How Did God Enlarge Abraham’s Vision?

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Nearly 4,000 years ago, God enlarged Abram’s vision of what could result from his faith God. God made him a promise that through his seed, God would bring blessing to all nations of the world. To enlarge Abram’s vision of what that might look like, God took him outside and said, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have.” Abram believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. In Galatians 3, Paul used this incident to say, “The real children of Abraham are those who put their faith in God. What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you. So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.” Today three of the world’s great religious groups trace their origin to Abraham–Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. One of the groups–Christianity–is unique in this respect. We believe Abraham’s God sent His Son into the world to die for all humanity’s sin. We believe that all who place their faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, receive the forgiveness of their sins and eternal life.