THE PROGENITOR

 

THE PROGENITOR

“Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7).

Introduction

Image from Web

People today are blessed by hearing and obeying the same Gospel Abraham heard! Or to put that another way, as it was for Abraham, so it is for us.

As you know, progenitor means forefather, parent, patriarch, etc. for we see in Galatians 3:7 that “only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” Paul backs this up in Romans 4:16 where he says that Abraham is the father of all believers.

So then we need to ask the question: In what way is Abraham our father? None of us to my knowledge can trace a direct physical descendancy. Well, quite simply Abraham is our spiritual father of a sort. God covenanted with Abraham in the exact same way He covenants with us, his children.

The outward signs and seals of the covenant are different of course. But the inward or spiritual administration of the covenant is the same both for Abraham and us. Indeed, it could be said, like father like son. If you want an idea of what your life as a Christian will be like, then look at the life of Abraham. Not that Abraham was a perfect human being. But that’s part of the likeness, isn’t it? The circumstances of our lives may be vastly different from Abraham’s. But whatever the Lord promised to Abraham, He has promised us too.

Like Father

In verse 6 we see that Abraham was considered righteous before God. He was declared righteous on account of his believing God. Now straightaway we can get into trouble here. So, we need to explain.

Up until God called Abraham, he was an unbeliever. He didn’t know God. We’re told in Joshua 24:2 that Abraham came from a family who served other gods. Genesis 12:1ff. records, “Now the Lord said to Abraham: ‘Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land I will show you.”

It’s worthwhile mentioning the one of Abraham’s forefathers was called Eber. And it’s most probable that the Hebrews got their name from him. There were people of God, at the time of Abraham’s calling, scattered among the nations. Apparently the Book of Job was from about this time. After the Tower of Babel, the Lord scattered all people “abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:9). Therefore, there would have been people of God in and among the different nations. For example, Job was from the land of Uz (Job 1:1). His three friends, so called were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. (Job 2:11).

Now whatever else you might think of Job’s counsellors, they did at least have some knowledge of the true God. Then there was “Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram” (Job 32:2). Also, Abraham met with the mysterious Melchizedek King of Salem (Jerusalem). No one would argue that Melchizedek didn’t know the Lord – read the Book of Hebrews. The point I make is that the Lord has His people in all nations. And if you know anything about the Biblical Doctrine of Election, you will conclude that there are even today people of God scattered among the nations. How many? Well, only God knows the exact figure. And remember, we’re talking about God’s people in other nations who haven’t yet heard the Gospel. Some haven’t yet been born and others are living as Pagans, or secular humanists or whatever live.

The Lord called Abraham out from Ur of the nation of the Chaldeans. He called Him out in order to make a new nation of Abraham comprising of all nations. All true Christians today are part of this new nation. We call this new nation the church, which is the kingdom of heaven/kingdom of God (same thing).

The Lord as you know has in place a program for uniting all His people as one. John 11:52 says that “He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.” This unity is in Christ, and His work of atonement at Jerusalem accomplished this unity. And the call to unite as one under the banner and headship of Christ is the everlasting Gospel Let me illustrate this by quoting Revelation 14:6 -7, “Then I [i.e., the Apostle John] saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, sea and springs of water.’”

Image from Web

Abraham was called out from among a tribe who worshipped the sun, moon and stars. That’s what the Chaldeans were into. But the Lord called Abraham and revealed bit by bit something of His plan of redemption to him. Abraham quickly discovered he was dealing with the One who made heaven and earth. He was reminded by Melchisedek who blessed Abraham saying, “Blessed be Abraham of God Most High, Possessor [or Maker] of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19). In Genesis 14:22 we read, “But Abraham said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth.’” So, we see clearly that Abraham feared God. He made an oath before God. He lifted his hand under solemn oath as would you or I in a court of law. The Lord was in covenant with Abraham and Abraham was in covenant with the Lord.

