The true and living God the God of the Bible called Abraham out of his country the city Ur in Sumeria in modern day Iraq and out of his kindred or clan to another land God would show him. This would include calling Abraham out of the false gods of Ur and his clan there that was especially Sin the moon god. Part of the original covenant God made with Abraham was for a particular land, the land of Canaan designated for Abraham and his descendants according to the flesh the children of Israel or the Jews as what we now call the land of Israel but also including the West Bank or Judaea and Samaria. This aspect of a promised earthly land does not apply to the Church or Christians and is not repeated to the Church in the New Testament and has led to many problems from some professing Christians that falsely apply this part of the covenant of God with Abraham to Christians or the true Church. God also said he would make Abraham's name great meaning that God would make him famous and powerful and influential. God also says that Abraham would be a blessing and that God would bless them that bless Abraham and that in him all the nations of the Earth would be blessed. Although this was partly realized through Abraham's physical descendants the Jews or children Israel through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob who was renamed Israel in the Old Testament and their will be further blessing through Abraham's physical descendents in the tribulation and Messianic or Millennial Kingdom, there is a part here that applied to Christians. This is that a descendent according to the flesh of Abraham is the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah) and through him as mentioned in Galatians in the New Testament true Christians have some of God's spiritual blessings such as being spiritually restored children of God and people having God's eternal life. This is part of God's blessings to all the families of the earth especially in the current Church age from Pentecost to the soon coming rapture or catching up to heaven of God's true Church of those who have admitted to God that we are sinners and prayed to God through His Son Jesus Christ to receive Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour who died for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead. God also exercises currently and since Abraham's time that he would bless nations that bless Abraham's physical descendents the children of Israel or the Jews and curse nations that curse Abraham's physical descendents the Jews or children of Israel for which history is a very reliable confirmation as well as what will likely happen in the near future. The scripture reference from Genesis 12 of the Abrhamic covenant and the part that applied to Israel and the part that also applies to the true Church or true Christians is as follows:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:1-3
God appeared to Abraham when he was 99 years old. God promised again that he would multiply Abraham's decendents or seed. God again promised that he would make Abraham a father of many nations. God continues to do these things directly through Abraham's physical descendents the Jews or children of Israel but also indirectly through the Lord Jesus Christ who is a physical seed or descendent of Abraham with the Church thus becoming the spiritual seed of Abraham and some of the many nations. The many nations and seed of Abraham is first the nation of Israel but also includes nations in the Church that are spiritual seed of Abraham. Although there might be a limited fulfillment of Arabs who are descendents of Abraham through Ishmael, it is definite that the part of the Abrahamic covenant with the Messiah and the promised land coming through Abraham was through the Jews and the nation of Israel as it is repeated in Genesis 26 to Isaac (and not to Ishmael) and to Jacob in Genesis 28 who was renamed Israel. (God did promise to make of the descendents of Ishamael a great nation and I think to multiply his descendents which we can see of the many Arabs in the world today. In verse 7 part of the meaning of seed including Abraham's descendents the Jews or children of Israel but especially including the Messianic line and eventually the Messiah who was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. God also promised that he would give the seed or descendents of Abraham the land of Canaan as their promised land. This part of the Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled to the children of Israel the physical descendents of Abraham and also including God giving physical blessing to the Jews from the land of Israel especially when they were obedient to God and a promise that God would help the Israelites or Jews defend the land of Israel once they took it over and to help them take it over from the time of Joshua the disciple of Moses. This aspect of the promised land of Canaan as a significant aspect of the Abrahamic covenant is nowhere applied to the Church or Christians in the New Testament or anywhere else and the references to Israel mean literal Israel the physical descendents of Abraham not in any way to the Church as a supposed true or new or spiritual Israel. The scripture reference from Genesis 17 of the Abrahamic Covenant and what applies to the children of Israel or the Jews as God's physical or earthly people and what applies to the Messiah of Israel and the Church as Abraham's spiritual seed and God's spiritual or heavenly people is as follows:
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenent between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, 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. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Genesis 17:1-8
