The one who’d bless every nation.

The first time we ever read of God speaking Abraham, he’s called Avrám, he’s 75 years old, and he’s living in the settlement of Haran (possibly named after his brother) on the fringes of the Sumerian Empire; Avrám had been born in Ur, one of its greater cities. God told him this:

Leave your land, your homeland, your father’s house.

Go to a land which I’ll show you.

I’m making a great nation out of you.

I’m blessing you, and growing your name.

Be a blessing!

I’m blessing anyone who blesses you.

Anyone who makes little of you, I’m cursing.

Your blessings will affect every family in the world.

—The LORD, Genesis 12.1-3 KWL

God reiterates this idea more than once: Every nation—not political nation, but people-group—will be blessed because of Abraham, and Abraham’s descendants via Isaac and Jacob. The success and prosperity and achievements of the Hebrews, and their successors the Jews; the moral codes taught through Moses, the revelation of God in the bible, and of course the Jews’ secular accomplishments, have definitely blessed the world.

But Paul taught this blessing was best fulfilled by Christ Jesus.

As much as Abraham trusted God, and this counts to him as rightness, [Ge 15.6] you have to know those who trust God this way are Abraham’s children, and the scriptures foresaw God would declare this rightness upon those nations who trust him, when he previously gave the good news to Abraham: “Every nation will be blessed through you.” So, everybody who trusts God has been blessed via Abraham’s trust.

—Paul, Galatians 3.6-9 KWL

In Paul’s letter to Galatia, he was pointing out how God didn’t save people through the Law (and never had), but through faith, through trusting him to save them. It is through Jesus, Paul said, that this promise of faith isn’t just for Jews, but for every nation on the planet. (Ga 3.14)

Fellow Christians, this is what people do: Once they ratify a covenant, nobody cancels it out, or makes additions to it. The promise was given to Abraham and his seed. It doesn’t say, “And to your seeds,” i.e. many people, but to one, “and to your seed.” [Ge 17.7] That’s Christ.

—Paul, Galatians 3.15-16 KWL

In Galatians, the issue was how we Christians are saved from sin and death. The Pharisee Christians claimed yes, it was through Jesus—but it was also through the Law. Phariseeism is all about following the Law very carefully. But as I said—and far more importantly, Paul said—God didn’t give Moses the Law for that reason. If all we need do to be saved is obey the Law and be good, there’s no point in Jesus’s death. He could’ve come to earth, told us, “Be good and follow the Law,” and gone back to heaven—and skipped that whole nasty crucifixion.

Legalists nowadays repeat the Pharisees’ mistake: They claim we’re not solely saved by a relationship with Jesus. We’re saved by Jesus plus some action or duty or cultural standard. Like believing the creeds, or their church’s statement of faith, or holding orthodox beliefs. Or if we obey the Ten Commandments. Or if we don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t watch certain TV shows, and only vote for pro-life political candidates. Jesus isn’t enough for them: We have to do something to show we’re worthy of saving.

Paul’s point was to look back in time before the Law. How did God save people before the Law?—’cause obviously that’s how he still saves people. God doesn’t have multiple dispensations: God has only ever saved people one way, and it’s by having a relationship, or covenant, with him; and trusting him to save us. Nowadays, we know the way he saves us is only through Christ Jesus. Back then, they didn’t know about Christ. Not fully.

So God graciously offered to bless Abraham, and Abraham trusted God to follow through with his promises. There’s their relationship. That’s their covenant. That’s God’s salvation. No Law required. That’s why throughout the New Testament, Abraham is pointed to as an example of faith; a father of faith, if you will. Christians need to have Abraham-like faith.

Did Abraham recognize this promise to include a Messiah in it? Probably. Jesus once told his listeners, “Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” (Jn 8.56 NLT) At some point God revealed something more obvious about Messiah to Abraham. Maybe this promise was, in its original form, a lot longer and more detailed, but the writer of Genesis only included this much in the bible, seeing no need to include the rest. Maybe during one of Abraham’s many talks with God—not all of which are recorded in Genesis—God gave him more of the plan. We don’t know because the scriptures don’t say. They only hint. Even today, we don’t know all the details about how Jesus’s sacrifice works. We just trust God that it does. We practice Abraham-like faith.

Yeah, other passages are far more obviously Messianic prophecies than this one. We need Paul to know it’s a Messianic prophecy at all, and not just an interesting parallel idea to what Jesus does with his followers. In fact, some Pharisees used to use this passage to claim Abraham’s descendants blessed the world by giving the world the Law—and now that the world has the Law, they can follow it, get to know God through it, and be saved by it. In Galatians Paul had to wrest it away from them, and say no, it’s about Jesus, not the Law. God didn’t love the world so much he gave us the Law, for he only gave the Law to the Hebrews; not the Egyptians, not the Hindus, not the Chinese, not the Toltecs. He loved the world so much he gave us his Son, (Jn 3.16) and the process by which God gave him began 40 centuries ago in ancient Mesopotamia, when he first told Avrám ben Terákh, “Leave your land.”