The Gospel preached to Abraham

Let’s start the message of the gospel with a man called Abraham, who was a wealthy man living in Chaldea, now known as Iraq. If there is only one true God and the other gods are mere idols, we would expect this one true God to reveal Himself to mankind at some point. That’s exactly what God did! He could have revealed Himself to anyone from Europe, Africa, Asia, or elsewhere, but He chose to reveal Himself to this faithful man named Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith who despised idolatry. God’s plan was to bless Abraham, and through him, a nation known as Israel would emerge. And God did exactly that!

God asked Abraham to leave Chaldea (modern-day Iraq) and move to Canaan, which is now Israel. The Canaanites, also known as the Philistines, lived in the land at the time, but God, who owns the whole world, promised to give that land to Abraham and his descendants. It was later renamed Israel. In all fairness, we learn that God drove out the Canaanites because they became arrogant and wicked (Deuteronomy 9:4-5).

God told Abraham that He would give the promised land to him and his descendants forever. The children of Abraham, through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, are now the people of Israel. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, was actually renamed Israel, which is the origin of that name.

Please remember that God’s plan was not just to bless Abraham and his natural descendants, but His plan is actually to bless every human being, regardless of their race. Read God’s promise to Abraham:

Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV) says:
1 “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'”

So, as you can see, God’s plan is that all families of the earth will be blessed through Abraham, regardless of whether they are Asian, European, African, American, or from any other background. But how is this possible?

We read that God’s promise to Abraham is actually best fulfilled in a great descendant of his, born thousands of years later. (Please read Genesis 13:14-15.) This man is none other than Jesus Christ! Paul wrote: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

In summary, we now understand that what God wants from us is to believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of Abraham, and He will bless us.

What exactly is this blessing? In Genesis 13:15, God told Abraham: “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.”

We now know that the “offspring” or “seed” of Abraham mentioned here is Jesus Christ. The promise of God to us is that we will inherit the earth forever with Jesus, the seed of Abraham. But how is it possible for us to inherit this world forever, given that we don’t live forever?

The message of the gospel is essentially saying that even if we die, as long as we believe in Jesus Christ, we will be raised to life on the last day, and God will give us eternal life! This is not too good to be true. God wants you to simply believe—that’s all. As we proceed in our studies, you will see even more reasons to believe in this message of hope for mankind. God bless you, amen.