Catechism of the Catholic Church

705 Disfigured by sin and death, man remains "in the image of God," in the image of the Son, but is deprived "of the glory of God," ⁶⁶ of his "likeness." The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that "image" ⁶⁷ and restore it in the Father's "likeness" by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is "the giver of life."

706 Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit. ⁶⁸ In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself, ⁶⁹ in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad." ⁷⁰ God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son and "the promised Holy Spirit . . . [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it." ⁷¹