In this "Introduction",
we will look at what the scriptures have to say about God’s covenant
with
Abraham and how God is keeping His promise to him and to his
descendants. I
will also include some things about Abraham’s test and how it foretells
Jesus
and the cross but it will be covered in more detail in the book.
If you read
the book and the scriptural evidence referenced there, you will see
more of how
Abraham and Isaac were actually telling of the cross to come and you
will see
how God is keeping His covenant promises to Abraham and to his
descendants.
In
addition to what is being presented in this introduction, I
have
put together several short papers on God's covenant with Abraham so
that the message can be more easily understood. Much
of what
is presented here is included in those new papers but some new
information has been added. Those papers have been
placed on my new web site, "godscovenantwithabraham.com".
On
the left-hand side of this page is a link to that site. You
may
wish to visit that site after reading what is being presented here.
Do you
want confirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that He
died on
a cross to redeem man? You can see it in the story of Abraham
and the covenant
that God made with him (In Genesis, chapter 17) if you listen to Jesus
tell
that story. We have all heard or read that story before but
we were reading, or
listening to others read what Moses wrote in the book of
Genesis. This time,
let's listen to Jesus tell the story. What's that!
You don't remember Jesus
telling the story of Abraham in the gospel accounts? Jesus
did not tell the
story of Abraham in a direct way. He told it in another way.
He told it as
the word of God speaking through Moses:
John 1
1 In the
beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in
the
beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through
Him, and apart
from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being.
- - - -
14 And the
Word became flesh, and dwelt among us - - - -
John tells us that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh and that He existed with God and was God from the beginning. It all came into being through Him. He, the Word, is the creator ("By the word of the LORD the heavens were made", Psalms, chapter 33). The Father spoke everything into existence through Jesus.
Jesus is
the Word of all scripture, including the Old Testament and when we read
what
Moses wrote, Jesus is the one telling us the story of Abraham.
Moses wrote
exactly as Jesus was directing him when he wrote about Abraham and the
things
that he said. As we
read those scriptures, if we listen to Jesus as He is telling us the
story of
Abraham and his test (through Moses), then we can know that,
"JESUS
IS LORD".
Peter tells
us how Jesus spoke
through the prophets. Peter spoke of our salvation and said
that when
the
prophets prophesied of the grace that was to come to us, they made
searches and
were, "seeking
to know what person or time the
Spirit
of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of
Christ
and the glories to follow" (1 Peter
1:10-11). The Spirit of
Jesus spoke through the prophets when they spoke of the cross and the
glories
that it brought. He spoke through the prophets, Moses and
Abraham.
When Paul
spoke of Christ being the creator, he said, “He
is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation”.
He
also says,
“For by Him all
things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and
invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have
been
created through Him and for Him”
(Colossians 1:16). If
Christ created all
things, then nothing that has been created is excluded.
It is
obvious from the above scripture that His creation work is still going
on. If
Christ’s creation works include placing rulers and thrones and
authorities into
their positions, then His creation work is still under way and it
includes who
is being placed into power and over what. It includes every
ruler and king in every
land and it included the Pharaoh that led his army into the sea in
pursuit of
God’s people. If we are not happy with those who have been
placed into
positions of power in our land we should speak to the one who placed
them
there, rather than to complain about it to others.
Remember
what Jesus told the Jews about Abraham, in John, chapter 8?
He said, "Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was
glad" (verse
56). When they questioned that statement, Jesus answered, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am" (verse
58). When Abraham was born, Jesus was already
there. After God began speaking
to Abraham, he began to hear and see Jesus. When we read what
Moses wrote about
Abraham, Jesus is the one telling the story through Moses.
Abraham was also a
prophet and when Moses recorded what he spoke, the Spirit of Jesus was
then
speaking through both Moses and Abraham.
You remember how God appeared to Abraham and commanded him to take his son Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering. The story is found in Genesis, chapter 22. The story has not changed but if we remember that Jesus is really telling the story, not Moses, we may see more in that story.
When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son
as a burnt offering
Abraham obeyed God and went because he knew that something like the
cross was
coming. He may not have seen it clearly but he saw it.
When
he saw Jesus,
Abraham saw the cross. Listen to the story and
see what Jesus is saying about that.
Part of the
story of Abraham's
test:
Genesis 22
1
Now it came about
after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him,
"Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 He said, "Take
now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the
Think about
the fact that Abraham
has already been declared righteous because of his faith and God has
promised
that through his seed, all families of the earth will be blessed
(Genesis 12:3
and 15:6). God made His everlasting covenant with him ten or
fifteen years
before the test (Genesis, chapter 17) and in that covenant He promised
Abraham
and his descendants the
At the time of the test, Abraham has met all of God's requirements and Isaac was born as promised. Isaac had been circumcised as required by the covenant but God is asking Abraham to kill that son of promise. Isaac was the one through whom the covenant was to be fulfilled.
Was God changing His mind and deciding not to keep
His promise? No,
God keeps promises and Abraham knew that. Abraham was a
believer in God and His
promises and that is why God had given him credit for righteousness
many years
before the test.
Let us now
look at the test of
Abraham. I will not copy all of the verses of scripture that
tell us this story
but you may wish to open your Bible and read along (I will be using the
After God
commanded the sacrifice
of Isaac, Abraham does not hesitate. The scripture says that
Abraham rose early
in the morning and saddled his donkey. He split the wood that
he would need and
took his son and two young men and began his journey to the place
selected by
God for the sacrifice of Isaac. They traveled for two full
days and into the
third day when Abraham looked up and saw that place in the distance. He
said to
the young men traveling with them, "Stay here
with the donkey,
and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to
you" (verse
5). He said
"we
will return", not "I will
return".
