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GOD’S
ETERNAL PLAN TO REDEEM MAN [Part Five] “According
to the eternal purpose”
(Ephesians 3:11) By
Bob Myhan Review
and Correction of Part Four “And
Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a
son
in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”
(Gen. 5:3) After
the birth of Seth “men
began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen.
4:26). But this did not continue long. Now
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men,
that they were beautiful; and
they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said,
"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is
indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." There
were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of
God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children
to them. Those were the
mighty men who were of old,
men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that
every intent of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually
(Gen. 6:1-5). “The
sons of God”
were righteous men not angelic beings; angels “neither
marry nor are given in marriage.”
(Matt. 22:30) And
the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in
His heart. So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping
thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord
(Gen. 6:6-8). It
was erroneously stated in Part Four that man’s spiral into wickedness is
detailed Rom. 1:18-32. However, Paul’s account of man’s wickedness and
ungodliness was actually a detail of events after the flood, rather than
before it. Moses records the rise of the nations but does not discuss their
idolatry. (Gen. 10:1-32; 11:1-9) God’s
Promises to Abram Abram
was a descendant of Shem (Gen. 11:10-32). Though Abram had a background in
idolatry (Josh. 24:1-2) God made several promises to him. First, God promised
to make of Abram a great nation (Gen.
12:1-2). But what would make a nation great from God’s perspective? Gordon
J. Wenham wrote: “A
large population, a large territory, and a spiritual character make a nation
great.” (Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 1, page 275) God
promised each of these elements, either explicitly or implicitly. Concerning
the large population, after Abram had journeyed to Regarding
the large territory,
“He said to Abram, ’Know certainly
that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will
serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years...But in the fourth
generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet
complete…To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt
to the great river, the river Euphrates—the Kenites,
the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and
the Jebusites’” (Gen. 15:13-16, 18-21). The
reference to the “iniquity of the
Amorites” implied God’s intention for Abram’s descendants to have a
spiritual character. He would make this possible by giving them a law that
would be moral and religious, as well as civil (see Ex. 20; Deut. 4:5-10). Second,
God promised to bless Abram and make his name great
(Gen. 12:2). He would bless Abram in at least three ways: physically with long
life (Gen. 25:7); materially with great wealth (Gen. 13:1-2) and spiritually
with righteousness thus making his name great (Gen. 15:6; 18:16-19; The
name of Abram - later changed to Abraham - is held to be great among Jews,
Muslims and Christians. The place of comfort following death, for the first
century Jew, was “Abraham’s
bosom” (Luke 16:22-23). Third,
God promised to bless “all the
families of the earth” in Abram (Gen.
12:3). Indeed, this was the promise to which all the other promises were
designed to lead. But it was crucial that God reveal and magnify sin, so that
man could perceive the exceeding sinfulness thereof. Until such time, man
could not possibly appreciate God’s eternal purpose to give unto man eternal
life. Nor could man fully appreciate the principle of faith, until it had been
manifested in a variety of persons over a long period of time. Though Abram
was not the first man of faith (Abel, Enoch and Noah, before him, were also
men of faith), he is probably the greatest example of faith in the Biblical
record [which we will show in Part Six]. For this reason, he is called “the
father of the faithful.” All the families of the earth are now blessed
in, or through “the seed of Abraham.” Therefore
know that only those who are
of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,
"In you all the nations shall be blessed." So then those who are
of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
(Gal. 3:7-9) Now
to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to
seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And
to your Seed," who is Christ. (Gal.
3:16) But
before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith
which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to
bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after
faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ
have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ's, then
you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 3:23-29) [To
be continued] |