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24th June 2024
MondayReflection
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'John Piper offers'
The Covenants
'Three Things to Learn from the Abrahamic Covenant'
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Concerning God's covenant with Abraham, I want you to take away three things.
That you who hope in Jesus and follow him in the obedience of faith are descendants of Abraham and heirs of his covenant promises.
That these promises to you are more spectacular than anything you will see or hear.
First, you who hope in Jesus and follow him in the obedience of faith are Abraham's descendants and heirs of his covenant promises.
God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:4,
"I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations. GNV
The meaning of God's promise was probably that a multitude of nations would somehow enjoy the blessings of sonship even though physically unrelated to Abraham.
That's no doubt what God meant in Genesis 12:3 when he said to Abraham,
And through you I will bless all the nations. GNV
From the very beginning, God had in view that Jesus would be the descendant of Abraham and that everyone who trusts in Him would become an heir of Abraham's promise.
So it says in Romans 4:16-17,
16 And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God's free gift to all of Abraham's descendants-not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all; 17 as the scripture says, "I have made you father of many nations."
The second thing is that the promises that come to you as part of Abraham's covenant are more spectacular than anything you will see or hear.
Just consider Genesis 17:7,
"I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants. GNV
The heart of the Abrahamic covenant is that God will be God to us.
He will be our God.
The longer you meditate on that deceptively simple truth, the more spectacular it becomes.
Jeremiah tells us what it means. He quotes God:
Then they will be my people, and I will be their God...I will never stop doing good things for them,...I will take pleasure in doing good things for them. GNV
It boggles the mind to try to imagine what it must mean if the God who made the planets and stars and galaxies rejoices to do you good with all his heart and with all his soul.
Now, third and finally, this covenant promise is sure, rooted in God's unchanging truthfulness and confirmed by Christ's coming.
(Psalm 90:4 GNV).
A thousand years to you are like one day; they are like yesterday, already gone, like a short hour in the night.
If the living God had made his spectacular covenant promise to you personally four days ago, would it not still be today an utterly overwhelming power in your life?
Well, 4,000 years are like four days to him.
And if you trust him as the living God, his promise will have that power in your life.
Don't throw up your sinful hands here in despair.
The only candidates for the blessing of Abraham, are sinners.
That's why Jesus had to come to confirm the covenant.
Not even Abraham could have enjoyed the blessing of Abraham if Jesus hadn't come.
Abraham, too, was a sinner.
While Mary carried the Lord Jesus in her womb, she sang a song and said,
(Luke 1:51, 54-55).
He has stretched out his mighty arm ...and scattered the proud with all their plans.
He has kept the promise he made to our ancestors, and has come to the help of his servant Israel.
He has remembered to show mercy to Abraham and to all his descendants forever!"
The child in her womb was the remembrance of God's mercy as he had promised it to Abraham.
Mercy, mind you!
Jesus confirms the covenant because in his life of obedience and innocent suffering he settles the accounts of the children of Abraham, so that God can be just and yet say to me a sinner:
"I am your God." Romans 8:32.
God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all!
He gave us his Son - will he not also freely give us all things?
That spectacular promise cannot be bought or earned.
But it can be believed.
And if you believe it, everything changes.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
John Piper
is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy
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