Because God always keeps His promises! God truly provides for the needs of His people. Whatever He has asked them to do, He has provided the way to do it, if they will prepare themselves to receive it.

Why did God provide the Holy Spirit for His people to circumcise their hearts? To help save them! This would help keep them from falling away, so that they could please Him and be happy in His love, and help them through their trials and tribulations to be true to Him with patience. This is how you become born again! Was it just to help them become born again and to have a better life? There can be no doubt that this was part of it, but there is more to it than that! God provided the Holy Spirit to His people to keep His promise to Abraham, that through His seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed! Think about it: Not only was Jesus born as an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, but His disciples were all Jewish too! Jesus commanded His disciples to go and preach the gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue. Matthew 28:18-20. Which was also a fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, that through his seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed. The gospel message was first preached to the world through Jewish evangelists, starting with Jesus’ disciples, then the seven deacons, and then later Paul and Barnabas, and many others who were all Jews! This was how the gospel message exploded and went to all corners of the earth! So not only was Jesus death on the cross and resurrection the fulfillment of the promise that through Abraham’s seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed, but also the Jewish Christians preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles was a fulfillment of this promise! And all those who love Jesus in our day will also do as He commanded them, and help Him to fill the marriage supper of the Lamb, by inviting others to come there too! Luke 14:21-24.

God jump-started Christianity with what took place at Pentecost and afterwards, through the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God's great power was shown by the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the world, converting Gentiles and Jewish people in various parts of the world, who would listen, where the Apostles and other evangelists went. God always keeps His promises! We are bringing out this point because some may argue:


Why did God not provide the Holy Spirit from day one to His people, especially after Abraham?

First: We believe that Adam and Eve had been given a measure of the Holy Spirit before they sinned. So it is not true that God didn’t provide the Holy Spirit from day one. But Adam and Eve lost Him after they lost faith in or doubted God, and sinned. Why? Because the book of Hebrews declares: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NASB. They lost the Holy Spirit due to a lack of faith in God! Adam and Eve would not have fallen prey to sin, if they had not doubted God, but kept trusting in Him. See how important Righteousness by Faith is?

For more on this read our upcoming article: “Adam and Eve’s Test of Faith”.

Second: We believe that Abraham, and many, if not all of the patriarchs, prophets and some leaders and kings had the Holy Spirit. So it is not true that God didn’t provide the Holy Spirit after Abraham. Various people in the Old Testament were given a measure of the Holy Spirit who wanted to obey God, for what He wanted them to do. In the days of the Old Testament many people had the relationship and power with God that they wanted to have, same as today. Unfortunately like many today, many in the past did not have much power from God, if any, and were satisfied with just getting by. Some wanted more power from God and got it because they loved Him, like David, a man after God’s own heart. 1 Samuel 13:14; 16:7, 11-13. (Yes, David sinned, but having the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that one cannot sin, because God doesn’t take away our power of choice, and sometimes humanity loses their hold on God.) This question is too big to answer here. But suffice it to say all could have had this blessing of the Holy Spirit, in the days of the Old Testament, who wanted it and were willing to comply with God's conditions. See Joel 2.

Third: God had a plan to save the world: And the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, together with Jesus’ death on the cross was how He did it. The special outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the reason why the Gospel message spread so rapidly through the earth after Pentecost. This was how God kept His promise to Abraham, that through his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed! And this is how He blessed all of the nations of the earth, through the Gospel! God's plan was always for the Salvation of the world, for God had made a promise to Adam and Eve, which was more than *2000 years before Abraham was born! (Adam and Eve were not Jews or Israelites, but all the races of mankind came from them and Noah and his sons.) God always keeps his promises! Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and fell from God (Genesis 3:1-13), God was executing His plan to save humanity and bring them all back to His home! So there is much more to the story then just Abraham and the Israelite nation! Genesis 3:14. This is about salvation of the whole world! Abraham and his posterity had the wonderful privilege of playing a part in the wonderful plan of Salvation!

* https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/

Fourth: God had a plan to save the Israelites and the lost tribes who had wandered from Him. God knew ahead of time what would happen to the Israelites, the seed of Abraham, like we have previously discussed in this article. And He provided for their Salvation, through the power of the Gospel Message that would be preached to them, not only at Pentecost and in the days of the New Testament, but in our day as well, until we get to the end of the world. And through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place then, and through what will take place yet again (and in fact is even beginning to happen now), God will help others from the tribes of Israel to give themselves to Him and be saved, through His gift of the Holy Spirit - to those who want Him.

