The Heirs of the Covenant

With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations of the Abrahamic Covenant commenced.

The “Promise of the Father” is the Gift of the Spirit, which the Apostle Paul links to the Abrahamic Covenant. The promises made to the Patriarch are fulfilled in the covenant inaugurated by Jesus. The bestowal of the Spirit on his Church on the Day of Pentecost marked the commencement of the “Last Days,” the age when the promises of God are fulfilled.

Because of the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, Gentile believers become heirs of the Covenant along with believing Jews. The old distinctions are no longer relevant, and the previous barriers are incompatible with this new reality. Popular interpretations that stress the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles miss the point.

[Rainbows - Photo by David Brooke Martin (Austin, Texas) on Unsplash]

Paul equates “the Promise of the Spirit” with “the Blessings of Abraham.” The original covenant always foresaw the inclusion of the Gentiles, a point the Apostle uses to argue for the acceptance of Gentile believers in the people of God without the rites of circumcision and dietary regulations, or the observance of the Hebrew calendar.

We who now belong to Jesus become “Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” “In Christ,” the old identity markers, “Jew or Gentile,” no longer apply. The inclusion of the Gentiles is not an afterthought. It was always foundational to the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Gift of the Spirit, “the Blessing of Abraham,” is received from faith and “not from the works of the Law” - (Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:1-14, 3:29):

• “In whom, you also are hearing the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also believing, you were sealed with the Spirit of the promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, for the redemption of the acquisition, for his glorious praise” - (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The Spirit is “the earnest” or pledge that guarantees our participation in the inheritance. The references in Ephesians to “inheritance” and “acquisition” allude to the territory promised to Abraham - “I will give to you and your seed all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting possession” - (Genesis 17:8).

And so, Paul, “the Apostle to the Gentiles,” connects the Gift of the Spirit to the Abrahamic Covenant, including the promise of territory. Moreover, the latter is no longer limited to Palestine, but includes the entire world, the ‘Kosmos’:

• “For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith” - (Romans 4:13).

Likewise, Jesus called the Gift of the Spirit “the Promise of the Father,” and he commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Spirit, then they would become his “witnesses to the ends of the Earth” - (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4).

In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter declared that the outpouring of the Spirit fulfilled the prophecy of the Book of Joel - “In the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh.” The presence of the Spirit demonstrated that “the last days” had commenced, and this period must continue until the return of Jesus - (Genesis 17:7-10, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:38-39).

The Gift of the Spirit is how we receive “the Blessings of Abraham.” By the Spirit, we find ourselves blessed with faithful Abraham, heirs of the promises, and members of God's One Covenant Community - (Genesis 12:3, Acts 1:6-9, 3:25, Romans 4:13).

The implementation of the promises began with the outpouring of the Spirit on the Church. Since then, when we receive this gift, we become “children of Abraham.” Therefore, the old divisions between Jew and Gentile no longer apply:

• “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female, for you all are one man in Christ Jesus. And if you are of Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to promise”- (Galatians 3:26-29).

THE NEW COVENANT

The Mosaic Legislation anticipated the need for something beyond the Law, including the statutes, rites, and regulations given at Sinai. The Torah could not complete what God began with Abraham. Inevitably, the nation of Israel disobeyed and violated the Covenant.

However, after chastisement and repentance, the nation would “return to Yahweh and obey His voice.” The God of Abraham would gather His people from all nations and “circumcise their hearts to love Him” - (Deuteronomy 30:1-6).

The themes of renewal and the circumcision of the heart were taken up centuries later by the prophet Jeremiah. God fully intended to “make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah,” but not like the one legislated at Mount Sinai.

• “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt. For they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them. And I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. And they will not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord;  for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more. In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and aging is near to vanishing away” - (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:6-13).

With the outpouring of the Spirit, God began to write His laws on our hearts, and the promised circumcision of the heart is now actualized in the Body of Christ as we join the Church through faith in Jesus, baptism in his name, and the receipt of the Spirit:

• “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will summon” – (Acts 2:38-39).

The Book of Ezekiel added the aspect of the Spirit to the promised “New Covenant.” When Yahweh gathered the children of Israel, He would put “a new spirit” in them, and He would “cause them to walk in His statutes.”

The Book of Ezekiel combines the promises of the Spirit, the circumcised heart, and the New Covenant. The covenant promises are linked to and dependent on the receipt of the Spirit by the saints, Jews and Gentiles alike - (Ezekiel 36:16-28, 37:25-28, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6).

The New Testament applies the Abrahamic promises to the Gift of the Spirit granted freely to Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus, and the Bible labels it “the Promise of the Father” and “the Blessing of Abraham.” And if this is so, then the covenant promises are being fulfilled by Jesus and in his Church, and Scripture confirms this:

• “Wherefore, remember, that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh, made by hands; that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and dismantled the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body for God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” – (Ephesians 2:11-16).

Since the Day of Pentecost, the Gift of the Holy Spirit has become the identifying mark of the people of God rather than circumcision or physical descent from Abraham. Both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus become equal heirs of the covenant because of and through the faith of Jesus Christ:

• “Yet knowing that a man is not justified from the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified from the faith of Christ, and not from the works of the law, because from the works of the law no flesh will be justified” – (Galatians 2:16).

• “But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction” – (Romans 3:21-22).

The Gift of the Spirit empowers us to walk in the New Covenant and thus keep the “righteous requirements of the Law,” and the Spirit unites us as the one people of God. This is the legacy of the Patriarch, Abraham.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Promise of the Father - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced)

• The Spirit and our Resurrection - (The Gift of the Spirit is the first fruits of the resurrection and the guarantee of our participation in the coming New Creation – Romans 8:1-23)

• The Circumcised Heart - (The promise of the Spirit is vital to the redemption of humanity and the Covenant of God with His people, the Church of Jesus Christ)

• Les Héritiers de l'Alliance - (Avec l'effusion de l'Esprit le jour de la Pentecôte, les bénédictions promises à Abraham pour toutes les nations ont commencé)