Amen.
Our first scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Exodus, chapter 19, beginning with the fifth verse. Moses writes, ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.’
So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
From Exodus, we turn to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, chapter 3, beginning at verse 15. Paul writes, ‘To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say ‘and to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.’
‘This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.’
And from there, we turn to the letter of Hebrews, chapter 11, beginning in verse 8. ‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.’
‘For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she was considered faithful to him who promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’
‘These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had an opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.’
‘By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, you have given us your word and the many promises contained within it. Help us to understand and to accept all that you have freely offered and all that you have given to us by your grace through your son, Jesus. Amen.
We believe that the elect, the people of God, are Abraham’s children and that his children comprise people from all of the nations in the world—past, present, and future. Of all those whom the Lord has chosen and called to himself, we believe that it is through this diverse group of people that God blesses and will bless all nations.
So next, we must ask the twin questions of how do we receive this blessing, and what is this blessing really? The answers to these questions are quite simple, but also complex in how we understand them. We receive Abraham’s blessing by means of a covenant, and the blessing that is received is the inheritance given to Abraham and his heirs.
So now, just what is a covenant? Covenant is not just a Bible word that is only ever used in church. It is, in fact, a word that was brought into the church from the practices of the world, and it is used by the Lord to describe one of the means by which he relates to his people.
Webster’s defines a covenant as being ‘a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement’ or ‘a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties, especially for the performance of some action.’ The modern usage of this word often just relegates it to the sphere of contract law; otherwise, most people think it’s merely a term for an agreement made between two peoples.
However, historically, covenants have been held to a much higher standard and have held great importance because of the strength implied by their ability to bind. The church recognizes the presence and use of covenants all over sacred scripture, and so rightly we apply them to our lives of faith.
We have a system we use to understand the Bible called covenant theology, where we consider the many covenants that the Lord makes with or on behalf of his people, where we consider who is brought into being his covenant people, and what his people’s obligations to God are, and what God obliges himself to do for us.
We also believe marriage to be founded upon and strengthened by the bonds of a covenant made between a man and his wife in the eyes of God. Paul in our text from Galatians wrestles here with the idea of and relationship between two dueling covenants: the covenant of grace, or the promise, and the covenant of works, or the law. His debate concerns which covenant is the source and means of the benefit we receive as Abraham’s children and heirs.
Does the blessing of Abraham come to us through our obedience to the law, as given to Moses at Mount Sinai, or do we receive it according to God’s sovereign promise through our faith in Jesus Christ? First, to determine which of these covenants is the means, we must know more about how a covenant operates.
So what is the implied strength of a covenant? Once upon a time, we used to say that a man’s word is his bond. Once, we had the gentleman’s agreement, which was sealed by only a handshake, and the forces that kept people honest and faithful to their agreements were a man’s own personal integrity and the social pressure of public opinion.
Today, modern big business contracts are written with teeth and power to bind the parties with the strength and force of civil law, or being subject to payment of financial damages upon a breach. International treaties made between sovereign nations are enforced by the implied threat of military or economic force, or they are encouraged along according to the goodwill and approval of neighboring countries.
Yet historically, a covenant is an agreement that is even stronger still. Dating back to the earliest recorded history, covenants have been used as the strongest form of agreement. They were accepted and considered as being unbreakable and unalterable. A covenant obligation only ended when the parties were no more having no heirs, or when the defined terms of the covenant had been satisfied.
Kings and kingdoms, fathers and sons alike, continued to be obligated by the covenant terms of their predecessors just as they were to the other party’s heir. All of the provisions of a covenant continued to bind the parties even if they were violated, because covenants obligated the imposition of the severest penalties by the parties, and this obligation was subject to enforcement by the divine. This is why scripture cautions us against making oaths.
So due to their permanent and unchangeable nature, covenant agreements were carved in stone. Literally, the expression used to describe the establishment of a covenant—the ancient equivalent of signing on the dotted line—was ‘to cut a covenant.’ It was called thus because the terms of the agreement were often inscribed into two stone or clay tablets, which were then preserved and retained by both parties as evidence of their agreement.