All four of these reasons are why God provided the great power of the Holy Spirit to His people, starting at Pentecost: To help save as many people as possible from this world and to keep His promise to Abraham. This was why Pentecost took place, and Jesus’ death on the cross! God provided this power to His people so the gospel message could quickly go to the ends of the earth, and win people from their misery and slavery to sin! With the power and speed the gospel spread with the full power of the Holy Spirit, it is as if God had said, ‘I have waited long enough to tell the people the good news of Salvation! Enough is enough! Let them tell others quickly about My love, so that they can get the help they need fast!’ This happened very quickly after Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection! It started 50 days after it, and * experts say that by the time that Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, that the Gospel had spread to all of the then known, civilized world! Which was a period of about 36 years! (It went as far away as India and China!) So that the Gentiles could also share the everlasting possession with Abraham.

* You can Google this to see that what we are saying is so. We don’t necessarily subscribe to the views that some of the people who are saying this believe, so we will not provide the links for them at this time, unless we can eventually find one that is unbiased or one that we can support all the way.

Our heart right now is so moved with the wonder and love of God and His plan to save humanity! It is so perfect wonderful and true! It is much bigger then we can fully take in and understand. And as we discovered in the previous parts of this article, many of the children of Israel, including the lost tribes, really need this gospel message preached to them now! - That Jesus and his disciples preached, to bring them back to God, so that they could share in the promise that God made to Abraham. God knew ahead of time, before Isaac was even born, what the history of Abraham’s offspring would be, and how many of His children would apostatize and leave the truth, forsaking their covenant with Him. No one can come up with any kind of sin, mistake or wrinkle that God hasn’t already thought of and planned for! Nothing surprises God. Everything that will ever happen, is like a book that has already been written that God has already read before it happened, to use a human analogy. God doesn't leave Humanity to its own sins and mistakes; He has wonderfully provided for our great need, before we needed it! Thus God will keep his promise to Abraham, and Adam as well, and will bring as many of their children, and great great great great grandchildren, etc. back to Him, so that He can keep his promises to them! Oh how our heart is overpowered with the sense of God's love and kindness, and the wonder of His plan to save us in spite of our sins and mistakes! Oh how we love Him!

To Be Continued…

Click here for a Free PDF of this article!

Blog Edited by John Foll.

List of Articles

---

From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.

May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!



Listen to these articles at:  http://www.whiteraimentevangelism.com/recommended.

Watchword:

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.'” John 14:23 NASB.

White Raiment Evangelism Revelation 3:18:

In Revelation 3:18 Jesus said, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and that thou mayest see." (Paraphrase of the KJV.)


#Faith #Abraham #Israel #God #Everlasting #Possession #Canaan #Promised #Land #Holy #Spirit #New #Covenant #Pentecost #Jesus #Cross #Salvation #Law #Love #Heart

Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 2

By John Foll, written between 8/11/2017 and 8/13/2017, 9/14/2018 - 9/25/2018.
© Copyright 2018 John Foll

List of Articles

If you have not read Part 1, we recommend that you read it first: Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 1

God’s Conditions for the Everlasting Possession:

After the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, after many of them lost faith in God and rebelled against Him. See Hebrews 3:5-19, and see the book of Numbers, starting with Numbers 14:20-35, and onward throughout the end of the book. Then they came into the Promised Land. See the book of Joshua for this. But they lost a lot of their promised possession after the days of David and Solomon, when the Israelite kingdom was at its peak, power and size. They were not able to get or continue to keep all of their inheritance after they came into the Promised Land, because of lack of faith, fear, and slackness at times to do what God had commanded them to do, in conquering the land that was given to them, and repeated infidelity to God. After Solomon died, because of Solomon’s sins and the sins of his wives sacrificing to the pagan gods, Israel was split into two different kingdoms, with * 9 ½ tribes going to Israel and 2 ½ tribes going to Judah. See 1 Kings 11:29-39; 2:1-17. Then later these tribes left God, never to return again as a whole back to Him, and many of them lost their national and religious identity as Israelites, and served other gods and idols! In the Old Testament, these 9 or 10 lost tribes are generally referred to as ‘Ephraim.’ But Ephraim was actually a tribe itself, the largest tribe of Israel, who defected from God as a tribe, along with the 8 other tribes. And since then, the remaining tribes of the children of Israel have lost even more of their inheritance, until we get to our day. Throughout their history as God’s chosen people, there was almost a constant round of backsliding by them, then God would raise up someone to help save them and help them to return to Him, then later they would backslide again. But this constant round of backsliding also describes much of the history of Christianity as well. This is human nature at its best, when they don’t continue to put their trust in God all-the-way. That is why Isaiah later declared that ‘all we like sheep have gone astray,’ because humanity is prone to wander from God. Isaiah 53:6 KJV.

* We say 9 ½ tribes instead of 10, because part or all of the tribe of Benjamin returned back to God we believe. See 2 Chronicles 15:1-7, where God uses the phrase king ‘Asa, all Judah and Benjamin.’ And there is other evidence as well. Note that Paul himself was of the tribe of Benjamin. Philippians 3:5. And though the Levites were scattered throughout Israel, many of them were in Judah and its surrounds because of their service to the temple, for the sacrifices for sin, and we also believe that some of them left the areas where the 9 ½ tribes were, to return back to Israel. See also 2 Chronicles 15:8-9 too. In that text part of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon returned as well.

