26.If, therefore, the Gospel of Christ was preached to Abraham

The Law was added because of the prevalence of sin until the Seed should come to whom the Abrahamic promise was made.

The Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of fruitfulness and dominion, and blessing to all the nations of the earth, was preached to Abraham. The Gospel, the promise, was given by the Lord as a gift, and Abraham believed what was told him. Abraham believed God to such an extent he was willing to offer to God his son, Isaac, on whom the fulfilment of the promise depended.

Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to keep the promise God had made to him (Hebrews 11:19).

Abraham was a righteous, holy, and sternly obedient man. Yet, the promise of the Gospel was offered to him as a gift, apart from his behaviour. Noah’s preservation, on the other hand, appears to have been given to him because of his righteousness. But not, however, a righteousness derived from the observance of ceremonial laws, such as the Judaic statutes.

And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation (Genesis 7:1).

But even Noah was saved by faith.

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith (Hebrews 11:7).

However, the Gospel of salvation by faith in Christ appears to have begun with faithful Abraham. Abraham placed his faith in God’s promise. God declared Abraham to be righteous on the basis of his belief. But notice that the promise was confirmed on the basis of Abraham’s obedience:

And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, . . . . (Genesis 22:16,17).

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? (James 2:21).

The Divine promise of righteousness and blessing was given, received by faith, and established in the patriarch, Abraham.

The Law of Moses did not enter this inheritance of fruitfulness. Abraham was not given the Ten Commandments, the Levitical statutes, the laws of leprosy, the laws of clean and unclean foods, the washing of dishes, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, the sin and trespass offerings, or the Levitical priesthood.

None of these regulations, the foundations of Jewish life, was known to Abraham. None had any connection with the Messianic inheritance.

Why, then, would the Lord, after having given and established the Gospel of the Kingdom of God on the basis of faith and grace, add a burdensome set of rules and regulations that had nothing to do with the inheritance?

It is obvious that the promise, once having been given on the basis of faith, cannot now be earned by keeping a set of laws. Also, the Ten Commandments do not produce a true, thorough righteousness in the believer or a pure conscience before God.

The Ten Commandments magnify the sinfulness of our fleshly nature and condemn us to death. The Ten Commandments make us aware of our sin. They reveal the death that is in us, and bring us to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing.

In no manner, therefore, can any individual earn the Messianic inheritance by obeying the Law of Moses. The inheritance was given originally by promise and always will be by promise. It never was the purpose of the Law of Moses to enable mankind to possess a way of earning an inheritance that can be given only by grace working through belief in that which God has promised.

The inheritance was given to Abraham and to his Seed. What about the chosen people, Israel, who lived after Abraham and before Christ. Was the promise given to them?

Yes.

Were they able to receive the promise through the Law?

No.

Was Israel a partaker of the Messianic promise?

Yes. But, like Abraham, the righteous Jews died in faith in the Seed who was to come.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Hebrews 11:13).

The promise of God is the olive tree, the anointing, Christ. He is the only true Seed of Abraham.

The olive tree began with Abraham and Sarah, and passed down through Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Jacob. The Spirit of God was on the patriarchs and the sons of Israel, and so they prophesied.

The olive tree, the Messianic anointing, continued through the prophets of Israel. The Spirit of Christ, of the olive tree, spoke through the prophets, including King David. The Psalms of David show us how similar his experience of God’s Presence and anointing was to our own experience of God’s Presence and anointing.

The Psalms comfort and edify us as they do because the same olive tree that was in David is in us.

After the resurrection of the Lord, the olive tree no longer was in the possession of all the Jews by race but of a remnant of elect Jews, and also a remnant of elect Gentiles. The possession of the olive tree always is by promise, and by faith in the promise.

God gave His promise, through Amos, that the olive tree would pass to elect Gentiles.

That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. (Amos 9:12)

That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things (Acts 15:17).

As soon as the full number of elect Gentiles has been brought to Christ, the Divine promise is that the olive tree will return to the nation of Israel, and all of those whom God has called, His elect, will be redeemed.

The Seed to whom the promise has been given is Christ, the Olive Tree of God. All of the inheritance is in Christ. He, and He alone, is the elect Seed, the only accepted Olive Tree, the only Heir of the promises of God. What about those who are of the Jewish race but who do not have Christ?

The Jews are not of the promise, of the olive tree, by virtue of having Jewish parents. Salvation always is by promise, by Divine grace.

The Jews prior to the resurrection of Jesus possessed the olive tree, and the Jews after the full number of elect Gentiles has been gathered in will possess the olive tree, the Messianic anointing, the promise of redemption. But not because they were, or are, Jews by race but because God has promised that this shall be so.

The Jew of the present hour can become part of the olive tree only by receiving Christ, the Seed to whom the promise was made.

No Jew or Gentile can be an heir of the promise made to Abraham until he or she receives Christ. Christ belonged to the Jews before the resurrection, in accordance with the prophetic anointing that began with Abraham and passed by the prophetic word through Isaac and Jacob to the sons of Jacob, the tribes of Israel.

Christ belongs to those of us today, Jew and Gentile alike, who call on the name of Jesus and are baptized into His death and resurrection.

Christ will be restored to the Jews in the latter days. The promised Christ shall come to them and deliver them from their unbelief and hardness of heart, removing sin and wicked people from their midst. He shall pour out the Holy Spirit on them. They will weep when they recognize the One they have rejected for two thousand years.

Christ will bless and bring into eternal life the nations of Gentiles who were kind to Christ’s brothers, the members of His Body. The righteous Gentiles have assisted God’s elect during periods of tribulation—particularly during the great tribulation of the last days.

We see, then, that from the time of Abraham forward, salvation has been by the promise of God, by the grace of God. Those who believe in God’s promise are sealed to the day of redemption, that is, to the day when Jesus comes and restores all that was lost through the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

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