Abraham knew that God was asking for Isaac's life but he also knew that
God
would somehow keep His promise through Isaac.
As Abraham
was traveling toward
that mountain, he was considering some things. What he was
thinking about can
be seen in what the scriptures have to say in the New Testament book of
Hebrews. These verses are looking back at Abraham's test two
thousand years
before.
The Hebrew writer referred to God's test of Abraham:
Hebrews 11
17 By faith
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received
the
promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he
to whom it
was said, "IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED." 19 He
considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from
which he
also received him back as a type.
Abraham was
considering God's
commandment that he sacrifice his beloved son Isaac as a burnt
offering. He was
considering that God is awesome and he feared that God but he also
believed in
Him. He believed God's promises. He was considering
that God is able to raise
the dead, if necessary, to keep His promise. If he thought about the possibility that God had
changed His mind and
was backing out of His covenant promise, he quickly rejected that
possibility.
Abraham believed that Isaac would die but God would resurrect
him from the
dead. How is that for an example of faith?
The Hebrew writer tells us that Abraham considered that God had the power to raise the dead from which he received Isaac back as a, "type". The original Greek word used for the word, "type", in the above scripture is, "parabole". In every instance when that Greek word was used in the gospels, it was translated as "parable". Why did our modern translators not translate it that way in this verse (Not in any of the modern translations)?
The likely
reason is because our definition of a
parable usually includes the statement that the created earthly story
is
fiction. A parable is a created earthy story that parallels
and teaches spiritual
truths. Man's definition says that the story is fiction.
We get the same
general definition whether it is from a Bible dictionary or from
Webster's
dictionary. The story of Abraham is not fiction; it really
happened. How could
it be translated as, "parable"?
Should God be
limited by man's
definitions? The scriptures never tell us what God's
definition of a parable
is. Or do they?? Is God giving us His definition of
a parable in the story of
Abraham and his test and the covenant that He made with him?
Does God also
create true-life stories so as to parallel and teach us about His
spiritual
truths? Did God make Abraham’s story happen for our
instruction? If so, is God still
causing true life stories to come about, including our life stories?
We must
believe that God is
involved in the creation of our life story because we pray daily for
God to
make something happen for us or for others near to us. We
pray for success in
things. We pray for healing. We pray for about
everything and, when we pray and
God answers our prayers, we are involved in the creation of our life
story. The biggest
input that we have
into our life story, however, is when we make the choice to love God.
Paul tells us
how our love for God
determines the outcome of our life story after he speaks of our not
knowing how
we ought to pray in Romans, chapter 8. He tells us that the
Spirit
intercedes
for us when we pray (Verse 26). After telling us that the
Spirit intercedes for
us in our prayers he tells us that
"God causes
all things to
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to
become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the
firstborn
among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also
called; and
these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified,
He also
glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)
When Paul said that God causes all things to work together for good in the lives of those who love Him, he is saying that God is creating a good life story for them. God is involved in every aspect of our lives and He makes everything in our life work together for our good if we love Him. If we choose to love Him, He will have mercy on us and He will cause everything in our lives to work together for our good so that His promises to us will be fulfilled.
Paul also
says that God foreknew and
predestined those who would love Him to be conformed to the image of
Christ.
That means He foresaw everyone who would choose to love Him
and they are being
created in the image of God by being created in the image of Christ in
His new
creation.
God’s
promise of good things to come is not promised to those who refuse to
love Him.
God will not make us love Him. He wants us to make
the choice to love Him and to
believe in Him. That can be seen when we hear Peter tell us
of God's patience
and how He is
“not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come to
repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
If the
scriptures say that God does not wish for any to perish but that
all should come to repentance then we have a right to make that choice
for
ourselves. If God was making the choice for us and His wish
is that all
would
come to repentance, then He would cause everyone to repent so that they
would
not perish. God has allowed us to make the choice and His
wish for us
is that
we would make the right choice.
Back to what Paul said about God having foreknown and predestined the ones that are to be justified and glorified by having been created in the image of Christ. God is not limited in time. He is in all time now and He was in all time at the beginning of time. The Psalmist (David) said, "Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all" (Psalms, chapter 139).
God hears us
speak the day before
we spoke and He heard us speak six thousand years before
that. Did God hear and
answer our prayers before we could talk? Did God see our
faith and love before
the foundation of the world?
God knows our heart and He knew our hearts before we were born. Is that why the Psalmist will then speak of his days having been ordained before he was born just a few verses later in chapter 139? He says, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them".
Every day of
his life had been
determined and recorded in God’s book before he was born. Just as
God foresaw every day of the Psalmist’s life before he was born, He
also
foresaw every day of our life in the beginning and based on what He
foreknew
about us, He predestined our future.
We, the
saints, are the called and
predestined because God foreknew us. When Jeremiah spoke of
his calling, he
recorded God saying,
"Before I
formed you in the
womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have
appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah
1:5). If God knew
Jeremiah before he was born then He foreknows each one of us before we
are. If
He foreknew me, then He knew beforehand if I would choose to have faith
in Him
and if I would love Him.
God’s freedom in time allowed Him to foresee us make our life choices and for those that He foresaw choosing to love Him, He has predestined them to become sons of God in the image of Christ. We must make that choice if we want God to create a good spiritual story for us. Whatever choice we make, God will have foreseen us make it and He will have planned our life around what He foresaw in us.
