Fix Your Fundamentals - Genesis - September 6th, 2026 (Sermon Transcript)

Last year, I got sucked down this YouTube rabbit hole watching golf instruction videos. I was trying to improve my swing, and I didn't want to invest a bunch of time and money into lessons, so I went on YouTube.

Eventually, I found this guy that I really liked watching, and I started to notice something. He gave the same advice over and over and over again.

There were all these videos that people would submit of them swinging a club, and then he would review those videos. He would go over it and give them advice, almost every time he went back to the same basic things.

Like, are your feet lined up in the same spot? Are they lined up parallel to the target line? Are your shoulders lined up with your feet?

Are you standing the correct distance from the ball? And when you start your swing, are your hands in the right place? And he went down the same list of the same things over and over again, because really everything follows from that.

If you get the fundamentals right, then everything else falls into place. It doesn't matter if you're five feet tall or if you're six foot eight. It doesn't matter if you swing super fast or super slow.

It doesn't matter if you're dealing with shots that go too far to the right or too far to the left. If you get the basics right, then everything else falls into place.

And I think that's true for a lot of different sports, but it's also true for the Christian life.

Whether you're five feet tall or six, eight, whether you've been a Christian for ten minutes or ten years, whether you grew up in the church or you've spent most of your life running from God, it doesn't matter.

We all need to focus on the fundamentals. And our passage this morning does such a wonderful job of highlighting these things for us.

In a minute, I'm going to read from Genesis 17 verses 1 through 14, where God is reiterating his covenant with Abraham. And it's just a beautiful display of the foundations of our life with God.

And we all know in various sports that teams and players can get away from the basic stuff, right?

I think of like all those Disney-like sports movies where they've got their complicated schemes and doing their fancy stuff on the basketball court or the football field, and then the coach comes in and he just goes back to the basics, right?

And he gets them passing the ball correctly, and he gets them dribbling the ball correctly, and just drills all that stuff home. Well, that's what this message is.

Calling all of us, whether we've been walking with Jesus for 10 minutes or 10 years or 60 years, calling all of us back to the basics to make sure that we get it right.

So, I want to summarize the basics here that we see in this text, and then I'll read the passage.

What this text ultimately is saying, the main message here is that God calls His covenant people, that includes us, God calls His covenant people to walk in a fruitful and glorious relationship with Him, trusting Him and obeying Him with complete

commitment that is visibly demonstrated. That's it. That's what the Christian life is all about. That's what this passage is all about.

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Godʼs Everlasting Covenant

Please stand for the reading of God's word. I'll read the text for us, Genesis 17, verses 1 through 14. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty.

Walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you, and to your offspring after you.

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be there God.

And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.

Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised.

So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people, he has broken my covenant. This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated and join me as I pray for us. Father in heaven, I just pray for you to guide us into the truth. Pray for you, God, to illuminate the truth of your word and just drive it home for us.

Help us to comprehend it, to remember it, to ponder it, to treasure it, God. We know that you sanctify us by the truth of your word. So would you sanctify us this morning?

Would you refresh our hearts? Would you refresh our minds? Would you help us, Lord, to grow?

We need your word so that we can grow in maturity in Christ. And I pray that for each and every person in this room this morning. We pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Now this is the same covenant that God made with Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12. It's the same covenant that God reiterates with Abraham in Genesis 15.

That's one of the interesting features of the story of Abraham throughout the book of Genesis, is God reiterating the covenant over and over and over and over again.

And it's a little bit comforting because you can look at this hero of the faith, Abraham, and you can see, well, he had to hear it about 25 times. So if I have to hear things 25 times, that's okay.

God is kind and patient, and he will reiterate things for us many times over.

And with all of these reiterations, each time we get a little more insight, a little more depth, here we see some new emphasis and new elements to God's covenant relationship with Abraham.

And I want you to notice the emphasis on the duration of the covenant. Covenant says in verse 7, I will establish my covenant between me and you. And we know that part already, right?

