THE BOOK OF ROMANS CHAPTER 4:13-25
THE TWO SEEDS OF ABRAHAM AND THEIR DISTINCT INHERITANCES

In Chapter 4, Paul has been using quotes from Genesis Chapters 15 & 17 to teach on Abraham’s Covenants and on his faith. He continues in verse 13…

(VERSE 13)“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his (circumcised) seed, (to be obtained) through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (that type of faith in God being exampled by Abraham; the father of faith). The following is a grand statement from Karl Barth concerning that kind of faith which we, as humans, owe to God: “….in that where there is no faith, God is deprived of His honor: He ceases to be accounted among us wise and just and faithful and true and merciful. Where there is no faith, God retains neither His divinity nor His majesty (in our lives). Therefore, everything (relating to our inheritance) hangs upon our faith. Our Lord God requires of us no more than that we should render the honour due unto Him and that we should take Him for our God; that is, that we should not take Him for a vain and empty idol, but for the true and veritable God…The competence to give Him such honor from the heart is assuredly wisdom beyond all wisdom, righteousness beyond all righteousness, worship beyond all worship, sacrifice beyond all sacrifice. He who thus believes and confides in God’s Word, as Abraham did, is righteous before Him; for he possesses the faith which renders unto God the honour due to Him; that is he gives Him what he owes Him and what he is bound to give Him.”  

(VERSE 14) For if they which are (doers) of the (circumcision and Mosaic) law be heirs (of the World), faith is (then) made void, and the promise (is) made of none effect (the seed of Abraham having not ‘continuing’ faith in patience outside of doing the law, so then the promise of their personal inheritance of the World is made void)…  

(VERSE 15) Because (being subject to) the law (without faith) worketh wrath (because of its binding curse on those who do not keep it entirely): for (or so) where no law is (that being only where faith in God is), there is no (imputed disqualifying) transgression.

(VERSE 16) Therefore it (the inheritance of the World) is of faith (in the bare, unqualified, preposterous Word of God; thereby giving Him His due), that it might be by grace (of His Divinity and Majesty alone, in the provision of gracious power unto justification; in undeserved, unmerited favor.  This being the exhibition of this first provision of power {the first level of justification/minor provision in the Salvation Plan of God} which is in the saving event of being born again when God grants the divine nature within our spirit.  This happens by merely believing what God promised but then afterwards in the further provision of grace; there is the divine influence of power upon the heart. This is the major grace in the second part of the Salvation Plan of God whereby we continue in the process of sanctification, and go from faith to faith, by yielding the will in obedient action to His Word.); to the end the promise (of inheritance of the World) might be sure to all the (faith-guided) seed; not to that only which is of the law (that is to say Jews who were given the law but were justified by faith), but to that (seed) also which is of the (same type) faith of Abraham (but uncircumcised, and not of his physical progeny); who is the father (through exampling faith in God) of us all (Jews and Gentiles).

(VERSE 17) As it is written (Genesis 17:5), I have (past tense and before Abraham’s covenant of circumcision) made thee a father of many nations (not just the one circumcised), before him whom he believed, even God, who (said He would) quickeneth the dead (as in the quickening of Abraham’s regenerative abilities and the dead womb of Sarah), and calleth those things which be not (many nations from them) as though they were.

(VERSE 18) Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken (by God), “So shall thy seed be.” 

(VERSE 19) And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:

(VERSE 20) He staggered not at the (laughable) promise of God (as it relates to his seeds being heirs) through unbelief (he choked doubt to death); but was strong in faith, giving glory to God (for that promised Kingdom to come); And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

(Originally, Abraham and Sarah thought the Word of God concerning having a son at their ages was preposterous and even laughed {their intellectual reasoning being an enemy of faith}, but by the time Abraham had gone from faith to faith, he had become so persuaded in God and His promises that He was willing to offer Isaac, knowing that God was able to resurrect him, for he was the Promised seed.)