Is that why
Paul spoke of how God chose us and
predestined us
before the foundation of the world in Ephesians
1:4-5, (When he wrote, “just as He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be
holy and
blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons
through
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will”)?
God's freedom
in time helps us to
understand how He knew that hundreds of prophecies would be fulfilled
in Jesus.
Those things all happened in time when time began.
He saw all of His creation
work when He began that work. His creation work includes His
new creation work
that directs our life story so that we can be created in the true image
of God
in that new creation. It included His creation work being
foretold in the life
of Abraham.
Regarding
God’s creation work, we must remember
that God does all of His creation work through Christ. When
Paul said that God
causes all things to work out for our good if we love Him, Jesus is
making it
happen. He is doing that as a part of God’s new creation work
that creates us
in His image.
If we choose
to love God He will
cause everything in our life to work together so as to cause our life
story to be a good one. Having a good
life story does
not assure good earthly things, it assures good spiritual things.
Paul is the
one who recorded this scripture and he did not receive great earthly
things.
From an earthly prospective Paul lived a life of suffering and poverty
but he
tells us that,
"I consider
that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory
that is to be revealed to us" (Romans
Just as
God causes good things to come to those who love Him, the reverse can
be true
for those who refuse to love Him. He causes the sun to rise
on the evil and the
good and the rain to come to both the good and the bad (Matthew
The
scriptures are full of statements about God causing bad
things to happen in people's lives that have chosen not to love Him.
God
hardened Pharaoh's heart to cause the old salvation story to happen
like it
did. His story was not good for Pharaoh because he did not
love God. God used
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to punish His unfaithful people.
God
scattered His old covenant people among the nations because they did
not love
Him.
Just a few
verses after Paul speaks of how God makes all things work together for
our good
if we love Him, he tells us how God made things happen in a way that
was not
good for Pharaoh, someone who did not love Him. Paul spoke of
Pharaoh and said,
“the
Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS
VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU,
Regarding the
Pharaoh that refused to let God’s people of the old
covenant go, God sent Moses to that Pharaoh with His command to
“let
My people go”.
God
had forewarned Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s
heart so that he would not let them go when He sent him to
After Paul
spoke of how God had selected Pharaoh for His purposes, he then tells
us how
God does His work of creating true life stories. He speaks of
how God is the
potter and we are the clay. Paul says, “So
then He has mercy on
whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires”. He is telling
us that he hardens the hearts of some (Like
Pharaoh) to cause them to rebel but He has mercy on others.
Remember, it is
those who choose to love God that have been promised good
things. The good
result is receiving the covenant promise of that everlasting heavenly
land.
After telling us how God hardens some and He has mercy on others, Paul continues his discussion of how God is working in people’s lives by telling us that God is the potter and the potter works with the clay and makes some vessels for honorable use and others for common use.
In verse 21, he wrote,
“Or
does not the potter have a right over the
clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and
another for
common use?” He tells
us how God patiently endures vessels of wrath prepared for destruction
(Like
Pharaoh) so that His wrath and power can be made known. As He
told Pharaoh, He
raised him up to demonstrate His power and to make His name known
throughout
the earth.
Paul tells
us that the scripture spoke to Pharaoh to tell him that God raised him
up for
the purpose of demonstrating His power and that His name might be
proclaimed
throughout the earth. When Paul said that the scripture spoke
to Pharaoh, it
was Jesus speaking to Pharaoh because Jesus is the Word.
Jesus is the Word and
the creator, so, He is the potter and we are the clay. As He
does His creation work, He has mercy on some and
He hardens others, as He desires.
When Paul spoke of how the potter works with the clay to make vessels of His choosing, he asked how we can resist God’s will and why does God still find fault with us? He asks who are we to answer back to God when the potter is the one who does the choosing. Paul is asking a good question. In his wording in Romans, chapter 9, Paul makes it sound as if we have no choice in what we will become but when we look back to what he wrote in chapter 8, we can clearly see where we do have a choice.
He had already given us the answer to the question he asked in chapter 8. We heard the answer when we heard Paul tell us how God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him. Remember, Paul said that He foreknew the ones who would choose to love Him.
If He foresaw us making the choice to love Him, He will create us as vessels meant for glory. We may not be able to choose the exact vessel that we will become but we have a choice in whether or not we will become destined for glory or for wrath. Those who make the choice to love God will be created in the image of His Son and will be destined to receive His glory.
It
sounds as if His work includes having mercy on those who are to be
created in
the image of Christ and hardening the hearts of others. As
Christ was doing His
old covenant creation work, He was causing things to happen for God’s
people in
a way that would allow them to be set free from slavery in
God did not
make Pharaoh into an
evil man. God foresaw Pharaoh’s heart and, because of what He
foresaw in him,
God chose him to become ruler over Egypt and He caused him to do what
he did so
that old salvation story would come about as it did.
Earlier, we read where Paul spoke about Christ’s creation work and he said that it included thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities. Jesus is the creator who places all rulers into their positions and He put Pharaoh into his position and He directed his actions to cause that old story to happen as it did. He was creating the old covenant story by working in the lives of those people. For the faithful ones who would choose to love Him, things would work out for their good. For others (Like Pharaoh), things would not work out for their good. He did it in the old covenant story and He is doing it in our lives today.