God led the apostle Paul to mention the purpose of the law with the promises God gave to Abraham. God said through Paul that the law was given to Israel because of sin or transgressions (to make it more clear what is and what isn't God's will) and that this would continue until the seed of Abraham would come which in this case means the promise that the redeemer or annointed one (Messiah or Christ) of God would come was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth who also became the Saviour of the world. Paul then says that the law was not against the promises of God because there was nothing wrong with the law but there is something wrong with human nature that we are all sinners and are not capable of keeping the law and inheriting God's promises to Abraham through keeping the law. God then spoke through Paul that the fact that all humans (other than the Lord Jesus Christ) are sinners and break the law is meant to show the necessity that the promise of eternal life or the new life in Christ be given through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that this is also how Christians or people Jew and Gentile can be heirs of the (spiritual) promises of God through Abraham. Paul then says the law was just a temporary measure of God until that the Lord Jesus Christ came that people could then be justified by faith and be brought into the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic covenant such as eternal life through faith in Jesus and receiving God's new birth and His Holy Spirit. Paul says we don't need the law as our guide after we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (because we will then be led by God through our new nature in Christ including the leading of the Holy Spirit). Christians including the Galatians are spiritual children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God then says all who have been baptized into Christ which is the same sense as 1 Corinthians 12:13 speaking of the baptism of the Holy Spirit which 1 Corinthians 12:13 makes clear occurs for all Christians when they first become Christians through placing their faith in their heart in the LOrd Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour as 1 Corinthians 12:13 says you are all baptized in one body which means all true Christians that all make up the body of Christ the Church and is not a select few Christians who had done some further measure which would then mean it wouldn't be all the body of Christ.
Paul then says there should be no more partiality in the Church with people of different backgrounds but this doesn't mean we lose our identity totally when we become part of the Church as Revelation mentions the nations of those who are saved will bring their glory into heaven which could include Christian or other good music or culture of different nations or languages and we certainly don't lose our identity as to whether we are male or female but some non-Christian cultures have heavy preference of one sex over another in their culture and there shouldn't be as much of that in the church but there are still some regulations for leadership elsewhere spoken of for the church in the New Testament. This scripture also doesn't mean in the life to come that Christians will lose their gender identity as Jesus was clearly still a man after he rose from the dead and the scripture says in the resurrection Christians will be like him (Philippians 3:20-21).
God through Paul then says if we are Christians or belong to Christ through faith then we are part of Abraham's spiritual seed and heirs according to the promise God made to Abraham that is that God would make Abraham a father of many nations and that God would bless those who bless Abraham. These blessings to the Church or Christians of the Abrahamic covenant don't here or anywhere else include the earthly or physical blessings God gave to Abraham's physical seed or descendents the Jews or children of Israel such as an earthly promised land, to help in wars or physical battles or to provide physical or material or earthly blessing from the land although God will still meet the physical needs of Christians, physical blessings from the land Gentiles or non-Jewish people live in is not part of the Abrahamic Covenant to the Church or Christians. The scripture reference from Galatians 3 of the Abrahamic Covenant and that Christians or the Church are heirs of its spiritual (but not its earthly or physical) blessings through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the seed (Messiah or Christ) in the line of Abraham is as follows:
Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against against the promises of God? God forbid: for it there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greekk, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:19-29
God did promise Abraham that he would be heir of the world and that was not through the law but by faith in God and that in this present Church Age from Pentecost to the Rapture of the Church that applies to true Christians of all earthly nations including the nation of Israel but also all the other nations and will apply in the life to come to the Church as well. People of all nations including all true Christians of this age are part of Abraham and God's spiritual and eternal seed which includes the new birth by the Holy Spirit upon trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ that he died for our sins on the cross and rose again to give us new life. In Romans 11 God also says that in the last days of the people of Israel after the rapture of the Church and after the fulness of the Gentiles has come in (the Church has been completed with some people becoming Christians of every nation or ethnic group) God will renew his focus on his chosen earthly people the Jews and bring many of them to belief or faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ and bring them into God's spiritual seed of Abraham as well as people of the nations that join themselves to the believing Jews in the tribulation such as through the preaching of the gospel in the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel by the 144,000 Jewish believing witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. These believers in the tribulation or the Millennial Kingdom will not be the Church but will be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and some of God's spiritual seed through Abraham and faith in God. God through the apostle Paul gives the analogy of Abraham and his wife Sarah being very old and having weak bodies that would normally be past the ability to have children as having faith in God's promises to make him Abraham a father of many nations. God through the apostle Paul relates this as belief in the resurrection of both ourselves and the Lord Jesus Christ as the means to have true faith in God and merit becoming part of God's spiritual and eternal children through Abraham and the Lord Jesus Christ who was the descendant of Abraham who died for our sins and rose again for people of all nations.
