Abraham was born cursed by God with all other people in his father, Adam, but God promised him blessing and to be a blessing to all families. Upon the basis of this promise of blessing repentance came to mean something far more in Israel than it could ever mean outside of the realm of this promise. This is the true meaning of Israel's 'baptism' in the Jordan river.
Only with the promise to Abraham could repentance bring hope in the face of the curse, yet repentance was possible for Adam even under the curse of God. Still, the possibility of Adam's repentance could never itself alter God's curse. It was not repentance under the curse of God that brought the promise of blessing into the world. It was the grace of the will of God alone.
*** Valley of the Jordan River near Beth Shean ***
The promise of blessing came as a word from God that would somehow overcome the curse of God. It could not simply take the place of the curse which came as an act of God's righteous justice on account of sin. Somehow the blessing of God promised to Abraham would have to transcend the curse of God without ever altering the judgement of God which decreed the curse, including the curse of death, for Adam's sin and all subsequent sin following in the wake of Adam's sin.
Repentance under the curse of God could have no reward other than its own goodness. Even if it brought forgiveness this would not entail a change in the word of God. This principle can be seen if illustrated by a case where someone murdered a loved one of a judge. After the judge passed a death sentence upon the murderer, it might come about that the murderer repented of the sin. It might also happen that a relationship ensued between the repentant murderer and the judge resulting in the judge personally forgiving the murderer. This would not change the sentence, just as it would not bring the murdered person back from the dead. For the death sentence did not come from the personal relationship between the judge and the murderer in the first place but from the justice of the law, which is applied to all people in the same way.
If after the sentence is carried out the judge were to have the power to raise the murderer from the dead it would then matter greatly whether the murder had been repentant or not and whether the judge had forgiven the murder or not. And indeed, God, who created all things from nothing had the power to raise the dead. Accordingly, the promise of blessing given to Abraham has everything to do with the resurrection of the dead.
When Abraham believed the promise of God he received the hope of the resurrection of the dead, and when anyone else believes the promise of God to Abraham, the promise of blessing, they receive the hope of the resurrection of the dead. In receiving this hope the soul receives a spirit from the power of that resurrection itself. This spirit is life that comes from the World To Come, the New Creation, the spirit of regeneration. In crossing 'through' the Jordan River Israel passed corporately into the world of God's promise, the world where repentance and regeneration were two aspects of one action. When all Israel came down to the Jordan to the prophet Yohanan to be immersed the confession was being made that the original crossing was spiritually deficient and needed rectification and completion in Israel's heart.
