Friday, June 12, 2009

Genesis 12:1,3 versus Galatians 3:8



Genesis 12:1,3 - "Now the LORD said to Abram...in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

Galatians 3:8 - "The Scripture...preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'All the nations will be blessed in you.'"

See any similarities in those two verses? See any differences? Here is what I noticed...

Point 1) What the LORD said, the Scripture preached, preaches and will preach forevermore!!! Amen!

Point 2) A new identity: from Abram to Abraham...from death to life...from old creature to new...from no communion to covenant.

Point 3) "All the families/nations will be blessed..." The gospel means "good news." The gospel is for all peoples; Jew or Gentile. It would not be good news if it was not for all nations or else Paul, the writer of Galatians, wouldn't have said, "The Scripture...preached the gospel...saying, All the nations will be blessed in you." He would have left out the words, "preached the gospel" in that verse if that wasn't part of the good news.

Point 4) "...in you". Paul goes on to clear up the meaning of this term in the following verse. Galatians 3:9 says, "So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer." Not so much as "in Abraham" but rather "with Abraham." Abraham is a living OT prophecy of the gospel. Why? Because of this very verse: God saved Abraham by faith. If you were to continue reading the third chapter of Galatians down to verse 14, you would notice very similar wording as in verse 8. See if you can catch it. "...in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." It's only IN CHRIST can Abraham and all the nations be blessed through faith.

Christ is the blessing...God is the good news!

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