So we see that the ‘everlasting possession,’ promised to Abraham, is held on the condition of obedience to God. This concept that God’s best blessings are given only to the faithful, can be illustrated by the fifth commandment: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12 KJV. This commandment can also be worded as: ‘Obey and love and cherish your father and your mother, that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God gives you.’ What does this have to do with the everlasting possession? We think that when the children of Israel were departing from God, that they were rebelling against the teachings of their parents. We think that a lot, if not all of the ills in this world can be linked to people not obeying their parents, ‘in the Lord’. Obviously if the parents are teaching something wrong, their children should not heed these teachings, but they should still respect them and heed what they were taught that was right. This commandment declares that those who want to live forever must love and obey and respect their parents. Thus obedience is linked to eternal life. So obedience is linked to ‘the everlasting possession’ that God had promised Abraham.

Not convinced yet that obedience to God is linked to ‘the everlasting possession’ that God promised Abraham? Note what Moses told the children of Israel, in his final message to them before he died: * “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.” Deuteronomy 28:1-10 NASB.

Now when could this promise that Moses gave to them from God have been fully fulfilled in the Israelite kingdom? If you study their history, you will never see all of them being faithful to God or for very long, just like Christians for a very long time have had a problem with their faithfulness to God too, with round after round of backsliding in many of the ages past. And there is so much infidelity and backsliding in our day as well! So the children of Israel did not have all of these blessings, or for very long. So you will never find a place in time where this promise, which was given to the Israelites by God through Moses, has fully taken place or fully happened yet, or for very long! Why haven’t these promised blessings by Moses fully taken place yet? See Deuteronomy 28:15-68. This is a very long list of curses for disobeying God, and we don’t wish to list them all here, but if you read it you will see. To summarize it, God’s best continued full blessings are given on the condition of continual obedience to Him. All of the above blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1-10 were removed when they disobeyed God and didn’t repent and return to Him fully. This is what happened, unfortunately. So we think that it is clear that God’s promise to Abraham and to His children has not been totally fulfilled yet at any point, since ‘the everlasting possession’ must be everlasting, and because only those faithful to God can have it forever. We see here that the promised blessings of God, including the ‘everlasting possession’ that was promised to faithful Abraham, can only be had and kept by obedience to God. For these blessings to be everlasting, there must be and everlasting obedience to God.

Now to explore this concept more fully, especially note what Moses declared in our above passage of Deuteronomy 28:1-10: “and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.” Take this with the beginning of this passage: ““Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God.” Also especially note: When Moses gave this last message to the Israelites, it was just before they went into the Promised Land to receive their inheritance, that God had promised Abraham! Do you see here that their ability of living in the land of their ‘everlasting possession’ was granted, if they wanted to obey Him? Can there be any doubt here? Also note here that God’s word was that His people, if they obeyed Him would be a holy people for Himself. When has this ever fully happened? And it says quite clearly here, that the only way that God’s people can be holy, is if they obey Him! Those who don’t want to obey God should not expect to have an ‘everlasting possession’, which is eternal life in Heaven and on the earth made new. We believe that this promise of God’s people becoming holy would start to be fulfilled when John the Baptist, Jesus and His disciples began to preach the word, with great power, but this will not be complete until Heaven.

* Note: For all who believe that the 10 Commandments in the Old Testament are only for the Israelites or the Jews: They should not be able to argue here that the Israelites or the Jews were not to keep and obey all of God’s commandments. Moses clearly told them that the blessings of their possessions and life in the land of Canaan were dependent on their obedience to God. Thus for the children of Israel to hang on to their ‘everlasting possession,’ that God had promised Abraham, they had to obey God. But it is a grave mistake for anyone to believe that God doesn’t want Christians to obey Him too! Or for anyone to believe that they can be saved, who knowingly or willingly disobey God. Or for anyone to think that they can be saved without confession and repentance. But there is forgiveness and mercy and help for all who want it, so there is no reason for anyone to be disobedient to God or to be lost. Because God has made a provision for everyone, through the forgiveness of sins and through the power of the Holy Spirit – through the power of a changed life that He will give to all who really want it.

To Be Continued…

Click here for a Free PDF of this article!

Blog Edited by John Foll.

List of Articles

---

From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.

May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!

Listen to these articles at:  http://www.whiteraimentevangelism.com/recommended.

Watchword:

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.'” John 14:23 NASB.

 

White Raiment Evangelism Revelation 3:18:

In Revelation 3:18 Jesus said, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and that thou mayest see." (Paraphrase of the KJV.)


#God #Abraham #Israel #Egypt #Wander #Forty #Years #Rebel #Promise #Land #Moses #Obedience #Everlasting #Possession #Inheritance #Blessing #Curse #Sin #Lost #Tribe

Abraham's Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection Part 1

By John Foll, written between 8/11/2017 and 8/13/2017, 9/14/2018 and 9/25/2018.
© Copyright 2018 John Foll

List of Articles

See the related article by E. J.  Waggoner’s The Everlasting Covenant: 09 The Test of Faith.

