”My point is this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God and thus cancel the promise.” (v. 17)

One of the best—and most overlooked—aspects of the Good News is this:

It’s really old.

As in, older than the two-thousand years since Christ, which you already accounted for.

The Good News of the Gospel—of God’s gracious election of a people to be His, by grace through faith—is actually old news.

This is why Paul, inspired by the Spirit, takes such care in remembering Abraham. Abraham wasn’t justified by the Law of Moses. That came centuries later—and it was given to boundary God’s people from the sins every person is prone to. Abraham was justified by his faith. He believed what God said.

And what God said was the Promise: He would grow a family, for His glory on the earth, and that family would bring light and hope to all the nations. Really, that family would bring Jesus into the world, and Jesus would redeem the elect once and finally.

God told that to Abraham—and to us!—hundreds of years before the New Testament happened. When we hear the Gospel and believe, we’re believing a Good News that is OLD news.

And the oldness of it reveals even better news: God’s gracious sovereignty has been unfolded for us from way back when, even before we knew it was grace.

— Tyler