The Promise is for You and Your Children

One way to divide Genesis 17 is to note the threefold AS FOR formula: ‘Abraham, ‘As for you’’ (v. 9), ‘As for Sarai your wife’ (v. 15), and ‘As for Ishmael’ (v. 20). That makes for a fine group Bible-study and can open up windows of meaning in the text—which is why I mention it—but as to a big picture of how this fits in the flow of Genesis, we need to zoom out our lens a bit more.

The word COVENANT (בְּרִית) was there before, but it now spreads itself like seed onto the soil of this chapter. Thirteen times, to be exact. And it is that concept that we have to get our minds wrapped around. In relation to the covenant promises we have already seen in Chapters 12, 13, and 15 especially, this scene is described by some as an “expansion” of those promises, though I think the word “unpacking”1 is better. We want to keep before our minds that this is one, unbroken covenant plan rooted in eternity.

The main thing we have to get our minds wrapped around about this covenant of grace is the grace. How can it be grace if there are conditions? If there is uncertainty? If the signs are visible and just applied to everyone in the house? “I thought this work of God’s grace is unconditional, absolutely certain, and invisible and internal.” Those are thoughts of many, and this passage begins to create categories for the reader as much as they did for Abraham.

• Grace Has an Outward Walk

• Grace Has a Visible Sign

• Grace Has a New Identity

Doctrine. Grace’s walk, and sign, and new identity are for you and your children and all who are far off that the Lord calls.

I take the title and big idea from the words of Acts 2:39 where Peter is preaching on Pentecost to a crowd in Jerusalem made up of both Jews and what were called “God-fearers”—that is, Gentiles who came to hear of the God of Israel and shared the future hope of their Messiah.              

Grace Has an Outward Walk

The difficult words are these from God to Abram: ‘walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly’ (vv. 1-2). What do we have here? This covenant of grace, which had aspects in Chapters 12, 13, and 15 that seemed to make unconditional, now seems to have a condition. The word THAT in the ESV seems to signify a condition to the action which follows; and there are two acceptable ways to handle this. The first is to note that the Hebrew conjunctive—the very common vav-consecutive, that could be “and” here as well as “that,” and then it is combined with the verb נָתַן meaning “to give, put, or set.” So if it is rendered “And I will set forth or give,” then the sense is not nearly as conditional. The KJV has it, “And I will make” whereas the NASB and NLT say “I will make” leaving the conjunction as a silent marker, and the NIV has “And I will make.” This may be an even stronger argument if one considers that only the ESV renders the word ‘Then’ of those main English translations.

Let’s rule a few things out by the rule of faith and, by process of elimination, see what we are left with. First, the very fact that God already made this covenant in Chapter 12, unpacking further in 13 and 15, rules out the notion that MAKE here can mean FIRST MAKE or INITIATE or ORIGINATE.

In his commentary, Belcher explains the difference between that Hebrew word, נָתַן, and the ordinary verb used for the initiation of a covenant, כָּרַת, and why that matters.

“The phrase, ‘that I may make my covenant,’ uses the verb nātan, which is not used for the making of a covenant but is used for the appointment of covenant signs for confirmation, as in the rainbow which was a sign of the Noahic covenant (Gen. 9:12-13). The phrase, ‘I will establish my covenant,’ in 17:7 (qūm in the hifil) supports the view that Genesis 17 is the confirmation of a covenant. Thus, God confirms that He will bring about what He has already promised to Abraham.”2

Second, it may be argued that while this rules out the condition causing God’s grace to begin in Abram, it does not rule out a conditional maintaining of grace. If we were left to this text alone, that objection may seem to make sense. But two other truths from Scripture—each of which are taught in many places—do rule that out.

The first is that grace, by definition, cannot be caused by the performance of human beings at any point:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast”(Eph. 2:8-9).

“But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Rom. 11:6).

“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7).

The second truth is that of perseverance by God’s preserving grace. Is perseverance a condition, or a necessity? Of course! But that’s like asking whether or not reaching the finish line is a condition to completing a race. Duh! That doesn’t address the question of: By what means? At any rate, we are told:

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but iraise it up on the last day” (Jn. 6:39).

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (Jn. 10:28-29).

“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30).

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phi. 1:6).