The good promises are to be fulfilled for those who love God. Love for God, however, must be shown by our actions. Jesus tells us how we show our love for Him in John 14:15. He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”. He makes sure we get the message when says it two more times in that chapter. He tells us, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him”.
Previously
He said that if we love Him we will keep His
commandments. Now,
He says that if we
keep His commandments, we love Him.
The
Father will love those who choose to love His Son with obedience and
the Son
will love those whom the Father loves.
Two verses later He tells us, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me” (Verses 23-24).
God’s
promises are to those who choose to
love God’s Son with obedience to His word. His word is the
word that He
received from the Father. We must love and obey the Father’s
Word in order to
receive His covenant promises. Having a home (An abode) with
God is the
promise. That promise is only made to those who love
Him. Only those who love
Him with obedience to His word will receive the promise.
Remember, the
Psalmist said that
every day of his life was recorded in God’s book before he was
born. Did not God
also foresee Abraham choose to live a life of faith and love for Him
and then
cause his story to happen as it did? Did He cause Abraham's
story to come about
as it did for our instruction?
Notice what
Paul said about
Abraham's faith:
Romans 4
20
yet, with respect to
the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in
faith,
giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had
promised, He
was able also to perform. 22 Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED
TO HIM AS
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was
credited
to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those
who
believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
When Jesus
spoke through Moses and
had him record the story of how Abraham was made righteous by faith, He
did it
for us as well as for Abraham. He is telling us about the
kind of faith that we
need to bring us credit for righteousness. Abraham was given credit for
righteousness because of his faith in God
and faith in His word. Abraham knew that God would keep His
promise. He knew
that God would not lie about His promises and he knew that God was able
to do
whatever was necessary to keep His word. Remember what the
Hebrew writer said.
Speaking of Abraham's faith, he said that he considered that
God could raise
Isaac from the dead.
The statement
about Abraham having
been given credit for righteousness because of his faith was first
recorded by
Moses in Genesis 15:6. God promised that he would have
descendants like the
stars in the heavens. He was an old man, but he knew that God
could make it
happen. Paul said it was written for our sake. It
was written to show us how we
can receive credit for righteousness by belief in God.
Abraham had full
assurance in God's word. Jesus is the Word that Abraham
believed and he was,
therefore, justified by faith in Jesus. It all happened for
our instruction.
Abraham
believed God’s promises
and that included His covenant promise to give the
Much of the
Christian world has
misunderstood what God was saying in His covenant promise to Abraham. They keep asking the
question, “When is God
going to fulfill His promise to Abraham and give back to the Jews all
of their
When the Hebrew writer spoke of the faith of Abraham he said that, when he was called, he "obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). The writer tells us that he lived in that land as an alien, living in tents with Isaac (His son), and Jacob (His grandson), "fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:9-10). None of those fathers (Abraham, Isaac or Jacob), ever received that earthly land because it was never the real promise.
If the
scriptures say that Abraham was looking for a city built by God, he
was. He
knew that God’s everlasting covenant promise was not of this earth
because this
earth is not everlasting. Abraham
heard God say that the covenant was an
everlasting covenant and it included possessing the
God's
covenant with Abraham really
included both the old and new covenant promises. The old
covenant promise was
for Abraham's earthly descendants to receive an earthly
“For if that first covenant
had been faultless, there would
have been no occasion sought for a second.” (Hebrews 8:7)
If it was
faulty in the first century when the Hebrew writer wrote those words, it was faulty
when it was given to Abraham. It was faulty because it was of
this
earth. God
knew it was faulty when He gave it. God gave it as an earthly
copy of
the true
covenant.
The new
covenant promise is the
true promise. It is the promise of an everlasting
We heard the Hebrew writer
tell us how he
lived in that earthly land but he lived there as an alien living in
temporary
dwellings (Tents). The only
ground that Abraham ever
owned there was the small plot of ground that he purchased as a burial
place
for his wife, Sarah. He did not inherit it; he had to purchase it.
Abraham never
received that
earthly land and neither will his descendants after him receive it as
the true
covenant promise. It will be some six
hundred years before Abraham’s descendants will enter that land to take
possession of it but they will never keep it as an everlasting
possession.
As Stephen
said, when he spoke of
Abraham and that promise (He was defending himself before the Jews), "But
He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet,
even when
he had no child, He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A
POSSESSION,
Those Jews were concerned about their covenant promise of that earthly land.
Stephen was preaching
the true covenant promise of the heavenly land. He was trying to tell them that Abraham
never received that
earthly land and neither would they have it as the true promise.
Why would
God allow that old covenant for an earthly land to come about and cause
that
old Hebrew story to happen as it did if it was never the true
covenant? God
caused
that old earthly story
of Abraham’s earthly descendants being given their earthly land to come
about
as an earthly copy of our new covenant story just as He caused
Abraham’s life
story to come about as it did. He made it happen for our
instruction.
God was
showing us an earthly copy of what He requires of us in order for us to
receive
the covenant promises.
The true covenant promise was an everlasting one and receiving that promise demands that man comply with God’s covenant conditions. Meeting God’s conditions for the covenant is a part of what the scriptures are showing in God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son. God told Abraham that His covenant requirement was circumcision of the flesh (Genesis, chapter 17) but it would be made clearer in Abraham's test. We will take a closer look at God's requirement for circumcision later on.
The commandment for Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise after all of those years of waiting, seems to be the most outlandish thing that God ever required of anyone, with one exception. That would be the outlandish requirement that God made of Himself to sacrifice His Son so that He could keep His covenant promise to Abraham.
