Fourth Sunday after Trinity,
2009
Text: Genesis 12:1-9
The Rev. Jerry Kistler
St. Stephen’s Reformed
Episcopal Church
“Promise Fulfilled”
Today we heard the great promise to our forefather Abraham, that “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And today we’ve seen a fulfillment of that promise in the baptism of Natalia into the family of God.
In the book of Galatians,
He starts out in Galatians chapter 3 by telling us exactly what that blessing is which God promised would go through Abraham to all the kindreds of the world. In verse 8 he says, “And the Scripture, forseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall blessed’” (v. 8).
Now there are some heavy concepts in that sentence, so what do they mean? What is this idea of being justified – that God would justify the Gentiles, that is, all the various peoples of the world – that he would justify them by faith? What does it mean to be justified? Well, very simply, it means to be declared righteous – to be declared righteous before God and by God. Or as I’ve explained before, to be justified means it’s just-as-if-I’d never sinned. It’s a concept that comes from the law courts. It’s the idea that we can stand before God our Judge, and we can hear from Him the verdict of “not guilty.” Not because we are not guilty. We are guilty. We violate every one of God’s commandments every day. But we can hear that verdict of ‘not guilty” simply because He in His grace allows His son to take our guilt upon Himself, and to pay the penalty for our guilt, so there’s no more guilt to pay for. And the way the transaction is completed is by being united to Christ by faith, so that our guilt becomes His guilt, and His payment becomes our payment. Do you see?
But that’s just one side of what it means to be justified – that it’s just as if I’d never sinned. The other side of what it means to be justified is that it’s just-as-if-I’d fulfilled all righteousness. You see, it’s not enough simply to be not guilty. God requires you to be positively righteous. Or to use economic terms: it’s not enough simply to be out of the red; you’ve got to be completely in the black. God requires us to be holy as He is holy. And God doesn’t grade on a curve. You can’t compare yourself to others and say, “Well I’m a lot better that guy. I’ll be okay.” No. The standard of comparison is God Himself. Jesus said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You can’t do it! Or if you think you can I want you to come forward right now and stand up there in front of the altar; we need to worship you, because your name is Jesus Christ. But that’s sort of the point. Only Jesus was perfect as His heavenly Father is perfect. Only Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. Only Jesus’ ledger was completely in the black. But you and I can be declared perfectly righteous before God, again simply because, by His grace, He credits to us – He credits to our account – the righteousness of His Son. And again the transaction is complete when we’re united to Christ by faith.
But now the important thing for us to note is that
Now the next thing Paul does is that he identifies Christ as the Seed of Abraham through whom the promise would be fulfilled. In Genesis chapter 22, God sort of hones His promise to Abraham by saying, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 18). And back in Galatians 3, Paul alludes to this passage when he says, “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” (v. 16). Jesus Christ is the Seed of Abraham. Yes, Abraham’s son Isaac was a seed through whom the promise would be carried on to fulfillment. And so was Isaac’s son Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons, the Patriarchs of Israel, and so on and so on. But it’s Christ who ultimately is the Seed – the one descendant of Abraham – through Whom, or in Whom, that blessing of justification – that blessing of being made right with God – would go to the nations.
But how do we get put into Christ to receive that blessing? How can we Gentiles – those who aren’t the physical descendants of Abraham – inherit the promise made to Abraham, and to His Seed? Well, again in Galatians chapter 3, Paul gives us the answer. He says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ… And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (vv. 27, 29).
You see, baptized into Christ, baptized into the one true Child of Abraham, we become Abraham’s children as well, and therefore heirs of the promised blessing. We prayed today that through baptism Natalia would be born again and be made an heir of everlasting salvation. And we trust that because Natalia’s faith has brought her to that place of union with Christ, our prayers have been answered. A new heir of the promised blessing has been made today.
But there’s another thing that’s happened today. Remember
that the Scripture said that “in Abraham,” and more specifically “in his Seed”
– Christ –all the families of the earth would be blessed. But then Paul says
that if we’re baptized into Christ -baptized into the Seed - we become the Seed as well. That’s hugely important, because it means
that, not only has Natalia been “made a
member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,”
as the Catechism tells us, but it also means that she, and all of us who have
been baptized into Christ, have become part of the One through whom the promised
blessing will go to all the nations. We have become members of His body; we
have become His continued presence here in the world. In a very real sense we
are now, and Natalia is now, the Seed through whom the promise will be brought
to fulfillment. Because, you see, Christ now dwells in us, and it’s in us that
He will accomplish His plan to bless the whole world. We’ve seen a partial
fulfillment of that plan today. And we’ve seen how it has been through His
people that the blessing of salvation has
come to one family all the way out here in
Today, we have heard the great promise to our forefather Abraham, that in him and in his Seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Through baptism we have received that blessing, and we have become that Seed. All who are Christ’s are Christ’s presence in the world. So it is to us that He says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded” (Mt. 28:19, 20).
Let us rejoice today in Natalia’s baptism, but let us not be
content with Natalia’s baptism. Let us be about continuing to be the Seed
though whom the blessing of justification, the blessing of eternal life, may go
to all the families of the earth, starting right here with the families here in
Montrose. +