(VERSE 23) Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it (justification with righteousness) was imputed to him; 

(VERSE 24) But for us also to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead (that is to say, believe as did Abraham in the God Who ‘quickeneth the dead’, in that He raised up Christ Jesus, and He can quicken our dead souls unto life-giving fruit, while alive through faith in Him, and then quicken our dead souls again when we die. He will raise us up again in the first resurrection from among the dead accordingly); Who was delivered for our offenses (on the Cross, He condemned sin inherent in the flesh/inherited from Adam), and was raised again (in the power of resurrection so as we may will and draw on grace to overcome the sin nature) for our justification” (in that God had determined that Abraham would also give us the pattern unto justification. That being in the two steps we have previously spoken of: The first step being when Abram was an ungodly heathen; he was justified without works in that he believed what God said, He would do. Then secondly, being a justified believer; he was further and more greatly justified through his works of obedient faith to God. This is shown to us primarily in the obedience of circumcision and then in the sacrifice of his son; Isaac. Our walk should be like Abraham in that after being justified by faith {believing on Him and what He did}, we become fully persuaded and believe in Him as Lord, {believing in Him and what He said He will do} and fight against our inherent sin nature in the process of sanctification {faith plus works} as exampled in Abraham.)

THE TWO SEEDS OF ABRAHAM…heirs of the World. Genesis 15

  1. The first Seed being Christ the singular seed, and the plural seed being those believing Gentiles and Jews in Him (Genesis 15:5 along with Galatians 3:16)
  2. The second seed being Isaac and the plural seed being Jews/Israelites in verse 13. 

These both being divided into two sub-groups: a) those being justified but yet carnal/flesh-controlled  b) and those justified and sanctified; being led by the spirit/Spirit/spiritual. All these having a certain and particular standing before God.

God said to Abraham in Genesis 15:15, “Thou shalt go to (where) thy fathers (are in Hades) in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age”. Thus the promises made to Abraham and his seed/Seed were understood to be far in the future that could only be fully realized in resurrection out of Hades. 

The seed/Isaac through Abram was promised unconditionally (before his circumcision) the land of Canaan in such dimensions never realized before, that which God is yet to fulfill. And this shall be accomplished at Christ’s 2nd Coming as part of His Millennial Kingdom.

Christ the Promised Seed (Genesis 15:4 singular) and Heir of Abraham; Who has since came and passed through death into Resurrection Life into the Heaven of heavens, is at this time the appointed High Priest/Mediator beside Almighty God the Grantor and Guarantor of the Promises to Abraham. (Genesis 15:4, Revelation 1:17-18) 

The Book of Revelation speaks of a future time when that singular Seed of promise will appear in the World’s realm as its rightful Heir and its King and raise the faithful out from among the dead in Hades to rule with Him. And He will act in royal judgment to put down all ruling evil authorities in this World; its heavens and earth. That time is associated with a great falling away/apostasy, in the mystery of iniquity and the coming of the Anti-Christ (2nd Thessalonians 2:1-14), to be comprehended in the statement of Genesis 15:16 “….the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”  In that time, this related to the promised land of Canaan which was to be realized as Israel’s; but here it can be understood typically as that cup of iniquity of the Nations and the god of this World that will reach its fullness. When the fullness of the cup of iniquity is full, (which is increasingly being filled in these last days) then the sure Wrath of God through Jesus Christ, the Seed and Heir of Abraham (typified in Sodom and the cry that came up to His Ears at the time of Abraham), will be manifest in the heavens associated with this World and the earth. And Jesus will usher in His Millennial Kingdom wherein God shall more fully answer to His promises of inheritance to Abraham and his seed/Seed in “…that he (Jesus the Son of God and Son of man) should be the heir of the world.” (the World to come) See Romans 4:13 with Hebrews 1:2)  This promise to Abraham then answers to God’s Word and plan for man, spoken to Adam in the Garden, to replenish and to take dominion over the Earth. (Genesis 1:28) In His Kingdom and beyond, the willingly capacitated are given dominion, position, authority, appointment, and reward. Only these will be able to bear the weight of glory of seeing God face to Face. They allowed their inward man/spirit to be capacitated as opposed to the puny inward man/spirit of the man who apathetically remained in the merely born again stage, never progressing to the fully persuaded faith of Abraham.

As we have discovered in this chapter, Abraham’s entire life bears witness to two types of faith:

  1. ‘justifying’ faith in which the incipient is imputed righteousness by faith. This is the embryo stage, and is the beginning of the process, which leads unto… 
  2. sanctifying/capacitating faith in Christ according to faithful obedient works for which a further righteousness is imputed.  (Our works/fruit after justification being the determinate for the weight of glory in dominion that one is able to bear in the First Resurrection).  

