Blessed by God (Part 3): Father Abraham Has Many Sons

 

     As a child I remember singing a song with the other children in the church that said “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you…” - and then the song got rather silly. Not only do I remember singing the song, I also remember not having a clue who this Father Abraham was. As I grew older and became more acquainted with this man of faith I found that there are many people in the world who trace their ancestry to Abraham. Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike claim that their faiths descended from this patriarch. Why Abraham, what is so special about him? As we open the Scriptures we find that Abraham is the man most identified with God’s blessing. His lineage is traced for us back through Noah to Seth, the one through whom God would send the serpent-crusher. God comes to Abraham in sovereign grace, calling him out from his pagan home to enter a land which will be given to his descendents after him. God’s promise to Abraham is to bless him, to make his name great, to make of him a great nation, and that through him all peoples will be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). This is a unilateral covenant, God promises to do everything without giving any requirements to Abraham. This covenant will be completely gracious and from this point on in redemptive history being blessed is identified with being in union with Abraham, the man God has promised to bless. It is also through Abraham that we understand what it truly means for one to be blessed by God.

Blessing Defined

    In the beginning I posed the question what does it mean to be blessed? We all have our own understanding even if we cannot quite articulate it. It is possible to be deceived, to think we are blessed and find ourselves to be under the curse of God and not blessed at all. We must discern the difference between receiving blessings and being blessed, because there is a difference. Many receive blessings in life from the hand of a benevolent Creator in his common grace while it cannot be said of them biblically that they are blessed. Even those who will suffer God’s curse receive blessings in their earthly life. God sends his sunshine and rain on all the just and unjust under heaven. We may tend to think that if our needs are met and if we find fulfillment in having these needs met we are indeed blessed. The problem is that we are seeking answers to either what we feel we need or what the world tells us we need without realizing our true need. We are looking for answers but that isn’t the problem; what is wrong is that we often ask the wrong questions. God tells us of our most pressing need; it is to be made right with him. We have marred the image of God that we have been made in. We have set ourselves against the Father of Lights and have joined the kingdom of darkness. Our greatest need has to do with him. We, as enemies, need to be reconciled to our Creator.

    Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk in the medieval Church, struggled desperately with this question. He was tormented day and night with this heavy burden. How could he, a sinner, be just in the sight of God. The Church’s system of merit taught him that what was required was that he did the best he could. Of course, he could not attain to perfect righteousness but God would sort of grade on a curve if he tried hard enough. Luther was not helped by this doctrine of congruent(1) merit. He always questioned whether or not he actually did his best. He attempted to separate himself from the world and to God in solitude but found that he brought his greatest enemy with him, namely himself. He was plagued by the age old question “How then can man be in the right before God?” (Job 25:4). This is what it would mean for man to be truly blessed for this is his greatest need, justification in the sight of God. This is exactly why the apostle Paul considers Abraham to be blessed as he applies Psalm 32 to the father of the faithful: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Romans 4:7-8). Here we find the biblical definition of what it is to be blessed by God. Stated negatively it is to have our sins not be counted to us, to have our lawless deeds forgiven. Stated positively, it is to be as Abraham, counted as righteous (Romans 4:3).

    Why is this man’s greatest need? Is it so that he will escape the wrath to come and live eternally? Of course this is desirable, but the answer is no. Justification does equal blessing, but not because it is the end but the means to the greater and ultimate end. Man was not made to make much of man and enjoy himself forever free from conscious torment, man was made to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Justification is a means to that end. Man was created with the goal of life upon the condition of his obedience. It is not that the tree of life was the ultimate goal, but it was the goal because life meant life with God forever. God, not a tree, was to be man’s aim and in God’s purpose to redeem man, God again, not escaping punishment, is the goal. When God comes to make his covenant with Abraham he says “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1 KJV). In the words of the Puritan Thomas Watson “God is not only the rewarder of his people, he is their reward.” Justification equals blessing because it brings us to the greatest treasure, the high king of heaven himself. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25).

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

    God is the source and goal of blessing “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36). We can easily understand that man receives blessing from God alone, what may seem strange to us is that the Scriptures speak of God himself as being blessed. It is appropriate for the Church to sing Praise God from whom all blessings flow because God is the fountainhead of all good. Being self-existent, self-sufficient, and having all perfections in himself, the eternal God had no need to be met by making his creatures. Rather, from all eternity God is situated as the Blessed One and is the spring that overflows into his vast creation looking upon it at the end of his work and calling all very good (Genesis 1:31). Therefore we worship the Blessed who blesses by ascribing to him blessing. “Blessed be God…who has blessed us” (Ephesians 1:3). “The Creator is blessed forever” (Romans 1:25). The redeemed sing in heaven “Blessing and glory and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:12). These are all attributes that God possesses and cannot be given to him by his creatures, yet what he is intrinsically is ascribed to him in praise. There are two words in the New Testament used for blessing. One, eulogia (from where we receive our word eulogy), is only used in reference to God himself. It means good or to speak well of, having the idea of praise and thanksgiving. “There is only one who is good” (Matthew 19:17) and therefore there is only one from whom all blessings can flow. God is good, forever blessed and he loves to bestow blessing and good upon his creatures as he governs and cares for his creation. Truly, he is the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13) where his people may drink and be forever satisfied.