We know it's between God and Abraham. But now listen to how far this covenant extends between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

A lot of times people wonder about the Old Testament. And they wonder, well, does the Old Testament apply to us? And which parts of the Old Testament apply to us?

Well, this part clearly does. And I'll kind of explain more about that in a moment. But notice how it says an everlasting covenant.

And not just to Abraham, and not just to Abraham's offspring, but to their offspring after them throughout all of their generations, an everlasting covenant.

And yet when you get to the New Testament, you start to see all of this language indicating that the covenant is fulfilled in Jesus. The author of Hebrews says it's been abrogated.

It's no longer in effect, but we have to be clear, and we have to be careful as we read those passages, because the New Testament, when it says that the covenant's complete, it's over, it's talking about the Mosaic covenant, not the Abrahamic

covenant. And I could go on for hours and hours about this stuff, but it's complicated. It's complex. And most of the Old Testament does not apply directly to you and me.

Most of the Old Testament was fulfilled completely in Jesus already, but there are other parts and other covenants that weren't. And this is one of them that is everlasting. It is everlasting.

We see this emphasis again in verse 9, in verse 10, in verse 12, in verse 13. It's for all of his descendants, and his descendants include you and me.

Not just ethnic Jewish people, but the Apostle Paul makes clear in the Book of Romans that the descendants of Abraham are all those who have faith like the faith of Abraham. And what was Abraham's faith like?

Well, God revealed himself to him, and he trusted God.

So if God has revealed himself to you through the Bible, through somebody sharing the Gospel with you, through an experience that you've had in prayer and in pursuing and seeking God, if God has revealed himself in really any of those ways to you,

and you have put your trust in God, then you share the faith of Abraham. Romans 4.16 says this, That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law,

but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Who is the father of us all. He's talking about Jews or Gentiles, Jews or non-Jews, anybody who shares the faith of Abraham.

That means that Abraham is your spiritual father. So that means that we are also, because Abraham is our spiritual father, we are counted as descendants of Abraham. That means that the promises, some of the promises of this covenant extend to us.

So we should pay careful attention to these promises. We are part of this covenant. And so I want us to pay careful attention, especially to what our passage says about three things.

And these are three fundamentals of the Christian faith. The first is obedience. The second is personal relationship with God.

And the third is a visible demonstration of our commitment to God. Those are the basics of the Christian life. Those are the fundamentals.

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Obedience and Trust

So let's start with obedience. Looking again at verses 1 and 2, God says to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly.

So at a very basic level, God is simply calling Abraham to walk in obedience to his commandments, to live in a way that is consistent with the character of God, how God designed his people to live.

He's calling Abraham to be morally upright, to live in a way that is pleasing to God, and that is an absolutely essential aspect of the Christian life. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

So our obedience does not save us. And you are saved before you obey. You are saved before you live a morally upright life.

But that doesn't mean that the morally upright life is optional. It is an inevitable consequence of genuine faith in Jesus.

And since the very beginning of the gospel of grace, as soon as Christians went out and started preaching the gospel to people, telling Jewish people, you don't have to obey the Mosaic law. It was fulfilled in Jesus.

You're not going to get to heaven by your obedience to the law. You're going to get to heaven by faith in Jesus. As soon as they started preaching that message, people said, well, then what's the point of obedience?

If I'm saved by grace through faith, apart from my works, apart from my moral efforts, what is the point of my moral efforts?

And the Apostle Paul had to take a lot of time, go to great lengths to answer that objection in the Book of Romans and the Book of Galatians. And so forth. And what non-Jewish people had struggles as well.

Maybe people didn't think that they were going to get to heaven by obedience to the Mosaic Law, but certainly they thought, if I'm going to be pleasing to God, I've got to make some sacrifices, I've got to do some rituals, I've got to do some stuff

to earn his favor. But the Christian gospel of grace says, no, Jesus did it all for you. You simply have to believe. And since the very beginning, people have then become confused and thought, well, I guess I'm good.

I went to that Christian summer camp one time, and that guy preached that message, and he said, raise your hand if you want to be a Christian. And I raised my hand, and then he said, pray this little prayer.

