Once again, Dr. J. Vernon McGee has pointed out something in his commentary of Genesis that I never really thought about. It has to do with His covenant with Abraham. The actual covenant is found in this passage:
Genesis 12: 1-3
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Abraham was a very practical man, and in the customs of his day, any time you went into contract with someone else, there was a ceremony to seal the promise. So in Chapter 15 of Genesis, you see Abraham ask, "Lord, how can I know". He wanted God to seal the promise or covenant He had made with him. Below is the passage that contains the ceremony.
Genesis 15: 8-12, 17-21
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
(skipping ahead a few verses)
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—
19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
First of all, it is important to understand what a covenant is. A covenant is an agreement between two parties. There are two types of covenants: conditional and unconditional. A conditional covenant is an agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfillment. Both parties agree to fulfill certain conditions. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party has to fulfill the expectations of the covenant. An unconditional covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has to do something. Nothing is required of the other party. (explanation taken from www.gotquestions.org)
The covenant that God made with Abraham was an unconditional covenant. It required NOTHING on Abraham's part and EVERYTHING on God's part. God was responsible for fulfilling the covenant.
Back in that time, this ceremony consisted of taking certain animals, dividing them into two pieces, and then both parties involved in the agreement would pass between the pieces of animals. God caused a deep, paralyzing sleep to fall on Abraham. This would not allow Abraham to pass between the divided animals. God did this because He was taking on the full responsibility of the covenant. God alone would pass through the divided animals. This signified the fact that fulfillment of the covenant would fall to God, and Abraham would have to do nothing on his part.
Well let's jump ahead to the covenant God made with us when He allowed His one and only Son to be crucified on a cross for our sins. We were not present when that took place. We came into the picture about 2000 years later. We couldn't enter into a conditional covenant with Him, because we were simply not there. It was Christ alone who bore the responsibility for our sins. He was saying to us, that we are not responsible and that he alone would fulfill His unconditional promise to us. Here is his promise in a nutshell.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life.
We don't have to fulfill any agreement. It is God's agreement with us that if we believe in His Son, we will be saved. He is the one that will save us. We can't save ourselves.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee, in his commentary on Genesis, told this story. I don't have the commentary with me as I write this, and I am going strictly by memory, but the point will be the same.
A boy goes away to college and returns home. He returns full of doubts about God and salvation. He asks his mother how she can believe that God will really save her soul, since her soul is one of many. How could God remember her poor, insignificant, little soul? His mother thought about this and told him that her soul might be insignificant but God had made a promise to her. The way she saw it was that she didn't have anything to lose. But God had everything to lose. If he didn't fulfill his unconditional promise to her then His reputation was at stake.
You see, God is not a liar, and he never will be. You can KNOW that when God makes a promise, He fully intends to keep it. It might not be within our timelines, but his promise will be fulfilled. Our souls probably do seem insignificant to us, but they are tremendously important to God. So important to Him, that He allowed His Son to suffer and die for them. How many of you can say that you would give up your child to death on a cross for someone else's soul. I don't think there is one person out there that can say that. The price for our souls has already been paid. Our sins have been forgiven. My husband reminded me this morning that God doesn't "reluctantly" save us. He immediately sweeps us up into his loving arms the very moment we give our all to Him. I'm so glad that my soul was significant to Him - the ONE TRUE GOD. Praise God that He always fulfills His promises!
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