At our church, we are approaching the end of the Abraham Narrative in our series on the book of Genesis. Along the way, I have been deeply impressed by the far-reaching significance of this narrative. I am more convinced than ever that our understanding of the New Testament and the gospel are greatly diminished by our general lack of attention to this narrative as well as to the rest of the Old Testament.
The name Abraham occurs 75 times in the New Testament alone. It is no small matter that the New Testament begins with the statement that Jesus Christ is the son of Abraham (Matt 1:1). Indeed, Abraham and his narrative are leveraged by the New Testament writers in such weighty issues as eternal destiny (Matt 8:11; Luke 13:28; 16:19-31), the resurrection of the dead (Matt 22:31, 32; Mark 12:26), the births of Jesus and John the Baptist (Luke 1:55, 73), the eternal preexistence and deity of Jesus (John 8:57-58), God’s glorification of Jesus (Acts 3:13), justification by faith (Rom 4:1-25; Gal 3:6), God’s sovereign election (Rom 9:6-9), the nature of the Law (Gal 3:16-18; 4:22-31), the “unchangeable character” of God’s purpose (Heb 6:13-20), the priesthood of Jesus (Heb 7:1-10), the nature of faith (Heb 11:8-17; James 2:21-23), and the role of husbands and wives (1 Pet 3:1-7).
The connection between the Abraham narrative and the New Testament is certainly not anecdotal or superficial. In fact, the student of the Bible learns that the gospel itself is actually the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham (cf. Acts 3:25-26; Gal 3:7-9, 14, 29; compare Gen 12:1-3 to Matt 28:19-20). The connection is deep, profound, integral, and complex.
Thus, in a very real way, our church is just beginning its study of the Abraham narrative.