God's
covenant promise was a heavenly Canaan. It is only
available
to those who are made perfect. Abraham could only have that
land
Just as the
heavenly Father would
offer His Son, Jesus,
father Abraham was being asked to offer his son, Isaac. Did
the sacrifice of
Isaac have earthly components that foretold the cross?
Remember, it was done as
a "type".
Just as God knew that His Son would live even if He had to die on the altar of the cross, Abraham knew (By faith) that his son would also live even though his body was (He thought) to be consumed in the fires of that altar. God did not require that Abraham complete his sacrifice, only that he be willing to do so. God could foresee Himself having to complete His sacrifice and He only required Abraham to show the earthly copy.
God made Abraham suffer through the test to show true
covenant
belief and obedience and to let us see, in Abraham, a copy of the pain
that God
would experience when He perfected the everlasting covenant by making
His
sacrifice. It shows us an earthly copy of God's
sacrifice.
When we read those Old Testament stories, Jesus is speaking to us. Is He speaking in parables as He tells those stories? Did Jesus cause the Old Testament story of Abraham and his test to come about as a true story parable?
If Jesus
really did make that
story come about as a true story parable, the earthly story components
will
parallel the spiritual. Let's see how it parallels the story of the
cross. The
story said that, as Abraham and Isaac went to the place of sacrifice,
"Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son"
(Genesis
22:6).
When Isaac
carried his altar wood,
did it copy what Jesus would do? Did not God
lay the wood for
His burnt
offering on His Son when Jesus
"went out,
bearing His own
cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in
Hebrew,
Golgotha" (John
19:17)?
Jesus carried His
altar wood just as Isaac had done two thousand years before.
The load
that
Jesus carried was heavy enough to cause Him to stumble. The
amount of
wood
needed for a burnt offering as large as Isaac would have been very
heavy. I
wonder if Isaac stumbled under that heavy load?
As Abraham
and Isaac were walking
together toward the place of sacrifice, Isaac asked his father, "Behold,
the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering"?
Abraham
responded, "God will provide for Himself the lamb
for the
burnt offering, my son"
(Verse 8).
After the angel stopped
Abraham, he saw the ram caught in a thicket and he offered the ram as a
sacrifice in the place of his son, Isaac.
Abraham's
prophesy statement said that God would provide for Himself the lamb for
the
burnt offering. After the sacrifice was stopped, a ram was
provided by
God. The
ram provided that day was not the Lamb of prophecy. A ram is
not a lamb. Was
the ram only a temporary sacrifice, substituted for Isaac?
Did that ram
foretell the everlasting substitute sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of
God and
did not God, Him-Self provide that sacrifice?
The scripture
says that Abraham "bound
his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood".
Did it
copy what God would do when He bound His Son and laid Him on top of the
wood?
Was the cross laid flat for Jesus to be bound before it was
lifted
up? Did they
use ropes in addition to the nails? History may be telling us that
ropes were sometimes
used. The use of ropes would help prevent the body of one
being crucified from
pulling loose from the nails.
When Isaac
carried his wood to the
place of sacrifice, did he go to the same place where Jesus would take
the wood
for His sacrifice? We don't know exactly where
Did God send Abraham on that long journey to tell where his future covenant sacrifices would be made? Did Isaac's altar foretell the place where burnt offerings would be required of man under the old covenant? Was Isaac placed on an altar that was before the future temple location just as the altar of burnt offering stood there?
Did the
sacrifice of Isaac also foretell where a sacrifice would be offered
under the
everlasting covenant? Was it where a burnt offering would be
required of God
and where He would raise up His true temple, the house where He would
place His
name forever? Did the copies burn on a part of the mountain
where the true
sacrifice would burn?
Did the cross
stand before the
temple and outside the east gate? Is that why the Hebrew
writer referred to the
old sin offering (where blood was brought into the holy place) being
burned
outside the camp, saying, "Therefore Jesus also, that
He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside
the
gate" (Hebrews
The
Hebrew writer did not say
which gate. Did God specify the gate when He gave the Law of
Moses? When the
Law specified where the sacrifices were to be offered, God knew exactly
where
He would place His temple. He also knew that the altar of burnt
offering would be before the doorway of that house.
Remember, as those old covenant priests went about their worship they were serving a copy and shadow of heavenly things (Hebrews 8:1-5). As they were burning that sin offering body on the ash heap (The Law required them to burn the body outside the camp where the altar ashes were poured out), it was just a copy and shadow of what was to come.
The true sin offering of all time was the body of
Jesus. Did God cause
those priests to take the bodies that were only copies of the true sin
offering
and burn them where the true offering would burn? Is that why
scripture says
that Jesus,
"Therefore", suffered
outside the gate? Did God send Abraham to the same place?
Outside that gate one could look out over the Kidron valley, a valley of graveyards. Was that ash heap located near the altar and just outside the east gate at the drop-off into the Kidron valley? If you read my introduction for the book, "DRAWING NEAR THROUGH THE VEIL", you heard Jeremiah say of that valley, "the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD" (Jeremiah 31:40).
The dead
bodies were those in that
valley graveyard. Were there tombs near the top, outside the
east gate? The
west side of that valley was holy to the LORD. Did ashes from
the clean place
for ashes wash down among the graves? Did the true sin
sacrifice of all time
burn on the ash heap and was it located outside the east gate?
Did His blood
make that valley holy? Is there anything that could be more
holy than His
blood?
God chose
that place for Abraham
to show his willingness to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering.
