It all began with Abraham

It doesn’t seem fair that we should all suffer because of Adam’s sin. But Adam revealed our problem, that we “are weak in our natural selves,” Romans 6:19. Which the terrible decline of humanity leading up to Noah’s Flood also revealed. Humans just got worse, not better, and nothing could turn the tide. But having got that point clearly established after years of such violence and evil that God even regretted making us (Genesis 6:5-7), he made his move to rescue us. 

And it all began with Abraham. It was in him that God was going to straighten out the mess Adam made. So in one man – Adam – humanity died; but equally in one man – Abraham – God would bring humanity back to life again. 

And the process began the same way. Like Adam, Abraham was also faced with a choice by God, and again the result would be based on trusting in what God said. But unlike Adam, it wouldn’t be the choice of a tree that would decide the future of humanity. Instead, it would be a much greater test: believing in a totally impossible sounding promise. 

Because what God promised Abraham, or Abram as he was then, was “a son coming from your own body,” Genesis 15:4. Which must have sounded crazy, because Abram was in his mid to late seventies already, his wife had never been able to have children, and now she was way beyond child-bearing age too. 

But, verse 6, unlike Adam, “Abram believed the Lord.” He trusted God. And that’s when God came through with his statement to Abram in verse 1, that “I am your very great reward,” because the great reward for Abram’s belief and trust was that through this son of his God would set in motion his promise back in Genesis 12:3 that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 

Through Abram, then, God was saving the world from the disaster caused by Adam, based simply on Abram’s belief in God’s promises to him, and his trust that what God said was true – the very thing Adam and Eve did not do that caused the disaster in the first place.

So, just as Adam’s unbelief and not trusting God led to the whole world being cursed, Abram’s belief and trust in God would lead to the whole world being blessed. It doesn’t sound quite so unfair, then, that we all had to suffer because of Adam, when all is being put to rights by God because of Abram. 

But “How is God blessing the whole world through Abraham?”