I.　For the fulfillment of God's purpose two things are required—the seed and the land; both the seed and the land typify Christ, who is the centrality and universality of God's economy—Gen. 12:7; Col. 1:18; 3:10-11.

II.　The Lord spoke to Abraham repeatedly concerning the land, saying, "Now lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your seed forever…Rise up; walk through the land according to its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you"—Gen. 13:14-15, 17; cf. 12:7; 15:7:

A.　The land was a place for Abraham to live in and live on—vv. 7-8.

B.　The land was a place in which Abraham could defeat all his enemies in order that God might have a kingdom on earth—14:13-20.

C.　The land was the place where God could have a habitation as the expression of Himself— Deut. 12:5, 11; 16:2.

D.　For us today the land is Christ, who is living in us and in whom we are living; we should live in Christ and on Christ— Col. 1:27; 2:6.

III.　As typified by the good land, the land of Canaan, Christ is "the allotted portion of the saints"—1:12:

A.　The allotted portion refers to the lot of the inheritance, as illustrated by the allotment of the good land of Canaan given to the children of Israel for their inheritance — Josh. 14:1:

1.　The New Testament believers' inheritance, their allotted portion, is the all-inclusive Christ— cf. Deut. 8:7-10.

2.　Christ is the allotted portion of the saints as their divine inheritance for their enjoyment—Eph. 3:8.

B.　Since we have received Christ as our allotted portion, we should walk in Him— Col. 2:6:

1.　To walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being.

2.　We should walk, live, and act in Christ so that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce —Deut. 8:7-10.

3.　The good land today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, who dwells in our spirit to be our enjoyment; to walk according to this Spirit is the central and crucial point of the New Testament— Gal. 3:14; 5:16; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:4, 16.

IV.　The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land, which is a type of the all-inclusive Christ—Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4:

A.　Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham— Gal. 3:14; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17.

B.　Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God's bountiful supply for us to enjoy— Gen. 12:7; Deut. 8:7; Gal. 3:14.

V.　The land is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, and it is also the church, the Body of Christ, as the enlargement, the expansion, of Christ—1 Cor. 12:12-13:

A.　In the church we live in Christ and on Christ— Col. 2:6; 3:4, 10-11.

B.　In the church we defeat the enemies, and we have the kingdom of God with the dwelling place of God—Eph. 6:10-12; 2:22; Rom. 14:17.

C.　In order to fulfill God's purpose, we need to receive God's grace so that Christ can be wrought into us as the seed and lived out of us as the land to be our church life, that we may enjoy God's rest, defeat God's enemies, and establish God's kingdom with His dwelling place for His expression and representation— Gen. 1:26; Gal. 6:18; 3:16; 4:19; Col. 1:12; 2:6; Heb. 4:9; Eph. 6:10-12; 2:22; Matt. 6:33.

D.　At a certain time, after we have truly become nothing, God will work Himself in Christ into us, and that which He has worked into us will bring forth Christ as the seed and will also bring us into Christ as our land—Eph. 3:17, 8; Col. 1:12, 27; 2:6.

VI.　In Genesis 15:7-21 God made a covenant with Abraham concerning the land:

A.　Because Abraham lacked faith to believe God for the promise concerning the land, God confirmed His promise to Abraham concerning the land by making a covenant with him— vv. 8-21.

B.　The extraordinary way in which God enacted this covenant implies the way in which Abraham could fulfill God's eternal purpose —vv. 10-18:

1.　The covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of promise that would be fulfilled through God's power in His grace, not through Abraham's effort in his flesh; the new testament is a continuation of this covenant— Gal. 3:17-18.

2.　God made His covenant with Abraham through the crucified and resurrected Christ— Gen. 15:9-10:

a.　The three kinds of slain cattle signify Christ in His humanity being crucified for us, and the two living birds signify Christ in His divinity being the living, resurrected One — John 11:25.

b.　Christ was killed in His humanity, but He lives in His divinity—14:19; 1 Pet. 3:18.

3.　God's asking Abraham to offer the cattle and the birds to Him implies that Abraham had to identify himself with and be one with all the things that he offered— Gen. 15:9-10:

a.　This indicates that in order to fulfill God's eternal purpose, we must be crucified in Christ's crucifixion and resurrected in Christ's resurrection—Rom. 6:5, 8; Gal. 2:20.

b.　Only in this way can we practice the church life in Christ as the promised land— Col. 1:12; 2:6; 3:10-13.

4.　In His covenant with Abraham God set the boundaries of the good land, the land of Immanuel, the territory of Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates; this is the land that Christ, the unique seed of Abraham, will inherit for the establishing of His millennial kingdom— Gen. 15:18; 12:7; Isa. 8:8; Gal. 3:16; cf. Exo. 23:31; Deut. 11:24 and footnote 1; Josh. 1:3-4; Matt. 25:34 and footnote 1.