The Covenant of Grace
Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."
2 But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
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4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir."
5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
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8 And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?"
9 So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
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17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.
18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, ..."
This is such a rich passage, it is hard to know which areas to dig into. I would like to point out that the foundation of this entire passage is laid on verse 1, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward”. The covenant wasn’t the reward. The promises were not the reward. Abraham’s inherited righteousness was not the reward. God and God alone was the reward. Abraham didn’t follow the promise; He followed God. From the beginning his focus was on God and he followed without even knowing what the promise was. Many churches today have this reversed. We are often taught to seek the blessings of God as if the relationship is secondary or not important at all. Those who seek the promise or the blessing and forget the relationship, don’t have anything of value to inherit. We were created for the purpose of having a relationship with our Creator. Anything short of that focus is doctrine based on error. If we could gain everything and claim every promise and not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, we would be unsatisfied. Everything this life has to offer is worthless when placed in the eternal perspective. Once this life is over, only what is founded upon our relationship with God will remain. If we have intimacy with God, we are rich even in poverty, but if we have riches without God, we are destitute. Or as Jesus stated in Revelation 3:
17 "Because you say, ’I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ -- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked --
18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Many who claim riches are blind to their poverty because God is not their shield and reward. As with Abraham, our entire Christian life is founded on this principle or we have no foundation at all. Built on this foundation are four principles of this passage: justification, promises, the covenant of God, and the benefits of the covenant.
1. Justification
Genesis 15:6 gives the clearest description of faith in the Bible in the simplest terms. Abraham believed in the Lord. This faith in God was accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:9). We tend to make Christianity complicated and faith has been made into a mystery. There are no faith formulas. Simply put, we believe God or we don’t. To those who believe God, the sins due are not imputed, but instead God’s own righteousness is imputed or credited to them. We have the gift of justification because we put our trust in God. Faith is believing God, trust is the evidence of our faith.
James adds clarity on this issue. James 2 says,
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
It is not a prayer of faith to see a need and to ask God to send them help. We may faithfully intercede on behalf of those who we don’t have the power to help, but it is a lack of faith to avoid personalizing the needs God has provided us to meet. James is making his case that faith is asking God to provide and yielding ourselves and resources, knowing that God has blessed us for that purpose. Instead of trying to call down a blessing for someone’s need, God is calling us to be the blessing for that need. If we have faith, we will trust God to fulfill what we lack, therefore we will willingly give to the needs of others. If I trust God, I truly believe that I am under the promises of God. If I believe that God is truly able to fulfill His promises, I am willing to make myself vulnerable and give. I don’t know if those in need will inherit God’s promise, I only know that God has clearly stated that He places those in need before us so that we can minister His grace to them. I trust God to fulfill His promises to me, therefore I can joyfully give what I have to those who have not. If I am not willing to do this, my faith is dead. Dead faith is not faith at all. It is a belief that borders on superstition.
How clearly we see this true faith in Abraham’s life. When the dispute for land arose, Abraham willingly gave Lot the freedom to take the best land. He could do this only because Abraham knew that he was under the promise and depended on God to bless. Otherwise, it would have been war for the possession. When Abraham returned from recapturing what was taken at the slaughter of the kings in Genesis 14, the king of Sodom acknowledged that the spoils of war rightly belonged to Abraham. Abraham declared that God was the Possessor of heaven and earth and all things belonged to Him alone. He gave one-tenth to the work of God, paid those who assisted him, and then returned the rest to the cities that were pillaged. He swore that he would keep nothing for himself but trusted in God. He did not want anyone to say that the possessions of man have made him rich. The glory belonged to God and would be fulfilled by God’s promises – not the achievement of his own hands.
Abraham was justified by his faith. He believed God. His trust was proven by letting go of everything except the promises of God. He put God’s promise to the test by making himself vulnerable. Instead of being set for life, he put his trust solely in the provisions of God’s promises. Abraham’s works that James referenced were not acts on his part, but putting God’s promise to the test. Putting his own self interests aside for the sake of proving that God was his only trust.
2. The Promises
God’s first promise is that He will be our exceedingly great reward. Out of that promise, all other promises flow. God’s promises always put the focus on His glory and are designed to draw us closer to Him. The promises of God are His gifts to us. They are expressions of love toward us, not things we focus on above Him. If you look at Abraham’s life, you will see that Abraham’s focus was established before the promises were sealed. God did not begin to deal with Abraham by laying a bargain on the table. God didn’t bribe Abraham into following. God called Abraham to follow with the hope of the promise yet to be revealed. God tested Abraham each step of the way to prove where his focus was. Before God blessed Abraham, He always tested first. The relationship with God was firmly established by this point. Abraham has been following God for years now. We have seen his father pass away; he had his wife taken by Pharaoh; he went through a severe famine; his allowed his nephew to take the best land for the sake of peace; he had to fight to rescue Lot from an attacking army and because his wife was barren, his future heir was not a son, but a servant born in his house. To this point, Abraham has been blessed, but he has had many trials along the way. Any one of these could have easily sent him back in frustration. It takes more than a focus on a promise to be faithful.
God’s promises are encouragements to us. Because the church as a whole does not disciple and equip people with biblical truth, people have grown to focus solely on the promises as though they are our purpose for living. God’s blessings show us that we are loved children and His promises set our focus on the future. The moment our love is for the blessings, they become more important than God. When God tests someone who has a temporal view of life, they cling to selfish desires and become discouraged when God doesn’t perform as expected. We think we have God figured out. We set the plan, claim the promise and then ask God to bless our design. We are so busy trying to keep our world in order that we end up fighting against God without understanding what we are doing. We have been taught to claim the promises instead of following the Promiser. God will test our faith in Him before we inherit the best of what He desires to give us. If you do not trust in His plan, trials and adversity will turn you back. I believe this is by design because the purpose of everything God provides is to draw us closer to our relationship with Him. If I can follow God when things are not going my way, I truly have faith. Like Abraham, God builds us up and encourages us; He tests us; He encourages and builds us; then tests us. God wants to give us all the promises, but without allowing the blessings to become our god. The most important part of our walk is to understand and abide in His covenant. Only in His covenant can we inherit His promises.
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