One passage in Scripture that has been tugging at my heart lately is the covenant God made with Abram in chapter 15 of Genesis. This is the chapter where God tells Abram to number the stars if he can, because that is the number of Abram's offspring. And Abram believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness. Abram believed God for the impossible.
The part of the chapter that has been drawing my attention is later in the chapter though. Abram has prepared an array of animals by cutting them in half and laying the pieces out. God affirms the covenant he has made with Abram and after the sun goes down, behold: A smoking furnace and a burning lamp pass between the pieces. This might have been a confusing scene to me, if someone had not explained it.
In ancient times, when two people made a covenant with each other, they would slay an animal and set two halves of the creature apart from each other. Then, both parties of the covenant would pass between the pieces as if to say, "Should one of us break our part of the covenant, let them end up as the carcass – torn into pieces." So, this is what God does with Abram, except there is something strikingly missing from the picture here. Abram never passes through the halves of the animals. In essence, God is saying that he has made a one-sided covenant with Abram and that God is the only party responsible for fulfilling the requirements that the covenant demands. God never takes into account Abram's ability to fulfill anything, all he asks is that Abram trust him to fulfill what God has spoken.
Wow.
God gives Abram an unconditional (not one condition relies upon Abram) promise that he will have a great inheritance and reward. God is determined and committed to accomplish what has been promised, and there is nothing that can keep him from doing it! Amazing grace! Never once does God think to himself, "Well, I guess I'll keep the covenant for now, and see how Abram performs. If he doesn't measure up, then I'll ditch him." No, sir! God has sworn an oath and it will be kept.
So, there are two things that challenge me here. One, I am challenged to believe in a grace that is pure and complete – a promise that has already had it's fulfillment in it's infant origins. Second, I am challenged to give people the same thing God has given me – unconditional grace based upon contractual obligations that have already been met. In other words, I am free to love people because Jesus Christ has already met the requirements that have been placed upon that person. Because Jesus died for their sins, I have no right to require anything else of that person in order to lavish favor upon them.
So, on the one hand, I am a recipient of the full force of God's love and grace in Jesus Christ – and I have already been qualified to receive it. I have been irrevocably sealed in God's perfect loving favor. On the other hand, so has everyone else. Oh, to have eyes open to the incredible reality of God's grace and to live out of it! All it takes is faith enough to believe that God is that amazingly great! Look at the stars! So will be the abundance of blessing that God has stored up for you. It is in tenaciously holding on to this promise that a person is able to endure life's trials.