And you may also want to read our related commentary article: 09 The Test of Faith: Editor’s Notes (The Everlasting Covenant)

Recap From Our Previous Commentary:

“Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’” Genesis 22:1-2 NASB.

The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son on a mountain in the land of Moriah is such an amazing story! Abraham had been promised by God that through his seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed, which was a prophecy about Jesus. Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-8; 18:18. Jesus, the Messiah could only be born through his son Isaac, according to God’s promise to Abraham, so if Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac who was childless, how could Jesus be born through Abraham? And only through Jesus’ death on the cross can anyone ever have forgiveness of sin. And only through Jesus death and resurrection can anyone ever be resurrected after they die, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life! John 11:25. And if Jesus wasn’t born as a babe, who is the Resurrection and the Life, how could Abraham be resurrected? And if Abraham wasn’t resurrected, how could he ever get his inheritance? (Because he never got his inheritance while he was alive, as we will see.) Do you see the problem that Abraham had? (He most likely didn’t have a full understanding at this time, of the plan of salvation like we have now, because God was starting to unfold it; he only had the testimony of the patriarchs who came before him.)

From a human standpoint, Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own eternal life! Or ‘to put a knife to his own throat, and to cut off the hope of his own salvation,’ as Waggoner put it! From a human standpoint, he was also asked to sacrifice the eternal life of everyone in the world! Wow! We learned from the previous articles listed above that he would receive his promised inheritance through the resurrection. So how could he receive the promise if he had to take his son’s life as a sacrifice to God? Would he continue to believe God’s promise, that he would personally have an ‘everlasting possession’ (Genesis 17:8) in the land of Canaan, which could only come to him through the * Resurrection, and that from one born to him would all the nations of the earth be blessed? Or would he lose his faith in God’s promise? This was the test! Wow! What a test!

God’s Promise of the Everlasting Possession:

We want to show you from the Bible what God had promised Abraham, and why this promise to Abraham could only come to him personally through the Resurrection, and why the children of Israel could only fully get this promised inheritance through the Resurrection as well.

* Many years before God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, note what God said to him: “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Genesis 13:14-16 KJV. And later God said to Abraham: “And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he [Abraham] said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” Genesis 15:7-8 KJV. God had him make a sacrifice of a 3 year old heifer, a 3 year old ram, a turtle dove and a pigeon, then Abraham fell into a deep sleep and God answered him, saying that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and enslaved and oppressed for 400 years, and then they would come out with much possessions. Genesis 15:13. It is clear that Abraham’s descendants, during their 400 years in their captivity as slaves, never received their possession that God had promised Abraham and his descendants. But God had promised all of the land that Abraham could see northward, southward, eastward and westward to him and his descendants forever, not just to his descendants after they left Egypt.

Note again what God promised Abraham regarding the land the He showed him: ‘to thee will I give it’ and ‘to thy seed forever.’ God promised this land to Abraham personally and to Abraham’s children forever! It was to be their possession forever! Do not miss this! If either Abraham or Abraham’s children (those faithful to God) did not receive this possession forever, then this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Note what Abraham said: ‘How will I know that I shall inherit it?” This makes it clear that Abraham expected to receive the inheritance for himself, not just for his posterity. For those who think that the children of Israel, delivered from their bondage in Egypt, coming into the Promised Land of Canaan was the complete fulfillment of this promise, think again, because it was not forever. In the dream that Abraham had, God answered Abraham and said that his posterity would come out of the land of Egypt with ‘many possessions.’ We believe that this was a partial fulfillment of the promise, when they got their inheritance in the land of Canaan. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of this promise.

Abraham did not have the Promised Land as an eternal possession for himself, since he died and was never in control of the land at any time in his life, that was to be given to him (and to his descendants). Yet God had promised it to him and to all of his descendants, which also includes those who came after him, before the children of Israel came out of Egypt, since it included all of his descendants. (But based on other places in the Bible its continued possession was dependent upon being faithful to God, or by God’s grace.) There is no place in Genesis that ever declared that Abraham was ever in possession of it. So there is simply no way that the promise was fulfilled in Abraham’s day, to the days of the children of Israel’s slavery in Egypt! After David and Solomon’s day it wasn’t totally fulfilled either, because the children of Israel lost a lot of it. But God had promised Abraham and his descendants that they would get it as an eternal possession forever, including Abraham himself! God always keeps His promises! Please do not think of this promise as merely a returning of the Jews to the land of Israel for a modern Israeli state, an ‘earthly kingdom,’ which some today think is the fulfillment of prophecy. This promise was for a spiritual kingdom that would last forever, not just for temporal blessings, as we shall see!