However in this portion of the scripture or in Galatians 3 there is nothing said of the part of the Abrahamic covenant that dealt with an earthly promised land for the Jews or physical descendants of Abraham including that God would protect them in the land from their earthly enemies and bless them with material blessings from the increase of that land the land of Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea up to at least part of the Euphrates River is abolished with the beginning of the Church or later. There is also nothing said by God through the apostle Paul that the part of the covenant to Abraham of an earthly promised land to God's earthly people through the Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and material protection or prosperity based on the land applies to other nations or peoples or lands on earth although there are many today that try to do that by omitting this consideration from this passage or in Galatians 3 and applying many Old Testament passages to the Churuch that is not the true or new Israel but is the Church with any reference to the true Israel in the New Testament meaning Jews that believe in Jesus not the Church as a whole. This aspect of a promised physical land to the physical descendants of Abraham is much promised to be restored literally in the last days before the second coming in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the tribulation and has already been partly fulfilled since 1948 with the re-establishment of the Jewish state of Israel but will be more fulfilled in the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel or time of Jacob's trouble and will be the main land and people that God will rule a largely curse removed world in the thousand years following the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the world system including the Beast out of the Sea the Antichrist and the False Prophet and set up His Kingdom centred in earthly Jerusalem and the rebuilt Temple there where the Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world as well as the King of the Jews will rule the world from His throne in the Holy of holies of the Millennial Kingdom Temple in earthly Jerusalem. The true Christians of this age will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ over the world then but we then too will also have a focus in heaven or the heavenly Jerusalem where we will then by God's grace already have become established in our eternal homes in our mansions in the Father's house (the heavenly Jerusalem). The scripture reference from Romans 4 of God's blessings to the nations of allowing people of all nations to be blessed through Abraham through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death for our sins and His resurrection to give us new life to become Abraham's and God's spiritual and eternal seed (children) and have eternal life but not be partakers of the part of God's covenant through Abraham of a promised earthly land to Abraham's earthly descendants the physical children of Israel the Jews is as follows:
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. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 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 quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 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. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also be perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 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. Romans 4:13-25
God through the apostle Paul was writing this epistle to the Galatians many of whom were Gentiles or non-Jews but who were readily influenced by the Judaizers of Jews that believed in Jesus but who was believed that Christians had to keep the law both to be saved and to maintain salvation. Paul emphasized the Law of Moses as a system of regulations and bondage that had to be kept to maintain justification comparing it to Abraham's son Ishmael who was born of Abraham's hand maid or slave girl Hagar. He also mentioned that Ishmael was not the son of Abraham and his wife Sarah so he was not the son of promise as in the line of the seed of Abraham that would eventually produce the Jewish Messiah and Saviour of the world that was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. God through Paul also mentions Mount Sinai in the connection to the Law of Moses and the system of the Jews in general or the physical descendant of Abraham were under as a system of bondage and in analogy to Hagar and also compared this to Jerusalem and the Jewish people there in his time that was in bondage to the Law of Moses. Paul there also mentioned two covenants one, the one associated with Mount Sinai, is the Mosaic or Palestinians covenant and involves the Law of Moses and the other one is the Abrahamic Covenant and includes the idea of the eventual Messiah and the spiritual descendants of Abraham and spiritual children of God though faith in God and now through faith in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. The Abrahamic covenant also has an element of the physical descendant of Abraham the Jews or physical children of Israel especially as associated with the promised earthly land of Israel God gave to them and the material blessings from the produce and defence of it God promised them including through the Abrahamic Covenant. God through the apostle Paul then mentioned Jerusalem above which is the same as the heavenly Jerusalem mentioned in Hebrews 11 and 12 and the Father's house in Gospel of John 14 as in analogy the mother of us all as that is where the Holy Spirit comes from that gives spiritual birth to Christians through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who enables true Christians to become the spiritual seed of God through Jesus and then through Abraham.