A Smoking Pot and a Flaming Torch

    God’s covenant with Abraham included a strange ceremony in which Abraham is commanded to bring animals, cut them in half, and lay them down beside each other. At evening, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep and a dreadful great darkness fell upon Abraham (at this time called Abram). The Lord spoke his promise to Abraham that his seed would inherit the land God had promised to him but would first be afflicted in a land that was not their own (Egypt). When it was dark a smoking fire pot and  a flaming torch representing the presence of God passed between the animal halves. “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram” (Genesis 15:18).

    Archaeological discoveries have given us insight on strange ceremonies such as these. It was common in the ancient Near East for covenants to be made between greater kings and lesser kings. When a great king would rescue a lesser king and his people, a treaty would be made in which certain promises were given mutually or by the greater king to the lesser king and his people. The great king would promise protection to the lesser and his subjects upon the condition of certain sanctions. This covenant was sealed by the severing of animals and passing between the halves. In some cases the suzerain (greater) king would pass between the pieces arm in arm with the vassal (lesser) king, at other times only the lesser king would pass through as a representative for all of his people. By passing through the halves one was vowing that he would suffer the same fate as the animals at his feet if he and his people were to break this covenant.

    In Abraham’s case, the vassal did not pass between the halves at all. It was the presence of God in the smoking fire pot and the flaming torch that passed through. The upholding of this covenant did not depend upon Abraham. This covenant was a royal grant from the Great King. God would see to it that the promises were upheld. He had promised to bless Abraham and in essence made a vow to also bear the curses of the covenant. Little did Abraham know the cost the Lord of the covenant would pay in order to bless him.

The Eschatological Abraham

    It is true that Father Abraham has many sons, but there are many who claim him as father who are not his children. Muslims claim Abraham through Mohammed, a descendant of Abraham’s son Ishmael. The Jewish people trace their lineage to Abraham through the promised son Isaac. In Jesus’ day the boast of the religious leaders was that they were Abraham’s offspring. According to the apostle, both groups are making the same claim to have physically descended from Abraham (Galatians 4:21-25), while the true children of Abraham are not necessarily his physical descendents but those who like Abraham have been counted righteous through believing the promise of God. These are the blessed. Abraham simply believed the promise God made to him “and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Our justification is not based on our performance or any works that we have wrought, for we are not the ones who passed through the halves. We are full of sin and remain unrighteous in ourselves but we are counted as righteous when we believe the gospel just as Abraham who had the gospel preached to him (Galatians 3:8). This really sounds too good to be true. We read of God’s people raising or purchasing animals to bring as a sacrifice to have their throat slit for the forgiveness of sins and all we have to do is hear and embrace the promise of God given to us through a sacrifice that he has provided for us in his Son Jesus Christ? Yes, for it is “those of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7).

    Abraham is the man blessed by God. We need to be his sons to receive the covenant promise; the promise that was typified in a plot of land in Palestine given to his physical descendents but ultimately fulfilled in justification (Gal. 3:8), the giving of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:14), and the New Jerusalem (Gal. 3:26). Those who are Abraham’s seed are blessed. To be blessed by God, one must be in union with Abraham for it is through Abraham and in Abraham that we receive these promises for “the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring” (Galatians 3:16a). These covenant promises find their fulfillment in Abraham’s son; not Ishmael, not Isaac, but Christ (Galatians 3:16b). Therefore our union with Abraham means nothing if it does not mean union with Jesus Christ for it is “in Christ Jesus that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles” (Galatians 3:14). Christ is the eschatological Abraham in whom we receive true blessing through union with him.

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1. The idea of merit was elaborately developed by the medieval scholastics. Condign merit (meritum de condigno) was described as merit awarded because it was fully deserved. Congruent merit (meritum de congruo) was described as half-merit or merit awarded by divine generosity in view of imperfect human works. Condign merit, Thomas Aquinas taught, can only be awarded in recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual. Congruent merit is awarded when the individual does what he or she is able to do (facere quod in se est) and God responds with the gift of needed merit. This allowed later scholastic theologians to argue that salvation requires an initial first act on the part of the believer which is then completed by the gift of merit granted through God's grace. In this scheme salvation is awarded in view of an adequate accumulation of merit.
http://demo.lutherproductions.com/historytutor/basic/medieval/genknow/merit.htm