And I prayed the little prayer, and now I'm going to heaven. So, I guess I'll go do what I want to do. And they think obedience is optional, or even in my own life.

Like, I, as a Christian, knew a lot more than that, had done a lot more than just praying a little prayer, but I think I became imbalanced in my own life for many years, where it was like, I feel like obedience is just not all that important.

But it is important. It is absolutely essential. And that's what God is saying to Abraham here.

I've made my covenant with you. Walk before me and be blameless. I've blessed you, I've chosen you, I've called you.

Now walk before me and be blameless. Jesus said over and over again, if you love me, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. You see, he connects our relationship with him to our obedience to him.

If you love me, you will obey my commandments. And sometimes Christians are tempted to think, well, I messed up last week. I disobeyed Jesus, therefore I must not love him.

It's not a one time thing where like you disobey one time, therefore you don't love him. It's like if you love your wife, you'll act like it. Does that mean that I act in perfect love and perfect selflessness towards my wife at all times?

No, but generally speaking, I as an imperfect person, as a sinner, if I love my wife, I'll act like it. It's a pattern, right? And that's what Jesus is talking about here.

He's not talking about perfection. He's talking about a pattern where if you love him, you will generally speaking, do your best to obey his commandments. And that's again, what we see in our passage.

God is doing essentially the same thing with Abraham. That phrase, walk before me, is a relational phrase. So God is connecting Abraham being blameless to Abraham walking before him.

He's connecting the obedience and the relationship. Our obedience is connected to our relationship with God. But it's also connected to something else that most people do not understand.

At the very least, I would argue that most people, most Christians that I've encountered, rarely think about this. So I want you to listen carefully. For some people, this may totally change the way that you think about obedience as a Christian.

There are two ways to read verses one through two. And this is the part that I talk about basically every week. So I'm going to go quickly through this.

I say this over and over and over again, because I think it's so important. And then we'll get to the part that I don't think I've ever talked about here at Penngrove Community Church. So there are two ways to read verses one through two.

God calls Abraham to be blameless so that God can make the covenant and bless Abraham. So you can read that as a merit-based system. Be blameless in order to earn the covenant and blessing.

It's works righteousness. It's earning his salvation and earning his blessings. But we know that cannot be true.

Because God already declared Abraham righteous based on faith alone. Way back in Genesis 15 verse 6. So it cannot be that way.

God has already established his covenant with Abraham. So he can't be saying here, be obedient so that I can make my covenant with you, because he's already made his covenant with him. He's already blessed Abraham before obedience is even mentioned.

He's been blessing Abraham for 25 years already. So we cannot read it that way. That's not what God meant.

Instead, I think we need to read it this way. Here's what God is getting at here. And here's the very interesting part that most people don't think about.

Abraham needed to be morally pure and upright. He needed integrity and character so that he was able to safely receive the blessings that God had planned for him. Abraham needed to walk before God.

He needed to be blameless so that God could bless him. And so do you. This is a universal truth when it comes to human beings and the blessings of God.

We need integrity and character and holiness before we can receive some of the blessings that God has in store for us. Not so that we can earn them, but so that we can handle them.

Not so that we can earn them, but so that we can handle them and not be harmed by them. And I want to give the caveat because you always have to when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Earning blessings from God or receiving blessings from God is not the point of the Christian life. Like, I'm going to follow Jesus so he can make my life awesome. That is not the point.

And when God blesses you by saving you from sin and death, you don't need character and integrity before he gives you that blessing.

In fact, the Bible, according to the Bible, it is really impossible for any of us to have true character and integrity and uprightness before God saves us. So this does not apply to all of the blessings of God.

This does not apply to all of the blessings of God. Salvation is a great example of that. We all receive salvation before we have any sort of a character and integrity whatsoever.

And again, the point of the Christian life is not for us to be healthy and wealthy and rich and blessed in this life. Sometimes those kinds of things are included, but Jesus warned us, the apostles warned us that being a Christian is hard.

So if you're in it for material blessings, you're in it for the wrong reasons. But, with that said, God wants to bless you, hear me.

