God’s Land Promise To Abraham

Is Our Promise For Salvation

By Carl O. Cooper

          Do you remember God’s promise to Abraham? It consisted of 3 separate things in which He would bless Abraham. That promise is recorded for us to read in several places. God first made the promise to Abram (Abraham) when He appeared to him and instructed him to leave Haran to “a land that He would show him” recorded in Gen. 12:1. The promise is repeated to Abraham’s son Isaac in Gen. 26:4.

            for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”   

            God made 3 special promises to Abraham and they were also for all of Abraham’s descendants as a perpetual covenant; as long as they obeyed God and remained faithful.

            #1. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven;

            #2. I will give to your descendants all these lands;

            #3. in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

            These promises are filled with so much information and typology and they apply to every generation of Abraham’s seed. Granted, it is not easy for everyone to see the connection here and I want to point out some of the connections of these promises to us today.

            Probably the easiest one where we can see the connection is the “seed promise”.

            This is explained for us in “New Testament Commentary” It is explained in Gal.3:15.

            Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.

            So who is God talking about when He says “in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;”? Pretty clear, isn’t it? There is no doubt that it is through the blood of Christ that all nations of the earth will be blessed. That includes every type people in all the nations of the earth.

            But just a minute, are we Abraham’s descendants? In order to be Abraham’s descendants I thought we had to be born a Jew. Well the Bible tells us we are all Jews if we are “in Christ”.

Galatians 3:26-29 (NKJV)

 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  

            “Heirs according to the promise”? Now just what promise would this be referring to? Well, that’s clear enough. It’s the promise God made to Abraham. If we are in Christ, we are heirs according to the promise God made to Abraham. We are the descendants of Abraham.

            But there is more to this promise. What about this part?

            “And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven;”

            Has this part come true? It sure has. How many descendants of Abraham are there when we count the number of Christians that have lived on the earth? You might say, “as the stars of the heaven”.

            God’s promises always come true.  

            But what about the land? Has God included Christians in the promise of “a Land”?

            Well the Israelites could possess the land of Canaan as long as they were faithful to God and obeyed His commands. But what about Christians today. Is there still a promise of a special land for them? God has a special “promised homeland” prepared for Abraham’s descendants today.         Hebrews 11:12-16 (NKJV)

            Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude–innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

            For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

            And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

            But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

            The ones who died in faith in the hebrews passage included Abraham and Sarah

            The ultimate fulfillment of the land promised to Abrham is the city in which God lives which is Heaven Our land our citizenship is in heaven Phil 3:20

            So there you have it. The promises God made to Abraham and his descendants was an everlasting promise and it includes us as well. But like God said to Isaac, these promises were given because Abraham kept God’s commands and stayed faithful and obedient to God. That holds true for us today as well. Do you want to be included in these promises? Then you must be “in Christ” in order to be called a descendant of Abraham.

            What did we read in Gal. 3:26? Look at that again. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

            In order to be Abraham’s descendant we must put on Christ. Now how does it tell you to do that? It is through faith in Christ when you are “baptized into Christ”. It is through baptism that we encounter the blood of Christ. We are redeemed and made a new person. We become a Christian and we become a descendant of Abraham and “heirs according to the promise”.

Acts 22:16 (NKJV)

16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins,

calling on the name of the Lord.             Carl O. Cooper