Covenant Seal to Abraham Name Changes Abram = Exalted Father Abraham= Father of Many Sarai => Sarah = Princess
Benefits For the blood descendants For spiritual descendants Rms. 4: vss. 12,16 A never ending source of God’s mercy
Was this Conditional? By God! I will give this land to you and your descendants and I will be your God. (This is one promise, two parts.)
Was this Conditional? By Man! If they rejected God as their God, they would also forfeit the first part of the promise regarding the land.
Additional guarantee It was a common practice. Jer. 9:25-26 God made this common practice now a visible sign of the covenant. Circumcision
Additional Guarantee Marked God’s people as His own. Just as Baptism does today Circumcision
Circumcision Cleansed at the source The male sex organ by which sin is passed onto the children. Symbolized the removal of defilement (filth) Rms. 4:11 The cutting away of one’s inner resistance to God.
Those who rejected the covenant were “cut off”. Physically From God’s people by death Ex. 31:14 Spiritually From God’s promise of eternal life by rejection of God’s promise.
Foreshadowing of Christ’s Work Purpose: To point ahead to the cleansing of sins accomplished by Christ’s work as Savior of the world. When Christ came, the shadow was replaced by the reality.