The Gospel that God Preached to Abraham

The gospel that God preached to Abraham was not a gospel according to the Jews or a gospel according to the Greeks, but a gospel of the one new man (Ephesians 2:14-16) in and through Abraham.

Galatians 3:6-9
Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

Abraham was not a Jew but a Gentile among other Gentiles in Mesopotamia when God called him for the purpose of setting apart a new clan of Gentiles who are justified by faith among the Gentiles.

Acts 7:2-3
And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’

So, God had already foreordained Gentiles as a clan of sons of Abraham through faith, even before He preached the gospel to Abraham, a Mesopotamian, and then reckoned him as righteous through his faith in the gospel.

In other words, Abraham was a Gentile elected for the justification of Gentiles, together with his direct descendants who were called Jews later because of the distinctiveness of the Law, through faith in the gospel. Together, they would be a new Abrahamic clan called sons of the faith.

Romans 4:9-17
Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. 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 fact, these sons of the faith are the true sons of the promise in the gospel, and the true sons of Israel; for without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Romans 9:6-8
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

Thus, from the very beginning, there was no distinction between Jews and Gentiles in the gospel that God preached to Abraham. There was only one new race, the set-apart race.

Even though there are some natural and spiritual distinctives between Jews and Gentiles in their historical and eschatological fulfilment of this gospel, and there are other dimensions of Kingdom truths concealed in this gospel, this is the essence of the gospel that God preached to Abraham concerning his children of the promise through the same faith; and this is the foundation, or starting point, of the gospel of the kingdom that shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

So, the “church age” (or “Gentile age”) is neither a parenthetical happenstance in the covenant of Abraham nor an afterthought owing to Jewish rejection of the gospel. Rather, it is a continuous and contiguous fulfilment of the gospel that God preached to Abraham. Furthermore, there is neither a dispensation of the Gentiles nor a dispensation of the Jews in the last days, as there is only the “dispensation” of the body of the Messiah – the true vine, the one new man, and the church of the firstborn – into which all Jews and Gentiles must be joined as children of the gospel that God preached to Abraham (albeit in different time, order, and stages of fulfilment).

Once we understand the foundation of the gospel that God preached to Abraham, we can understand the historical and eschatological nature of the church of Jesus Christ and of the kingdom of God in the last days.

We welcome the one new man in Christ according to the gospel that God preached to Abraham.

P.S. A detailed exegesis on the church and Israel is available in the book PoiÄ“ma, God’s Workmanship.

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