The first type of justifying faith, only as it relates to the End Time spared Jews who receive their portion here in the Millennial promised land of Canaan (typed in Lot; the comparative contemporary of Abraham); are those who receive Christ at or just before His 2nd Coming (Zechariah 13:9) and are spared out of the World as Lot was spared out of Sodom.

And as it relates to merely justified Christians, Lot types those who barely escape the fire. They, for different reasons of unbelief, have excluded themselves from the Millennial Kingdom of Christ; being either the unwise servants or the wicked servants….The 5 unwise/foolish virgins on one hand and the slothful wicked servants of the Lord on the other hand (seen in Matthew 25) are both are locked out, but they will be judged differently. (The wicked suffering punishment, having to pay every farthing that was due God. These were not imputed that further righteousness and will give account for every word, action and thought. Only those found worthy will not have their sins imputed to them. The foolish virgins who died in their sins will be locked out thus bearing the weight of their sins which they held onto, not having yielded them up to God. Their willing apathy left a debt owed to God.) Neither have a promised inheritance in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, having not given God His due honor on the earth, therefore they shall remain in Hades and pay what was His due (Matthew 5:26… “Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing”) until the 2nd resurrection when they will be finally judged according to their works and SOONER OR LATER will take their respective places as merely subjects in the nations on the new earth.  So while we are still alive, let us walk in sanctification, and in a state of repentance, for if we draw one foot unto God, He comes a whole universe unto us.

And the second type of that much greater faith; being those who regard their portion in the heavenly places and patiently wait for God to give them His promised glory (typically expressed in that Abraham would not take the wealth of Sodom). See Genesis 14:21-23 with Hebrews 11:8-16… “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” The guts of this whole message being that Abraham looked to a heavenly inheritance instead of settling for an earthly, as we should likewise set our hearts to do so as well.  

The two promised seeds of Abraham represent the rulers of the World to come; that of both the Millennial Kingdom and that beyond the 7 Days of Re-Creation, (which types the 7000 years since Adam; the last thousand being the future Millennial Kingdom of Christ) into eternity of the 8th Day.

  1.  Those found faithful of his physical progeny, living and deceased at the time of Christ’s 2nd Coming, are those who begin to answer to  ”… as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.”  As depicted in Revelation 7:1-9, they are the Jewish contingent; Abraham’s earthly seed, who enter into the Millennial Kingdom living as the circumcised with the additional seal now upon them (Revelation 7).
  2. Those in Revelation 7:9-17 who are declared the blessed worthies in Christ raised out from among the dead in the First Resurrection (Revelation 20:4-6), with those caught up from the living; both of that of the first-fruits and final harvest, into the heavens associated with this earth (Revelation 12:5); the heavenly kingly and priestly seed now able to serve without any weariness and are representative of the heavenly part of the World to come inheritance of Abraham  “….so many as the stars of the sky in multitude…”  Hebrews 4:1 warns us not to fall short of this inheritance… “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

The earthly seed (Genesis 15:7,13 of the linage of Sarah) and their destiny in the Millennial Kingdom and in the New Earth following is to have preeminence over the nations of the earth (including the other non ‘first-born’ but blessed seeds of Abraham; Keturah and Hagar…that make up the many nations as numerous as the sand which is by the sea’s shore). Where these, now passed through death, are never to die being on the other side of death. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death (that is to say physical dying), neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Whereas the heavenly Bride are not only on the other side of death, but they are beyond death, having entered into the reward of the blessed First Resurrection, (1st Corinthians 15:54) “….So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” Meaning these, not only having been found with Abraham’s justifying imputed faith with right standing before God; but a possessor of his continuing faith in sanctification by loving obedience to Christ, which alone answers to the inheritance of a glorious eternal body of a spirit nature. 

As the leaves of the trees from the heavenly sphere are medicinal or having a healing nature, this has in view the perpetuating of the bodies of the earthly seed of the earthly promise, and that in the grace of God forever. (Revelation 22:2… “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”) These of the nations (the earthly) will have bodies like that unto Adam before his fallen state and will need to eat of it. Whereas the heavenly bodies would have no need of ‘healing’ since they have bodies of a spirit type which is beyond any material deterioration; for they then will be like the Angels. (Luke 20:35-36… “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the (First) resurrection.)

So it is that the difference in the two seeds and their respective sub-groups is their choice of their heritage. 