Abraham then demonstrated that he had heard the everlasting gospel. The same everlasting gospel the angel was proclaiming whom the Apostle John saw. Abraham feared God and as he stood before the king of Sodom he gave the glory to God. Abraham knew the covenant name of God which is Jehovah or Yaweh. He upheld the name – the name of the Lord even before kings. And he personally knew the Most High God (Elyon, if you’re into Hebrew).

I don’t have to tell you that Jehovah and Jesus are one and the same Person. Abraham did what Jehovah/Jesus said the Apostle Paul would do. Jesus said as recorded in Acts 9:15, “he [Paul] is a chosen vessel of mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.”

If you were to follow the life of Abraham, warts and all, you’d see that he is clearly a believer. He was trusting in the same Lord in whom Christians today are trusting. He was hoping on the same promises we’re on which Christians today hope. This is the whole substance of Paul’s argument to the Galatians. As it was for Abraham so it is for us. Like father like son.

Abraham had received from God everything the Galatians had received some fourteen years before he was circumcised. He had been declared righteous by God on account of his faith (demonstrated by his obedience). Paul elaborated on this when he wrote to the Romans, “And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also” (Rom. 4:11). Therefore, Abraham didn’t make himself right with God by circumcision or any other outward sign. His righteousness, or his being RIGHT with God, was an imputed thing. In other words, it was the righteousness of Christ as revealed in the Gospel that was accounted or accredited to Abraham.

Before God called Abraham his bank account had no righteousness whatsoever in it. Abraham was a morally bankrupt human being. But through the gospel God revealed to Him the righteousness he needed to escape the everlasting judgment of God. This righteousness is a free gift from God along with the faith that is needed to embrace it. So then, Paul is quoting Genesis 15:6 when he writes, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore, all the Galatians had to do was search the Scriptures to make sure these things were so. And they would see the foolishness of their plan to be circumcised in order to be saved. Therefore, those who have a salvation by works mentality are acting as if they have no faith – as those who are not the true sons of Abraham.

Let’s summarize a little. Father Abraham then, was a believer. He believed the promises of the Lord. And we discover that these promises are the heart and soul of the gospel. Abraham knew that God looked on him as one who was righteous. And he acted on that belief. We see that his faith had arms and legs because he was doing what the Lord told him. But most importantly, he was declared righteous long before God sealed the covenant by Abraham’s circumcision.

Before we move on we need to ask: What were some of the promises Abraham believed? If you were to study, e.g., Romans chapters 3 and 4, and Galatians 3 in connection with Genesis, you’d see some of the promises. In accordance with God’s Covenant of Grace, Abraham had been granted the righteousness revealed in the Gospel. He had been justified in the sight of God on account of God’s gift of faith. He had the forgiveness of sins. He was adopted as a child of God. He had the gifts of the Spirit for sanctification and eternal glory. And he believed in the resurrection of the body too.

Image from Web

    “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense” (Heb. 11:17-19).

In a nutshell, Abraham was believing in the eternal life promised in Christ Jesus. But here is the subtlety: Abraham only possessed the substance of these things. O all these things were his. There’s no disputing that. But the point I make is this: Abraham only had God’s word on it. He only had it on God’s good word that He was good for it. In other words, Abraham had faith in the promise of God. He had faith that God was good for everything He promised!

Hebrews 11:1 gives us this definition of faith, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The NIV puts it like this, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Abraham had faith that God could deliver all He promised. Ask yourself: How could Abraham be saved if he didn’t hear the Gospel? How could he believe if he wasn’t born again? How could he discern spiritual things if he was devoid of the Spirit of Christ? How can he be called the father of all believers if it was somehow different for Abraham? But keep in mind that all Abraham received from God was promises.

