The Special Love of God for the Sons of Abraham

“For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham.” –Hebrews 2:16, ESV

Who is it that God loves? John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son;” and yet Psalm 5 says God “abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit” (6), and God “hate[s] all who do iniquity” (5:5). So God has a love for His creation, yet He despises and abhors those in His creation who are the enemies of His glory. Thus God hated all, for all are sinners, even those whom He predestined were at one time enemies, or hated ones (Romans 5:10). Yet He still loved His creatures. Perfect love and perfect hatred can only reside in God, for only He is perfect to that degree. Only God understands sin and righteousness in that way: to be able to perfectly hate and yet perfectly love.

He loved us “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8). Christ died for the ungodly, and He has justified the children of Abraham through His blood. This is a special kind of love that is shown to Abraham’s descendants that is not shown to every individual or even to angels in the least. Christ died to justify. It was an actual effectual justification achieved at the cross in His blood: for “these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified” (Romans 8:30).

As is the case with Old Covenant Israel and God’s dealings with them as opposed to His dealings with other nations, so God deals in a special way with the “New Covenant” descendants of Abraham: the Church. For God smote the uncircumcised Philistines as often as Israel would obey, but would not smite Israel ever for the sake of the Philistines. God was showing His special love toward His chosen people in this way. He did all things for their good, not the good of any other nation. They were offered salvation, the other nations were not. The fathers and the prophets and the Christ came through them, not any other nation. God deals in a special way with His covenant people that He does not deal with any other people-group.

Now the Church is the chosen people of God, the royal priesthood that He has designed for His name’s sake (cf. 1 Peter 2:9-10). And with the Church God has dealt in a special way that He has not dealt with the world. He has loved, and continues to love them in a special way that He did not love the world. He has blessed the children of Abraham in a way that He has not blessed those who are not the children of Abraham. These blessings apply to all his descendants, both those who were close to him and physically related, whose numbers are “as the sand which is on the seashore,” that is Israel, and those who are far off and not physically related, whose numbers are “as the stars of the heavens,” that is peoples from all the Gentile nations (Genesis 22:17).

So how has He loved this people in a way that He has not loved all others? It is not particularly in the outward call of the gospel. This is offered to the whole world. All men are able to see Jesus lifted up; the whole world can see Him upon the cross. It is also not particularly in the drawing of breath, in human relationships, or in eating and drinking. These privileges have been extended to all in Jesus’ blood. Jesus died so that all might partake in these blessings and so that God would be just in being merciful even to unrepentant sinners in this way. The justice of God is upheld in Christ’s blood to give such blessings to all persons in the world. For when Adam did not die immediately upon eating of the tree, Christ’s blood was interposed, making God just in giving Adam such unwarranted mercies as afore mentioned. Adam was promised death, but death was slowed, and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and was blessed with children. If it was not for Christ’s blood, Adam could not have lived to bear children and so mankind would have ceased to exist. In this way, Christ’s blood is applied to all persons throughout the whole world. Thus God “is the Savior of all men, especially of believers” (1 Timothy 4:10).

Yet Christ’s blood does a special work for those whom have been predestined according to God’s purpose: the descendents of Abraham. He is the Savior “especially of believers.” This special love can be seen in five ways.
First, Christ purchased for the beloved sons and daughters of Abraham the promises of the New Covenant. Jesus tells His disciples that “this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). The covenant is in His blood, and His blood is shed to purchase said covenant for His disciples. Matthew records Jesus’ words in this way: “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (26:28). His blood is shed for the forgiveness of sins for His many disciples, past, present, future, Jew, Gentile, free, slave, man, woman, etc.

This “New Covenant” was promised by God through the prophets and manifest in His Son (Hebrews 1:1-3). Ezekiel 36:22-27 states the New Covenant:

Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. "I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD," declares the Lord God, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

The New Covenant is not a list of requirements that God gives, but a promise to circumcise the hearts of His people that they would fear Him and honor Him as God, which is not possible in their utterly sinful condition (Deuteronomy 30:6). God promises them the gift of grace, of faith, repentance, obedience, sanctification and glorification/eternal life: all by His Spirit. He makes good on His promise as is recorded in the New Testament: for He “has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3, cf. Acts 11:18; 16:14, Romans 6:23; 8:32, Ephesians 1:3-4; 2:8-10, Philippians 1:29, 2 Timothy 2:24-26, James 1:17).

