Finding Assurance in God's Abrahamic Covenant

Genesis 15 takes up the ache of assurance, that deep question that comes when faith is real and yet still says, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” Abram has heard the promise again and again, and still his question rises: “How am I to know?” The passage does not treat that question like rebellion only. God condescends to Abram’s weakness and gives assurance through covenant.

The covenant of grace stands behind God’s mercy to Abram. After Adam broke covenant and deserved death in the courtroom of God’s justice, God gave hope through the promise of grace. The Abrahamic covenant is not a brand-new idea floating by itself. It is an outflowing of that covenant of grace, God binding himself to his chosen people and saying how this relationship will go.

God’s covenant is legal, personal, and bloody. A covenant binds people together, like marriage binds husband and wife before God. Marriage is not mainly about making people happy, but about making them holy, and that helps show the weight of covenant life. God defines the terms of relationship, not sinners who want to say, “It’s just me and God,” while refusing to change.

The cut animals in Genesis 15 show that covenant breaking deserves death. Under the law, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Abram prepares the heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, and pigeon, and the pieces lie there as the sign of a curse. The parties who pass through are saying, in effect, may this happen if the covenant is broken.

The smoking fire pot and flaming torch make the whole matter astonishing. God alone passes between the pieces. Abram does not walk beside him. God places himself under the oath and under the curse, saying that if Abram fails, God will take the punishment of death upon himself. The basis of Abram’s faith and salvation is God and God alone.

Christ fulfills what Genesis 15 foreshadows. Jesus sheds the blood of the covenant for the forgiveness of sins. On the cross, the covenant curse falls completely on him, so that guilty people who trust him receive the covenant blessing. Assurance does not rest on human adequacy, because works righteousness is an oppressive and futile endeavor.

The blessings of the covenant include offspring, land, and a future inheritance. Abram’s physical offspring will suffer in a land not their own for four hundred years, but God will bring them out with great possessions. Suffering will come before glory, and judgment will fall on the unrepentant nations in God’s time. The promised land points beyond itself to the imperishable inheritance kept by God’s power and prepared by Christ.

The covenant of grace also calls for faithful living. Grace does not earn salvation by works, but grace never leaves covenant people making excuses for sin. First John’s warning remains hard and true: whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar. Christ has done what sinners could not do, so covenant children are called to live after him with grateful diligence.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God gives assurance by covenant God does not answer Abram’s trembling question with vague comfort. God binds himself to Abram in covenant, giving a sure word to a weak man who still asks, “How am I to know?” Assurance rests not in emotional steadiness, but in the God who stoops down and makes promises in blood. [25:29]
• 2. Grace rests on God alone The smoking fire pot and flaming torch pass through the pieces while Abram sleeps. God alone takes the oath, and God alone secures the promise. The believer’s confidence is not built on spiritual performance, but on the God who provides the certainty himself. [37:18]
• 3. Blood answers covenant breaking The cut animals show that sin is not a small mistake or a passing weakness. Covenant breaking deserves death, and forgiveness requires the shedding of blood. Christ’s cross is not an afterthought, but the full answer to the curse pictured in Genesis 15. [34:07]
• 4. Suffering comes before glory God tells Abram that his offspring will be sojourners, servants, and afflicted for four hundred years. The promise does not remove hardship, but places hardship under God’s appointed purpose. God’s people labor in a land that is not their own while waiting for the inheritance that cannot perish. [43:18]
• 5. Grace calls for faithful obedience The covenant curse falls on Christ, not so that sin can be excused, but so that covenant people can live before God. Obedience does not purchase salvation, yet it does express gratefulness for the salvation Christ has secured. First John’s warning presses hard because grace creates a people who actually follow after him. [55:21]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [20:21] - Assurance and Abram’s Question
• [24:54] - Why God Blesses Sinners
• [25:29] - The Grace of the Covenant
• [28:01] - God Binds Himself to His People
• [32:28] - A Bond Made in Blood
• [36:14] - Abram Prepares the Sacrifice
• [37:18] - God Alone Passes Through
• [40:23] - Assurance Not Built on Self
• [42:24] - The Blessings of the Covenant
• [45:00] - Judgment, Land, and Promise
• [48:15] - Jesus Bears the Covenant Curse
• [51:18] - Grace That Leads to Faithfulness
• [55:21] - Commandments and Covenant Obedience
• [56:22] - The Throne Room of Grace

Bible Reading

Genesis 15:1-21
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” [25:29]

Hebrews 9:22
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

1 John 2:4
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. [55:21]

Mark 9:24
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Observation questions

1. In Genesis 15, what two main concerns does Abram bring before the Lord, and how does the Lord answer each one?
2. What details in Genesis 15 show that this covenant scene is serious and weighty—especially the cut animals, the deep sleep, the darkness, and the passing fire? [32:28]
3. According to Genesis 15, who passes between the pieces of the sacrifice, and who does not? Why is that detail so striking in the passage itself? [37:18]
4. In 1 John 2:4, what claim does John confront, and what test does he give for whether that claim is true? [55:21]

Interpretation questions

1. Abram asks, “How am I to know?” What does Genesis 15 suggest about the way God deals with weak but real faith?
2. God alone passes between the pieces in Genesis 15. What does that show about the foundation of covenant assurance, and why does that matter for people who easily measure themselves by their spiritual performance? [40:23]
3. Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. How does that help explain why Genesis 15 is so bloody, and how does it point forward to Christ? [48:15]
4. God promises Abram both inheritance and hardship. What does that teach about the relationship between suffering and glory for the people of God? [43:18]

Application questions

1. Many believers know what it is to ask, “How am I to know?” Where does that question tend to rise in life right now—assurance of salvation, unanswered prayer, ongoing sin, suffering, or something else? How might Genesis 15 help steady the heart there? [25:29]
2. Assurance rests on God’s promise, not on human adequacy. In what situations is there a temptation to look for peace by grading personal obedience, feelings, or consistency instead of resting in the Lord’s covenant mercy? [42:24]
3. The covenant scene reminds us that sin deserves death and that forgiveness is costly. Has sin been treated lightly lately, excused, renamed, or pushed aside? What would it look like to face it honestly in the light of Christ’s blood? [34:07]
4. God told Abram beforehand that suffering would come before fulfillment. When hardship lingers, is there a tendency to assume God has forgotten his promises? How could this passage help reshape that response? [43:18]
5. Christ bears the covenant curse so that guilty people may receive covenant blessing. When guilt from past or present sin presses in, what helps the heart actually run toward Christ instead of away from him? [48:15]
6. Grace does not leave covenant people comfortable with ongoing disobedience. Is there an area of life where obedience is being delayed while still wanting the comfort of saying, “I know him”? What would honest repentance look like there? [55:21]
7. God’s promises to Abram included a future inheritance beyond what he could presently see. What earthly thing is most likely to feel like the whole story right now—home, stability, family, health, work, or suffering—and how does the promise of a lasting inheritance put that in its proper place? [45:00]