Some may think that we are making too big of a deal about ‘the everlasting possession’ that God promised Abraham in Genesis 17:8, as meaning that the possession must be everlasting. They may think that it is a figurative expression that God made to Abraham. The rationalistic humanistic mind is ever ready to try to turn everything into the mundane and ordinary, to match their ideas and non-belief in God or their non-belief in His miracles. Many people probably think that He didn't really mean that Abraham himself should personally, literally have the promised possession. Or that those who followed after Abraham, until the generation of those who came out of Egypt, would personally have it either.  Meaning that the promise was fulfilled only when the children of Israel came out of Egypt to receive their inheritance in the Promised Land, and that was the complete fulfillment of the promise, end of story. And they probably think that the ‘everlasting possession’ means that the many generations of Abraham’s offspring living in the Promised Land was the fulfillment. This is the way human beings think a lot of the time. More than likely many people haven’t studied this out, and have no thoughts on it whatsoever. Some people may think that they have everlasting life vicariously through their children, and their grand-children and their great grand-children, etc. Another words eternal life only happens through having children and that we ourselves won’t get it; that our life is passed down to our posterity from generation to generation. This humanistic view of eternal life is incorrect, and is not eternal life by any means! It leaves out God and His supernatural power, and it leaves out the salvation that God wants to provide us and leaves out real eternal life. And it throws out the teachings of the Bible. It is not much different than someone thinking that they can save themselves by their own merit, skill or will or ability, or by their own hard work, etc. This is salvation by works. No miracles needed for the humanist, they die at death, and this is the end of the show for them. Their beliefs can be explained only in naturalistic terms and human philosophy. But where does this leave God? Where does this leave the Bible and its teaching of salvation? As we shall see, God has a better plan, much better! And you will see that God’s salvation is salvation indeed! It is miraculous and supernatural, completely beyond the ability of mankind!

To Be Continued…

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Blog Edited by John Foll.

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From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.

May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!

Listen to these articles at:  http://www.whiteraimentevangelism.com/recommended.

Watchword:

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.'” John 14:23 NASB.

White Raiment Evangelism Revelation 3:18:

In Revelation 3:18 Jesus said, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and that thou mayest see." (Paraphrase of the KJV.)


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07 The Covenant Sealed (Part 1) (The Everlasting Covenant)

Now we come to a record which opens up the promise in the most wonderful manner. More than twenty-five years had passed since God first made the promise to Abraham. * Doubtless the time had been prolonged by the false step that Abraham took through listening to the reasoning of his wife. More than thirteen years had passed since that time. But Abraham had learned the lesson, and now God appeared to him again.

* Abraham was seventy-five years when he left Haran (Gen. 12:4), and the promise was first made known to him before he left Mesopotamia. Acts 7:2.

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.” Gen. 17:1. The margin has it, “upright, or sincere.” As in 1 Chron. 12:33, 38, the meaning is, single-hearted. God told Abraham to be sincere before Him, and not double-hearted. When we recall the story recorded in the preceding chapter, we see the force of this injunction. We see also the force of the statement, “I am the Almighty God.” God would let him know that He was fully able to perform His promise, and that therefore he should trust Him with a perfect or an undivided heart.

A New Name

“And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Gen. 17:3-5.

The name Abram signifies “Father of height.” Abram’s father was a heathen, and the name may have had some reference to heathen worship in high places. But now a syllable is added, and it becomes Abraham, “Father of many peoples.” In the change of name in the cases of Abraham and Jacob, we have a hint of the new name which the Lord gives to all who are His. See Rev. 2:17; 3:12. “And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.” Isa. 62:2.

This giving to Abraham a new name did not indicate any change in the promise, but was simply a token to Abraham that God meant what He said. His name should ever afterward be a reminder to him of the promise. Some have thought that the giving of this new name marked a change in the nature of the promise to him; but a careful consideration of the promise as previously recorded will show that this cannot be. Abraham was just the same after his new name that he was before. It was while his name was still Abram, that he believed God and his faith in the promise was counted for righteousness. It was while his name was Abram that God preached the Gospel to him, saying, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

We may not make any distinction in the promises of God to Abraham, saying that some of them were temporal, and only for the fleshly seed, and that others were spiritual and eternal. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, … was not yea and nay, but in Him is yea. For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.” 2 Cor. 1:19, 20, R.V. “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.” Gal. 3:16. Note that the promises, no matter how many they are, all come through Christ. Note also that the apostle speaks of Abraham, and not of Abram. He does not say that some were made to Abram, and some to Abraham. And this point is still more emphatic when we read the words of Stephen, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran.” Acts. 7:2. Although he was then known as Abram, the promise was the same as when he was known as Abraham. Every reference to him in the Bible, even to the first promises, are with the name Abraham. This is why we have referred to him only as Abraham.

The Lord continued, after telling Abraham of the change in his name, “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. 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.” Gen. 17:7, 8.

