God's Promises to Abraham, and His Grace to the Church

From: The Prospect By: William Kelly

• 19 min. read • grade level: 10

No one denies that the promises made to Abraham flowed from the grace of God. But it is a serious mistake, affecting our faith, our communion, and our conduct, to confound these promises to Abraham with God's promise in Christ by the Gospel, spoken of in Ephes. 3:6⁶That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: (Ephesians 3:6). It is agreed that the Abrahamic covenant involved security, acceptance, favor and friendship with God, for its objects. The question is, whether the Epistle to the Ephesians, for instance, does not reveal a far deeper and higher purpose of grace, which was never promised to Abraham, but was intentionally kept hid until the presence of the Holy Ghost on earth, consequent upon the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of God in heaven. Neither reason nor tradition will help, but hinder, the solution of the question. But., what saith the Scripture? Let us compare the two things, which I affirm to be totally distinct in range and character, though both find their source necessarily in the grace of God.

The call and first revelation of the promise to Abram is found in Gen. 12:1-3¹Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: ²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: ³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1‑3) " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a laud that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse hin that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Subsequently, the Lord appeared unto Abram and raid: “Unto thy seed I will give this land." (Verse 7.) What can be plainer? A particular land given to Abram and his seed, a great nation, and a great name; blessing from God to Abram, and he a blessing to others; God treating men as they treated Abram; and in him blessing secured to all the families of the earth. Blessings natural and spiritual to Abram and his seed, and so even to the Gentiles are, I believe, conveyed in this inalienable promise, part of which is repealed in still clearer terms in chap. 13, and confirmed by sacrifice in chap. 15. Then we have circumcision enjoined as the covenant sign in chap. 17, where the name is changed to Abraham, " for a father of many nations have I made thee;" and, finally, after the son of the bondwoman is cast out, in chap. 22, we have Isaac, the son of the freewoman, the child and heir of promise, raised up from the dead in a figure, and the oath. (See Heb. 6) "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hath not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because, thou hast obeyed my voice." (Verses 16-18)

All the nations, or Gentiles, are to be blessed in the seed, but they and the seed 1 are quite distinct parties. The nations blessed therein are no more to be confounded with the seed, than are the enemies whose gate the seed is to possess. There is blessing for both; but are the nations blessed in exactly the same way and in exactly the same degree as the seed? If it be so, where is the honored place of Abraham's seed; where is their peculiar privilege in virtue of the promises to the fathers? Or, after all, do they stand on one level of common indiscriminate blessing? If it be not so, and the seed is to have its own special promised place by divine favor, above all the nations who are blessed in it, then is it evident that the covenant with Abraham is one thing and "the mystery" is another, wherein no such differences are found, but the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and joint-partakers of God's promise in Christ by the Gospel. The believing Jew from the heights, and the believing Gentile from the depths, of their earthly estate, are ushered into an unheard-of sphere of heavenly oneness in Christ, which is made good by the presence of the Holy Ghost on earth. Such is “the mystery."

For the doctrine of Ephesians is not merely justification by faith, and the death of Christ, as the basis of this divine righteousness, the sole ground on which stand all the saved from the beginning to the end of time: in Romans, we have that fully discussed, and applied to past, present and future dispensations. Much less do we find here the death of Christ connected in a special way with the Jewish nation, or even with the spared Gentiles who may be saved during the future reign of the Messiah: of these things the Psalms and prophets abundantly treat. But we are taught in Ephes. 2. 11-15, that, beside and apart from these applications of the death of Christ, there is a new and most glorious use to which the wisdom and grace of God have turned it. He has founded on the cross, and effected by the Holy Ghost thereon given, a novel and heavenly structure, without parallel in the millennial period, and without precedent in the ages and generations which closed with the crucifixion. "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances: for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through hint we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

Now, it is plain from Scripture that the distinction of Jew and Gentile, with all its accompaniments, was set up of God, had His sanction so long as the earth in any way was owned, (Matt. 10:5⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: (Matthew 10:5),) and will be resumed when the Church is caught up and God begins to interfere immediately, and not, as now, in mere secret providence, with the course of human things here below. The moment He enters upon the visible proof that there is a God which judges the earth, the Jew appears first in responsibility—in guilt, no doubt—but first, assuredly, in blessing, in virtue of the promises to the fathers. The new covenant already ratified in the blood of Christ, but suspended in its application, save to a remnant of the Jews and an election from the Gentiles, who are together brought into and form the Church, and enjoy its blessings,-this new covenant, when it takes effect in all its value and in its literal results, will not neutralize, but sanction, the divinely ordained separation of the Jew from the Gentile, and the supremacy of the former above the latter. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." (Jer. 31:31³¹Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: (Jeremiah 31:31).) Is there a word said in this covenant of obliterating the difference of Jew and Gentile, of forming both into one new man, and of introducing them on the same level of intimacy to the Father? On the contrary, there is not a syllable about the Gentiles, but an emphatic assurance of blessing to the Jew, Jehovah undertaking to put His law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts; to be their God, and they to be His people; all of them to know Him from the least to the greatest, for He will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