The verse 27 quotes Isaiah 54 where the desolate women is the physical nation Israel that was seen as coming out of Babylonian captivity and looking forward to the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom when God would bless them with many more children and prosperity as well as in the tribulation and Millennial Kingdom leading many Gentiles to faith in the true God the God of Israel through faith in her Messiah Jesus of Nazareth. In verse 27 itself God through Paul is mentioning for this current Church age the desolate woman as the true Church and the one that had a husband as Israel after the flesh which had a relationship with God under the bondage of the Law of Moses. God through Paul mentions the part of the Abrahamic covenant of the seed of Abraham as the spiritual seed and God's blessing through him of all nations as the true Church and as the ones that inherit the promises of being spiritual heirs of Abraham through his covenant with God. God through Paul also mentions the analogy of the son of bondage Ishmael the son of Hagar Abraham's slave girl as persecuting the son of promise Isaac the son of Abraham and his wife Sarah as applying to the Jews persecuting true Christians both Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus especially believers that are relying fully on faith in Jesus and leading of the Holy Spirit apart from the Law of Moses for justification before God. Being partakers of the Holy Spirit is part of the spiritual promises that are for God's spiritual or heavenly people the Church of people both Jewish and Gentile from Pentecost to the rapture of the Church who have come into a relationship with God through admitting our sins in prayer to God through His Son Jesus Christ and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour who died on the cross for our sins and rose again to give us new life (and given us then His Holy Spirit and made us His spiritual and eternal children through the Lord Jesus Christ and through him partakers of the spiritual parts of the blessings of God through Abraham.)
God through Paul then says that we should cast out of the Church or from God's working in this age the son of the bondwomen meaning those Jews or others that insist in relying on the Law of Moses for justification either initially for salvation or for maintaining salvation.) However God through Paul also mentions in Romans 11 about the question of whether Israel is cast off from God and says that Israel and the Jewish people might be set aside and blinded to the gospel message for the most part in this current Church age but that it is still in God's purposes to bring them back to Himself especially after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (the Church is completed and brought to heaven with the rapture). This restoration of the Jews will especially happen in the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory at the end of the tribulation to judge the world and set up God's Kingdom on Earth the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom (followed by His eternal Kingdom on the New Earth). A significant portion of the Jews or physical children of Israel about 1/3 according to Zechariah that go into the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel will be brought through it and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (Adonai Y'shua HaMashiach) as their Lord and Redeemer and through faith be part of also the spiritual seed of Abraham and as such be a focus of God's dealing with humanity in the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom. It should also be noted that as in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 God through Paul is only mentioning the Church as being partakers of the spiritual aspects of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant mostly that all true Christians upon true faith in Jesus the descendant of Abraham become spiritual and eternal children or sons of God and of Abraham and become born of God's Holy Spirit. God through the apostle Pauldoes not mention or apply to Christians the material or physical or earthly aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant of a promised earthly land namely the land of Israel between the Jordan and Euphrates Rivers and the Mediterranean (the Great) Sea to the Church or deny it still applies to the physical or earthly descendants of Abraham the Jews or earthly children of Israel. The scripture reference from Galatians 4 of true Christians as free or under grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the children of promise of Abraham and his covenant with God and the Jewish people of this age that don't believe in Jesus but seek to be justified by the Law of Moses with God as the children of bondage is as follows:
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ (Messiah) be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a handmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar (Hagar) is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is new, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barest that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Galatians 4:19-31
Part of God's message and promises to Christians or those who would become Christians or God's spiritual and heavenly people of the current Church Age is that He including God the Son Jesus Christ is light or sinless and that darkness or sin is in him unlike some of the false gods of the nations that are presented as sources of righteousness and sin. Christians are to not only say we have fellowship with God but back it up to be realistic with a life lived for God according to His Word especially the parts that most definetely apply to Christians such as the book of Acts the Epistles, much of the latter parts of the Gospels and the first and last chapters of Revelation. Some of God's promises to Christians are that if we walk or live in the light of God's will and word by His Holy Spirit we will fellowship with other believers and the continuing cleansing of God's Son Jesus Christ through His blood shed for us on the cross. In this life even if Christians say or believe we have no sin we are deceived and God's truth is not in