Let us take up the different parts of this covenant in detail. The central part of it is the promised land, the land of Canaan. It is the same as in the fifteenth chapter. The promise is to give it to Abraham and his seed. The covenant is the same that was made there; but here we have it sealed.

Notice that it is an “Everlasting Covenant” that the Lord made with him.

It is the one everlasting covenant, which is so often spoken of in the Bible. It is “through the blood of the everlasting covenant” that men are made perfect in every good work to do the will of God. Heb. 13:20. Moreover, the land promised in this everlasting covenant, was to be

“An Everlasting Possession,” for both Abraham and his seed.

Mark well that Abraham himself, as well as his seed, was promised the land for an everlasting possession. It is not an inheritance that is simply to be the possession of his family forever, but both Abraham and his seed together were to have it for an everlasting possession.

But a land can be held for an everlasting possession only by those who have everlasting life.

Therefore in this covenant we find the promise of everlasting life. It could not be otherwise, because when the covenant was first made, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter, Abraham was told that he should die before the land should be given for a possession; and Stephen said that God did not give him so much as to set his foot on. Therefore it could be his only through the resurrection; and when the resurrection takes place, then there will be no more death. For “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51-53.

So we see that the making of this everlasting covenant with Abraham was simply the preaching of the everlasting Gospel of the kingdom, and the assuring to him of a part in its blessings. The promise to Abraham was a Gospel promise, and nothing else, and the covenant was the everlasting covenant, of which Christ is Mediator. Its scope is identical with that of the new covenant, in which God says, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Heb. 8:10. But this will appear more plainly as we proceed.

A Covenant of Righteousness

The Lord said to Abraham after this restatement of the covenant with him and his seed, “And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and thee.” Gen. 17:11. Now if we turn to the Epistle to the Romans we shall learn much more of the meaning of this transaction. We must have the Scripture before us in order that we may consider it understandingly, and so we will quote it at length.

“What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Rom. 4:1-13.

The subject of the entire chapter is Abraham and justification by faith. The apostle takes the case of Abraham as an illustration of the truth presented in the preceding chapter, namely, that a man is made righteous by faith. The blessing that Abraham received is the blessing of sins forgiven, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. See verses 6-9. Therefore when we read in Gen. 12:2, 3, that in Abraham all the families of the earth should be blessed, we know that the blessing referred to is the forgiveness of sins. This is positively proved by Acts 3:25, 26: “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

This blessing came to Abraham through Jesus Christ and His cross, even as it comes to us. For “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; … that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal. 3:13, 14. So we find that the blessings of the covenant with Abraham are simply the blessings of the Gospel, and they are brought to us through the cross of Christ. Nothing was promised in that covenant except that which is to be gained through the Gospel; and everything that the Gospel contains was in it.

Circumcision was given as the seal of this covenant. But the promise, the covenant, the blessing, and everything, came to Abraham before he was circumcised. Hence he is the father of the uncircumcised as well as of the circumcised. Jews and Gentiles are alike sharers in the covenant and its blessings, provided they have the faith that Abraham had.

In Gen. 17:11 we are told that circumcision was given as the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham. But in Rom. 4:11 we are told that it was given him as a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith. In other words, it was the assurance and the seal of the forgiveness of sins through the righteousness of Christ. Therefore we know that the covenant, of which circumcision was the seal, was a covenant of righteousness by faith; that all the blessings promised in it are on the basis of righteousness through Jesus Christ. This again shows us that the covenant made with Abraham was the Gospel, and that only.

A Grant of Land

But in this covenant the central promise was concerning land. All the land of Canaan was promised to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession. And then the seal of the covenant, —circumcision, — was given, — a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith. This shows that the land of Canaan was to be possessed only by faith. And here we have a practical lesson as to the possession of things by faith. Many people think that a thing that is possessed by faith is only possessed in imagination. But the land of Canaan was a real country, and was to be actually possessed. Possession of it was to be gained, however, only through faith. This was indeed the case. By faith the people crossed the river Jordan, and “by faith the walls of Jerico fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.” But of this we shall have more hereafter.

The land of Canaan, which was promised in the covenant, was to be had through the righteousness of faith, which was sealed by circumcision, the seal of the covenant. Read now Rom. 4:13 once more, and we shall see how much was involved in this promise. “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” This righteousness of faith we are told in verse eleven was sealed by circumcision; and circumcision was the seal of the covenant which we have recorded in Gen. 17. * Therefore we know that the promise of land, which the covenant with Abraham contained, was nothing less than the promise of the whole earth. As we come to the fulfillment of the promise, we shall see more plainly how it can be that the promise of the land of Canaan included the possession of the whole earth; but the fact may be briefly indicated here.

