The Gospel to Abraham

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 24, 1906

The Gospel to Abraham

FROM the Word of God we learn that “the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed.” The full statement, from which this quotation is taken, is as follows: “Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” After Abram, in obedience to this instruction, had come into the land of Canaan, the Lord appeared unto him and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” The Spirit of God has unfolded the meaning of these promises in these words: “Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

It is thus clear that the gospel which was preached unto Abraham in the promise, “In thee shall all the nations be blessed,” was the gospel of Christ, and that the blessing vouchsafed to him was the blessing of the gospel of Christ,—the blessing of righteousness by faith. “For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith.” “And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” All the blessings promised to Abraham were promised to Christ and through Christ, and they are shared in by those only who are in Christ.

That this is the same gospel which was preached by the apostle Paul is evident from these earnest words: “I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel; which is not another gospel: only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.”

And it should be remembered that these words were addressed first to the same people to whom he declared that “the scripture . . . preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham.” Evidently the apostle Paul knew nothing of the modern error that the first instance of the preaching of the gospel was at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

But we must go back of Abraham’s time to find the first instance of the preaching of the gospel. Before our first parents were expelled from the garden of Eden, the good tidings were announced to them: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This is the same gospel that is defined by the apostle Paul to be “the gospel of God . . . concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” In fulfilment of this promise “when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Thus the gospel of Christ the Redeemer was preached in Eden, showing the only way from Eden lost to Eden restored.

From a statement made in the epistle to the Hebrews it is also clear that the same gospel was preached to the children of Israel in the wilderness that was preached to the church in the first century after Christ. Let us read the passage: “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” The gospel preached after the coming of Christ was simply a continuation of the gospel which was preached before his coming. The gospel which did not profit the children of

Israel, because they did not believe it, was proclaimed to their lineal descendants after the resurrection of Christ, and has since been “made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” During all the centuries, from the entrance of sin until the present day, there have been those who believed the simple gospel of Christ and have been saved by it, just as it is recorded of Moses: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward.” Moses believed the gospel of Christ.

All this effort to show that a new gospel was introduced at the time of the first advent, or that the preaching of the gospel began at that time, is the result of a failure to understand the unity of the plan of salvation, and to grasp the full meaning of the declaration that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and forever.” The Saviour of the New Testament is the Saviour of the Old Testament, and the gospel of the New Testament is the gospel of the Old Testament. The gospel of righteousness by faith which was preached to Abraham is the gospel which should be preached in all the world to-day. It is the gospel of the kingdom.