Second, Christ layed His life down for His sheep (John 10:11, 14-15). He is the Good Shepherd and for them He lays down His life so that they might live. He layed down His life so that He might be pleasing in His Father’s eyes (John 10:17). He layed it down so that His sheep would become one fold. No longer are His sheep Jew and Gentile, but in Christ they are one body, the Church (cf. Galatians 4:7, Ephesians 2:19). The sheep were all continually going astray and following the ways of the Gentiles (but through His blood they are to no longer live as the Gentiles do –Ephesians 4:17), but now they have returned as they have heard the call of the Good Shepherd when He was lifted up to bring all men, whether Jew or Gentile, to Himself (John 12:32).

Third, Christ established His Church. He is the “Rock” upon which the Church is founded (Matthew 16:18). Ephesians 2:13-16 says
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity [between the Jews and the Gentiles].

Christ established the Church, breaking down all bearers dividing the Jews and the Gentiles (though there are still benefits to being a Jew (cf. Romans 3:1-2; 9:4-5)). He has made the two one.

But why are not all Jews saved? Why is not all physical Jews in Christ? “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Romans 9:6). God’s special love for the children of Abraham is for the spiritual descendends of Israel, not the physical. For a time physical Israel has been cut off from the vine which is Christ so that God may bring in the full number of the Gentiles: Gentiles from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But when God has brought in the fullness of the Gentiles, He will again graft Israel into His Son, the Vine (Romans 11:11-32). But “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” The Church will then have completed her mission and Christ will return.

Fourth, Christ is the propitiation for the Church. “He gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). He has propitiated for the whole world, all types of men (cf. 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 1:6, and Hebrews 2:9-10). He is the Savior of the whole world (John 1:29, 1 John 4:14). The debts of the Church have been nailed to the cross, all of them (Colossians 2:13-15). She has been set free from her bondage to sin. Christ was publically displayed to show all that He had triumphed over the powers of this world, He overcame them as He told His disciples He had done (John 16:33), and He put sin out of the way. In doing this, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified [or being sanctified]” (Hebrews 10:14). “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Christ died once, He will never face death again. He did this to perfect His Church and every member individually thereof: “and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

Christ has appeared as the High Priest for His people. He did this by entering “through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves [for that is not able to save], but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12). He became the curse (Galatians 3:13). He serves as their High Priest so that they may come boldly to God’s throne to receive mercy (Hebrews 4:16). And for them He has obtained eternal redemption so that they will never be lost. They are kept by the power of God for the revealing of their salvation and the inheritance given freely to His children (1 Peter 1:3-5).

All believers were once enemies (Romans 5:6-11), and all who are still outside of Christ continue to be enemies of God:

we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).

By the grace of God given in His mercy, which has been justified in Christ Jesus so that God would show His righteousness in justifying the ungodly (cf. Romans 3:24-26), we are saved. All who believe are saved (John 3:16). Those who do not believe are condemned because their sins have not been forgiven (John 3:18).

Fifth, Christ has become for believers the righteousness that is necessary for them to stand before God. Not only are their sins forgiven, but believers stand righteous. They are not merely neutral in the eyes of God, but sparkling jewels in His sight. God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ was made to be sin so that sin would be defeated in His flesh. Thus believers will not face the wrath of God, for the wrath they should receive has been poured out upon Christ: it is finished. Believers are forgiven, they are innocent. And more than innocent, they are righteous. They are holy in Christ, as God has commanded for His people to be (cf. Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:15). They are the righteousness of God: perfectly righteous. As their forefather Abraham, when his descendents trust God, it is “credited to [them] as righteousness” (Romans 4:3).

Thus the children of Abraham must exalt God through Christ, “through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11, emphasis added). Christ is truly a redeemer; He has purchased for Himself a bride, He has not merely made it possible. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said,

I cannot therefore imagine, since Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that in his atonement and redemption, his real intention and desire can in any way be frustrated. If I were a Socinian and believed Jesus Christ to be a mere man, I could of course imagine, that the result of his redemption would be uncertain; but believing that Jesus Christ was very God of very God, equal and co-eternal with the Father, I dare not, lest I should be guilty of presumption and blasphemy, associate with that name of Jehovah Jesus any suspicion that the design of his death shall remain unaccomplished.(4:550-551)

Jesus’ blood was effectual in accomplishing its purpose. Everybody breathes because Christ has purchased them life. All eat and drink, are married, have relationships with other humans, are rained upon and see the sun because Jesus purchased them such gifts; and satisfied God’s infinite justice in giving such mercies. Yet atonement and the whole of salvation were purchased only for the children of Abraham, through the Seed of Abraham. This is God’s special love for the offspring of Abraham.