To the Nations Also

Jesus of Nazareth fulfills the promise to bless all nations in Abraham. Christ is the Patriarch’s Heir and “Seed”. Basic to the biblical doctrine of redemption is the covenant with Abraham and his “Seed.” It included the promise that “all the nations of the Earth would be blessed in him,” and the Patriarch would have innumerable descendants. How and when are the nations blessed? Who is Abaham’s “Seed” destined to inherit the promises?

Jesus Christ is the promised “Seed” along with his New Covenant community, namely, the “Assembly,” the “Body of Christ.” The original covenant was part of God’s larger redemptive plan, the beginning rather than the end of the process. The initial focus on Abraham’s immediate biological descendants was only the first stage in the redemption of humanity.

[Photo by Alin Andersen on Unsplash]

The Abrahamic Covenant envisaged a glorious future beyond the confines of national Israel or the small territory of Canaan, a promise that finds its fulfillment in the New Creation and the redemption of the nations - (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:4-6, 17:1-8).

For example, in the Book of Revelation, John saw an “innumerable multitude” of men purchased from every nation by the “blood of the Lamb.” They were standing in worship before the “Lamb” in “New Jerusalem” - (Revelation 7:9-17).

During his ministry, Jesus limited the activities of his disciples to the “lost sheep of Israel.” However, he foresaw the inclusion of the “Nations,” and this is demonstrated by the application of the Messianic prophecy of the Book of Isaiah to the commencement of his ministry in Galilee - “The land of Zebulon and Naphtali, by way of the Sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people sitting in darkness have seen a Great Light” - (Matthew 4:12-17).

Israel’s Messiah was anointed to reign over the Earth “on the Throne of David.”  He was the ‘Servant of the LORD’ who would “declare judgment to the nations… and in his name the nations will trust” - (Matthew 12:18-22, Mark 3:6-7, Isaiah 42:1-4).

After his resurrection, Jesus commanded his disciples to announce the Good News of Salvation and the Kingdom to “all the nations,” a mission that must be completed before his “arrival on the clouds of Heaven.” The salvation of the “Nations” is pivotal to the redemption of humanity, indeed, of Creation itself - (Matthew 24:14, 28:18-20, Romans 8:17-23).

Likewise, Christ commissioned his disciples to be “witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the end of the earth.” This last clause alludes to the prophecy of the ‘Servant of Yahweh’ in the Book of Isaiah - “I will also give you for a light to the nations that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth”- (Isaiah 49:6, Acts 1:7-9).

The global nature of this mission is stressed in the climax of Peter’s first sermon on the Day of Pentecost when he combined verbal allusions from the books of Isaiah and Joel - “For to you is the promise, to your children and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call to him.” The Good News must be proclaimed as long as and wherever God is summoning men to join His Kingdom – (Acts 2:33-39).

The term “promise” in Peter’s concluding words is in the singular number and refers to the promise of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The phrase, “To all that are far off,” is another allusion to the prophecy in Isaiah:

• “Hear, O isles, unto me; and hearken, you peoples from far; Yahweh has called me from the womb… I will also give you as a light to the nations that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth” - (Isaiah 49:1-6).

In the third chapter of Acts, Peter prayed for the lame man at the entrance to the Temple, declaring that “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” had healed him in the name of “His Servant,” and he invoked the Abrahamic Covenant:

• All the “prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, told of these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed shall all the clans of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised his Servant, sent him to bless you by turning away every one of you from your iniquities” - (Acts 3:25).

Peter linked Christ’s ministry to the promise to bless all the nations in Abraham’s Seed and the suffering ‘Servant of the LORD.’ His words anticipated the broadening of the covenant community to include the Gentiles by declaring that God had blessed the Jewish nation “first.”

Peter was instrumental in opening the Gospel to the Gentiles, beginning at the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. Before his epiphany, he understood that it was unlawful “for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come into one of another nation,” yet God showed him that he must “not call any man common or unclean.”

PREACHING TO THE NATIONS

As Peter affirmed, the Creator of all things accepts men “in every nation that fear him and work righteousness”; therefore, the Apostle preached the same Gospel to Cornelius and his household he had proclaimed to the Jews in Jerusalem - (Acts 10:19-48).

The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles, and they began to speak in tongues. This amazed the Jews since uncircumcised Gentiles had received the same Gift as the Jewish believers did on Pentecost. After hearing about these events, the brethren in Jerusalem “glorified God, because to the Nations also He had granted repentance unto life.”

Back in Jerusalem, James declared that the Gentiles were not required to undergo circumcision “to be saved,” for God had “visited the Nations to take out of them a people for his name.” James justified the outreach to uncircumcised Gentiles by citing the prophet Amos:

• “To this agree the words of the prophets… After these things, I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again its ruins, and I will set it up, that the remnant of men may seek after the Lord and all the nations upon whom my name is called” - (Acts 15:14-17, Amos 9:11-12).

The Book of Acts ends with the Apostle Paul in Rome “proclaiming the Kingdom of God” to all who would hear, to Jew and Gentile alike - (Isaiah 52:10, Acts 28:26-31).

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul is explicit. The followers of Jesus are the “children of Abraham.” God’s plan was always to justify the Gentiles through faith. As He promised the Patriarch, “In you will all nations be blessed.”

Men who stand on faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham.” Jesus is the “Seed of Abraham” in whom the Nations are blessed, and with whom they become “joint heirs” of the covenant promises – (Genesis 12:3, Galatians 3:7-9, 3:14, Ephesians 2:11-19).

Finally, the Book of Revelation foresaw the “Holy City, New Jerusalem,” inhabited by a multitude so vast no man could number it. It consisted of men and women redeemed from “every nation” by Jesus Christ. That will be the true and ultimate fulfillment of the promise to “bless all the Nations” in Abraham.

The Cosmos declared that Jesus is worthy to receive all authority and reign over all things precisely because he “purchased for God by his blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation” - (Revelation 5:5-14).

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SEE ALSO:

• As Many As He Calls - (The Gift of the Spirit is for every man who repents, even to those afar off, and in fulfillment of the promise of the Father - Acts 2:37-41)

• The Blessing of Abraham - (The Gift of the Spirit imparted by Jesus is part of God’s promise to bless all the nations in Abraham’s Seed – Acts 3:25)

• To the Ends of the Earth - (The Gospel of the Kingdom announced by Jesus of Nazareth offers salvation and life to men and women of every nation and people)