I will now proceed to interpret one theme of God's covenant with Abraham. Thus far, up to the covenant made with Abraham, we have a picture of the nations at the tower of Babel. God frustrates mans plans by scattering the nations. The nations are divided; they can't understand each other, what they set their hands to do, is frustrated. They are a people in exile. All of these events (The Noahic Flood and Tower of Babel) have been due to man having been driven out of God's paradise, because of their willful rebellion against the one and only true king and God. With this picture in mind, we are ready to appreciate the promises made to Abraham. So when God pronounces blessings on Abraham, he is giving him life and salvation. The curse can only be reversed by blessing (salvation).

Now you will need to pay close attention. The main promise made to Abraham is that through his seed all the nations will be blessed (Genesis 12:3).now this promise is made in the backdrop of the curse. The curse was mans exile from the Garden of Eden. Now this promise made to Abraham is the solution to the problem of curse, which is upon all the nations. So by promising Abraham a son who would bless the nations, God will bring about the reversal of that curse by this son of Abraham who will bring blessing to the nations. So blessing is the reversal of curse. Curse has brought condemnation, judgement, misery and death. Blessing will bring vindication, salvation in a world free from the law of sin and death.

Now lest the point be hastily forgotten. These promises to Abraham are the solution to the problem of this present world. The promises are a response to an historical event, i.e. our exile from the Garden of Eden. This is undoubtedly the context. The one who will come from Abraham's seed will reverse the curse from over all the earth. What that means for us is this. The task of Jesus, who is the descendant of Abraham is to reverse the curse, here on earth. Jesus has begun to do this, by inaugurating the Kingdom of God, by his defeat of sin and death. He has begun reversing the curse in a 1st fruits sense. By him making new creations out of the many nations. This is New Testament salvation i.e. the people are being made new. But only the people who Christ has begun to reverse the curse in, will inherit an earth that has had the curse removed. The curse will only be totally removed at Jesus coming in its fullness creation will also be redeemed from curse. Read Romans 8: 18-24. It is to this end that all history is moving. The nations together with Israel will return from their long night of exile, back into the Paradise of God.

So when we come to the ministry of Jesus. We must recognize him as the one who will reverse the curse. Salvation is to be redeemed from the curse. I do recognizae that is a loaded term. So when Jesus pronounces blessings, he is pronouncing salvation. It must be interpreted in the Kingdom paradigm of now and not yet. We who have believed and repented are New Creations in Christ. But we are not yet sinless. Yes we have power over sin, but alas we still sin. Unless you understand this it is very easy to misinterpret the bible. The vision of the glorious future is on earth. The future is in the new heavens and earth, where in righteousness dwells.if we read Revelation 22:3 that in the new heavens and earth that the curse is no more!!!!. So Jesus is the one from Abrahams seed through whom the nations will be blessed and be given life immortal and who will dwell where the curse is no more. So this is the time of the nations restoration to live as God meant us to live. Can you see Gods plan isn't to come take us away from this earth into heaven somewhere beyond the clouds. Gods plan is to redeem all creation. That means the earth is redeemable. The earth is where God meant for us to live and belong. Also in the future there won't be a distinction between heaven and earth. Heaven will be on earth. Praise our God and King forever!!!!Jesus is his name!!!
It shows how ancient Greek thought is so embedded in the minds of those of western Europe and North America. The thinking that whatever is earthly or material is evil and must be destroyed is part of Platos teaching not the bibles. We don't have to be taken away to another place because the world is redeemable and God promises its redemption. In the same thought many think to be out of the body is salvation, because we have immortal spirits. Again this thinking comes from the philosopher Plato who said the spirit is immortal and we must escape our bodies to escape evil. Again the bibles teaching is contrary to that line of thought. We are told in the bible that salvation is to be immortal in the body at the resurrection. What we need to do is understand that much of what we've been taught and believe about salvation is Greek philosophy and not bible. The reason people think the bible teaches it is because these greek mindsets which are part of western European culture are grids that we place over the scripture and so interpret scripture through this greek philosophical worldview. Obviously if we gag the scriptures we won't hear clearly what God is saying to us. So rather we need to identify thinking that isn't in line with Gods thinking on scripture. As Romans 12 tells us we must be transformed in our thinking from thinking like pagans and start to think like God.

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