Did God
choose that location for Abraham’s sacrifice because that is where God
would
make His sacrifice? Is that why Abraham named that place what he
did?
After
Abraham was restrained by the angel from killing his son, he "called
the name of that place The LORD Will Provide".
Scripture continued by saying, "as it is said to this day,
"In the mount of the LORD it will be provided"
(Genesis
God will
provide there, not man.
Remember, only a little while before that, Abraham told Isaac that God
will
provide for Himself the Lamb for the burnt offering. Moses
wrote this book,
including the account of Abraham naming that place. The
Spirit of Jesus was
guiding him as he wrote. When Abraham named the place where
he offered
Isaac,
"The
LORD Will Provide", was he
telling us that it was
the place where God would provide the Lamb for the burnt offering?
Abraham told Isaac that God would provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering. When Jesus guided Moses to add the statement about how it will be provided, "In the mount of the LORD", was God not telling us that He had selected that place as the Mount of the LORD and the place where He would provide for Himself the Lamb?
Solomon
was required to erect an earthly temple on
that mountain.
God’s temple
was built on the "Mount
of the LORD".
It was the house where God would place His name. After
it was constructed, it would be the only place on earth for sacrifices
to be
made under that old covenant. The Hebrew altar of burnt
offering would stand
before the earthly temple on that mountain. No other place
was acceptable for
their sacrifices but before that temple doorway.
Was
Isaac offered at the same place? Did it happen because Jesus
would be
offered
there?
Jesus was the
only righteous one
who met the conditions of being a perfect sacrifice. That
required Him
to live
a perfect life. He lived while the old Law was still in
effect.
Did He comply
perfectly with the Law and, "therefore", burn
outside
the camp at the clean place for ashes? Did He remain perfect
under that Law to
the very end and burn at that ash heap? Did He offer His
sacrifice at
the doorway
of the tent of meeting (East of the temple) as the Law required
(Leviticus
1:3)?
The cross is
the most important
event of all time. Did the most important event of all time
take place at the
most holy place on earth, the mountain where the temple stood?
Could any one
thing be more important for considering that mountaintop for His
earthly
dwelling place than because He had chosen that place for His sacrifice
to be
made and the new house of God to be raised up? Did the cross
stand outside the
east gate overlooking the Kidron valley, a place of ancient graveyards?
Was
there a garden at that clean place for ashes and a new tomb nearby?
Remember,
the Law had only a shadow of the good things to come (Hebrews 10:1).
Everything about that old covenant earthly story was caused to come about as an earthly copy of our new covenant story. We have seen how Abraham was showing a copy of God’s sacrifice under the everlasting covenant when he sacrificed his son. That was a part of what was only the beginning of the old covenant copy. God will continue to cause the story of Abraham’s descendants receiving the covenant promise to show the earthly copy in the generations that followed.
Remember,
Abraham’s descendants will become a
great nation while living in
Remember, God
had previously told
Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the
people
go. It was only
after God’s great power
was displayed with signs and wonders that Pharaoh would let them go. Moses led God’s people out
of Egyptian
bondage and, when they were trapped at the sea, Moses stretched out his
hand
and parted the sea and led them through the sea, on dry ground. When the Egyptian army
pursued after them,
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the waters returned to
their
place. The entire
Egyptian army was
drowned in the sea.
After the
Israelites saw what God
had done, scripture records, “When
Notice, they
were a nation of saved believers that had
been saved from
slavery. They have
the promise of a land
of milk and honey but they have not yet received that land. They have been saved out
of slavery but they
must faithfully travel through the wilderness to that land and be
willing to
fight for it. They
will be required to
faithfully follow the LORD and His servant, Moses, all the way there in
order
to receive the promise. It
will not happen
for most of them. Most
of them will be
disobedient and rebellious and God will strike them down in the
wilderness.
When they sent twelve spies in to spy out the land ten of them came back and gave a bad report. They told how it was truly a land of milk and honey but they also said it was inhabited by strong nations and giants. Only Joshua and Caleb gave a good report and encouraged the people to enter and take possession of that land.
That nation
had been saved from slavery and the land of
promise was
before them but they wanted to return to slavery, instead. God told them that their
corpses would fall
in that wilderness (Numbers
God’s army consisted of all men twenty years old and older who were able to go to war (Excepting the priestly tribe). Of God’s army, only Joshua and Caleb would enter that land because they had followed the LORD fully.
Forty years later (The rebels had all died in the wilderness) Moses repeated God’s promise of how none would enter except Joshua and Caleb and adds, “Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it” (Deuteronomy, chapter 1).
Their little
ones would enter because they
had no knowledge of good or evil.
They
were under the age of accountability.
Everyone in God’s army, except for Joshua and
Caleb, died in the
wilderness.
That was
their story. Their story
was the earthly copy that God caused to come about for our
instruction.
Now we
will look at our story. Just
as Moses
brought God’s earthly chosen people out of bondage, Jesus has been sent
to
bring God’s spiritual chosen people out of spiritual bondage. In John, chapter 8, Jesus
spoke to the Jews,
saying,
“Truly,
truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave
of sin”
(John
When Jesus
said that all sinners
were slaves of sin, He included all mankind.
Every person on earth (Who has reached the age of
accountability) is
guilty of sin and is in bondage to sin. If we are to be set
free from
slavery
to sin, we must follow Jesus out of that slavery. We can see
it all when we
read about that old Hebrew story.
