God’s Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”^{(A) 2} But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”^{[a](B) 3} And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”^{(C) 4} But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”^{(D) 5} He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”^{(E) 6} And he believed the Lord, and the Lord^[b] reckoned it to him as righteousness.

⁷ Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”^{(F) 8} But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”^{(G) 9} He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two.^{(H) 11} And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.^(I)

¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.^{(A) 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates,^(B)

Pressing toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,^[a] but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ^[b] has laid hold of me.^{(A) 13} Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold^[c] of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,^{(B) 14} I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly^[d] call of God in Christ Jesus.^{(C) 15} Let those of us, then, who are mature^[e] think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you.^{(D) 16} Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.^(E)

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.^{(F) 18} For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.^{(G) 19} Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.^{(H) 20} But our citizenship^[f] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humiliation^[g] that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,^[h] by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.^(I) 4 ¹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.