What does a vision a man had centuries before Paul wrote Romans have to do with anything?

In Genesis 15, God tells Abram to bring several animals:

 A three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram cuts the larger animals in half and lays the pieces opposite each other, creating a path between them. (The birds are not cut.) As night falls, Abram enters a deep sleep. Instead of Abram and God walking between the pieces, God alone passes through them:

    “A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between these pieces.” (Genesis 15:17)

The smoking fire pot and flaming torch symbolize God’s presence.

Why this is so significant

In the ancient Near East, when two parties made a covenant, they could walk together between the divided animals. The symbolism was essentially:

“May what happened to these animals happen to you or I if you or I break this covenant.”

But in Genesis 15 something remarkable happens:

* Abram does not walk with God through the pieces.

* God alone passes through them.

God is effectively saying:

“May what happened to these animals happen to Me if you or I break this covenant.”

This demonstrates that the covenant with Abram is fundamentally unilateral—its fulfillment rests on God’s faithfulness rather than Abram’s ability to keep it.

It also represents what happened on the cross, where God literally died because WE broke covenant with Him.

We should have been on that cross – but He took our place, as visualized in Abraham’s vision in Genesis 15. And just as God took Abraham’s place by walking through those sacrificed animals, Christ took our place on the cross, dying in our stead, freeing us from the old covenant.

The New Covenant delivered us from the oppression of the old, bringing us true liberation, true power, and into a covenant/marriage that is the safest place we will ever experience.

I get the sense that Paul is staring right at Abraham as he writes this part of Romans. 

YouTube Link:

Romans 7:4-6

Spotify Link:

Romans 7:4-6

In His Grip,

Paige

“In the Beginning…coffee. And Lo, it was VERY good.”