The eXtreme promise of the Spirit

2012 Hubble eXtreme deep field

 

“God talked with him [Abram], saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” (Gen. 17:3-7).

 The above NASA’s eXtreme deep field photograph gives us some perspective on the promise God gave Abraham and his seed. “And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, … He that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” (Gen. 15:4,5).

“In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” (Gen. 22:17).

“And Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” (Gen. 32:12).

“And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14).

“And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” (Rom. 4:11-13).

“Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before Him whom he believed, even God…. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.” (Rom. 4:16-18).

Looking into the eXtreme deep field, a black spot, apparently an empty spot of the visible night sky, and realizing it to hold ten thousand galaxies of 100 million stars each, expands the promise God gave Abraham. “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. 3:14). The restoration of the image of God in man came through the promised gift of faith, the promise of the Spirit. This was not only for the Jews, but for the whole world whoever would fall on the Stone and be broken. That means a lot of people. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number.” (Rev. 7:9). Don’t those galaxies look like seashells strewn on a beach full of sand? And, that was only one black spot.

“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” (Rom. 4:23-25).

 

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” (Gal. 3:7). It was a whole world of sinners that God sent His Son to save. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Not to the circumspect, well-behaved religious only, but, more often to the misbehaving “some people’s children”, the urchins of society, publicans and sinners. The thieves and prostitutes, the drug addicts, the hopeless and downtrodden by successful and talented and smart people, the marginalized poor and elderly—all have the same access to the King of heaven—by trusting in His mercy and to His truth.

And God has given us positive proof of His willingness to forgive and sanctify these heirs of salvation—He used emphatic redundancy. A promise and an oath confirming the promise. “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” (Gen. 22:17).

“Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

And so, after he [Abraham] had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 6:14-20).