God wants to bless you tremendously, abundantly, overwhelmingly with many spiritual and sometimes even material blessings. But are you ready to receive them?

Are you in the kind of place where you can safely receive the blessings that God desires to give you? Our passage is telling us that Abraham needed to walk in obedience in order to be prepared to receive some of the blessings that God had for him.

Because that's how human nature works. I mean, what's the best way to ruin a child? To spoil them rotten, right?

What would be the best way for God to ruin you? To spoil you rotten? How do you destroy a young man or a young woman?

You give them all the money in the world with no requirements or responsibility. Have you ever met like a trust fund kid?

From what I know, from what I hear, the vast majority of them are depressed and hopeless and self-destructive, because as we all know, money often ruins people. We all know how this works.

If you give somebody something that can be very good, some kind of blessing before they're ready to receive it, it may ruin them. And the blessings of God have the power to ruin you if you don't have the moral character to receive them.

Therefore, we must walk in obedience. There are a thousand reasons to obey God, maybe more. And we need every single one of them.

The fact is, we are all so bent towards disobedience that we need all one thousand reasons. So take this reason that you need to be ready to receive the blessings of God. Take this reason and add it to your arsenal.

And remember it next time you are struggling to obey. And remember what Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. Ultimately, our obedience is about our relationship with God.

Relationships are built on trust. And if you're not obeying God, it's because you don't trust him. I think that's what it comes down to so many times.

If you're not obeying God, it's because you don't trust him. You don't trust that his commandments are good for you. You don't trust that his ways are better.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to take our kids to the circus. It's one of those circuses in town. They put up the big tent in the parking lot or whatever, and it's in town for a few weeks, and they have performers.

They used to have animals before the advent of PETA, and now they don't have animals anymore, but they still have humans. And they do trapeze and tricks and things like that.

And so, Kayla had found out about this circus, and thought we should take the kids, and so she showed the girls some videos of it, and they got all excited, like, oh, that looks awesome.

And then she went and found tickets, and she bought the tickets online and stuff, and then we told the girls, we're going to take you to the circus, and Adelaide just burst into tears. And she was absolutely terrified.

And I'm not sure why, because she had just seen the videos, and she seemed very happy and excited. And next, you know, we buy the tickets, and now she's not happy and excited. She's very scared.

And we're asking her, like, trying to find out, like, why are you scared? What's wrong? And she couldn't really explain it, but she's crying and crying, and we're trying to calm her and console her and tell her, like, it's gonna be awesome.

You're gonna have fun. Nothing, like, it's not gonna be scary. Nothing bad is gonna happen to you.

I promise, I would never, like, take you to some place where they're gonna harm you or something bad is gonna happen. It's gonna be good. And it took so long to convince her.

And finally, yesterday, we went to the circus, and it was great, and she loved it. But it just highlights the point. Like, as a parent, you know, I know what's best for my kid.

I know they're gonna enjoy this. I know it's gonna make her happy. I know it's not gonna harm her if she would just trust me.

If she would just trust me, she would have a great time. And thankfully, in the end, she did.

And at one point, at the very beginning of the circus, they, like, the lights went dark, and this, like, red light came on, and this voice started booming, and she was terrified, and I was like, oh, no, it's actually gonna be scary.

I was like, we're gonna have to leave. But thankfully, that part only lasted a minute or two, and she enjoyed it a lot. But again, it's like, would you just trust me?

I know what's best for you. I'm not telling you these things because I want to harm you, I want to help you, and I want you to be happy. And God is the same way with us, but are you gonna trust him?

You can choose not to trust him and disobey, but I promise it will not go well for you. You need to trust him.

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Deep Relationship with God

Relationships are built on trust. And I want you to notice the emphasis on relationships throughout this passage. Verse seven, I will establish my covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

And verse eight, I will be their God. Now, God is God whether you believe it or not, but is God your God? Is he God to you?

God does not care if you acknowledge his existence. He doesn't want you to believe that he exists. He wants you to trust him.