There is no question that abundant; blessing will flow to the Gentiles. "Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zech. 8:22, 23²²Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. ²³Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. (Zechariah 8:22‑23).) "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles." (Zech. 14:16¹⁶And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16). Mic. 3:5;7:16⁵Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. (Micah 3:5)
¹⁶The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. (Micah 7:16); Jer. 3:17¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. (Jeremiah 3:17). See also Ps. 77, 96, 106. &c.) That is, the covenant order of blessing will be time Jews in the inner, and the Gentiles in the outer, ring, when all lands make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Nevertheless, nothing can be more certain than the fact that Israel, sanctified by having Jehovah's sanctuary in their midst, will be kept aloof from and above the Gentiles, instead of both being made one body in Christ. That; is to say, the abolition of Jewish exaltation above the Gentile is only in the Church of the heavenly places. It was not so before Christ came the first time; it will not be so when He comes again. The space between these two boundaries is filled up by the formation of the Church, where is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all: not a mere collection of all the individuals in every different dispensation, but a body now gathered into one by the presence of the Holy Ghost on earth, and united with the Lord Jesus Christ in His heavenly glory. Neither of these things could be till Jesus was glorified. (John 8:39³⁹They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. (John 8:39). 1 Cor. 12:13¹³For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13).) It was then that Christ took His place above as heath, and then that the Church began to be called here below, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2:20-22²⁰And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; ²¹In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: ²²In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20‑22).)

As the difference just insisted on is of all importance, let us look at Is. 59:20, 21; 60:1, 2, 3: "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not, depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord; from henceforth and for ever. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." Here, also, it is clear that, in the coming dispensation to which the Holy Ghost its Rom. 11. applies the passage, preeminence over the Gentiles is guaranteed to Israel. "'The wealth of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." (Verse5.) "The Holy One of Israel.... hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto TREE." "'Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee time forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." (Verses 11, 12.) Compare also the rest of this chapter, as well as chapters 61 and 62. One other portion is so decisive and striking that it may be well to cite it. "I will make an everlasting covenant with them; and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles," (is this the same common position?) “and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are tine seal which the Lord hath blessed." Here, indisputably, we have the literal completion of the promises to Abraham and his seed, but it is evident that the terms of the prophecy, equally with those of the original covenant, are irreconcilable with the notion of identical blessings to Jews and Gentile, all difference between them being utterly nullified. On the contrary great as may be the privileges to the nations of the earth, resulting from these promises, decided and blessed superiority will be the indefeasible prerogative of lintel. The Gentiles are to serve them, and the nations that will not shall perish. All this is in perfect accordance with the Abrahamic covenant, but has not one feature of resemblance in the Church, which is entirely above such distinction.

The prophecy of Zecharias (Luke 1:68-79⁶⁸Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, ⁶⁹And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; ⁷⁰As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: ⁷¹That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; ⁷²To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; ⁷³The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, ⁷⁴That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. ⁷⁶And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; ⁷⁷To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, ⁷⁸Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, ⁷⁹To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:68‑79)) is evidently Jewish in its sources, its associations, and its hopes, as indeed had been the previous announcement of Gabriel to him. (Verses 13-17.) "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us, in the house of His servant David, as he spake by the mouth of His holy prophets," &c., (is this the mystery which, from the beginning of the world, hath been hid in God?) “that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; " (is this the character or manner of salvation to the Church?) " to perform the mercy promised to our fathers," (are they really our fathers, or fathers of the Jewish people?) “and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us," &c. It is conceded that many of the blessings are common, such as “in holiness and righteousness before Him," "knowledge of salvation," "the remission of sins,” for there are, of course, general principles which characterize all the people of God in all ages. But I affirm that, as a whole, this prophecy, whose accomplishment, in any strict sense, is yet future, and which is clearly based upon the oath sworn to Abraham, is not in any way the character of Church privilege. To say that it is, would be to efface, in effect, the peculiar doctrine of such epistles as Ephesians and Colossians; or, in other words, to deny unwittingly the being and proper character of the Church of God.