Furthermore, every covenant was witnessed and confirmed by the parties’ personal gods with the ritual sacrifice and meal whereby an animal was killed, cut up into two pieces, and then the covenanters would walk between those pieces swearing to the effect of, ‘Let it be done to me the same as this animal if I transgress this covenant.’ Then, after this ritual, the parties and witnesses would then eat the meat together as a final action to identify themselves with the sacrificed animal.
Now returning to our text, Paul here describes God’s relationship with his people as being by the means of a covenant. Further, for the two covenants that are here referenced, we witness the common elements of cutting a covenant being followed at their institution, as when Abraham saw a vision of a fire pot, a burning brazier, passed between the pieces of his sacrifice while the Lord made him the promise, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Canaanites, the Canaanites, the Cadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gergesites, and the Jebusites,’ way back in Genesis chapter 15.
And after Moses wrote down all the words of the covenant at Mount Sinai, the people then offered sacrifices. Moses poured out half of the blood from those sacrifices upon the altar, while the other half was sprinkled upon the people as they again agreed to God’s law, saying, ‘All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient,’ there in Exodus chapter 24.
But then Paul stipulates and reminds us that a second covenant, a later covenant, cannot change or invalidate a pre-existing covenant, stating, ‘No one annuls it or adds to it once it’s been ratified.’
So, since Abraham’s heirs receive their blessing by way of a covenant, what are the terms of these two covenants which Paul invokes and which provide our inherited blessing? The details of the covenant of promise are found in Genesis 15, where it’s written, ‘After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram; I am your shield; your reward shall be very great. I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess. To your offspring, I give this land.’
Here in this covenant, God places the obligation to deliver upon this promise on himself. The Lord says that he will do this for Abraham and his offspring; therefore, they shall receive it. So it was written, ‘Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.’
Although the whole terms denoting Israel’s obligation are written throughout Torah, the detailed benefits of the covenant of law are found in Exodus chapter 19, where it’s written, ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
To which the Israelites responded, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ They accepted the obligation of their obedience and the continuing obedience of their descendants as the necessary condition to retain a favored status before God.
So clearly, the law is not like the promise. Not only are the terms of the covenant completely different—with God unconditionally saying, ‘I will do this for you’ in the first, and then God conditionally saying, ‘I will do this if you do that’ in the second—but the benefits are also different. God promises Abraham a homeland in the first, and in the second, he offers Israel, upon condition of their obedience, a favored status before him.
So since the second covenant cannot supersede or abrogate the first, it must therefore overlap it, running parallel rather than replacing it. The benefit of God’s promise is an inheritance, while the benefit of God’s law is an exalted status, which is earned and preserved by one’s obedience.
So which covenant provides our blessing from Abraham? Paul tells us that God gave it to Abraham as a promise, and this promised blessing is our inheritance. This is the same inheritance that Jesus Christ receives and which he shares with all of his siblings by divine adoption, united into him.
So what is this inheritance? The inheritance is a place. The inheritance is a home. The inheritance is the end of our exile from the presence and fellowship of the Lord. The author of Hebrews explains this for us, saying, ‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.’
‘For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.’
See, the Lord called Abraham, then living in the pagan land of his ancestors, saying to him, ‘Go to the land of Canaan, because I’m going to give you a home and establish you a family there.’ Abraham, because he trusted in God’s promise, obeyed the Lord and so moved to the land of Canaan sight unseen.
Yet the land in which he dwelt never became his or his son Isaac’s or his grandson Jacob’s, even though they were financially prosperous with expanding households. It never became their home sweet home. So long as they dwelt there, they continued to trust God and were satisfied because in faith they were always looking ahead to the ultimate fulfillment in the Lord.
They wandered across the entire land, leading and following their flocks, enjoying all the benefits and good pleasures to be found there, but they never permanently settled or established themselves. They came and went as their needs changed, traveling back and forth across the promised land from Egypt and the south to Haran in the north. They were sojourners in the land, living as strangers and exiles on the earth.
Over and over again, scripture uses this language of sojourning to describe God’s people—from the patriarchs to the Israelites of the Exodus, to those people dwelling in the land under the kings of Israel and Judah, and even to those exiles who returned home to Judea from Babylon. Ever since Adam and Eve were driven out from Eden—throughout all redemptive history—God’s people have been waiting and looking forward to our forever home.