The covenant in which that land was promised, was, as we have seen, a covenant of righteousness. Its basis was the righteousness of faith. It was an everlasting covenant, promising an everlasting inheritance to both Abraham and his seed, which meant for them everlasting life. But grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life only through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life can be had only in righteousness. Moreover, since the promise was to Abraham, as well as to his seed, and Abraham was assured that he should die long before the inheritance was bestowed, it is evident that it could be gained only through the resurrection, which takes place at the coming of the Lord, when immortality is bestowed. But the coming of Christ is at “the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts. 3:21. Therefore we are shut up to the fact that the inheritance of righteousness, which was promised to Abraham for an everlasting possession, to be had through the resurrection, at the coming of the Lord, was the “new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” for which we look according to the promise of God.

By E.  J. Waggoner —The Present Truth, June 18, 1896

* Editor’s Note: As E. J. Waggoner said earlier, “Therefore when we read in Gen. 12:2, 3, that in Abraham all the families of the earth should be blessed, we know that the blessing referred to is the forgiveness of sins.” ‘All families of the earth should be blessed’ is a reference to the Gentiles of the earth being blessed through Abraham. Since the Gentiles were to be found throughout the earth, who God wanted to bless through Abraham’s seed, Christ, then this blessing of the land would be nothing less than the whole earth, to be given to all of the children who are heirs of the promise with Abraham. Note what Jesus’ commanded all of His disciples to do, known as the great gospel commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 NASB. Jesus’ command with its promise has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled, and Christianity has spread throughout the world, and is still being preached to all nations, kindreds and tongues. To reiterate Waggoner’s point that the grant of land to be given to Abraham and His descendants by faith (which includes Gentile Christians) is given after the resurrection, note what John writes here in Revelation about the New Jerusalem: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.” Revelation 21:23-24 KJV. The nations of the saved, who come from the various kingdoms and locations around this world where the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was preached to them, share in the everlasting possession with Abraham. This promise is only for all of his true descendants by faith.

Blog Edited by John Foll.

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From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.

May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!

Listen to these articles at:  http://www.whiteraimentevangelism.com/recommended.


#Faith #Abraham #Father #Nations #New #Name #Promise #Everlasting #Covenant #Believed #Righteousness #Forgiveness #Christ #Cross #Gospel #Land #Gentiles #Resurrection #Eternal #Life

05 Making a Covenant (The Everlasting Covenant)

The fifteenth chapter of Genesis contains the first account of the covenant made with Abraham. “The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”

* Notice the statement that God said that He Himself was Abraham’s reward. If we are Christ’s, then we are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Heirs of what? — “Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Rom. 8:17. The same inheritance is mentioned by the Psalmist: “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.” Ps. 16:5. So here again we have a link to connect all God’s people with Abraham. Their hope is nothing else but the promise of God to him.

* Editor’s note: This is very interesting! God told Abraham that He was His great reward (Genesis 15:1), and since in Christ ye are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29) that God made to Abraham, therefore He is also the reward of Christians who are faithful to Him as well. God is our great reward! He is the Pearl of Great Price! Matthew 13:44-46. This agrees perfectly with what Paul says in Thessalonians: “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed." 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 NASB. It seems clear from this passage that the ‘penalty’ of sinners who are lost is not only eternal destruction, but being kept away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Therefore the real reward of the righteous is God, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit, the blessed trinity, because they are all God! And being shut out from the presence of God and the Lamb and the Holy Spirit is the real loss of the lost! What a wonderful treasure God is to those who love Him! He is a treasure, because He is infinite in power and loves His people and will take care of them! No one can snatch them out of His mighty hand to save! John 10:29 NASB; Isaiah 63:1 KJV.

The promise which God had made to Abraham was not to him only, but to his seed as well. Therefore Abraham said to the Lord, “What wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house (or, “he that shall be possessor of mine house,”) is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abraham said, “Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.” Gen. 15:2, 3. Abraham did not know the plan of the Lord. He knew the promise, and believed it, but as he was old, and had no child, he supposed that the seed promised to him must come through his trusted servant. But that was not God’s plan. Abraham was not to be the progenitor of a race of servants, but of free men.

“And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 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. And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Gen. 15: 4-6. “And he believed in the Lord.” The root of the verb rendered believed, is the word “amen.” Its idea is that of firmness, a foundation. When God spoke the promise, Abraham said “Amen,” or, in other words, he built upon God, taking His word as a sure foundation. Compare this with Matt. 7:24, 25.

God promised a great household to Abraham. But this house was to be built upon the Lord, and Abraham so understood it, and began at once to build. Jesus Christ is the foundation, for “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 3:11. The house of Abraham is the house of God, which is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” Eph. 2:20. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth [buildeth] on Him shall not be confounded.” 1 Peter 2:4-9.

“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Why? — Because faith means building upon God and His word, and that means the receiving of the life of God and His word. Note in the verses last quoted, from Peter, that the foundation upon which the house is built is a living stone. The foundation is a living foundation, from which those who come to it receive life, so that the house which is built upon it is a living house. It grows through the life of the foundation. But the foundation is righteous: “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Ps. 92:15. Therefore since faith means to build upon God and His holy word, it is self-evident that faith must be righteousness to the one who possesses and exercises it.