Moreover, it was no secret that the nations were to be blessed. It was as ancient a promise, we have seen, as that which secured the peculiar seat of honor to Abraham's seed. It was repeated to Isaac (Gen. 26:4⁴And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; (Genesis 26:4)) and reiterated to Jacob. (28:14.) A Jew ought not to have thought of Jehovah's pledge of blessing to his race without remembering that he himself was to be the channel of blessing to the nations. Will it be affirmed that this most familiar assurance of blessing to the Gentiles in the promised seed, published frequently and undisguisedly (as the apostle Paul showed)in Moses, and the Psalms, and the prophets, is the same thing as the mystery which has been "hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to the saints "? (Col. 1:26²⁶Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: (Colossians 1:26).) Is that secret and silent which was published from age to age, and

rehearsed from generation to generation? Can a simple and familiar covenant, revealed so often by the Lord, and so often appealed to by His people, from the book of Genesis till the last prophet wound up the Old Testament canon (Mal. 1:11¹¹For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:11))—can this be deemed a mystery, altogether concealed from the sons of men?

Surely not. Gentile blessing, therefore, as involved in the Abrahamic covenant, which was the constant expectation of Israel, wholly differs from the mystery of Christ, which, in other ages, was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery was not revealed before. It is Now revealed. From the beginning of the world it was (not known to God's people, but) hid in God. (Eph. 3:9⁹And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:9).)Indeed, we have only to read Matt. 16:18¹⁸And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) in order to see that, even in the Lord's life-time here below, the Church did not exist save in the purpose of God. It was His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, but actually existed only after His death and resurrection. During His ministry He was not even beginning to build it: “Upon this rock I will build my church." Hence it is said in Col. 1:18¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18): “He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead." Christ Himself, in resurrection, was the beginning. Souls had been born again; sinners had been saved, by the faith of the Savior. But the Church was a new body formed by the Holy Ghost, after its risen Head took His seat in heaven, and Heb. 12:23²³To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23) distinguishes the Church from the spirits of just men made perfect, (i.e. the Old Testament saints,) as plainly as from the innumerable company of angels. Scripture applies the term “Church of God “only to the saints of the present period.

Is it maintained, then, that election, redemption, faith, life, saint-ship, are peculiar to the Church? By no means. The Church of God shares these and other blessings with all the faithful of all times; but this does not make all the faithful to be the Church. This cannot annul the peculiar standing which is traced as the Church's portion, in Ephes. 2,3,4. It is admitted fully that to us, members of Christ's body, it can be said, "All are yours." Of the new covenant, though, strictly speaking, made with the house of Israel, we yet enjoy the blessing, and if we are Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. But it by no means follows that millennial Israel, for instance, though enjoying the new covenant, and the Abrahamic promise still more literally than ourselves, will have any portion in that mystery which is distinct from either.

Scripture speaks of the faith of Abel, of Enoch, of Noah; but that the Abrahamic covenant was in operation as to them is pure assumption. Faith ever rests upon the word, upon the revelation of God, and the Abrahamic covenant was not disclosed until the time of Abraham, though the Savior had been pointed to from the first. (Gen. 3:15¹⁵And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15).) They rested on a revealed Redeemer, not on an unrevealed covenant.

The real stumbling-block, as appears in Scripture, has ever been, not so much the Jewish channel of outward testimony traced in Rom. 11 as the temporary leveling of Jewish prerogative, and the grace which gathers out of Jews and Gentiles, as alike children of wrath, traced in Eph. 2. The ordinary notion, which prevails to the present, is a specious form of the same evil which vexed the Church from its early days.

The new covenant and New Testament are merely various versions of the same Greek phraseκαινὴ, διαθήκν, of which the former is always, I believe, the right rendering, as regards the use of the phrase in Scripture. If so, the reasoning about the testator has no place. I do not believe the new covenant to be identical with the Abrahamic covenants, which are more extended' in their scope, though, so far as Israel is concerned, they may coincide; but it is needless to discuss the point. Nor is there such an idea in the Bible as the grace-giving Testament. The grace of God brings salvation, even to such as were strangers from the covenants of promise. There is no doubt that the shedding of blood is essential to the remission of sin, and that the new covenant is founded upon the death of Christ; but that God restricts His death to the new covenant is unfounded. Ephes. 2., as we have seen, overthrows the idea. Nor is it scriptural to say, that “the promise “and” the new covenant " are convertible terms, though they may be intimately blended. But we can heartily agree that unconditionally stamps the Abrahamic covenant, as the apostle so strongly insists in Gal. 3. It is evident that when the Judaizers insisted upon the law, the apostle' could appeal most powerfully to the promises of God, given so many centuries before the law; (Gal. 3.;) when they insisted upon circumcision, he could triumphantly point to the faith which their father Abraham had, being yet uncircumcised. (Rom. 4.) If, therefore, God now justified the uncircumcision through faith, it was no more than He had done in the case of faithful Abraham. Nor could any objections be more completely silenced. But, to say that the Abrahamic covenant is the channel of God's grace to us, argues an inadequate view of our wretchedness as outcast dogs of the Gentiles, as well as of the bright, heavenly atmosphere into which we are brought, as baptized, Jews or Gentiles, by one Spirit into one body.