What is the purpose of God, as seen through the Scriptures? It is to make one again, in heart and mind, the relationship between God and man. It is to help man become “right” again in God’s sight, so man can give honor and glory to God in the “right” way.
The Jews could not grasp this was God’s main goal. They figured they were already “right” in God’s sight by merely being, physically, children of Abraham. Therefore, they did not focus on the promise of God, to Adam and Eve, of one who would destroy sin in himself. The Jews ignored the fact that the first thing promised to Abraham, even before the land, was forgiveness. The land is promised to Abraham, prospectively, in Genesis 13. However, before the land promise is actually confirmed to Abraham, by the covenant described in Genesis 15, we are told that “God counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness,” or “rightness”, in God’s sight.
This concept is so important to God that this particular verse is quoted in Galatians, twice in Romans 4, as well as in James! Paul in Galatians is berating the people of Galatia for departing from the true gospel. What does Paul quote as the gospel? He quotes Gen 12:3: “In (or by, through) you shall all nations be blessed.”
To what does Paul apply this blessing? To the future kingdom? No. To the future king, the Lord Jesus Christ? No. To future immortality? Not even that. Instead, Paul applies this important gospel definition to forgiveness, that is, to being made right, or becoming justified in God’s sight.
“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.’ Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith’ ” (Gal 3:8-11).
Paul stresses in the letter to the Galatians that we are not automatically made right in God’s sight just by being a Jew, or by saying we are baptized into Christ, but we are made righteous by having and continuing in the same type of faith Abraham had.
What type of faith did Abraham have that we need? He believed that: God would and could do what He said He would do — in His time:
“For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, A‘ father of many nations have I made you’) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform” (Rom 4:16-21).
God could and would achieve the seemingly impossible (impossible to man): “And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:5,6).
There would be a savior to be a sacrifice for sins, as promised to Abraham in Genesis 22.
“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, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Gen 22:16-18).
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Gal 3:16).
If we believe as Abraham did, what does Paul say will be given to us? The same forgiveness, the same “accounted as right” in God’s sight, as Abraham received:
“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:24-26).
That is the first main part of the gospel. In order to inherit the rest of the promises made to Abraham (the land, forever), we must first be made right, and one with God. He must be able to justify us, and meet us, clean from our sins in His sight. This will be the permanent forgiveness, the permanent rightness with God — forever.
What were the apostles and disciples to teach?
“He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things’ ” (Luke 24:46-48).
What did Jesus do the first time here on this earth? His main purpose then was to be a sacrifice for sins — a perfect sacrifice — for our sins. If we choose to believe that action in that person, we are granted forgiveness, justification, righteousness! Forgiveness has to come first, a blessing now through Abraham, through Christ Jesus our Lord. We can be made “right” in God’s sight! What a joyful, incredible happening! We who are not worthy at all, the dust of the earth (1 Pet 1:24, Isa 40:6-8; James 1:10, 11; 4:14, etc.), have been granted the incredible opportunity to be made one with God, the Creator of our world, the Universe. He is willing to remove all our wrongdoings, our sins, our faults, so they are never seen again, and make us as if we were perfect in His sight, only if we believe.
What an offer! What a gift! These verses of the Scriptures mean so much more now when we try to comprehend the awesomeness of God’s love for us — each of us.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:24, 25).
“He will again have compassion on us: He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19).
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified” (Isa 61:1-3).
“How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!” (Psa 32:1-2).
“To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God” (Luke 1:77-78).
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5).
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35, 37-39).
And finally,
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1Cor 15:56-58).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One