In the book of Genesis, God gave Abraham a promise. When Abraham believed God’s promise, God forgave all of his sins and counted him as righteous. One aspect of God’s promise to Abraham was that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s Seed.

In Galatians 3, Paul explained that the Seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ and concluded that the promise will not come to those who keep the Law but to those who have faith like Abraham. His argument is supported by the fact that Abraham received the promise by faith 430 years before the Law was given.

The promise of the Law was that, if Israel would keep the Law, God would give her physical blessings such as health and wealth. However, God never said that He would give Israel eternal life or the promised kingdom as a reward for keeping the Law.

In Galatians 3, Paul explained that God gave the Law to serve as a guardian over Israel until Christ came. Christ’s blood of atonement made it possible for Israel to be made righteous through faith and to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The power of God’s indwelling Spirit made the purpose of the Law obsolete.

In Acts 15 we see Paul and Barnabas at the Jerusalem Council proclaiming that God was saving Gentiles who had never submitted to circumcision or the other rituals of the Law. When the Jewish leaders were reminded of the fact that Cornelius was saved by faith without circumcision, they concluded that the Gentiles did not need to comply with the legal requirements of the Law.

Given the truths expressed in Galatians, one has to wonder why the Jews continued to observe the Law. And since Paul wrote Galatians after the Jerusalem Council, one might wonder if Paul had come to the conclusion that even the Jews should stop observing the Law. After all, he said that Christ came to take Israel out from under the bondage of the Law.

On Paul’s final trip to Jerusalem, he was challenged about this very thing:

Acts 21:20-21
20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, "You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law;
21 "but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

Paul was asked to participate in some Jewish rituals to prove that, according to his doctrine, it was appropriate for the Jews to observe the Law. Since he did participate in the requested rituals, we can conclude that during the Acts period Paul considered it appropriate for the Jews to observe the Law but inappropriate for the Gentiles to do so.

Galatians is typical of Paul’s Acts-period epistles in that he emphasized the hope of the kingdom which had been promised to Abraham, and it would appear that the observance of the Law by the Jews was connected to that hope. However, even in these epistles Paul taught the Jewish believers that their acceptance in the sight of God was based solely on their faith in Christ. Therefore, they were, indeed, set free from the bondage of the Law.

Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians were written after the Acts period, and in these epistles Paul revealed our present dispensation of the Church which is the Body of Christ. In these epistles, he never mentioned Abraham or the kingdom promised to Abraham, and he vehemently condemned those who continued to observe the Law.

Phil 3:2-3
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, (NKJ)

The book of Hebrews was written after Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, and in this book Paul wrote words of comfort for the Jewish believers who will suffer great persecution in the tribulation period. In this epistle, his message was once again dominated by the promises given to Abraham. His words paint a beautiful picture of that promised kingdom which will come down out of heaven.

Obviously, the revelation of the Church which is the Body of Christ in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians is surrounded by books, both before and after, whose dominant theme is the kingdom promised to Abraham. The fact that Paul did not mention Abraham’s hope in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians indicates that our present age of the Church which is the Body of Christ is a parenthetical age between God’s offer of Israel’s hope in the Acts period and God’s offer of Israel’s hope in the tribulation period. We can also safely conclude that the Church has no specific hope concerning the promises given to Abraham.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/