After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

In chapter 15 God speaks to Abraham and the covenant, begun in chapter 12, is more fully explained, expanded and entered into formally.

Vs. 6 says, that Abraham believed in Jehovah and He counted it to Abraham for righteousness. The Hebrew word translated “believed” means “to lean your whole weight upon.”

Abraham leaned wholly on the promise of God and the God of the promise. We are not saved by making promises to God but by believing the promises of God. - Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Obedient, “Be” Commentary Series, (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1991), 48.

This is what Abraham did, believed the promises of God. This is what faith is.

The rest of the details of the covenant are in vss. 7-18

Genesis 15:7-18 ... And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. ... 17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

You can see the importance of this covenant by what is described here. What takes place is what was called “cutting a covenant.” I think you can figure out why.

Abraham kills and prepares these clean animals for the covenant by splitting the carcasses in half. What normally happened next was that the two parties of the covenant would walk through the halved animal carcasses. This signified the absolute binding power of the covenant. If it should be broken then the person breaking the covenant deserved the same fate as the animals that had been slain.

There is a huge difference between our modern idea of a contract and the ancient idea of a covenant. To them it was much more solemn, much more binding than just signing a piece of paper. As you can tell from this cutting of a covenant.

But now, here in the Abrahamic covenant, the cutting covenant is altered because when it was time for the two parties to pass through the split carcasses, God put Abraham to sleep and then God alone passed between the pieces.

The burning oven or flaming torch symbolizes God. It reminds us of the Shekinah Glory that descended upon the tabernacle, filled the temple and the church in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. It is the presence of God in a form that man could behold.

By putting Abram to sleep and not allowing him to pass through the animals, this covenant become an unconditional, unilateral covenant meaning that only God would be responsible for keeping it. Fallible Abraham was covered by the covenant, and entered into it by faith, but this covenant could not fail because it would be kept by infallible God.

Though Abraham did nothing to keep this covenant, his faith in God’s promises entered him in the covenant, a covenant made with a friend.

God’s Promises of the New Covenant For Us

God works with mankind through covenants. There was a covenant with Adam which Adam broke. A covenant that covered Noah and all those who came after him, that can’t be broken for God gave it and sealed it with His rainbow. There was a covenant with Israel given at Mt. Sinai, which was broken even before Moses came down from the Mountain. In fact, every covenant that depended on man has failed.

Now, today, we are under the New Covenant. The covenant that covers us is as New Testament believers is, like the Abrahamic and Noahic, an unconditional, infallible covenant because it does not depend upon us but upon God.

This is our covenant, the covenant of grace and like Abraham we enter it by faith, but we do not keep it. It is kept by God’s power and not our own. We enter into the blessings of the New Covenant, but we are not the parties who agreed upon its points and provisions.

The New Covenant is between God the Father , God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  We are blessed through the New Covenant of Grace but we didn’t sign on the bottom line when this covenant was arranged. Like Abraham our faith brings us into the Covenant of Grace, but it is kept by the power of God alone. It is unbreakable, unending, and unchangeable.

God oversaw this covenant; Jesus fulfilled it, and the Holy Spirit conveys its blessing to us. Faith places me under the covenant’s blessings and promises. I believe Jesus died for me and took my sins upon himself. That faith is my own departing from Haran and God sees that step of faith and covers me in the forgiveness, grace and promises of the New Covenant.

Hebrews 9:14-15 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, (these are the parties of the covenant) purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

What does that sound like? It sounds like what Abraham did. Under the Abrahamic covenant those who believed like Abraham were blessed, though they had no part in keeping the covenant. The same is true of the new Covenant we are blessed under it but it is kept not by us but by the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is why we cannot lose it because we do not keep it. This is why we can’t ever be lost because God’s grace has found and will not let us go. This is one of the reasons we know that it is Once Saved Always Saved. It is eternal salvation or else there is no salvation.

Promises of the New Covenant:

 John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

There is no sacrifice of animals, no passing through their spilt blood but something much greater that binds the New Covenant. Jesus shed his own blood, paying the price for the covenant of grace and you and I by faith are cleansed in that precious flow.