Who Paid the Penalty with Seth Simonelli

• Sunday Discussion Group with Pastor Charlotte Sunday is August 31st after Church (last Sunday; in person and via Zoom)
• Bible Study with Seth is on the 1st and 3rd Sundays; in person and via Zoom
• Next Death Cafe is September 27th at 4pm (join us for an informal conversation around death and dying that may include curiosities, living well, and managing grief–we provide the sweetness with snacks and coffee)
• Council Resumes in September on the 2nd Sunday after Church

Watch the recording HERE. Recording posts after services are complete each Sunday (usually by noon).

I invite everyone to please open our Bible’s to Genesis Chapter 15. As we dive into this chapter, it’s important to remember that Genesis is the foundation of our faith, full of beginnings and generations. From the creation of the world, to the first man and woman, and the first sin; through the generations of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

One of the key elements in Genesis is the concept of a covenant. Unlike a simple contract, a covenant is a solemn agreement between God and His people, where God makes profound promises, and we are called to meet His requirements. These covenants are a sign of our personal relationship with our Creator, and what we’ll see is that God always keeps His promises, while it’s often us who fall short. 

Genesis 15, an often overlooked chapter, is a powerful example of this. So let’s explore together what this covenant was, who exactly made it, and what it means for us today.

(READ GEN 15:1-5)

In these verses, God comes to Abram and promises to be his shield and his reward; his protector and his provider. At this time, Abram is about 85 years old, and his wife is roughly the same age, but they have no children. So this promise that God makes of a child of his own flesh and blood must have sounded quite astonishing to Abram.

(READ GEN 15:6-7)

We see that Abram believes God, which for many of us may have been really hard to do under the same circumstances. It really shows the depth of faith that Abram had, which is probably why God chose him for this task in the first place. Because if Abram’s time was anything like our world today, then deep, completely trusting faith in God would have been hard to come by.

Now before we move on, it’s important to understand that in Abram’s time, making an agreement was very different from how we might do it today. Nowadays, we might sign a contract, shake hands, or even pinky swear, but back then a common practice was to cut animals in half, and lay them opposite each other.

The parties involved would then, one by one, walk between the pieces, through the blood, symbolizing that if either of them broke this agreement, the one who did would face the same fate as the animals whose blood they walked through. It was a solemn and powerful gesture that underscored the seriousness of the agreement.

(READ GEN 15:8-16)

In these verses we see God continue to build on His covenant with Abram. He reassures Abram by promising that his descendants will inherit the land. He also shares a prophetic message about the future of his descendants, saying that they will be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, and that they will eventually return. This passage shows us both the promises of God, and the challenges that lie ahead for Abram’s descendents.

Now that we’ve seen these promises and the outline of what’s to come, let’s see what happens next, because this next part is really fascinating and often the most overlooked part of the chapter.

(READ GEN 15:17-21)

Let’s remember that in verse 12, Abram fell into a deep sleep as the sun was setting. This is significant because, in that state, Abram could not walk between the pieces to seal the covenant. Instead, it says that a smoking firepot and a blazing torch passed through the pieces, and that on that day, a covenant was made between Abram and God. So the question is, who could that be? Who is the fire that passed between the pieces?

When we read Exodus, we see God appearing to Moses as a burning bush. In other passages, we see God guiding the Israelites out of Egypt, and across the Red Sea, appearing as a pillar of cloud by day, and as a pillar of fire by night, the same pillar of fire that throws the Egyptian army into confusion, showing God’s power and protection. Hebrews 14 says, ‘for our God is a consuming fire.’

So, if God, and God alone passed through the pieces and the blood, then who would pay the penalty if the covenant was broken? God alone. God alone would pay the penalty.

It doesn’t take long to find out whether or not Abram’s descendants broke their end of the covenant. In Deuteronomy, The Lord says to Moses, ‘You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.’

Again and again throughout the Old Testament we see figures like Saul, David, Solomon, Ahab, and at many times the Israelites as a whole, breaking God’s covenant. What does this mean for Abram’s descendents and for us today? If God alone would pay the penalty, does that mean that God is now dead? Are we alone without a provider and a protector, without a shield and a reward?

In John Chapter 5, Jesus says, ‘You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.’

The apostle Paul puts it this way, ‘God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.’

Who paid the penalty for humanity breaking God’s covenant? Jesus. Crucified on a cross, Jesus paid the penalty. God paid the penalty.

In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, he writes, ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.’

This touches at the heart of Genesis 15. God does not break His promises to us. Jesus came into this world, lived a sinless life, took on our sins, from the sins of Adam and Eve, to the sins of you and I today, and he paid the penalty that we could not bear. Jesus’ death opened the way for us to be reconciled to God.

And all that He asks, is that we believe in Him, and follow Him. Jesus says, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’

So, today and everyday that lies ahead, let us choose to follow Him, and live out our faith in a way that honors the incredible sacrifice that He made for us. He paid the penalty that we deserved, so let’s hold up our end of the bargain by living in His love and His grace. Let us trust in His promises, and live in the grace that He has provided. Because Jesus is our shield, and our very great reward.