  1. His peoples then are Jews; being only of the earthly seed, whose inheritance in preeminence is first in the Millennial Kingdom, that of the present earth, and then in the 8th day or eternity; are joined by all the merely justified. (Revelation 21:3-4) 
  2. His sons; those who additionally were found with sanctifying faith; designated then first-born sons with the ‘double portion’. (Revelation 21:6-7) They are the Bride taken out (of the side of the Body of 2nd Adam) of the New Man Nation, made up of both Jew and Gentile. They are raised up in the First Resurrection to be spirit-like new creatures and rulers over the nations from the heavenly realm that satan now rules from. First in the Millennial Kingdom to rule with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:27, 12:5), to be followed by the inheritance as residents in the New Jerusalem which will descend down and above the new earth. 

Those of the earthly peoples who are to live on the new earth are subjects of God and of the kings who have been appointed dominion over the nations. But those old and new testament faithful (who had expressed living faith in obedience to God and His Christ) now are rewarded with living in New Jerusalem and are supernatural glory-filled citizens who are ruling kings of kings. “…and his servants (bondmen/companions) shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:3-4) It is then that the fullness of God’s Plan of Restoration of all things and Abraham’s hopes and promises are finally realized. (Genesis 18:17-19) God differentiates between subjects and citizens; peoples and sons.  

We as the ‘new nation’ of the Seed in the heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1) are to be set apart and now separating ourselves and moving on from and not of the World and nations of this earth. And through death and resurrection, we are called to inherit that glorious place in New Jerusalem, the eternal city of God, to be declared holy with promised access to His Manifest Presence; face to Face. This the reward or prize of having the living sanctifying faith of Abraham, as he did in the promise of the Seed. First in believing and justified and then believing and sealed in circumcision, showing us the steps then. Once believing on what Christ did, we then are to be immersed/baptized as a sign of His ownership and our consecrating intent to fulfill this heavenly calling. We believed in Christ’s death and burial, and we declare in baptism our faith and ‘hope’ of our burial and resurrection in glory out from among the dead. (The word ‘hope’ has in it the possibility of not attaining.) 

It has been God’s plan, since before re-creation, that there be two SEEDs. So it should be seen that Abraham and Sarah’s faith are God’s answer to Adam’s and Eve’s failure in faith.  

Jesus says to us effectively; faith is the responsibility of the believer according to the will…“…according to your faith be it done unto you.” The Word of God’s promises will produce faith only after it is understood/reasoned and received/willed and we are moved to action. From Abraham then comes one seed of an earthy type (either Jew or Gentile – those not found worthy that did not answer the higher calling) having passed into the Millennial Kingdom alive or then having been resurrected at the 2nd resurrection, found having their name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and being judged on works. Being then justified living souls united with their spirits in bodies of an eternal perpetuating type existence, patterned after that of the first Adam made in the image of God. (Now in the new resurrected state, being in nature somewhat like Adam before the Fall; as a completed living soul. And in the same sense, with need for the Tree of Life, as Adam was, that being testified to by its mere presence in the Garden of Eden. It is the eternal provision for living souls and their eternal bodies. (Genesis 3:22 with Revelation 22:2)

And the other of Abraham’s Seed, having been adopted by God as first born sons, being greatly exalted by being raised up out from among the dead in the glory of the new creature; a spiritual being, then with immortality like that of an Angel. 

This is that which answers to the thought of God ‘of many sons’  to be realized only in the fullness of the new creature; truly now in the greatest sense made in the image of God, being now after the higher order of the 2nd Adam; that of a heavenly type. These are those first-born sons of God, conformed to the image of Christ, who will replace the Angels as administrators over this World Kingdom to come. (Hebrews 2:5; 1st Corinthians 6:2-3) That type which the leaders of Israel thought themselves unworthy of and locked themselves and their children out of. (Acts 13:46; Matthew 5:20, 13:11-15, 21:43, 23:13) That called but hesitant and conflicted type God always had mercifully determined to be made up of all remaining mankind; both Jews and Gentiles that shunned the call to death before resurrection in the heavenly glory found in Jesus the Christ. 

There are then the resurrected faith-full patriarchs of the Old and New Testaments; the resurrected under the Law found with faith (and although the Law was not of faith but of works, yet those who obtained a good report under it obtained it by faith in the same type as their father’s, Abraham), and the resurrected from the nation of the New Man. Each to be raised in their judgment glory…that of either the Stars, or the Moon, or the Sun. This truth being brought out in 1st Corinthians 15. (Verses 41-42 specifically… “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.”)

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