BLESSING A NATION
God made a promise to Abraham that all nations of the earth would be blessed through Someone who would be one of his descendants (Genesis 12:3). The fulfilling of this was not upon all the descendants of Abraham (the Jews) but rather through One particular descendant, that is Jesus the Christ (Galatians 3:16). God’s plan was to make a new body after the resurrection of His Son from the dead. The new body was to be composed of both Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 3:6). This was the mystery that God had kept hid from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 3:5).
John tells us in the Revelation that in the days of the voice of the 7th angel the mystery of God should be finished (Revelation 10:7). The mystery was the forming of a new body composed of Jews and Gentiles. We see the reality of these things taking place. Paul affirmed that the gospel of Christ had been preached in all the world (Colossians 1:23). Long before men began to twist Scriptures and talk about satellites beaming the gospel all over the world. It was, then, through Jesus the Christ, that all the world had access to the grace of God. How did they gain that access? Paul reveals that grace reigns through righteousness (Romans 5:21). Hence, righteousness is the key for men to understand how they obtain access to God through Jesus.
The Jews perceived that righteousness was through the law of Moses. We then come to the revelation of God’s truth. They, the Jews, were ignorant of God’s righteousness and went about to establish their own righteousness (Romans 10:3). Righteousness did not come through the law of Moses but instead comes through Jesus by the law of the Spirit (Romans 8:2). We use that law, that is the law of the Spirit, to guide us in our day to day living so that we can fulfill the law of Christ, which is the law of the Spirit (Galatians 6:2). When we use our lives in that manner then we are showing the righteousness of God. We are declaring by our lives that God’s way is right.
The Jews who came to the baptism of John and listened to what John was preaching had an opportunity to change their lives. Some did while others did not. Those who did accept what John was preaching, submitted to being baptized by John. When they were baptized by John, it was called, “justifying God” (Luke7:29). They acknowledge that John was a prophet from God and that they needed to do what he told them to do. There were other Jews who refused to accept what John was telling them to do. Luke calls this, a “rejecting of the council of God against themselves (Luke 7:30). When, therefore, an individual submits to God’s plan, he is saying by that act that God is right and His way is right.
Titus tells us that we are not saved by works of righteousness that we have come up with through our thinking (Titus 3:5). If we are not saved by things that we have come up with, how then are we saved? Titus answers by the “…washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost”. On the day of Pentecost, about 3,000 souls submitted to this plan and seasons of refreshing came from the presence of the Lord (Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19). Their sins were forgiven by their obedience to the will of God. In order for us to see this even more clearly, let us return to the time of Abraham, once more.
Abraham had complied with the will of God by “offering” his son, Isaac in the land of Moriah. God stopped him and provided a ram instead of Isaac. After this event, God reminds Abraham of His earlier promise (Genesis 12:3). God tells him that in his seed, “…all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). Watch now as God explains this in view of Abraham’s action of trying to offer up Isaac. God states, “…because thou hast obeyed my voice”. All nations of the earth would be blessed when they OBEYED God’s Son. Does it then follow that all nations of the earth would submit to the Lord?
The answer is “no”. Though some try to twist Scripture to indicate a time when all the world would submit to Christ, such is not Scriptural. The principle is that God was forming a “new nation”, composed of Jews and Gentiles. People would submit to Christ by obeying His will. Whatever the nation, hamlet or town, where people obey Christ, they are then a part of the new body. All nations who have such people will be blessed by their presence and actions.