us as even all true Christians still have the sin nature but also the new sinless nature in Christ Jesus in this life after we are saved. Although we should not sin as much as unsaved people and come to sin less as we grow in Christ and His new nature we will not be without sin in this life and sometimes if we think we have become sinless it is because we are not checking our lives carefully enough according to God's high standards of righteousness in His word the Holy Bible. God also promises Christians and those who become Christians in what is left of this present Church Age that we confess our sins to God through His Son Jesus Christ (not through a priest or other human being) God is just and faithful or dependable to forgive us our sins that we have just confessed and usually recently committed and cleanse us from unrighteousness. We as Christians still need to confess our sins as soon as possible after we commit them to renew fellowship with and cleansing from God through Jesus and it is not good enough just to confess our sins when we first put our faith in Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour. When we put our faith in Jesus initially from our heart we enter into a relationship with God which cannot be broken for ever but our fellowship with him can be and too often is when we sin in our Christian life or experience. Confessing our sins as soon as possible after we commit them also helps keep us humble before God. God then through the apostle John reemphasizes that not even true Christians are sinless in this life and if we think otherwise we are saying God is a liar or disputing with Him and disagreeing what He says about us in His word the Holy Bible or we don't know His word very well. The scripture reference from 1 John 1 of some of God's promises to Christians especially regarding fellowship maintained or restored with Him and other Christians and His cleansing of our sins through Jesus' shed blood for us and our living for or walking with God and confessing our sins to and returning to living for God is as follows:
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light,as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10
The apostle Paul is sometimes called the apostle to the Gentiles or Uncircumcision (while Peter is sometimes called the apostle to the Jews or the Circumcision). Paul addresses the church in Ephesus and to Christians and the Church in general that he is a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles meaning he is totally devoted to serving Jesus Christ to bring the message of eternal life through Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Paul mentions that from God through His Son Jesus Christ he was given a dispensation or stewardship of the grace of God to the Gentiles. This is a reference to God's revelation through His Son Jesus Christ to the apostle Paul of much of the truths of the Church and this current Church Age that he was instructed to give to Christians or the Church. Paul did this by evangelism and giving ministry of God's word one on one or to crowds to people directly and by writing many of the truths of the Church and the Church Age in his epistles or letters in the New Testament. The dispensation of the grace of God can also refer to this current Church Age or dispensation period of time from Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem to the first Christians almost 2000 years ago to the very soon coming end of the Church Age with the rapture or catching up to heaven of all true Christians both physically living on earth at that time and who have died in the last 2000 years or so since Pentecost and the beginning of the Church or called out heavenly people of God. Paul mentions that some of the truths that were revealed to him by Jesus of the Church were not revealed in former ages and can be called a mystery in that sense. One of these mysteries that characterize the Church and the Church Age is that the Church or God's called out heavenly and spiritual people of this age should have the Gentile believers as equal members of this body and equal fellowheirs and partakers of the promise through the Lord Jesus Christ of the gospel. This equally available and experienced between Jew and Gentile Christians promise in the Church from the Lord Jesus Christ is the new life in Him by the come to be indwelling Holy Spirit of God and receiving eternal life and the life of God when we personally trust in God through trusting with our heart as well as our head in the Lord Jesus Christ that He died for all our sins on the cross and rose again from the dead to give us new life. The scripture reference from Ephesians 3 of the apostle Paul mentioning that he was entrusted by Jesus to share especially to the Gentiles that we could be equal members of the Church or God's spiritual people and equal partakers of God's Holy Spirit as Jewish believers in this age is as follows:
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Ephesians 3:1-6
The apostle Paul starts this chapter by identifying with fellow Israelites who are like him physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) especially that more of them would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for our sins and resurrection for justification before God. Paul acknowledges that the giving of the law, the service of God which means all the temple or tabernacle sacrifices or other related service, the covenants such as that to Moses, David and some aspects of the covenant to Abraham including that through the Jews according to the flesh the Messiah or spiritual seed of Abraham came. The Israelites are the physical seed of Abraham. There were also promises given to the Israelites or physical seed of Abraham in the Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures including that related to a promised earthly land and that God would prosper them materially from the increase in food and drink from their earthly land and that God would help them in their relations including wars with their surrounding foreign peoples especially according to the Mosaic or Palestinian covenant when the Israelites were faithful to God and His law or His covenant with them.