The Lord said to Abraham, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12;2-3). Paul says, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Gal. 3:9). We know that this faith comes from God and not ourselves. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

God granted Abraham the free gift of faith. The object of his faith was the Christ to come as revealed in the Gospel. Therefore, Abraham was blessed with all the blessings that are included in the Gospel. For he was seeking first and foremost the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And these are found only in Jesus Christ.

Like Son

Everything Abraham had we have, and everything we have Abraham had. And keep in mind we’re talking about the promises of God. As it was for Abraham, so it is for us. But very little of this will make sense to you unless you realize that.

Christians today are under the same Covenant as Abraham. This is the whole basis of Paul’s argument for justification by faith with the Galatians. He is telling the Galatians that they are under the same covenant as Abraham. And that the conditions of that covenant are faith in Christ and His righteousness.

Image from Web

We see how right Christ was with God at the cross, and particularly His resurrection. It’s not faith in Christ and His righteousness plus some of your own, e.g., circumcision. We have no righteousness of our own. Adam killed whatever righteousness we had. He was our representative under the pre-Fall Covenant of Works. So, we are all in need of a new covenant with God, the Gospel reveals that new covenant – the Covenant of Grace, i.e., the Gospel covenant. Therefore, Paul is saying that those Jews who think they are right with God because they are physically descended from Abraham are wrong.

They think they are right with God because of circumcision. Well, they’re wrong. And of course this is where the Galatians were becoming confused. And I don’t have to tell you about the confusion in Christendom today. So, Paul explains it all to the Galatians the way everything in Scripture ought to be understood and explained, which is in terms of God’s Everlasting Covenant.

Charles Hodge provides us with a handy definition of covenant where he says, “A covenant is a promise suspended upon a condition.”[1] The condition of the covenant God made with Abraham is the same today. The condition is faith in God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Therefore, only those who fulfill this condition are considered children of Abraham. That’s what Paul means when he says, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7). We call this the Doctrine of Justification – justification by faith alone. This is the way God planned it. This is the heart of the good news – the gospel. This is the way of salvation that the Lord revealed to father Abraham.

“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.’” (Gal. 3:8). There it is! God is going to justify the nations by faith – the same way He justified father Abraham. This was God’s plan of redemption from the beginning. And God revealed that plan to Abraham. We call this plan as it is revealed to fallen man The Covenant of Grace.

Abraham when he heard the Gospel was receiving revelation of this Covenant of Grace. The revelation of the Covenant of Grace is the Good News or the Gospel. Therefore, Abraham believed in the Gospel and it was accounted to him for righteousness. “For in it [ie, the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17). Father Abraham needed this righteousness. Like father like son!

So then, where does: “In you all the nations shall be blessed” fit in? Well, this is the promise the Lord made to Abraham that all the nations will be blessed – in Christ. The Gospel is to be scattered abroad over the whole face of the earth, till ev).ery tribe, tongue and nation has heard of Christ and His righteousness. Why? So that all the nations shall be blessed along with believing Abraham.

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). When the Lord covenanted with Abraham He promised Abraham, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations” (Gen.17:4). If only those who are of faith are Abraham’s children, then what about his physical descendants? Didn’t they have the promises of God too? Of course they had the promises of God. But the question is: Did they meet the one and only condition of the covenant, i.e., Faith? Remember, Abraham was justified by faith not works. And faith is a gift from God. It is a covenant blessing.

There are both blessings and curses attached to the covenant. John 3:36 should suffice to illustrate this, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Therefore, in order for a person to fulfill the condition required by the covenant he must do what Abraham did. “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

So, what are we to say about all those unbelieving physical descendants of Abraham? The Lord also promised that there would be a place for them to live. It was looking pretty good during the days of King David. It was looking even better during the reign of Solomon his son. But all of that was short lived. It was just a picture of something else.

