GOD’S PROMISE BEING THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO ABRAHAM - When I read 12:2-3 as a young man, I was not inspired by it. These verses seemed to be dry bones. I did not understand what God was talking about when He told Abraham that He would make of him a great nation, and that He would bless him, and make him a blessing. Eventually, after many years, I came back to these verses with the help of Galatians 3. I came to realize that God’s promise to Abraham in 12:2-3 was the preaching of the gospel. The three items of God’s promise-to make of Abraham a great nation, to bless him, and to make him a blessing to all the families of the earth-were the gospel preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). The contents of God’s promise are exactly the same as the contents of the gospel. Firstly, the preaching of the gospel opens with the words, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). As we have seen, the “great nation” refers to the kingdom. Secondly, the blessing that God promised Abraham was the Spirit, that is, God Himself. In the gospel, after we repent for the kingdom, we need to believe that we may have eternal life, which is in the Spirit. The blessing promised to Abraham, which, according to Galatians 3:14, is the promise of the Spirit, is the very blessing of the gospel. This blessing, as the third item, is for all the nations, for it is said, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

IMPLYING GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE - God’s promise to Abraham implied His eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose is that man express and represent Him. God said that He would make of Abraham “a great nation” and that He would bless him. A nation is a matter of dominion to represent God, and blessing is a matter of image in the Spirit to express God. We all shall be transformed into His image by the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). This requires that we have a regenerated spirit. Some may ask why 1:26, 28 mention expressing God with His image first and representing Him with His dominion second. The reason for this is that there we see God’s original purpose. But because man has fallen, in the gospel man has to repent in order to come back to the beginning. Therefore, in the gospel, dominion is first and image follows. In God’s original purpose, it was image and dominion, but, due to the fall, in the gospel the order is reversed.

THE CONTENTS IN GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE, PROMISE, GOSPEL, AND FULFILLMENT BEING THE SAME - In God’s eternal purpose, promise, gospel, and fulfillment, the contents are the same. It is very interesting to see this.

In God’s eternal purpose-with Adam - In God’s eternal purpose we have two items: image to express God and dominion to represent God.

In God’s promise-to Abraham - As we have seen, in God’s promise to Abraham, the nation, which is for dominion to represent God, is mentioned first and the blessing, which is for the image to express God, is mentioned second.

In the gospel-with the believers - In the gospel (salvation) with the believers we firstly have repentance for the kingdom (Matt. 3:2). This repentance is for the dominion to represent God. Secondly, we have the matter of receiving eternal life (John 3:16). This receiving of eternal life is for the image to express God.

In the fulfillment-in the New Jerusalem - We also see the same contents in the fulfillment, in the New Jerusalem. The entire New Jerusalem will bear God’s appearance. God’s appearance resembles jasper. Revelation 4:3 says that God, the One sitting on the throne, has the appearance of jasper. In Revelation 21:11, 18b, we see that the whole New Jerusalem shines like jasper. The appearance of the wall and of the entire city of New Jerusalem will be the same as God’s appearance-jasper. This means that in eternity the whole New Jerusalem will express God. Furthermore, in eternity all the saved ones in the New Jerusalem will reign as kings with God (Rev. 22:5). This will be the dominion to represent God.

Although we did not care about God’s dominion and image at the time we were called and saved, deep within, in God’s calling and speaking, we realized that these matters were implied. After being saved, we had the realization that we needed to be under God’s ruling. This is the kingdom, the dominion. Also, deep within us, we had the sensation that, after being saved, we had to glorify God. This is the matter of image to express God. However, after we were saved, most of us met some mistaken preachers who told us many wrong things that distracted us from God’s purpose. Praise the Lord that in God’s recovery He has recovered us to His original purpose and He has brought us back to the beginning. We the real called ones, the sons of Abraham receiving God’s calling with His speaking and promise, are now in His kingdom to represent Him and have His image to express Him.