Understanding Abraham’s covenant, Moses’s Law, and Finally the Enactment of Grace.

1st. Covenant: The Abrahamic Covenant is really the beginning of the revelation of the covenant of grace. It was God’s decision to reach into humanity and specifically save a people for Himself. It comes in the form of a promise to Abraham. God calls Abram to be separate from the world and into a relationship with Himself. God promises to bless him and his descendants. He promises that Abraham is going to be a great nation, that he is going to be given a land, a place to live, and that through Him, all of the nations will be blessed.

The Abrahamic covenant comes from Genesis 12:1-3. It reads: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 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.” 

The covenant with Abraham is a covenant of grace, in that it brings about the redemptive purpose. It does so by making a separate nation out of Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people, through Isaac and the twelve tribes of Israel. And one of those tribes led to the promised Messiah Jesus.

 In Genesis 12:1-3, God promised Abraham that He would multiply his descendants as the stars in the sky. He would be their God and give them a specific piece of land forever. Yet even before that, God said He would bless Abraham and his descendants so that all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12).

Abraham’s blessing and promises extend to all the families of the earth. By faith, we as believers, experience Abraham’s blessing of being in the family of God. We believe by faith, just as Abraham believed by faith and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

2nd Covenant: The Law. We have all heard the story of how Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. There God blessed him and after interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream he was made second in command under Pharaoh. Eventually, Joseph’s whole family moved to Egypt because of the famine. There they were honored and given their choice of land. At that time the family numbered 70 people. Jump ahead to the time of Moses, three hundred years later. The Israelites now numbered two million people and were now slaves in the land where they began as honored guests. God sent Moses to lead the people out of Egypt to the promised land.

Why was the Law given? Galatians 3:19 tells us that it was because of the people’s sins. The Egyptians were idol worshippers, they did not follow the God of Abraham. The Israelites while living in Egypt copied many of the Egyptian beliefs. This was evident when Moses was on the mountain with God and the people had Aaron make them a golden calf to worship (Exodus 32).

The law was much more than just the Ten Commandants, it included the first five books of the Old Testament called the Pentateuch. Likewise, the Pentateuch was much more than just the Law. It was to teach the people how to live healthy and prosperous lives as well as Godly lives. They contained much wisdom as well as advanced knowledge about nature, prophecy, medicine, sanitation, and science. Knowledge that was literally thousands of years ahead of its time. The law was intended to teach the people what was right and wrong and prepare the people for the time of grace that would be ushered in by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The people were to live under the law until Christ came as verse 19 below tells us.

“16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[i] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. (Galatians 3:16-19)

 As verse 17 tells us, the law did do away with God’s covenant with Abraham. God’s promise was still in effect and the Seed (Christ) that was promised, was still coming.

The law could not save the people, it could only condemn.  It was through the animal sacrifices and the shedding of blood that forgiveness was given. However, it was only a temporary forgiveness for a sin that was already committed. Therefore, since we have a sinful nature because we are heirs of Adam and are bound to sin again, continual animal sacrifices were required. The Law in itself was never meant to save us. The Law does two things; it teaches us right from wrong, and second, it shows us how impossible it is to live a life of perfection by our own power and goodness.

3rd Covenant: The time of Grace. The third phase of God’s plan to redeem man was when Jesus gave His life on the cross to be crucified. It was a blood sacrifice that was a one-time sacrifice for all men for all time. The Lord Jesus bore our sins on the cross for us as our substitute, obtaining for us; forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation with God.

We are all sinners (Romans 3:23). It is impossible for us as humans to live our lives without sinning. It is not the size of our transgression that defines sin. Any sin, even a moment of anger or jealousy makes us unfit to enter heaven; that is why the Law could never save us. However, the blood of Christ not only forgives our sins but removes them to be remembered no longer by God.  It is the blood of Christ that cleanses away our sins (1 John 1:7-9) making us pure in the sight of God.  All we have to do is accept the Lord as our redeemer, and we will be forgiven and made pure. Christ paid the price for our sinful nature, a price we could never pay. We did nothing to deserve it. It is a gift of God, a gift of grace. 

“So the Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” (Galatians 3:24-25)

The law still plays a role in the life of the believer — not, however, as a means of salvation but as a moral and ethical guide, obeyed out of love for God and by the power that the Spirit provides.

This is the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:31-34: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”