Yesterday we read about the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. At it’s core, this promise was that God himself would be Abram’s “great reward” (Gen 15:1), a reward that is tied directly to Abram’s earlier calling and promise, that “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). This is the “gospel” that Paul quotes in Galatians 3:8

The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

This is the gospel as Paul understands it; that all the people and nations of the earth would be “blessed” (think Matthew 5:1-12) by the reward of God’s very presence. It’s this great age of peace and reconciliation that the Jewish prophets would speak of centuries later (we’ll get to that on Wednesday).

Other versions of the “gospel” that we have heard – for example, that Christ came to die for our sins and eradicate our guilt, or defeat God’s enemies, or make a way for us to live in eternity with God – are only one part of the gospel. The fuller gospel, the good news, is that God has made a promise to pour out the blessing of his very presence upon all the people of the earth, thereby reconciling the world to Himself, and bring about the long awaited peace, justice, and reconciliation that the world so desperately needs. This gospel extends far beyond the sin-guilt of the individual and infiltrates the familial, political, ethnic, cultural, and religious realms of humanity.

So, if this gospel promise goes all the way back to Abraham, what kept it from being implemented or announced all those centuries ago during the extended and difficult history of the Jewish people of the Old Testament?

Today read Leviticus 18:1-5 and Deuteronomy 27:9-26 alongside Galatians 3:10-14.

Questions for reflection:

1. What do you see as the purpose of the law from reading Leviticus and Deuteronomy? What are the key verses in those passages that are clues to the purpose of the law?
2. According to Paul in Gal 3:10-14 what does the law (or Torah) accomplish?
3. How do you think this purpose for the law (to be a curse) might contribute to the gospel of bringing God’s blessing to all the nations?