The covenant recipient has to prove it out, not for God’s information, but for our confirmation, our assurance. Walk, here to Abram, means “prove out” or “work out” or “demonstrate” or “display.” So Peter says, “Therefore, brothers,, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” (2 Pet. 1:10). This “walking out” is a walking out onto the stage of history, not back a crawling back into the decree in eternity. The stage is for our discovery, not God’s. Blameless, then, is future-oriented.3 It is a trajectory word—a seeing to the end word. Paul says,

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which iyou are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:1-2).

So why are there conditions? Very simple—You and I are not God. We need to see the road in front of us. The need is not the need to perform on that road in front of us in order to cause the road under our feet. We need to know what it looks like to be the genuine article: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5).

It may be easy to miss for the reader who gets hung up on that language from verses 1 and 2, but if we go back to the threefold “As for you” (vv. 9, 15, 20), and then back up to the first whole section from verses 3 to 8, now a different picture emerges. It turns out that there are four definable sections: an as for Me, an as for Abraham, and so on with the other two. The first two verses were simply a summons for Abram’s attention, but in terms of the covenant’s essence, God’s grace is the fundamental quality and the believer’s walking is just that—a walking out, as Paul even tells all Christians,

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phi. 2:12-13).

When we walk out our faith, we are not walking into grace. Grace is the ground under our feet and the wind at our back and the blood in our veins and the light upon our path. But we don’t contribute an ounce to that grace.

So as for God’s part, what is this gracious ground holding us up and drawing us forward? Six things are set forth here and ring true to all covenant recipients.

First, He gives us a worship-inducing sight of Him. ‘When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram … Then Abram fell on his face’ (v. 1a, 3a). This Hebrew word for worship … By a “worship-inducing sight,” I am not speaking of a specific “worship style,” or outward expression, but simply that it is not a sight that changes nothing, a mere curiosity, a passing fancy.

Second, He promises to be present with us—‘Behold, my covenant is with you’ (v. 4a). Jesus Himself, in the passage we just read from last week, is told by God: “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations” (Isa. 42:6). Jesus is “God with us” (Mat. 1:23).

Third, He continues to remind us of the original promises: ‘you shall be the father of a multitude of nations’ (v. 4). Why the reminder? Many reasons. One is our forgetfulness, another our frequent discouragement, and another is simply the passage of time—as it had been thirteen years in between the last recorded communication of God to Abraham. Notice he is ‘ninety-nine years old’ (17:1) here, and ‘eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael’ (16:16). The covenant of grace is not just an event in redemptive history, and your inclusion into it is not simply a one-and-done in your life. It is a relationship in which God unfolds more and more of His grace to you over the course of your life, because you need it over the long haul.

Fourth, He shows us in His word how the fulfillment is as settled in heaven as the promise. Notice the past tense: ‘I have made you the father of a multitude of nations’ (v. 5b).

Fifth, He unites whole families to Himself, so that a the general rule of grace reigns through faithful parents to their children.

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (v. 7).

I will say more about this by way of application, but it is a biblical fact that one of the ways that God shows His mercy and kindness to His people is by bringing salvation to our loved ones, even against all odds. This is why Job’s faithfulness was depicted at the beginning of that book by offering sacrifices for the sins of his children (1:5).

Sixth, He includes us into a plan and a people that will outlast history and outgrow the world: ‘And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God’ (v. 8).

Grace Has a Visible Sign

Note that the section on the sign begins with that ‘As for you’ (v. 9) language. In other words, Abraham’s side of the covenant begins with a sign. But then flip that coin over. That means that the administering of this sign is obedience to a command from God. So far, that seems elementary. But the exact words are not just to Abraham.

“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations” (v. 9).

Remember how we saw that with Noah and all his generations in that covenant? It is the same here. God’s word decides who the parties are to the covenant—not those who may say, “Ah, but that is not my book! I do not see myself as a descendent of Noah in that covenant; and I do not see myself as a descendent of Abraham in his covenant.” We might want to ask what the New Testament says about who these descendants are with the broadest claim to the covenant of grace:

“The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised [Jews], so that righteousness would be counted to them [Gentiles] as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised … in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law [Jews] but also to the one [Gentiles] who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all [Jews and Gentiles], as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’” (Rom. 4:11-12, 16-17).