Paul goes on to say it is the spiritual seed of Abraham including some of the remnant that truly believed in and were faithful to God in the Old TEstament including the idea that God would provide an eventual payment for their sins through the Messiah or Redeemer of Israel (that was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth) according to many Old TEstament scriptures as well as fulfilling the pictures in the Old Testament sacrificies in the Jewish Temple or Tabernacle. Paul chose the picture of God choosing Jacob even though he wasn't the firstborn and wouldn't normally qualify for the birthright and in his case be in a position to qualify as in the Messianic line from Abraham as a picture that God chooses the spiritual seed or descendants of Abraham that they are not just the physical descendants of Abraham the Jews or children of Israel but the Church that is people of all nations including Jews or of the physical nation of Israel who have personally trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ the spritual seed of Abraham that he died for ours sins and rose again so that we can become spiritual children of God and of Abraham. (In Romans 11 God through the apostle Paul makes clear that much of the physical descendants of Abraham the physical children of Israel will in the last days of Israel after the fullness of the Gentiles be come in (the Church is complete and brought to heaven with the rapture of the Church) be brought to personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour and become part of the spiritual seed of Abraham and of God although they will be part of God's spiritual people from the 70th week of Daniel as will people of the nations that trust in Jesus then after the rapture of the Church but they will not be part of the Church. There will be a similiar situation for those who trust in Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ after Jesus's second coming at the end of the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel. The scripture reference from Romans 9 of the physical promises to the physical descendants of Israel and the spiritual promises of Israel to the spiritual descendants of Israel in this present Church Age or Age of Grace the Church is as follows:
I say the truth in Christ (Messiah), I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Romans 9:1-13
In some quarters the verse in 2 Corinthians 1:20 is quite popular in some quarters. This verse in some quarters is applied to all God's promises to believers in the Bible including many especially material blessings in the Old Testament that are not to those in Christ and have nothing to do for Christians but are mostly for God's chosen earthly people the Jews or the children of Israel which does not mean the Church as the true or the new Israel but the physical children of Israel through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). There are many promises of God in Christ to Christians that this verse does apply to but these are found mostly in the Book of Acts, John 13 to 17, the epistles of Paul and others and Revelation 2-3 and 21-22, 19 in the New Testament. The promises elsewhere in the New Testament to Christians in Christ have especially to do with the spiritual blessings of the Abraham Covenant of being children of God, the new birth, the Holy Spirit and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and eternal life and the benefits to Christians of Jesus' resurrection and future second coming. The scripture reference in 2 Corinthians 1 of what are valid promises of God in Christ to Christians, God's spiritual or heavenly people is as follows:
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus (Silas) and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20
When people trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, (immediately after) we received the sealing of the Holy Spirit as part of God's promise to His chosen spiritual or heavenly people the Church in this age. This is part of the spiritual promises we have through the Lord Jesus Christ the seed of Abraham and these are definitely blessings that apply first and definitely to true Christians and the true Church in this present age. The scripture reference from Ephesians 1 of God's promise to true Christians of the Holy Spirit and His sealing work is as follows:
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Ephesians 1:13
50 days after the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead what would be the first Christians were gathered in an upper room for a prayer meeting. They were waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit which is a promise to all true Christians or God's heavenly people in this age. Although these first Christians were waiting to receive the Holy Spirit after they already believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since the apostolic or early church times anyone that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Saviour, the moment they believe with all their heart in Jesus, receives the Holy Spirit to indwell them and minister the Christian life to them as in Titus 3:4-6. This is an example of the spiritual or heavenly promises that are especially to Christians or God's heavenly and spiritual people and the main people God is working in and through in this current Church age or Age of the Holy Spirit or Age of Grace from Pentecost until the rapture of the Church. The scripture reference from Acts 1 of the first Christians waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit which all believers now receive on wholehearted faith in Jesus is as follows:
And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. Acts 1:4
