Good News for All Nations

The covenant with Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, including the gift of the Spirit, our Resurrection, and new creation – Romans 8:1-30. Paul presents Abraham as the great exemplar of faith. God accounted the Patriarch’s faith as righteousness when he was still uncircumcised. This means that he was declared righteous without the deeds and rituals required by the Torah .

The Gift of the Spirit is for every man who repents and follows Jesus, even to those afar off, and in fulfillment of the promise of the Father . After completing his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter summoned his audience to repent and be baptized “ in the name of Jesus Christ .” But something more than a call to accept the Gospel was transpiring. The Apostle concluded his sermon on a note of fulfillment and with a foretaste of things to come, for the “ promise is to you, your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call .”

Redemption includes our resurrection and the new creation, and the Spirit is the guarantee of the future inheritance . Paul presents Abraham as the model of faith. God justified him apart from the works of the Mosaic Law because of his faith in the promises of God. Likewise, we are acquitted by God “ through the faith of Jesus Christ ,” his faithful obedience unto death, and through him, we become heirs of the covenant promises– (Romans 3:21-24, 4:10-13, Galatians 2:15-21, 3:5-9).

Christians become heirs of Abraham through Christ, and the gift of the Spirit is our assurance of participating in the full salvation to come . The possession of Canaan by Israel was an early stage in God’s redemptive plan, which always envisioned something larger than Israel and the small territory of Palestine. With the arrival of Jesus, “ the seed of Abraham ,” and the outpouring of the Spirit, the fulfillment of the covenant promises began.

John baptized men and women in water, but the Messiah of Israel will baptize in spirit and fire - Matthew 3:11-12. The Gospel of Mark begins by applying key prophecies to the ministry of John the Baptist. He is the forerunner who prepares the hearts and minds of Israel for the Messiah, and John does so by calling the Jewish nation to repent and baptizing the people “ for the remission of sins ” - (Isaiah 40:3-5, Mark 1:1-3).

With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced . The gift of the Holy Spirit is described as “the promise of the Father” in the New Testament, which connects this gift to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and his seed are fulfilled in the New Covenant inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Spirit is the guarantee that we will inherit all that God has promised.

The gift of the Spirit is vital to the redemption of humanity and God’s covenant with His people, the Church of Jesus Christ . The New Testament links the gift of the Holy Spirit to the “ blessings of Abraham ,” the prom ise that God will bless the nations through the Patriarch. The outpouring of the Spirit on the Church is one of God’s promises to Israel, and the Scriptures confirm this.

The gift of the Spirit equips the Church to bear witness to what God has done in His Son, especially through his death and resurrection . At the beginning of the Book of Acts , Jesus tells his disciples that they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in a few days, and this will empower his people to testify of what God has accomplished through His Son. The Spirit enables the Church of Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel to every nation, man, woman, and child.

The gift of the Spirit is one of the blessings of Abraham that God promised to bestow on His people through His Messiah . Paul refers to the “ promise of the Spirit ” in his letter to the Galatians. He equates this gift with the blessing of Abraham. Jesus came under the curse of the Law to redeem us, so that now, “ the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith ” – (Galatians 3:13-14).

Jesus is the Son of Abraham, the heir of the promises, and the Messiah who implements the inheritance for his people . The Gospel of Matthew declares that Jesus is “ the son of David, the son of Abraham .” He is the descendant who inherits the promises made to the Patriarch, and this introduces the theme of fulfilment that characterizes Matthew – (“ For thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness ” – Matthew 3:15).

The gift of the Spirit is foundational to the New Covenant. It is the beginning of the New Creation and the gathering of the nations . The history of Israel includes descriptions of the sins that caused the expulsion of the nation from the Land of Canaan. God foresaw the failures of Israel, and therefore, He determined to make a new covenant, one that is energized and characterized by the Holy Spirit.