“you [Gentiles], although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others  [Jews] and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree [Israel]” (Rom. 11:17).

“Know then that it is those of faith [Jews and Gentiles] who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith … so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles … And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:7-9, 14, 29).

Incidentally, that is why sojourners were to be included as well.

“remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to nthe covenants of promise” (Eph. 2:12).

The sign is so significant that God associates the sign of the covenant with the covenant itself in some way:

“This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you” (vv. 10-11).

As strongly as God had associated the Person of His Son with this covenant in Isaiah 42, so strongly He associates the signs of this covenant with the covenant itself, so that something about the sign is essential to the substance. It’s not like the old covenant signs were all circumstantial and zero substantial—in other words, all about Israel of old and not at all about the gospel; and then the new covenant signs come in speaking about the gospel for the first time. But how does circumcision speak about the gospel?

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (Deut. 10:16).

“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deut. 30:6).

“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds” (Jer. 4:4).

Not coincidentally, in the New Testament, not only is circumcision united to baptism in being two sides of the sign that points to one work of Christ, but that regenerative element is also ascribed to baptism.

“by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).

A summary case then for the unity of the covenant signs from old to new, and the continued inclusion of children under the new sign can go something like this:

(1) God commands the sign to the children of all Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 17:10; Rom. 4:11); 

(2) Paul tells us that those descendants are all of faith: Jew and Gentile (Rom. 2, 9, 10, Eph. 2:12, 1 Cor. 10, Gal. 3-4); 

(3) Baptism is now the initiatory sign of the covenant community (Col. 2:12-13); 

(4) Covenant of grace is not logically coextensive with covenant community (Heb. 10:29).

(5) Children of the covenant are still included (Acts 2:38-39, Eph. 6:1, 1 Cor. 7:14).

(6) Any baptized on account of the head’s conversion (Acts 10:48; 16:15, 33; 1 Cor. 1:16) eliminates the Baptist argument about faith as prerequisite.

(7) Consistency about the narrative passages requires that one includes speaking in tongues, etc. in those prerequisites (Acts 10:44-46).

Grace Has a New Identity

The new names that occur here are only the outworking of what God Himself is doing. He is binding Himself to objects of His love, and He goes first. The covenant name of God has already occurred in Genesis, but it is appropriate here especially: ‘the LORD appeared to Abram’ (v. 1). On the other hand, a divine covenant is still sovereignly made by God. So He exercises His Lordship over the recipients by giving them new names, and that is good news for them. First to the man and then to the woman,

“No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you” (vv. 5-6).

“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (vv. 15-16).

A few observations from these two sections:

First, the creational order of headship is not done away with, but becomes the forms of address—i.e., God communicates this to Abraham, He would have Abraham communicate it to his wife. Yet another instance where grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it. So in the new covenant era, Peter says to Christian wives, “as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Pet. 3:6).

Second, while the old name Abram meant “exalted father”; Abraham means “father of many” or “of a multitude.”4 Whereas the same Sarai meant “princess,” the change to Sarah, while not as clear in terms of etymology,5 probably has the same significance in context as Abraham’s, especially given the next observation.

Third, while the promise of numerical fruitfulness is strengthened, it now explicitly includes a royal component, so that this will be a temporally ordered people group—that is, a nation with a full political expression. So, peaking to the future advance of the kingdom in the Gentile age, the prophet says: “Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers” (Isa. 49:23).

New identities come with a new attitude. At least it should. Abraham throws two curveballs back to God as if He was going to make God miss. First, he disbelieves in an irreverent way; second, he gives God counsel as if God didn’t have as much compassion as he. These two sinful responses come back to back:

“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” (vv. 17-18).

Can you see how Abraham was implicitly accusing God of being lacking in power and lacking in love. But also lacking in knowledge and wisdom, as if to say, “You forgot that we are 100 and 90 years old! You forgot about Ishmael!”

Notice that a new identity is a new identity whether one is an Abraham, a Sarah, an Isaac, or even an Ishmael. This is true whether one is called out of Babylon, as that first patriarch was, or whether one is born into the house, or whether one has been adopted into the house, or whether one got into the house through sin and you don’t even know how you got into the house!