When Paul
wrote to the church at Corinth and retold what had happened
in that old Hebrew salvation story and he said that what happened to
them
happened for our
instruction (1
Corinthians, chapter 10). He
begins that
chapter by saying, “For
I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers
were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were
baptized
into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual
food;
and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a
spiritual
rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ”.
He then tells us how God was not pleased with them and He laid them low in the wilderness. Paul tells us, “Now these things happened as examples for us”. Paul connects the events of that story to events in our story. They were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea just as we are baptized into Christ by water and by Spirit.
Remember, the
Spirit of the LORD
was in their cloud. They ate bread from heaven and drank
water from the rock
that symbolized the Christ to come.
Jesus is the rock that was struck to give us living water
and He is the
bread of heaven. They
ate and drank in
their wilderness just as we partake of spiritual food and drink as we
travel
through our spiritual wilderness.
Because of their rebellion, they were not pleasing to Him and He laid them low in the wilderness. Paul tells us those things happened as examples for us. Paul then writes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (Verses 11-12).
We need to
believe Jesus as He instructs
us through the old Hebrew story and confirms it in the New Testament
scriptures. Jesus is the Word speaking through Paul to tell
us that it happened
as an example and was written for our instruction. We may
have been saved from
slavery to sin but we can still fall and not make it to our
land. If we truly
believe in Jesus we will take up our cross and follow Him through the
sea and then
through the wilderness (Spiritual wilderness) all the way home.
Jesus is
telling us to study the copy and learn the
lesson. Look
closely at the old copy as it instructs us. Remember,
Moses brought them out of slavery with signs and wonders.
After the plagues
that displayed God’s power had caused the Egyptians to allow that
nation to
depart, God then destroyed the Egyptian army in the sea.
Remember, He parted
the sea for His people to pass through and when the Egyptians followed
after
them they were drowned in the sea.
Jesus
caused that story to come about like it did when He hardened Pharaoh's
heart
that last time. God’s
people
had already been allowed to depart after the death of the firstborn of
If God had
not hardened Pharaoh’s heart that last time and caused him to gather
his army
and to chase after Israel, that event would never have
happened. God’s people
would have continued their journey toward their land without the need
for that
event to take place. If
the parting of
the sea had not happened, then the Egyptian army would not have died in
the
sea. They would
have remained alive in
their land.
Why would
God harden Pharaoh’s heart and cause the event of the parting of the
sea to
come about that destroyed Pharaoh and thousands of Egyptians in the sea
if
God’s people had already been allowed to go free? Was it only
done to punish
God did punish them but there is another reason why He caused it to happen the way it did. We heard Paul say how the scripture spoke to Pharaoh and told him that He had raised him up for the purpose of showing His power and that His name would be proclaimed throughout the earth (Romans 9:17).
Remember,
Jesus, the Word and the creator
made it happen. Jesus spoke to Pharaoh and told him that He
raised him up to
show His power to save and it can only happen through the name of
Jesus. He was
speaking of what was to take place when God’s people would be set free
but the
true message was foretelling what was to come to His people under the
new
covenant. He caused the events of His earthly people being
saved from slavery
to happen to foretell what was to come when Jesus would come to earth
to save
God’s spiritual people out of slavery to sin.
Peter
spoke of the name of Jesus Christ and told the Jews,
“And
there is salvation in no one else; for
there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by
which we
must be saved”
(Acts
The new covenant
gospel message is
the news of salvation through Jesus Christ. God’s power is being shown
through
Jesus and His power to save in the gospel. Paul said,
“For
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is
the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew
first and
also to the Greek”
(Romans
God showed His power in the old story when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Egyptian army was washed away in that sea. That was a copy of our spiritual story and how He now saves us from slavery to sin. When Jesus stretched out His hands to receive the nails on the cross, He was preparing the way for God’s people to be led out of spiritual slavery to sin.
Jesus Christ will save us from slavery to sin
when we believe the gospel message and obey His Great Commission ("And He said to
them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all
creation. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved;
but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." - Mark
Israel
being saved from slavery and brought through the sea to freedom copies
our
spiritual story of how Jesus has saved us out of a world of slavery to
sin to
be brought through the waters of baptism so that our sins can be washed
away.
Those who believe the gospel message of salvation will obey
Jesus and follow
Him through the waters so that they can be set free from slavery to sin
in this
world.
We can
only be justified and saved from slavery to sin if we have the faith of
father
Abraham. We must believe and obey Jesus, God’s Word.
The good news of the
gospel is now being proclaimed throughout the earth to tell all nations
how
Jesus has redeemed us from sin with His blood.
He has paid our debt for sin but we must believe His
message and follow
Him out of slavery if we are to be set free.
If we have obeyed the gospel and followed Jesus through the sea, we have been saved from slavery but we have not yet received our land. Just as they were a nation of saved believers after their slave-masters had been washed away, so it is with us. We must, however, remember how they were required to remain faithful through their wilderness travels. We must continue to faithfully follow Jesus through our spiritual wilderness.
We must
believe Paul
when he tells us that what happened to those people happened as
examples for us
and it was written for our instruction. Only those old
covenant ones who
remained faithful received the earthly land in that old story and the
same is
true for us. Only faithful soldiers in God’s spiritual army and the
little ones who do
not know good from evil will receive that spiritual land.
