The Gospel Preached to Abraham

The gospel is really nothing new. According to the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:8 the gospel was “preached” as far back as the patriarch Abraham. Listen for yourself: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’” To Paul the promise that God had given to Abraham was the promise of the gospel. We know from Genesis 22:18 that the promise would be fulfilled in Abraham’s seed. “And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Again Paul picks up that same theme later in Galatians 3:16. “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is Christ.”

From the New Testament perspective the promise made to Abraham is fulfilled in its fullest sense not in the millions of Abraham’s descendants but rather in Abraham’s one unique descendant, Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham comes to all the nations, to all those who will believe as Abraham did in the promised Seed. The gospel is not merely a New Testament phenomenon. Although with the arrival of Christ, it has been brought into full daylight, the gospel was proclaimed in the Old Testament through the promises that were made to Abraham.

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”