The Covenant with Abraham: Why Salvation Has Always Been by Faith

When God gave the law, He gave it to Israel. When He gave promises, He gave them to Israel. But where does that leave everyone else? Do the Ten Commandments apply to everyone, or just Israel? Is there hope of eternal life for others, or just Israel? What about those of us who are not Jewish by birth?

When we talk about the covenant God made with Israel, it is clear that those promises were given specifically to them. But God had also made two other covenants before the nation of Israel ever came into existence.

The first covenant between God and mankind was very one-sided. He did not require any promise from mankind. He was the only one who had a part to play in it. He simply promised that He would never again send a flood of water to destroy the earth and all life on it.

As a side note, I want you to notice that He said He would never again destroy the entire earth with water. But He did not promise that He would never destroy the earth at all. That’s important when we begin talking about end-time prophecy.

The next covenant after that was made with Abraham.

A Covenant of Resurrection and Eternal Life

There are some important things to take note of. First, God made this covenant with Abraham, meaning it was a promise made specifically to him. Then He said He would establish this covenant with Abraham’s descendants throughout their generations forever.

Another thing we should take note of is that God said the land would be given not just to Abraham’s seed, but to Abraham himself. God also told him that it would be an everlasting possession for both him and his seed. Yet Abraham died before the land became theirs.

This is a major clue that God intends to raise the dead. If Abraham is dead, he cannot take possession of the land. We also see that God not only plans to raise the dead, but that Abraham himself will possess the land forever. This gives us another clue that God intends to give eternal life.

So, in this covenant with Abraham, God was promising not just the land, but also resurrection from the dead and eternal life. He didn’t state it in those exact words, but that is what it would take to fulfill His promise.

Abraham was not unaware of this either.

This is why Abraham had no reservation about offering up Isaac. He did not think of it as God asking him to permanently lose his son. He believed Isaac would not remain dead. He believed God would raise him from the dead and restore him to Abraham as though it had never happened.

But that’s an entirely different topic with a great deal to unpack. The point is that Abraham believed God was offering eternal life. Because Abraham believed God, he was willing to obey even commands that would seem absurd to the rest of the world.

You don’t sacrifice your son to a God who demands it unless you believe He is not actually going to break His promise that your son would become a great nation. Either Isaac would be spared, or he would be raised from the dead. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

The Token of Faith

Notice that in this covenant God did not require Abraham to be perfect in following a law or set of commands. There was only one condition He set for this promise.

After God made this promise to Abraham, He told Abraham that, as a token (physical proof) of this covenant, he and his descendants were to be circumcised. But God did not require Abraham to be perfect in following any other law or set of commands.

A token is a physical reminder of something else. When someone gives you a token, it is the meaning behind the token that matters. For example, a wedding ring is a token. The meaning behind it is a promise to stand together for life. If the ring is lost, that promise is not void. The marriage covenant is not broken.

So, if a token is a symbol of something deeper, what was circumcision a symbol of?

It has never been the physical token that God has been interested in. It is what that token represents that matters. In this case, circumcision represents the inward state of the heart toward God.

The stiff-necked, stubborn rejection of God is removed from the heart, and the most sensitive and vulnerable part of the heart is laid bare before God. This is what the outward token represents. It represents a heart turned toward God.

This was the only condition Abraham had to meet. But it was only a token of something deeper. It was not the physical circumcision that truly mattered, but the inward circumcision of the heart.

But what about verses like this?

If a spouse throws their wedding ring in the garbage on purpose, there is a much bigger issue than a missing ring. That is why God speaks of refusing circumcision as breaking the covenant—not merely because the physical token is absent, but because the person’s heart is against Him, and they have therefore cast aside the token.

When a person’s heart is against God, they are no longer circumcised in heart. They are no longer loving God. They break the covenant, not by throwing away the ring, so to speak, but by walking away from God. That is what these passages are about—the deeper meaning.

If a spouse accidentally knocks the ring into the garbage and doesn’t notice, that is an entirely different situation. Likewise, a person who is not circumcised for reasons other than rejecting God is not regarded by God as having been cast away.

He understands that there may be reasons for it. For example, what if they are unable to find someone to perform the circumcision? As always, it is the spirit of the law that matters.

The promise was made to Abraham before he was circumcised. He was counted as righteous before he was circumcised, and it was through faith in God—faith that works by love.

This covenant was a promise God made to Abraham because Abraham loved God and God loved Abraham. The token came afterward. So the only thing Abraham had to do was love God.

This is the covenant that God would establish with Abraham’s seed.

The covenant of the law given to Israel, on the other hand, was different. The covenant with Abraham depended on God, and the only condition was that we love Him. The covenant with Israel was based on keeping the law.

These are two different covenants: one given to those who live according to the flesh, and one given to those who live according to the Spirit; one given to the physical descendants of Abraham, and one given to his spiritual descendants through faith.

The Descendants of Faith

The law given to Israel is not the same covenant God promised Abraham that He would establish with his seed. The covenant God promised Abraham was one in which faith in God would be counted as righteousness.

Remember, this promise was made to Abraham’s descendants. So you may be wondering how the Gentiles could be called descendants of Abraham. In fact, all who believe and trust in God are his descendants. But how?

Those who are made children of God through faith are considered joint heirs with Jesus. Since Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, all those He calls His family are therefore also descendants of Abraham by adoption.

Another way to understand how the covenant with Abraham was passed on to those who trust in Jesus is through the way the Bible calls us the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:9). Being born into a family is not the only way to become part of it. You can marry into it.

Being descendants of Abraham is not just a lofty spiritual notion with no real substance. It is a genuine legal reality of being brought into his family.

Being brought into the family of Abraham has never been exclusive to biological descendants. These promises were never limited to the Jewish people. They were given to all who would love Jesus and belong to Him.

While the Jews had a biological link to Abraham, those who believed and trusted in God were also counted as descendants of Abraham by adoption through faith. This means that throughout history there have always been people who were heirs of salvation through faith in God—both Jew and Gentile.

This is how all who live by faith, whether Jew or Gentile, are heirs of salvation. They trusted God and therefore trusted in Jesus even before He came. Israel had the law with its sacrifices, but those things could never make them right with God. Salvation has always been through faith that works by love.

In our next study, we will look at what it means to be righteous and unrighteous. There is a difference between the self-righteous pursuit of the law and the righteousness that comes through Christ.

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