Material Wealth and the Blessings of Abraham

As I write this blogpost, a tune comes to mind. ‘Abraham’s Blessing Are Mine.’ If you’ve been in church for a while, you’ve probably heard it before. If you haven’t, it goes something like this, "Abraham's blessings are mine. Abraham's blessings are mine. I am blessed in the morning. I am blessed in the evening. Abraham's blessings are mine."

As a young believer, we sang this a lot when it was offering time. It was quite a popular offering song. I guess our objective was to reinforce the fact that God Almighty had our backs as far as our finances were concerned.

Abraham, whose name was originally Abram (Genesis 11:27-32), received a call to leave his family, his relations, his security, to the land the Lord would show Him. He didn’t have a clue where he was going, but he followed the Lord’s lead at the age of 75 (Genesis 12: 1-4).

By our standards, the man was old. It seems folks lived longer in those days. The amazing thing is, he still had enough gas in his tank to make the trip. He stepped out in faith, at a time in this life when he should be relaxing, enjoying the fruits of his labour.

Abraham was a very wealthy man. The Lord blessed him immensely. His wealth increased exponentially (Genesis 13:2, Genesis 24:35). His obedience to the Lord paid off. Sarah his wife of so many years couldn’t have children (Genesis 11:30, Genesis 16:1). She was way past her childbearing years. She had given up. But the gracious Lord kept his word to her. She had Isaac at the age of 90, while Abraham a husband was 100 years old (Genesis 17:17; Romans 4:19).

Due to a couple of statements made in the Pauline epistles, some have concluded the blessing of Abraham equals wealth. Financial blessings. Breakthroughs. Increase. The question is, when Paul wrote to the Galatians, did he have any of these concepts in mind?

Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:14 (NLT).

Paul the apostle, in no way, insinuated that the Gentile believers would receive the same level of material wealth as Abraham. The concepts, conjured up today, were not even at the forefront of his thinking when he wrote the letter to the church.

The blessing of Abraham is simply justification by faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit promised to us in Christ Jesus.

Paul quoted David in the book of Romans. The King was thrilled about the prospect of a person being justified by faith apart from works (Romans 4:6-8). He quoted Psalm 32:1-2 from the Septuagint the Greek version of the Old Testament.

In Christ, we are fully accepted, just as the Lord accepted Abraham. He believed God, and the Lord credited righteousness to him (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:6 ). All this was accomplished through His death, burial and resurrection.

The Lord told Abraham, “…, All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3). This promise came true in the person of Christ. The blessing wasn’t only for his natural descendants, but every tribe and every nation. We Gentiles were on the outside. But through Christ we became one with our Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters in Him.

So, as I sign off, I just want to say, whether you have arrived at what you call your wealthy place or not has no bearing on the blessings of Abraham. Why? Because you already have the blessing of Abraham if you are in Christ. You have a relationship secured in the blood of Christ. The Father declared you righteous, apart from human effort. I guess that’s something to shout about.

Have a blessed day!

Olu :)