Adam and Eve were created in a state of complete blessedness, which would have continued if they had obeyed God consistently. His warning to Adam, and by implication to Eve, was: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. All Adam’s descendants were included in that warning, because he was their head under the covenant of works. If he had continued obedient to God, they would have enjoyed all the blessings that were to follow obedience; but because he disobeyed, they all came under the curse of a broken covenant.
The curse, as the threatening clearly indicated, was death – not merely natural death, the separation of body and soul – but also spiritual death and eternal death. Spiritual death in Adam and Eve’s souls meant that they were now unable to do what was truly good in God’s sight. Instead there was sin in everything they did. Further, they were now guilty, for they had broken God’s commandment, and so they were under the sentence of eternal death in hell. As the perfectly holy God, He must punish even one transgression of His law; so “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10).
Adam and Eve could not have expected that there would be any deliverance from eternal punishment, but God revealed the basics of the gospel when He made it known. He said to the devil, who had brought them into the fearful situation in which they now found themselves, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15). The Seed of Eve was Christ, the Son of God, who was to bruise Satan’s head – while Himself having His heel bruised. The result was to be the deliverance of a vast number of Adam’s fallen descendants from the curse. Christ suffered unto death, but the outcome for Satan was the destruction of so many of his evil ambitions. But instead of enduring the curse for ever, all who would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ would experience endless blessedness.
Among those who have believed on the promised Messiah was Abraham, who was given the assurance of God’s blessing. When God had called him
out of his native land, He promised, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great” (Gen 12:2). The Lord went on to promise, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”, which was also expressed: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen 22:18), pointing to Jesus Christ as the descendant of Abraham, through whom sinners in all parts of the world were to be blessed.
And God told him that He was to bless Abraham, “because thou hast obeyed my voice”. Abraham – not by his own power but through God’s grace – had obeyed God when He commanded him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham’s obedience was all the more significant because Isaac was the promised son, through whom the Messiah was to come, after the flesh, in the fullness of time; and if Isaac was to be slain, what hope could there be of Abraham’s own salvation? Yet Abraham’s faith looked beyond the difficulty; we are told that, “by faith, Abraham, when he was tried,” or tested, “offered up Isaac . . . of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb 11:17-19). Abraham’s faith was laying hold of what God was able to do, although he did not know the particular way that God would restore Isaac to him.
We have been speaking about God’s promises, but He went even further: “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord . . . that in blessing I will bless thee” (Gen 22:16,17); so He was promising most certainly to bless Abraham, and strengthening the promise with an oath. Now Abraham was described as “the father of all them that believe” (Rom 4:11). Charles Hodge comments on this verse that the word father “is often applied to the head or founder of any school or class of men whose character or qualities . . . is determined by the relation to the person so designated”. Hodge continues, “Believers are called the children of Abraham, because of this identity of religious nature or character, as he stands out in Scripture as the believer”. Because Abraham was the believer; he is to be considered the father of all other believers.
So we can conclude that the Lord is undertaking to bless, most certainly, all the spiritual children of Abraham throughout all generations till the end of time. All believers, until the world will pass away, will most definitely be blessed, not only when they reach heaven, but also while they are left in this world. We may note some of these sure blessings as they are brought before us in Romans 8.
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“All things work together for good to them that love God” (v 28). Those who love God, of course, are believers; they are assured most certainly that, whatever may be true of individual events that affect them, they will, in God’s holy, gracious providence, work for their good, especially for their spiritual good, when they are taken together. For instance, these events will make them more dependent on the God whom they love and will bring them increasingly to seek His protection in the events of each day and especially to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:13).
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“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (v 32). But will He give them all things that they may set their hearts on? Clearly not – because their desires are imperfect, and it would not be good for them, or for the glory of God, to give His people everything they imagine would be helpful to them. But God will give them everything that they really need, everything that will actually be good for them.
They should ask the Lord to mould their desires so that they would be more conformed to His will. God’s children are assured that they will never be allowed to fall completely out of the way of salvation; they will be brought at last to heaven, having been made perfectly holy. The work of sanctification will yet be completed in the soul of all who have set out on the way of holiness. God’s promises of all these things are confirmed by His oath and are therefore absolutely sure.
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The question is asked: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” And the answer follows: “It is God that justifieth” (v 33) – not man, and certainly not the individual himself, but the One who “sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world”. The Father is just in forgiving the sinner who believes in Jesus. He is also just in accepting the righteousness of Christ as making it possible for Him to accept that individual as perfectly righteous – as if he or she had always kept God’s law perfectly. Yes, other people may accuse the children of God – and they may be accurate in their accusations – but God has washed away all the sins of His children because they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, their Substitute. And the Day of Judgement will make it clear that God has indeed accepted them, whatever accusations were never cleared up in this world. Hodge comments on this verse: “There is nothing to be dreaded but sin; if that be pardoned and removed, there is nothing left to fear”. How earnest then we should be to seek this salvation for ourselves that God, through Christ, has provided for sinners!
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“I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor depth, nor any other creature, [that is, created thing], shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv 38,39). Nothing can do any real, lasting harm to those whom God has absolutely undertaken to bless, who are trusting in Christ, who seek to walk in all the paths of new obedience. God tells them: “Surely blessing I will bless thee” (Heb 6:14).