The Abrahamic Covenant has to do with nation and place. But also the Abrahamic covenant contains an essentially spiritual nature, so much so that it was not fundamentally a covenant with a nation, the leader of a nation (Abraham), or his biological descendants. It was a spiritual covenant sovereignly administered by God with Abraham and his spiritual descendants. The spirituality of the covenant is routed through Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16). All those who believe in Christ, whether with a forward-looking faith in Abraham’s day or a backward-looking faith in the Church Age, are the rightful descendants of Abraham and are heirs of the Abrahamic promises (Gal. 3:6f).

When the Apostle Paul looks back at the Abrahamic Covenant, he highlights not the physical or national elements but the spiritual elements. Abraham is the forerunner of all those justified by faith (Gal. 3:6). Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are the real sons of Abraham (Gal. 3:7). The gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). Abraham was a man of faith in the Living God and all those who share the same faith as Abraham receive the blessings of Abraham (Gal. 3:9). These blessings are fundamentally spiritual (Gal. 3:14). All who belong to Christ by faith “are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). Romans 4:12 says that the Abrahamic promises are not for Abraham’s biological descendants, but for his spiritual descendants who have faith in Christ, something Psalm 103:17 recognizes as well.

The Abrahamic Covenant creates two communities. One that is “circumcised merely in the flesh” (Jer. 9:25); the other that is also circumcised in heart (Jer. 9:26). The external covenant community is the visible community that embraces the covenant with their words but not necessarily their hearts. The internal covenant community genuinely embraces the covenant not just with their words, but with their faith and obedience.

When Paul says that “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,” (Rom. 9:6) he speaks of the visible covenant community. They are the “children of the flesh” (Rom. 9:8) who were part of the covenant outwardly but didn’t believe like Abraham. The internal covenant community is the “children of God,” the children of the promise,” the faithful remnant (Rom. 9:8) who are part of the covenant outwardly and inwardly. The fundamental significance of circumcision was that it was to Abraham a sign of divine righteousness to be received by faith (Rom. 4:11).

Abraham did not think that circumcision actualized the covenant, or took the place of the covenant, or that it was the covenant. Rather, he understood that circumcision was the outward sign of the covenant with an inward spiritual reality. It signifies the deep spiritual need for cleansing from sin. In Abraham’s case, he needed cleansing from his sin with Hagar. Circumcision is the purging away by the removal of flesh and the shedding of blood. The covenant sign symbolized inclusion in the covenant community and all its benefits, including the spiritual and not simply the national identity. Even if the people of the Old Covenant watered down the covenant so that it was merely outward and national, that doesn’t mean the watering down was acceptable to God. The ideal was the circumcision of the heart, a point the prophets make (Jer. 4:4).

So, the Abrahamic Covenant is both national and spiritual. The national dimension was always meant to serve the spiritual purpose. Even the promise of the land, which is a physical blessing, is pointing to the promise of a better land. Israel is a priestly nation, chosen not merely for its own sake but as a means to bless all nations (Genesis 12:3).

Israel as a nation was a type of the church, and the covenant with Abraham ultimately pointed toward Christ and the inclusion of the Gentiles. In this way, national identity in the Old Testament was not an end in itself but a temporary form through which God advanced His redemptive purposes. Israel’s history is fulfilled in Christ, making the church the true fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises. Peter Leithart explains, “The Old Testament isn’t a typological picture album but a movie. Its narrative pressure—that is, the pressure of history—moves toward incarnation.”¹ While the covenant had national elements, it was always aimed at creating a global, spiritual people under Christ.

If we assert that the Abrahamic Covenant is solely national, founded only upon the temporal and material promises of land and posterity, then how could God justly condemn Israel when they strayed from exclusive worship of Yahweh? On such a premise, Israel’s judgment for its spiritual transgressions, such as idolatry, would be unjust. For how could one be judged for a matter which was never intended to bear upon the soul and its duties to the eternal and immutable? It would be as though one were to charge a peasant with a transgression against the codes of chivalry, a code to which he was never bound.

The Abrahamic Covenant was not merely a promise of temporal advantage but a call to the noblest of human actions—a spiritual relationship with God Almighty. It was a covenant that, while outwardly marked by the blessings of land and descendants, inwardly was intended to elevate Israel above the national, to bind them to the higher duties of responsibility and spiritual devotion to the Creator. It was a spiritual covenant, a reflection of divine justice, wherein God, having bestowed upon them such immense gifts and privileges, held them accountable for their stewardship of those blessings. Israel’s failure to honor God and remain faithful to His covenant was not simply a breach of a nationalistic order—it was a violation of the sacred covenant, a treason against Heaven itself. God’s salvation was never just to save the body but the soul.

Seeing the spiritual emphasis of the Abrahamic Covenant sheds light on the New Covenant. First, it helps clarify exactly what is “new” about the New Covenant. Click here to read more on that subject. Second, it helps clarify the connection between the rightful recipients of circumcision in the Old Testament and baptism in the New Covenant. Click here to read more on that subject. Third, it reminds us that the object of the Old Covenant was not to conceal the name of Christ, nor deceive the people of the covenant, but to point them to the Messiah.

Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of the books The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.

Footnotes

¹ Leithart, Peter J. “Toward Incarnation.” First Things, April 23, 2018.