The Hope of the Nations

/ David R Maas / Leave a comment

The Good News of Jesus Christ and his victory over death offers hope, life, and salvation to men and women of every nation. The covenant promises were never limited to the nation of Israel or the small territory of Canaan.

Jesus declared that “all authority in Heaven and on Earth is given to me, therefore, Go! Make disciples of all nations!” He sent his disciples to announce his Lordship and Salvation to the “ends of the Earth” – To every nation and people. The Promise of the Abrahamic Covenant to bless all nations through the Patriarch’s “seed” is coming to fruition through the Nazarene.

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Seeing the Unseen God

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The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found in the Word made Flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, who alone has seen the unseen God – John 1:14-18.

The Prologue to the Gospel of John introduces key themes of the Book, including Life, Light, Witness, Truth, Glory, and Grace.  Jesus of Nazareth is the Light of the world, the source of Grace and Truth, the True Tabernacle in whom God dwells, the only born Son of God, and the only one who has seen the Father. The Prologue concludes by declaring that the Son is the only one qualified to interpret God since he alone has seen the Unseen God.

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The Covenant Promise

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Jesus fulfills the promise to bless the nations in Abraham. He is the true Seed of the Patriarch.

The biblical view of the redemption of humanity begins with the Covenant of Abraham. It included the promise that “all the nations of the Earth would be blessed in him,” and that he would have innumerable descendants. The covenant promises were also for his “seed,” but who is the Patriarch’s “seed” destined to inherit the promises?

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The Promise of the Father

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With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced.

The Apostle Paul calls the Gift of the Spirit the “Promise of the Father” which he links to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and “his Seed” find their fulfillment in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. No longer are Gentile believers “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise.” By his shed blood, Christ has dismantled the “middle wall of partition” that once separated Jews and Gentiles.

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Earnest of the Inheritance

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Believers are the heirs of Abraham. The future possession of that inheritance is guaranteed by the Gift of the Spirit.

Israel’s possession of Canaan was an earlier stage in God’s redemptive plan, which always envisioned something larger than Israel or a small plot of land in the Middle East. With the arrival of the Messiah and the outpouring of the Spirit, the covenant promises began to find their fulfillment in the true “Seed of Abraham,” and consequently, in his “brethren” and “coheirs.”

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