He wants to be your God. If you think being a Christian is about good moral values for your kids, then you're missing about 98% of what it means to be a Christian.

If you think being a Christian is about going to heaven when you die, then you're missing about 90% of what it means to be a Christian.

If you think being a Christian is about being a good person, then you're missing about 80% of what it means to be a Christian. God saves sinners so they can walk before him, so that they can live in a beautiful and fruitful relationship with him.

Verse 6, I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. He's inviting us into something glorious. Read this whole passage again through that lens.

We are talking about a fruitful and glorious relationship with God. Now, let me read the words of Jesus from John chapter 15. When I think about relationship with God, this is the passage that resonates the most deeply with me.

There are passages all over the scriptures that describe or depict a relationship with God, the kind of relationship that he invites us into.

But for some reason, I always think of what Jesus said in John chapter 15, the night before he was crucified. In his last discourse with his disciples, he left them with this picture of the relationship that he desires to have with his people.

John 15 verses 4 through 5, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. That is the relationship that serves as the foundation for our lives as Christians.

Not just for life on Sunday, not just for the spiritual parts of us, there is no such thing as your spiritual side.

Our culture, we treat our spiritual lives as something to be optimized, as some kind of wellness program, where it's like I'm gonna get in shape, and I'm gonna go to the gym, and I'm gonna physically make sure my physical being is optimized.

And then I'm gonna deal with my spiritual side, and then I'm gonna deal with my relational side, and then I'm gonna work on my nutrition, and then I'm gonna work on this, and make sure my work life is good.

And we compartmentalize everything, like some production line in a factory. But there is no such thing as your spiritual side. There is no part of you that is religious or spiritual that is distinct from some other part of you.

Every cell in your body, every thought in your mind, every feeling in your heart is all interwoven with your relationship with God. So that means that your work life must flow out of your spiritual life.

How you handle your money, what you watch on TV, your relationship with your kids or with your spouse or with your friends, these things must flow out of and be empowered by abiding in Jesus. That's what we mean by relationship with God.

It's something that encompasses every part of you, in every part of your life. And when I say things like this, I always get the sense that people think that it's optional.

Like this level of commitment is just for pastors or missionaries or people that are just like super into their faith.

But then there's the rest of the Christians, the regular Christians that just go to church every once in a while and read the Bible on occasion. But it's not optional. These are the basics.

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Visible Commitment to God

Notice in our passage how many times it's emphasized that every single male must be circumcised. Circumcision in our passage represents commitment. That's what it's all about.

It's a visible display of commitment.

And everybody had to do it, not just Abraham, not just his first born son, not just his immediate family, but his extended family, not just his generation, but the generation after him and the generation after that.

And not just family members, but even servants or slaves that they purchased, everybody had to be committed. And that's true for the new covenant people of God as well.

This level of commitment where your spiritual life is the source and foundation of all of life, that kind of commitment is required for everybody, not just pastors, not just missionaries, not just the super religious people.

I think for a lot of people who come to church here, you are like the most religious person that you know. Like you maybe, you didn't grow up in church and you started coming to church, and now you come every week.

And coming to a Christian church every week is just absolutely unthinkable for anybody else in your world, any of your coworkers, any of your extended family members. Nobody goes to church every week.

And so you might think, well, going to church every week is, that means I'm super committed. And I'm afraid to tell you, it does not mean that you're super committed. Jesus calls us to a thousand times more than that.

It's not just going to church every week. It's not just praying for five minutes every single day. It's more than that.

These are the basics. This level of commitment that we're talking about, this is Christianity, period. There is no spectrum of engagement or level of involvement.

There's true Christianity. And then there's Christianity that is fading or failing or completely false. I want to invite you to just think of God's commitment to you.

God was so committed to you that he sent his son Jesus to die in order to save you from sin and death.

God was so committed to us that he sent his son down from heaven to take on flesh and live the life that we should have lived and die the death that we deserve to die. That's how committed he was to us.

And so now we're going to go to church sometimes and read our Bible every once in a while. Does that seem like an appropriate response? No, God's complete commitment to us should produce complete commitment to him.