Jesus Christ is the source of all faith. Faith has its beginning and end in Him. There can be no real faith that does not center in Christ. Therefore when Abraham believed in the Lord, he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has never been revealed to man except through Christ. John 1:18. The fact that Abraham’s belief was personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is further shown by the fact that it was counted unto him for righteousness. But there is no righteousness except through the faith of Jesus Christ. He “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Cor. 1:30. No righteousness will be of any worth at the appearing of the Lord except “that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith.” Phil. 3:9. But since God Himself counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness, it is plain that his faith was centered in Christ alone, from whom his righteousness was drawn.

And this only demonstrates that the promise of God to Abraham was through Christ alone. The seed was that only which is through the faith of Christ, for Christ Himself is the seed. Abraham’s posterity, that was to be as the stars for number, will be the innumerable host who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. The nations that were to come from him, will be “the nations of them that are saved.” Rev. 21:24. Compare Matt. 8:11. “For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen.” 2 Cor. 1:20, R.V.

“In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land,” etc. Gen. 15:18. The making of this covenant is recorded in the preceding verses. First we have the promise of an innumerable posterity, and of land. God said, “I am the Lord, that brought thee out of the Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” Verse 7. This verse must be kept in mind while reading verse 18, lest we get the wrong impression that there was something promised to Abraham’s seed only, and not to him. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.” Gal. 3:16. Nothing was promised to the seed that was not also promised to Abraham.

Abraham believed the Lord, yet he said, “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” Then follows the record of the dividing of the heifer and the she goat and the ram. This is referred to in Jer. 34:18-20, when God reproved the people for transgressing the covenant.

“And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” Gen. 15:12-16.

We have seen that this covenant was one of righteousness by faith. For the promised seed and the land were through the faith in God’s word, which was counted to Abraham for righteousness. Now let us see what more we can learn from the verses just quoted.

For one thing we learn that Abraham was to die before the possession was bestowed. He was to die in a good old age, and his seed was to be a stranger in a foreign land for four hundred years. Not only would Abraham himself be dead, but his immediate descendants would be dead before the seed should come into the land that was promised them. As a matter of fact, we know that Isaac died before the children of Israel went down into Egypt, and that Jacob and all his sons died in the land of Egypt.

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.” The chapter before us tells the same thing. It is evident that a promise made to the seed of Abraham cannot be fulfilled by bestowing the thing promised upon only a part of the seed; and that which was promised to Abraham and his seed cannot be fulfilled unless Abraham shares it as well as his seed.

What does this demonstrate? — Simply this, that the promise in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, that Abraham and his seed should possess the land, had reference to the resurrection of the dead, and to nothing short of that. This is true, even though it should be claimed that the eighteenth verse excludes Abraham from the covenant there spoken of; for as we have seen, it is clear that many of the immediate descendants of Abraham would be dead before the time of the promise; and we know that Isaac and Jacob and the twelve patriarchs were dead long before that time.

Even if Abraham be left out of the question, yet the fact remains that the promise to the seed must include all of the seed, and not a part merely. But Abraham cannot be left out of the promise. Therefore we have positive evidence that in this chapter we have the record of the preaching of “Jesus and the resurrection” to Abraham.

To Be Fulfilled After the Resurrection
This enables us to better understand why Stephen, when he was upon his trial for preaching Jesus, began his talk with a reference to these very words. Speaking of Abraham’s coming into the land of Canaan, he said that God “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” Acts 7:5. In thus referring to this promise, which was well known to all the Jews, Stephen showed them most plainly that it could be fulfilled only by the resurrection of the dead through Jesus.

“And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” From this we learn the reason why Abraham died in faith, although he had not received the promise. If he had expected to receive it in this present life, he would have been disappointed if he had come to his death without having it fulfilled. But God plainly told him that he must die before it was fulfilled. Therefore since Abraham believed God, it is very clear that he understood about the resurrection, and that he believed it. The resurrection of the dead, we shall see, was ever the center of the hope of the true children of Abraham.

But we learn something more. In the fourth generation, or after the lapse of four hundred years, his seed was to come out of bondage, into the Promised Land. Why could they not possess the land at once? — Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not then full. That shows that God would give the Amorites time to repent, or, failing that, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and thus demonstrate their unfitness to possess the land.

And that teaches us further that the land which God promised to Abraham and his seed could be possessed only by righteous people. God would not cast out of the land those of whom there was any seeming prospect that they might become righteous. But the fact that the people who were to be destroyed from before the children of Abraham were cast out because of their wickedness, shows that the possessors of the land were expected to be righteous. And thus we learn that the seed of Abraham, to whom the land was promised, were to be righteous people. This has already been shown by the fact that the seed was promised to Abraham only through the righteousness of faith.

By E.  J. Waggoner — The Present Truth, June 4, 1896


Blog Edited by John Foll.

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From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

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