Just as Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6), so also every believer is saved through faith, which is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9). Abraham wasn’t saved by his own obedience, but instead by the obedience of the Savior, Christ Jesus, who would be the perfect once-for-all sacrifice for sin.

To understand the Abrahamic covenant properly, we need to take a moment to consider God’s covenant of grace. We first find the unconditional covenant of grace in Genesis 3:15 where God promises that a Savior will come who will crush the head of the serpent (i.e., Satan). In the covenant of grace, people are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone because of Christ’s perfect keeping of the law and his perfect and complete sacrifice once and for all for sin (Rom. 5:12–21; Heb. 7:27; 10:14).

God’s covenant of grace is more fully revealed in the Abrahamic covenant. What is the Abrahamic covenant, and why is every Christian the offspring of Abraham?

The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional and permanent, unfolding in two stages.

In the book of Genesis, we read about God’s promise to Abraham (Abram):

“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3)

And [the LORD] brought [Abraham] outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:5-6)

In Genesis 15:7–21, God seals his promise to Abraham in a covenant ritual common in the ancient Near East. This ceremony highlights the unilateral nature of God’s promise, as Zach Keele and Michael Brown explain in Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored:

What is so amazing about this particular covenant, however, is that God, the Lord of the covenant, assumed the full obligations to fulfill his promise symbolized in this covenant ritual by walking alone through the severed animals. He manifests his presence in a smoking fire pot and flaming torch and passes between the carcasses. (p. 93)

Brown and Keele underscore that this covenant unfolds in two stages of fulfillment, as it is in Abraham’s offspring that all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18):

… God promised Abraham an offspring and a land, and he fulfilled these promises in two stages.

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