So, what are we to make of the covenant promises God made to Abraham? What about the descendants as numerous as grains of sand? And what about the piece of land in which they were to live? If you listen to some Christians, they’ll tell that Abraham has hardly any descendants. They keep talking about a remnant all the time. But it’s hard to see where they’re coming from when you look at God’s promises to Abraham. Was God talking about spiritual descendants or physical descendants are both? Well, what did the Lord say to Abraham? “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love...” (Gen. 22:2). Isaac wasn’t Abraham’s only son, was he? Abraham had another son called Ishmael, didn’t he? In terms of the covenant God did not recognize Ishmael as a son of Abraham. And anyway, Paul is telling us that only those who are faith are sons of Abraham. Therefore, we have to conclude that there are going to be as many believers as there are grains of sand.

Image from Web

And what about the land the Lord promised Abraham and all his trillions of descendants? Well, Paul tells us in Romans 4:12 that God promised Abraham world. And doesn’t Jesus say in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”? This blessing is to fall upon all families of the earth – all nations.

Now then, as we tie things together, we know that Abraham is to be the father of many nations. And we know that “In [Abraham] all the nations shall be blessed.” And we know that this blessing comes with all the promises attached to the Covenant of Grace. We know that the blessing comes upon those who believe in the gospel. Or as Paul puts it, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Gal. 3:9). With all of this in mind, it would seem to me, there’s still the possibility, perhaps probability, of whole nations turning to God en masse! Yet as we look around the four corners of the globe (to use a mixed metaphor!), we would think the Lord said instead to Abraham “In you all the nations shall be cursed.” For if the blessing comes by believing the gospel, then which nations are believing? And we know that the wrath of God abides on those who don’t believe.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me on this: The nations need to hear the gospel if they are to believe and be blessed with believing Abraham. So then, how many people do you know who have a covenantal understanding of the gospel? Therefore, are you sure the nations are actually rejecting the gospel? Can you honestly say that it’s not some distorted gospel they are rejecting? – a non-gospel? A non-gospel such as that proclaimed by those Paul was countering among the Galatians?

Is the Gospel of Christ really being proclaimed among the nations today? The gospel today has been covered in the dust of theological liberalism. It’s been coated and encrusted with the chocolate and sugar of the Church Growth movement. It’s been smudged beyond recognition by the grubby hands of Arminianism! The world needs to hear the pure unadulterated Gospel of the Covenant.

Covenant Theology is Reformed Theology which is the theology of the Bible. And. Like it or not, Calvinism is the expression of this Theology. As the Calvinist Preacher CH Spurgeon once said, “Reformed theology is nothing other than Biblical Christianity.” And as BB Warfield once said, “It may be contended that the future, as the past, of Christianity itself is bound up with the fortune of Calvinism.”

Think of all the nations that were blessed along with father Abraham from the time of the Reformation onwards. Scotland, Wales, Holland, Switzerland, Puritan England, Puritan North America etc. The British Empire spread the covenantal Gospel abroad over the whole face of the earth almost. And God blessed with spiritual and material wealth all those places the true gospel went. The West today is still cruising on that blessing. But I don’t have to tell you that the West has been grinding to a halt. Why? Bad economic policies? Bad tax systems? Corrupt governments? Secularism? Communism? Socialism? Humanism? All of these things, and all the rest, are just symptoms of the one major problem, the true Gospel is not being proclaimed.

Conclusion

How shall all the nations be blessed if no one proclaims the true gospel? The same gospel father Abraham heard all those years ago, the same gospel the Galatians heard, the same gospel the ministers of the Reformed Faith swear to proclaim and defend. Whatever the Lord has promised to Abraham He has promised to us. He has promised us all the nations in Christ.

Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That’s what Paul went to great lengths to explain to the foolish Galatians. Scripture says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). Righteousness cannot be generated by sinful men. But the righteousness that the nations need if they are to be blessed with Abraham is revealed only in the pure unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ. This was the gospel revealed to Abraham – believed by Abraham – obeyed by Abraham.

How does all of this sit with you? Like father like son?

---

[1] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, (1871-73), Reprinted 1981, Vol. 3), 549.