The Covenant Promise

Jesus fulfills the promise to bless the nations in Abraham. He is the true Seed of the Patriarch.

The biblical view of the redemption of humanity begins with the Covenant of Abraham. It included the promise that “all the nations of the Earth would be blessed in him,” and that he would have innumerable descendants. The covenant promises were also for his “seed,” but who is the Patriarch’s “seed” destined to inherit the promises?

The promise of “seed” given to Abraham finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus and his New Covenant community, namely, the “Assembly,” the “Body of Christ.” The Abrahamic Covenant was part of the larger redemptive plan of God, a beginning point rather than the end goal. The initial focus on Abraham’s immediate biological descendants was only the first stage.

[Photo by Andrew Stutesman on Unsplash]

The Covenant always envisioned a glorious future beyond the confines of national Israel or the small territory of Canaan, a promise that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the New Creation and the redemption of the nations - (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:4-6, 17:1-8),

For example, the Book of Revelation portrays an “innumerable multitude” of men purchased from every nation by the “blood of the Lamb” standing and worshipping before the Throne in the City of New Jerusalem - (Revelation 7:9-17).

Jesus limited the activities of his disciples to the “lost sheep of Israel,” but his mission foresaw the inclusion of the “Gentiles.” This is demonstrated by the application of the messianic prophecy in the Book of Isaiah to the commencement of his ministry in Galilee - “The land of Zebulon and Nephtali by the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people that sat in darkness saw great light” - (Matthew 4:12-17).

Israel’s Messiah was anointed to reign “on the Throne of David.”  He was the Servant of Yahweh who was “declaring judgment to the nations…and in his name shall nations trust” - (Matthew 12:18-22, Isaiah 42:1-4).

Matthew’s Gospel applies the same passage when Jesus healed a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath Day. Indignant, the Pharisees began to conspire about “how they might destroy him,” but he withdrew, and a “great multitude followed him, and he healed them all.” The application of the prophecy at this point suggests that at least some Gentiles were included among the “mixed multitude” that followed Jesus. This is confirmed in the version of the story in Mark’s Gospel (“A great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from beyond Jordan; and a great multitude from Tyre and Sidon”). Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician cities populated largely by Gentiles - (Mark 3:6-7).

After his resurrection, Jesus sent his disciples to herald the Kingdom to “all nations,” a mission that must be completed before his return. The salvation of the “nations” is pivotal to the plan of redemption and the fullness of the Kingdom of God- (Matthew 24:14, 28:18-20).

Likewise, he commissioned the disciples to be “witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth.” This last clause alludes to the prophecy of the Servant of Yahweh in Isaiah - “I will also give you for a light to the nations that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth”- (Isaiah 49:6, Acts 1:7-9).

The global scope of the Gospel Mission is stressed in the climax of Peter’s first sermon on the Day of Pentecost when he combined verbal allusions from the books of Isaiah and Joel - “For to you is the promise, to your children and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call to him” – (Acts 2:33-39).

The term “promise” is singular in number and refers to the promise of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The phrase, “To all that are far off,” is another allusion to the prophecy in Isaiah - “Hear, O isles, unto me; and hearken, you peoples from far; Yahweh has called me from the womb…” - (Isaiah 49:1-6).

In the third chapter of Acts, Peter prayed for the lame man at the entrance to the Temple, declaring that “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” healed him in the name of “His Servant,” Jesus:

• All the “prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, told of these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed shall all the clans of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised his Servant, sent him to bless you by turning away every one of you from your iniquities” - (Acts 3:25).

Peter linked the ministry of Jesus to the promise to bless all the nations in Abraham’s Seed. His words anticipated the broadening of the covenant community to include the Gentiles by declaring that God blessed the Jewish nation “first.”

PREACHING TO GENTILES

Peter was instrumental in opening the Gospel to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius. He understood it was unlawful “for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come into one of another nation,” yet God showed him that he must “not call any man common or unclean.”

The Creator of all things accepts men “in every nation that fear him and work righteousness.” Therefore, Peter preached the same Gospel to Cornelius that he proclaimed previously to the Jews of Jerusalem - (Acts 10:19-48).

As he was still preaching, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles, and they began to speak in tongues. This amazed the Jews present with Peter since uncircumcised Gentiles had received the same Gift as the Jewish believers did on the Day of Pentecost. After hearing about these events, the Church at Jerusalem “glorified God, because to the Gentiles also He had granted repentance unto life.”

James declared that the Gentiles were not required to undergo circumcision “to be saved,” for God had “visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.” James justified the outreach to uncircumcised Gentiles by citing the prophet Amos:

• “And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written: After these things, I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again its ruins, and I will set it up, that the remnant of men may seek after the Lord and all the nations upon whom my name is called” - (Acts 15:14-17, Amos 9:11-12).

The Book of Acts ends with the Apostle Paul in Rome “proclaiming the Kingdom of God” to all who would hear, Jews and Gentiles alike - (Isaiah 52:10, Acts 28:26-31).

In Galatians, Paul is explicit. The followers of Jesus are the true “children of Abraham.” The plan was always to justify the Gentiles through faith. Did not God promise Abraham that “In you will all nations be blessed”?

Men who stand on faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham.” Jesus is the true “seed of Abraham” in whom the nations are blessed – (Genesis 12:3, Galatians 3:7-9, 3:14, Ephesians 2:11-19).

Finally, the Book of Revelation foresees the City of New Jerusalem inhabited by a vast multitude of men redeemed from all the nations, the ultimate fulfillment of the Covenant Promise to “bless the nations” in Abraham. Jesus symbolized by the slain “Lamb” was declared worthy to reign over the Cosmos precisely because he “purchased for God by his blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation” - (Revelation 5:5-14).

The Abrahamic Covenant with its promises of land and descendants always included the Gentiles, and it finds its fulfillment in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus. It is “in him,” the true “Seed of Abraham,” that the nations of the Earth are “blessed.”

[PDF Copy]

SEE ALSO:

• The Salvation of Yahweh - (Jesus means ‘Yahweh saves.’ In the man from Nazareth, the Salvation promised by the God of Israel has arrived in all its glory)

• Only Some Nations? - (Is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God a message of hope for only some nations, or is it Good News for all countries and peoples?)

• The Promise is for you! - (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)