Like our father Abraham, we await the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. We desire a better country, a heavenly one, and that city and country will be the blessing which the nations receive on account of Abraham. It is the true inheritance of Jesus Christ which he shares with all his people.
But how do we know that Christ is Abraham’s true singular heir? Paul tells us, ‘Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say ‘and to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.’
Now Paul is absolutely correct here grammatically speaking, even as both the Hebrew word used in Genesis for offspring and our English word of offspring may be used for both the singular and a communal plural. So how did Paul and the author of Hebrews reach this interpretation? Knowing their scripture, they remember the reason why Abraham was ultimately okay with banishing Hagar and denying Ishmael the firstborn birthright.
It was not because he wanted to have a happy wife, happy life, sending them away to stave off Sarah’s displeasure, but it was because the Lord told him, ‘Do not be displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’
So even while Isaac is his son and legitimately his immediate heir, God tells him that the offspring who will actually receive the inheritance promised will be of a later generation and the descendants of Isaac, not Ishmael.
So since God always keeps his promises, if this offspring was not to be his son Isaac, well then perhaps it was King David. Now David did receive an initial fulfillment of this promise. He was the singular king and heir of Abraham who conquered the entirety of the land promised to God’s people. He possessed it and ruled it on behalf of all Israel, the communal offspring of Abraham.
Yet the heirs of David did not retain possession of the land which the Lord had promised for all generations by an everlasting covenant. So since God cannot lie, clearly David was not the offspring for whom his eternal inheritance was intended.
Jesus, however, the messianic son of David, is also named the offspring and son of Abraham. The Gospel of Matthew begins with these words: ‘The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,’ establishing Jesus as this promised offspring of Abraham and so the heir to all God’s promises.
But did Jesus actually receive the promise? Was it fulfilled in him? Yes, because he was welcomed as the Davidic king by the Jewish crowds on Palm Sunday when they shouted to him, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
He was crowned king by the Roman soldiery who shouted to him, ‘Hey, king of the Jews,’ and when he was presented to the citizens of Jerusalem as their king by Pontius Pilate, who also affirmed his kingship in writing by posting a sign upon the cross which read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,’ as he was representing the greatest worldly authority of Rome and Caesar.
Then, after having been recognized as the rightful king of Israel by the foremost power in the world and after being raised from the dead, this son of Abraham told his disciples, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’ All authority, meaning the possession and dominion of all creation, was his.
And so yes, Jesus received from the Lord the totality of the promise: ‘The nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.’ And then he ascended into heaven, where he is now sitting enthroned at the right hand of God until the day comes when he will return to give us our promised inheritance.
And when Christ returns, then all things will be made new. Creation will be restored, the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable and incorruptible. By God’s grace, we shall be brought into the New Jerusalem, the city with foundations where the Lord shall be our God and we shall be his people.
Then we shall truly be a people with a home, a people with a land, and a people resting in peace. Then we shall dwell in the Lord’s presence once more; we shall walk with him in his garden in the cool of the day. Then we shall possess this inheritance forevermore.
Through our faith in Christ Jesus, God’s promise to Abraham will be finally complete. As Christians, we are often greatly concerned about the inheritance that we expect to receive from Jesus. Oftentimes we think of this inheritance as being our salvation, redemptive from slavery to sin, our justification before the holy Lord, and our glory, the glorification and our entrance into heaven.
Or we may think that it is eternal life and the hope of heaven. But truthfully, it is this promise of an eternal home in the Lord’s presence and a dwelling place in the kingdom of God. The promised inheritance which the children of Abraham’s faith receive through Jesus Christ is the end of exile from Eden, from our heavenly Father.
It is our being allowed entrance into his presence where we shall then bask in the radiance of his countenance and our possession of citizenship in heaven. The blessed consequence of our receiving this inheritance are all of those other things: forgiveness, eternal life, justification, sanctification, and the future glorification of our resurrected selves.
We are the children of Abraham, and this is why our faith is so important. We are trusting to receive something according to the Lord’s promise, which, because of our sinful human frailty, we could never hope to earn or deserve.
So trust God’s promises. Believe him like Abraham did before you, and you will be blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Amen.