The Blessings of Abraham

The Gift of the Spirit is one of the Covenant promises to bless the nations of the Earth through Abraham and his Seed, Jesus of Nazareth.

When Matthew’s Gospel declares that Jesus is “the Son of Abraham,” it links the Man from Nazareth to the Abrahamic Covenant. The New Testament is filled with scriptural citations, stories, and apostolic teachings demonstrating that Jesus came to fulfill the Covenant. He is the expected “seed of Abraham” and the heir of all the promises of the Covenant.

For example, Peter and John prayed for a man who was “lame from his mother’s womb” as he was begging for alms near the Jerusalem Temple. Rather than money, they commanded him to stand and walk “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Immediately, the man began to walk, and afterward, he was seen and heard “leaping and praising God.”

[Waterfall - Photo by Štefan Štefančík (Prague) on Unsplash]

Many Jews observed this incident as they entered and left the Temple, filling them with “wonder and amazement,” providing Peter with an excellent opportunity to preach the Gospel of God's Kingdom – (Acts 3:1-11).

The outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was one of the Covenant’s promises secured for God’s people by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through the Nazarene, the Abrahamic Covenant with its many blessings was being fulfilled, beginning with the granting of the Spirit to the Church, the “Promise of the Father,” namely, the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter attributed the healing of the lame man to the God of Abraham, and to faith in the name of Jesus, whom the Father raised from the dead:

• “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you betrayed, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And by faith in his name has this man been made strong, whom you behold and know. Indeed, the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. But the things which God foreshowed by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled” – (Acts 3:13-18).

The theme of fulfillment in Jesus is pronounced in the story of the beggar’s healing. The Jews present were “the sons of the prophets” and heirs of the Covenant with Abraham in whom “all the families of the Earth would be blessed” - (Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Isaiah 42:1, Acts 2:17-38).

Peter thus linked the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit to the Abrahamic Covenant, including the promise to bless the nations in Abraham’s Seed - (Genesis 12:1-3).

• (Acts 3:24-26) – “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

• “By myself have I sworn, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld you son, your only son, that in blessing, I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and your seed will possess the gate of his enemies; and in your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed” - (Genesis 22:16-18).

• “And I will bless them that bless you, and him who curses you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed” - (Genesis 12:3).

The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts allude to the same Promise of the Father and the mission of the Church to announce God’s Kingdom to the Nations:

• (Luke 24:44-49) – “Thus, it is written, that the Messiah should suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

• (Acts 1:4-8) – “He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father <…> For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence <…> But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.”

• (Acts 2:39) – “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to him.”

Luke identifies this promise with the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The bestowal of the Spirit on the Church demonstrates that the era of fulfillment has commenced with the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, the period known in Scripture as the Last Days.

THE SPIRIT AND THE INHERITANCE

Similarly, the Apostle Paul equates “the Promise of the Spirit” with “the Blessing of Abraham.” The Covenant God made with the Patriarch foresaw the inclusion of the Gentiles in the one Covenant People of God. Jesus is “the seed of Abraham,” and all men who belong to him become “children of Abraham” and “heirs according to the promise” - (Galatians 3:13-14, Ephesians 1:13-14).

The promises are fulfilled in Jesus, beginning with the Gift of the Spirit that God gives to Gentile and Jewish believers alike because of their faith in Jesus and what God accomplished through Christ’s Death and Resurrection:

• “If God gave them the like gift as he did to us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? And when they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also has God granted repentance unto life!” - (Acts 11:17-18).

• “While Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. And they of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid the water, that these men should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” – (Acts 10:44-48).

The inclusion of the Gentiles in the Covenant was not an afterthought or an ad hoc adjustment to the original plan. By granting the Spirit to everyone who believed, God began implementing the originally intended blessings of Abraham for the nations of the Earth, including Israel, as the Gospel of His Kingdom was proclaimed, starting with Jerusalem and Judea, but certainly not ending there.

The long-awaited Gift was being poured out with all of its inherent blessings as the result of Christ’s self-sacrificial act. The Book of Acts documents the first decades of this process as the disciples announced the Gospel in much of the Roman Empire under the direction and power of the Holy Spirit.

The declaration of the Good News commenced in Jerusalem, but only after the disciples were “endued with power from on high” when they received the Promise of the Father. The Body of Christ was equipped and motivated thusly to take the Good News of salvation and the Blessings of Abraham to the ends of the Earth.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Promise of the Spirit - (The Gift of the Spirit is one of the blessings of Abraham promised by God for the nations and the children of the Patriarch)

• The Circumcised Heart - (The Gift of the Spirit is for every man who repents, even to those afar off, and in fulfillment of the promise of the Father - Acts 2:37-41)

• The Inheritance of Abraham - (Believers are the heirs of Abraham, and the possession of their inheritance is secured by possession of the Gift of the Spirit)

• No Other Name! - (Jesus Christ fulfills the promise to bless all nations through Abraham. There is salvation in no other name but his)