A Gospel Presentation - Part 3 (Covenant/Commitment)

Previous Posts in this Series: 

A Gospel Presentation: Part 1 (Two-Age Worldview) 

A Gospel Presentation: Part 2 (Creation/Curse)

"Salvation is of the Jews, because the flesh of Israel is the abode of the divine presence in the world. It is the carnal anchor that God has sunk into the soil of Creation." - Michael Wyschograd, "The Body of Faith"

It is impossible, in my mind, to talk about Covenant without addressing 'chosenness' or 'election' (the theological term for chosenness). We left off in Genesis 11, talking about how the people of the earth had been scattered and their languages confused after the Tower of Babel scene. Immediately following that story is a genealogy, tracing from Noah's son Shem, to Abram (Abraham) and at the beginning of Genesis 12, there is a complete tone shift from God's dealings with mankind throughout Genesis 1-11, to God's dealings with one man. From that point on, throughout the rest of Scripture, we see the unfolding story of his relationship to the Nation (Israel) that is formed out of God's promises detailed in the openings verses of Genesis 12.

"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."" (Genesis 12:1-3)

God's promises here, are really a detailing of what I highlighted as one of the main elements of the Gospel in the last post - namely, that God's desire is to restore Creation to the way that He made it in The Beginning. Genesis 12 is where the details start to emerge about how God will do it. It starts with one man, Abraham, who is promised descendants as numerous as the 'sand on the seashore'/'stars in the sky' (Gen 15:5, Gen 22:17, Gen 26:4, Gen 32:12, etc). The one man grows into the Nation of Israel, who God identifies himself with and through, continually calling himself the God of Israel and being called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understanding the election and chosenness of Israel is really the hermeneutical key to understanding all of Scripture.