Practical Use of the Doctrine

Use 1. Instruction. The last few weeks, we saw from Isaiah 42:1-4 that the coming King would be One who loves to build up and rebuild “bruised reeds” and “smoldering wicks.” Well, this covenant community, from the beginning, was designed to set boundaries of grace around all who are called into it. However little and feeble and scarred. Abraham had no clue at this point whether Isaac would be strong as Ishmael weak, or which one, if either, would become king of a growing tribe (he had no idea how many centuries until David would arise). All he knew from God’s command was simply—mark them both with this sign.

The words of Charles Hodge are instructive, that “Experience proves that all attempts to preserve the purity of the Church by means more strict than the Bible, are utterly futile. The tares cannot be separated from the wheat.”6 But it is when talking about the mode of baptism that Hodge really hits upon this gracious plan. He says,

“The Gospel is designed for all classes of persons and for all parts of the earth. It is not designed exclusively for the strong and robust, but also for the weak, the sick, and the dying. It is not to be confined to the warm or temperate regions of the earth, but is to be preached and its ordinances are to be administered wherever fallen men are to be found. Baptism by immersion would be to many of the sick certainly fatal; to the dying impossible. To the inhabitants of Greenland, it possible, it would be torture; and to those dwelling in the deserts of Arabia or Africa, it could be administered only at long intervals or at the end of a long pilgrimage. Yet baptism is an imperative duty … It is not to be believed that our blessed Lord would have enjoined an external rite as the mode of professing his religion, the observance of which, under many circumstances, would be exceedingly difficult, and sometimes impossible.”7

Use 2. Exhortation. The walk being talked about here is no mystery. We capture the idea when we use the expression “Walk the talk.” Waltke describes it as “to orient one’s entire life to his presence, promises, and demands.”8 Paul tells the Ephesians a couple of things that knock down several obstacles we put before our own walk. He says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1). So what are these obstacles that we need to reject?

First, reject antinomianism. That means AGAINST LAW. So, that translates into AGAINST WALK. Again, this is the irony—the idea of a “kinder gentler Christianity” that smooths off the law part can only get you into the opposite bondage. If your motive is explaining away CONDITIONS (any necessary WALK), you’re still going to walk. You’re still going to move forward, and (if you’re like me), you’re going to fall a lot. The answer isn’t to lower law, but to raise up grace.

Second, reject Gnostic anti-externalism. In other words, any view that say that an outward walk doesn’t matter—“Well, God knows my inner walk.” What’s that! It’s one thing to reject the kind of “externalism” that roots our obedience in externals, and that is really aiming at appearances. It’s another thing entirely to say that externals don’t matter. Paul says, “glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20); “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). Light is for seeing, and that’s exactly what he goes on to say in the next breath, “for anything that becomes visible is light” (5:14). The idea of walking blamelessly before God but ashamed before men is a contradiction in terms.

Third, reject the idea that your circumstances prevent you from walking. Paul called himself a prisoner when he called us to this walking before God. Paul walked in chains when he wrote that. He was under house arrest in Rome. And he also described this “walk” for each of us in this way:

“we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

So each of our walks are graciously crafted by God in a way that are not to be compared to others. Circumstances aren’t relevant here as an excuse because circumstances are exactly part of the walk.

Use 3. Consolation. I mentioned God’s covenant name here, but directly after than is introduced we also see (אל שדי), ‘God Almighty.’9 That is especially pertinent in this context. In our class this morning, we looked at the power of God—His omnipotence, or power to do all things. In this context, the power of God is good news as the promise was to us and our children, so that where we are lacking in power as parents and where our children are powerless to wake themselves up from spiritual death and the dark spell of this world, and where circumstances are powerless to help, so that we cannot trust in them, God is Almighty to save. He has all power and has promised to bring His power to rescue and revive our children.

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1. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, 257.

2. Belcher, Genesis, 130.

3. Waltke comments on blameless, “The Hebrew word signifies wholeness of relationship and integrity rather than no sin” (Genesis: A Commentary, 259).

4. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, 261.

5. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, 262.

6. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, III:577.

7. Hodge, Systematic Theology, III:538.

8. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, 259.

9. This is often pronounced and even spelled El Shadai, yet the transliteration is El Shaday. The Hebrew root is sdd, “powerful, strong one.”