Before the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven he promised his disciples who became the beginning of the Church God's heavenly or spiritual people that he would pour out his Holy Spirit from heaven after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. This spiritual promise to give the indwelling Holy Spirit to all the true Christians or God's spiritual or heavenly people was initially fulfilled at Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2. People that become true Christians now become indwelled by the Holy Spirit upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ according to scriptures like 2 Corinthians 1 and Titus 3. This enables Christians to have a deeper relationship with God and fellow believers and have a deeper sense or right and wrong and better understand God's word the Holy Bible and have a senses of God's presence in our hearts so we don't have the strict guidelines of the Law of Moses to guide us to be faithful to God. However the Holy Spirit does guide us through the Bible including what God says for Christian living as in the Book of Acts and the Epistles of the New Testament and Revelation 2 and 3 but not so much most of the Old Testament that was strictly given more for God's chosen earthly people the Jews although Christians can get some general teaching from Old Testament passages but not specifically. Applying too much of the Old Testament rigorously for Christians can cause confusion between the Church and Israel and lead to following false teachings such as the prosperity or health and wealth doctrines and some elements of covenant or even replacement theology with their adopting too much of the Old Testament to Christians. The scripture reference from Acts 2 of the Lord Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to indwell the first Christians as part of God's spiritual promise to Christians is as follows:
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. Acts 2:32-33
In verse 15 God through the writer to the Hebrews mentions that Jesus is the mediator or one that carries out between God and people the new covenant. This is through the paying the penalty of death for sins or transgressions under the old covenant by which we are all sinners. This allows Jesus to offer instead an eternal inheritance of a home with God and Jesus in heaven or life to come aspect of eternal life as a promise to all those who trust in God through Him as part of the eternal promises to those who become true Christians. True Christians are those of Abraham's spiritual descendants the church combined of both Jew and Gentile (Romans 9:24, 1 Corinthians 7:18) believers in Jesus as the one who died for our sins and rose again in this present Church age or Age of the Holy Spirit that started with Pentecost and will continue until the rapture of the Church. In eternity the Church will continue to be God's spiritual heavenly people through and the spiritual seed or descendents of Abraham through his seed the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah of Israel and Saviour of the world. The scripture reference from Hebrews 9 of believers in the Lord Jesus both Jewish and Gentile in this present Church Age as Abraham's spiritual seed and as recepients or God's spiritual promise of an eternal inheritance or the life to come aspect of eternal life is as follows:
And for this cause he (Jesus or Y'Shua) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:15
Although there is an aspect of the promise of eternal life to Christians through the Lord Jesus Christ for the life to come when we will come into the full blessing of that promise there is also an aspect of it for believers in this life after we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour. This is another example of spiritual blessings rather than material ones to the church or Christians as God's spiritual or heavenly people. The Jews are God's physical or earthly people but the Jews that also have faith in the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Redeemer from the Old Testament or the tribulation or millennial kingdom will also have eternal life but will still be a distinct people from the church. The Gentiles that join themselves to Israel and believe in the God of Israel in those times will also have eternal life and be counted with Israel in eternity. Jews that believe in Jesus in this current Church age will in eternity be part of the Church but can have special sympathy for their brethren of other Jews in other ages. The scripture passage from 1 John 2 of God's spiritual promise to Christians of an aspect of eternal life in this life is as follows:
And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. 1 John 2:25
God mentions through the writer to the Hebrews, probably the apostle Paul, that in heaven Christians have a more permanent and enduring inheritance including if we don't hold onto or seek things of this world too strongly. This would be an aspect of demonstrating our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour who also keeps us in God's salvation. As Christians and members of the Church, God's heavenly or spiritual people we need to have patience and continue in God's will which includes becoming more like Jesus and witnessing for Him and using our spiritual gifts in Jesus' and God the Father's service. We can then look forward to the life to come aspect of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that is a home in heaven and also access to the millennial and then new earth and heavens and then new heavens. The scripture reference from Hebrews 10 of promise of the life to come aspect of eternal life and an eternal home in heaven through faith in Jesus and by God's grace our continuing in God's will in this life is as follows:
For ye had compassion on me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:34-36
