God made a promise to Abram. It was a manifold promise. We can read it in Genesis 12:1-3:
Now the Lord said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house, and to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those that bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
It’s the last line of this promise that we will consider. This promise is repeated in Genesis 18:18 and 22:18 and in other places. In Abraham all the families of the earth were to be blessed. How? This part of the promise is alluding to the Messiah who was to come and redeem mankind from its sinful condition. We can be sure of this because of what the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:16:
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to your seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ.
This blessing to families of the earth came through Christ the promised seed. He brought redemption to all.
In Galatians 3:29 we read:
If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
If we belong to Christ – if we are in Him – then we too are Abraham’s seed and we are to bless all the families of the earth. We, the church; the body of Christ; Abraham’s seed; are called to be a blessing to all the world. Some have thought that the fleshly descendants of Abraham – Israel – were to fulfill this promise. Paul makes it very clear that it’s the Christ who fulfills the promise, not Israelites.