In Galatians 3:9, Paul wrote that “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham.” So, yes, according to Paul, all the blessings God promised to Abraham continue today.
That’s because, verse 7, “those who believe are children of Abraham.” To have faith like Abraham makes us into Abraham’s children, so whatever he was promised is ours as well.
Which would include the promise God made to Abraham that he would be a “great nation” (Genesis 12:2) fathering many nations and kings (17:4-6). And Abraham’s own family shows God fulfilling that promise, first in his son Isaac and the great nation of Israel that came from him – but also in the many nations and kings that descended from other members of his family. Like Ishmael his other son, for instance, from whom came “12 princes” (Genesis 17:20, 25:13-18). And from Keturah, Abraham’s second wife, came several more nations (Genesis 25:1-4), and from his grandson, Esau, came the Edomites. “Many nations” – and all traceable to Abraham.
But if this promise to Abraham is still in operation, where is that great nation and the fathering of many nations today?
Paul explains in Galatians 3:7. “Understand, then,” he writes, “that those who believe are children of Abraham.” Yes, we’ve got that point understood, but then Paul writes in verse 8 that “Scripture also foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.” Included, therefore, in the “children of Abraham” are people who aren’t directly traceable to him and aren’t in his family tree. But for their faith they’re still his children.
So in Abraham “fathering many nations” we can look among Gentiles today for that promise still being in operation. Which makes it easy to prove, because many Gentile nations today have a Judeo-Christian heritage. They were built on Christian principles and belief in God, deeply affecting how they governed, with their clear emphasis on justice, education, family, human rights, care for the poor, the homeless, the sick and the dying.
Abraham’s faith in God, therefore, has grown into many nations having a belief in God too. So that’s the “fathering of many nations” promise being continued today. But to answer the question in the title, “Are all God’s promises to Abraham continuing today?” – where is the evidence of God’s promise to make Abraham a “great nation” today as well?
To the next blog, then: “God’s great nation on earth today”
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