Again, that's what circumcision is all about in our passage. It's a visible demonstration of commitment to God. And everybody was required to do it.

In verse 14, God tells Abraham that anyone who fails to do this must be cut off from their community, which means total exile. It would be like saying to a person, you are dead to me. That's what that meant.

And if they didn't get circumcised, everybody else in the community said, you are dead to me. As far as I'm concerned, you no longer exist. I don't ever want to see you again, but if I do, I will treat you like a complete stranger.

That's commitment. That's what we're talking about. For the New Testament people of God, for Christians today, the closest thing that we have is baptism.

And there's no exact correlation between circumcision and baptism, but baptism is the New Testament parallel to circumcision. And there are close connections. And this is kind of the main difference between us and Presbyterians.

If you want advanced theology class, Presbyterians view the connection between circumcision and baptism much more strongly than we do. And that's why they baptize babies, because they circumcise babies.

And so Presbyterians, seeing the parallel, say, okay, well, we have to baptize babies then. But we don't, in my view, we don't view the connection quite that close.

But baptism is an outward, visible demonstration of your commitment to your relationship with God. And everybody is supposed to do it. So let me give you the summary statement again, the one that we started with to tie all of this together.

God calls his covenant people to walk in a fruitful and glorious relationship with him, trusting him and obeying him with complete commitment that is visibly demonstrated. So let's make a checklist.

I don't normally do stuff like this, but I think it's helpful on occasion. You can give yourself a score on a scale of 1 to 10 for each one of these things. And the first one is this, are you walking in obedience to God?

Keep your answers silent, please. But how would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10? Are you walking in obedience to God?

Is there something that you are doing on a regular basis that you know displeases God? Are there commandments that you know that you are disobeying?

And if you can't think of any, I would just encourage you to read your Bible again, read it more closely. Because when you do, you will quickly find out there are many that you are disobeying, many that you are failing to obey.

So how would you rate yourself in terms of obedience? What is one of the fundamentals of the Christian life? And how are you doing as far as living in close relationship with God?

What is your relationship with God like? Do you pray all the time? Do you find yourself walking in joyful, peace-giving, life-giving fellowship with Jesus?

Are you abiding in him? And what is your level of commitment? Are you totally and completely committed?

Have you given your whole life to Jesus or is there something that you're holding back? Do you invest time into your relationship with him? Or do you just go to church every once in a while and read your Bible on occasion?

Or do you go to church every single Sunday religiously, and then totally neglect your relationship with Jesus the rest of the week? What is your level of commitment? Because if you get these things right, then everything else follows.

Everything else follows. I want to close by reading a passage from the apostle Paul. It strikes me because this is from a man who knew the covenant with Abraham, like the back of his hand.

Many of you are familiar with Paul's background, but if you didn't know, the apostle Paul went to the Jewish Harvard of his day. He studied with the famous Rabbi Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee.

So he had devoted his whole life to studying the Old Testament, and he knew the ins and outs of every single page, every single sentence.

He excelled beyond many of his companions in his intellectual ability, his ability to memorize huge chunks of the Old Testament. He knew this covenant with Abraham like the back of his hand, and then he met Jesus.

And he came to see, with his incredible intellectual training and background in all of his Old Testament knowledge, and the help of God's own Spirit, he came to see exactly how the Old Testament and this covenant with Abraham were pointing to Jesus

all along. He came to see how this covenant is like the Cliff Notes. What God said to Abraham about obedience and personal relationship and commitment, that's like the outline or the framing, but all of these teachings reach their fullness in Christ.

And there is probably no human besides Jesus who understood that and explained that better than the Apostle Paul. Here's what he said, writing by the inspiration of God's Spirit. And we'll close with this, Colossians 2 verses 11 through 14.

And you'll see, you'll hear echoes of our passage and all of these themes reverberating throughout this passage as Paul shows us the fullness of these things in Christ.

He says, In him also, that is in Jesus, you, all Christians, in him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in

which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all

our trespasses. Here's the good news.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.