IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM

“Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise, but God in His grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” Galatians 3:15-18.

Without going into detail, the Bible clearly teaches that Abraham had four different kinds of “seed”.

1. It stand to reason that all Abraham’s natural-born children were his “seed”, That would include the all descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, even those who were not part of God’s selective history, that is, those who were set aside and not a part of the Jewish nation.

2. God chose Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, to be the father of Abraham’s special, natural seed – the children of Israel. These were the covenant people of God.

3. In Galatians 3:16, Paul narrowed Abraham’s seed down to one person, Jesus Christ, as Abraham’s unique seed because it was only through Him that all the promises God made to Abraham, would be fulfilled.

4. In Galatians 3:29, Paul identified believers as the spiritual seed of Abraham. Since God’s promises are received by faith, and the children of Israel failed to believe God and receive His gifts by grace, He opened the door to the Gentiles to be included in the family of Abraham if they received Jesus by faith. That made them the spiritual children of Abraham.

(www.audiowebman.org/bbc/books/NC/abrahams_seed/chpt_02.htm)

Do you understand, then, why Paul identified Jesus as the unique “seed” of Abraham? The covenant God established at Mount Sinai with the special natural seed of Abraham did not nullify, add to or subtract from His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15). It was an interim covenant given to His people to show them how to live as His special people, and to teach them how impossible it was to obey Him without the Holy Spirit.

It was God’s intention to give the Holy Spirit back to those who trust in Him because, without the Spirit, people are still dead and unable to hear or communicate with God. The Holy Spirit would only be given when the barrier of sin between God and man had been removed. Only Jesus could remove that barrier by paying sin’s debt on behalf of sinners. Ultimately then, God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled through one man, Jesus, the “seed” of Abraham. In Him, all those who believe in Him are His seed by faith. Jesus Himself spoke of being a seed.

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But, if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24.

But Jesus was not just any old seed. He was the seed of Abraham, the offspring of God’s covenant people, the one whom God promised would come to crush the head of Satan.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring (seed), and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” Genesis 3:15.

Jesus was both the seed of the woman (human) and the seed of Abraham (Jewish); he was born of a woman and born into the Jewish nation. He came at a specific time and into a specific culture which had been prepared through God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai to understand the ramifications of sin so that they could understand and appreciate the enormity of God’s grace.

That they failed by rejecting their Messiah was no fault of God’s, but it did open the door for God’s grace in Christ to be given to the whole world. God intended for His people to be the revelation of Himself to the world. It did not happen through His chosen people, but through a small group, called the Apostles, who went in obedience to His command, and took the message to the world.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.