Topical Studies
Abraham's Inheritance
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 12:3 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
A turning point in the saga of God's people occurred when God called Abram to leave Mesopotamia for a land he knew little or nothing about, Canaan. He promised him great blessings of wealth and rulership, as well as spiritual blessing: "And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3; also 22:18). This could only be a reference to the work of the Messiah. Paul mentions this prophecy in Galatians 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." It is evident from the genealogies in both Matthew 1 (Joseph's) and Luke 3 (Mary's) that both legally and naturally Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. "And if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). We Christians are also children of God through our faith in Jesus (verse 26), and this makes us spiritual descendants of Abraham and co-heirs of the promised blessings.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Born of a Woman
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Genesis 22:15-18 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Now the promise was unconditional. Abraham already had performed his part of this covenant—this agreement. And so today whosoever will from every nation may come and take of the waters of life freely, because God has kept His promise, and the promised Seed, Christ, has come. Yes, the promise is now absolutely sure. Why? "Because," as we read further in Genesis 26:5, "because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Sin is the transgression of the Law, the same fundamental, eternal, spiritual Law that Adam transgressed when he sinned, and the same laws and commandments Abraham obeyed and kept (long before the sacrifices and rituals of Moses), making possible all the blessings we have today, both material and spiritual!
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
What Is the Reward of the Saved?
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Luke 16:22 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
God promised Abraham's descendants land on earth—the land of Canaan, and later it was all the land he could see (see Genesis 12:5-7; 13:15; 15:18; Romans 9:6-8). God even included the actual boundary line of the property in His agreement with Abraham. "Your seed" refers primarily to Christ, the chief of "Abraham's seed, and heir according to the promise." Since God's promise of the land of Canaan was forever, it is an eternal inheritance and includes eternal life (Hebrews 9:15). Because the angels carried Lazarus into Abraham's bosom, he became one of Abraham's children and thus an heir to the Promised Land on this earth—not in heaven—and eternal life.
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part One)
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Luke 16:22 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
A son who is heir to his father's property cannot inherit and possess it before his father inherits it. Lazarus could not inherit either eternal life or the land before his father Abraham received the promises. Abraham, however, died without actually inheriting these promises (Acts 7:2-5; Hebrews 11:8-13). He was still dead at the time of Christ's earthly ministry, and he still is in his grave today (John 8:52). He will inherit the promises at the time of the resurrection of the just. Human beings in Christ, living and dead, receive eternal life at Christ's second coming, Abraham among them (Luke 13:28).
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part One)
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Hebrews 11:7 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Noah had a choice to make. He chose to believe what God said. He turned his energy to doing what God said, and what he did was the means of his life being saved. His vision of what God said caused him to conduct his life in a way that saved him and his family in the end. Abraham did the same thing. His vision was formed by what God said to him, and so it said of him that "He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God." That was the Kingdom of God. As a result of what he did—aiming his life according to the vision that God gave him—he therefore became heir of the world. This earth is going to be his, and he will share it with his children. But he did it because of vision and faith.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Sanctification and the Teens
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