To understand the Abrahamic covenant properly, we need to take a moment to consider God’s covenant of grace. We first find the unconditional covenant of grace in Genesis 3:15 where God promises that a Savior will come who will crush the head of the serpent (i.e., Satan). In the covenant of grace, people are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone because of Christ’s perfect keeping of the law and his perfect and complete sacrifice once and for all for sin (Rom. 5:12–21; Heb. 7:27; 10:14).
God’s covenant of grace is more fully revealed in the Abrahamic covenant. What is the Abrahamic covenant, and why is every Christian the offspring of Abraham?
The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional and permanent, unfolding in two stages.
In the book of Genesis, we read about God’s promise to Abraham (Abram):
“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3)
And [the LORD] brought [Abraham] outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:5-6)
In Genesis 15:7–21, God seals his promise to Abraham in a covenant ritual common in the ancient Near East. This ceremony highlights the unilateral nature of God’s promise, as Zach Keele and Michael Brown explain in Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored:
What is so amazing about this particular covenant, however, is that God, the Lord of the covenant, assumed the full obligations to fulfill his promise symbolized in this covenant ritual by walking alone through the severed animals. He manifests his presence in a smoking fire pot and flaming torch and passes between the carcasses. (p. 93)
Brown and Keele underscore that this covenant unfolds in two stages of fulfillment, as it is in Abraham’s offspring that all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18):
… God promised Abraham an offspring and a land, and he fulfilled these promises in two stages. The first stage of fulfillment is in the old covenant, with the nation Israel and the land of Canaan. Israel was the promised offspring, and Canaan was the Promised Land. These promises, however, were not an end in themselves, for God also promised Abraham that through him he would bless the nations. The second, and greater, stage of fulfillment is in the new covenant. God’s promise of an offspring is fulfilled in believers and their children, and his promise of a land looks forward to the greater fulfillment of the new heavens and new earth. The nation of Israel and the land of Canaan were only temporary, first-level fulfillments of God’s promises to Abraham. With the coming of Christ, a greater fulfillment has occurred.” (p. 88)
The covenant God made with Abraham is unconditional and permanent. God fulfilled his promise to Abraham by sending his only begotten Son, Jesus, to be born in the flesh from a descendant of Abraham (Matt. 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–38; Gal. 3:16).
Who are the true heirs of Abraham?
While Christ was born in the flesh as a descendant of Abraham, salvation does not come through physical descent but by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone.
The Pharisees mistakenly thought that being physically descended from Abraham would give them an advantage in being accepted by God, but John the Baptist refuted this belief, stating:
“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” (Matt. 3:9)
Just as Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6), so also every believer is saved through faith, which is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9). Abraham wasn’t saved by his own obedience, but instead by the obedience of the Savior, Christ Jesus, who would be the perfect once-for-all sacrifice for sin. This truth is emphasized clearly in the covenant of grace, as Brown and Keele note,
“God made us heirs, not because of our obedience to the law, but because of Christ’s obedience, which is imputed to us freely of his grace. He is the one Mediator of the one covenant of grace as it is administered in both the Abrahamic and new covenants.” (p. 89)
Every Christian is an heir according to God’s promise to Abraham.
All who receive Christ as their Savior through God’s gift of faith to them are the true heirs of Abraham and have all rights and privileges that come with this promise. As the apostle Paul states,
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Gal. 3:7-9)
Abraham believed God would keep his promise, “and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).
