Letters to the Church

The gift of the Spirit is one of the blessings of Abraham promised by God to His covenant community, which is now implemented by Jesus . The Apostle Paul refers to the “ promise of the Spirit ” in his letter to the churches in Galatia. He identifies this gift with the blessings of Abraham for humanity. Jesus of Nazareth came to redeem us, so that “ the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith ” – (Galatians 3:13-14).

The covenant with Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, the heir of the Patriarch, including the possession of the Earth – Romans 8:1-30. In his Epistle to the Romans , Paul presents Abraham as the great exemplar of faith. God counted the Patriarch’s faith as righteousness while he was still uncircumcised, which means that the Patriarch was declared righteous without the deeds and rituals required by the Torah .

The gift of the Spirit is foundational to the New Covenant. It is the beginning of the New Creation and the gathering of the nations . The history of Israel includes descriptions of the sins that caused the expulsion of the nation from the Land of Canaan. God foresaw the failures of Israel, and therefore, He determined to make a new covenant, one that is energized and characterized by the Holy Spirit.