Promise of the Father vs Promise to Abraham

Acts 1:4 mentions a promise of the Father which Jesus also speaks of, see Luke 24:49; John 14:16-19, 26, 15:26-27. That promise has been fulfilled, Holy Spirit has been made available according to Acts 2:33. Have you been baptized by the Spirit or by water only?

15“If you love Me, [d]keep My commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another [e]Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. [John 14:15-18] 

This promise of the Holy Spirit is a completely different promise than that promise made to Abraham and Sarah, although it can also be seen as a continuation or enablement promise of the first. The Abrahamic Covenant originated when God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and dust of the earth.

1Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  [Genesis 12]

Apostle Paul further affirms the nature of the Abrahamic Covenant in Galatians 3:29 clarifying there whom are the sons of Abraham, namely, those who through faith in Christ are graft into the covenant promises. This covenant or promise speaks of the restoration of individuals back into a relationship with God, while the promise of the Father speaks directly of releasing of the Holy Spirit to be “another comforter” after Christ has left the earth. The terms “another comforter” is literally, ἄλλον Παράκλητον (allon Paraklēton) an Advocate who represents Jesus in the same way that he himself would represent himself.

In reading the OT, we marvel about certain empowerments of the Holy Spirit on prophets through history: Such names as Elijah, and Elisha, and Moses, make us think of the grandeur of entire seas splitting, and fire from Heaven coming down, and miraculous healings. These prove the working of Holy Spirit has been active, but only upon certain individuals. In contrast, we see Jesus prophesying the Promise of the Father, which is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh, as it says in Joel 2:28.

The Glory of the New Covenant
(Exodus 34:10–35)

7Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness! 10Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it. 11For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures! 12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.

Did you catch verse 10?

That [which] was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it

Have you ever thought, “I wish I could have seen the parting of the Red Sea” or, “Wow it must have been awesome to see Elijah call down fire from heaven” or “I wish we could see the leprosy of a man like Naaman turned into pink baby skin as new.” You CAN! Now perhaps you won’t see the the Red Sea part quite like it did for the millions of Hebrews, because that was a unique point in history, but the glory of the Spirit in the new covenant is so much brighter than the giving of the Law to Moses, that it is like the incredible things God did in delivering the Hebrews from Egypt into their land never existed. It is like the light of one candle placed next to the light of the Sun: The candle’s light seems like darkness in comparison. The light of the Gospel is so bright one cannot take it all in without melting in awe!

The light of the gospel is so bright one cannot take it all in without melting in awe!

Foundational Christian Identity

On Jan 27 we continued our discussion. The board above highlights some of the points covered:

• Definition of idiom, examples, and how idiomatic expressions affect our understanding of Scripture.
• How idioms are cultural fingerprints unique to a language just as certain things like spurs and cowboy hats are unique to a region. Everyone in Boston “poks tha ka”, which is not an idiom but is a cultural fingerprint that uniquely identifies Bostonians.
• How “son of” and “sons of” are idiomatic, extending their meanings well beyond natural physical lineage.
• Comparison and contrast of Promise/Covenant to Abraham (Gen 12, 15, 18) versus Promise of the Father Jesus proclaimed.
• Illustration how Jesus was in Father, and Father in Jesus, and they are both represented by Holy Spirit — zero disagreement between them, 100% unified in thought and purpose. Thus it is moot to ask questions like, Who provided salvation? or, Who gave the Holy Spirit? Jesus or the Father? The answer is always yes, in unity together. All decisions the Godhead makes are unanimous decisions.¹
• Synonyms for “saved person”: Believer, Christian, son of resurrection, son of God, son of Abraham. (cf Luke 20:36ff; Gal

1. This leads to an understanding that when Jesus while on earth said things like, “If I be lifted up from the earth [i.e. hung on cross], I will draw all men to me,” (John 12:32) that it is in fact the whole Godhead who has determined that all people should be drawn to Jesus by his sacrificial death. IN John 8:28 “.. Jesus said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” ↩︎