God said through the apostle Paul that he was a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. All true Christians are servants of God but not many are apostles but we are all disciples of Jesus Christ. This is all through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that he died for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead which makes us part of God's elect that is part of the true Church. There is also the elect that is part of Israel and Gentiles that join themselves to them in the Old Testament and the elect of the tribulation saints such as mentioned in Matthew 24 that is also different from the Church. Christians can show that we have been saved by godly living but it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that is the basis for our salvation. This faith in the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated in our living for Him after salvation is what shows we are preparing for the realization of the hope of eternal life in the life to come aspect which is a main and spiritual promise that God has promised true Christians both Jews and Gentile or non-Jew that are part of God's spiritual or heavenly people the true Church through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to whom God has promised especially spiritual or eternal blessings. The scripture reference in Titus 1 of God's spiritual promise of the life to come aspect of eternal life to all true Christians through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is as follows:
Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; Titus 1:1-2
One thing the unsaved say about the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ coming again which is one of the promise to true Christians is that they doubt it will happen because it hasn't happened yet and that quite a lot of time has elapsed already. God through Peter gives the example of the worldwide flood of Noah as an example that God's promised judgment on humanity has already been fulfilled as God warned through Noah in advance. God says through Peter that God is not slack with his promise which means God will fulfill his promise of Jesus to come again and judge this world and set up God's kingdom and that it won't be beyond the time God has in mind. God is patient to people both believers and unbelievers and he wants everyone to turn to God through Jesus initially from a life of sin and self (repent) or turn to God through Jesus again for believers that fall into sin after we have trusted in Jesus and been saved positionally and received an eternal relationship with God through Jesus.
Some of the benefit of this spiritual and eternal promise to Christians or those who become Christians is that we will dwell for eternity in the new heavens and new earth (and new Jerusalem) with God, the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church or called out people of all nations, tongues and tribes and with the holy angels and the Holy Spirit. This new heavens and new earth will be a place of righteousness but also according to other Bible verses a place of God's love and joy as well as truth. God through the apostle Peter again encourages the believer to live for God and Jesus in this life so that we can have peace about looking forward to living with God in the new heavens and new earth and get the ultimate aspect of salvation of salvation from the presence of sin in the new heavens and new earth but also be delivered from the power of sin in a regular basis when we turn back to God and Jesus from sin and confess our sins to God in Jesus' name. Although God wants Christians to live godly lives after we are saved initially and initial true salvation should be demonstrated in a godly life in this life even Christians still have the old or fallen nature in this life even after we are saved although we after we are saved also have the new nature in Christ in which by the Holy Spirit we can live for God in this life. Some of the term coming in 2 Peter 3:9 goes beyond the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for the rapture of the Church just before the tribulation or even the second coming in glory to judge the world system and set up God's Millennial Kingdom but all the way to the end of the Millennial Kingdom and God's destruction of this earth and heavens and everyone and everything on it in order to make way for God's new earth and new heavens. It is by God's grace and keeping that Christians will dwell with God and the Lord Jesus Christ and His people in the new heavens and new earth for eternity but God through the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit also gives believers the ability to live for Him after we are saved initially. The eternal promise to true Christians of the blessing of living with God and Jesus in the new heavens and new earth after the Lord Jesus Christ comes again in 2 Peter is as follows:
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 2 Peter 3:1-15
In James 1 God says through the writer James that one eternal promise to true Christians is an eternal crown of life for enduring temptation or trials that is for Jesus's sake. Although temptations or trials are not pleasant for Christians they are one way God tests our faith and to try to determine our love for Him and He will be faithful to have a great and eternal reward for the somtimes quite substantial trials we endure for God or Jesus' sake in this life. There will be no trials for true Christians in the life to come. The scripture reference from James 1 of crowns and rewards such as the crown of life as fulfillment of eternal promises to Christians as God's spiritual people is as follows:
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1
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