When God gave
Abraham credit for
righteousness, He could see ahead in time to Abraham as he was placing
Isaac on
that altar. That is exactly what James said. Remember what
James said about
Abraham's faith and works and how God saw Abraham offer Isaac on the
altar
before it happened? James referred to Abraham offering up
Isaac on the altar,
saying, "and the
Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND
James is
telling us how Abraham fulfilled Scripture when he obeyed God and
offered Isaac
on the altar. He fulfilled Scripture that tells how he was
made righteous by
faith when he showed his faith by his obedience. The
Scripture is the Word and
Jesus is the Word. James is telling us that Jesus foresaw
Abraham's obedience.
It sounds like Jesus gave Abraham credit for righteousness when He foresaw Abraham
obeying
God's commandment and proving his faith at the test.
Look at what happened after the test in Genesis, chapter 22. When we listen to Jesus as He speaks through Moses and tells about Abraham's test, He says the same thing that James said. After the test and the angel had stopped Abraham, Moses records what God said to Abraham (through the angel).
The angel told Abraham,
"By
Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this
thing and
have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless
you, and
I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as
the sand
which is on the seashore".
He would be blessed with
descendants like the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the
seashore because
he did that thing as God had commanded.
That is the same promise that Abraham had believed decades before he offered Isaac on that altar (having seed like the stars of the heavens). He was given that promise when he was declared righteous by his faith because he believe that promise. That promise was later expanded to say that, "IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED".
Abraham
believed that promise when it was first made and he still believed it
when he offered Isaac. It can be seen as Abraham offered Isaac on
that
altar. He was declared righteous when he first believed it but
the angel said that God would keep His promise because Abraham had done
this thing and offered Isaac. As James said, the scripture was
fulfilled when it happened. God had foreseen it happen when He
first gave Abraham credit for righteousness. Abraham showed his
faith with his works and because of his works, his faith was perfected.
After telling
him he would be
blessed because he had done that thing, the angel said,
"In
your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you
have
obeyed My voice"
(verses
16-18). That promise was
first made to Abraham when God called him and told him to leave his
father's
house and go to the land that God would show him. God
promised him that "in
you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis
12:3). God would keep His promise because Abraham obeyed with
his
actions. Again, the scripture was fulfilled when Abraham
obeyed God's voice.
Paul said
that promise was the
gospel being preached to Abraham (Galatians 3:8). It was the
gospel promise of
salvation to all nations. God promised to bless all nations
through him because
he believed God and obeyed His voice. That happened some
twenty years after God
had made the same promise to him because he had believed God.
God had foreseen
Abraham’s faith being perfected by his future obedience.
When Abraham obeyed God and offered Isaac as a burnt offering, he was completing his faith requirements with his actions. James tells us "that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected". When it happened, the Scripture was fulfilled. That is what Paul was telling us in Romans. We read some of those verses previously.
When Paul
spoke of how
Abraham's faith had given him credit for righteousness and it was
written for
our sake, it was after Paul said something about how Abraham was not
justified
by works but by belief in God. He said,
"FAITH
WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS" and it was credited to him
"Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the
sign
of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had
while
uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe
without being
circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them" (Romans
4:9-11).
Abraham was made righteous by his faith before he was given his covenant requirement of circumcision. His faith caused him to believe what God would say years later when He was given the covenant requirement of circumcision. It was to be a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham.
God told him that circumcision was an everlasting covenant requirement and that any male who was not circumcised would be cut off from his people (Genesis, chapter 17). Abraham's faith knew that God meant what He said and he and all males in his household were circumcised that day.
If we have Abraham's faith, we will obey God and meet our covenant requirement. When God made His covenant with Abraham, He told him that his everlasting covenant requirement was circumcision. If the covenant requirement of circumcision was to be an everlasting requirement, it also applies to the everlasting new covenant.
How can it apply to us? Christians are not required
to be circumcised, or are they?
The
old covenant requirement for that earthly land was physical circumcision. Was
God telling Abraham that his covenant requirement for the heavenly land was
spiritual circumcision? Are the scriptures telling us that our everlasting
covenant requirement is to have a circumcised heart? Paul tells us that
circumcision is not one that is outward in the flesh,
but
"circumcision is that which is of
the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Romans
That
old circumcision was only the earthly copy. True circumcision is circumcision
of the heart. It causes us to believe God's word that commands us to remove our
body of sin. Our everlasting covenant requirement is spiritual circumcision by
the
"removal of the body of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which
you were also raised up with Him though faith in the working of God, who raised
Him from the dead" (Colossians
That covenant requirement is for all of God's sons, both
male and female ("For you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise." - Galatians 3:26-29).
In the above scripture the Greek wording does not say, "children of God". It says "sons of God". Whether male or female, if we are "in Christ Jesus", we are "all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" when we believe Him and obey His covenant requirement for circumcision of the flesh.
When we repent, we make the
decision to turn from a life of living for self and live for Jesus. Those who
make the choice to follow Him will truly live but they must
"no longer live for themselves,
but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf" (2
Corinthians
The circumcision of Christ requires the removal of our old body of flesh and burying it in baptism so that we can be raised up as a new person with Jesus. If we follow Him in the likeness of His death, we will be in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:1-6).
If we
have not been crucified in the likeness of His death, we will not be raised up
in the likeness of His resurrection and we will not have met God's covenant
requirement of spiritual circumcision of our body of flesh. God told Abraham that
"an
uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that
person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant"
(Genesis
Just as God saw Abraham offer Isaac before it happened, God saw Abraham meeting his covenant requirement of circumcision before it happened. Do you suppose that God would have declared him righteous if he had refused to comply with the covenant requirement of circumcision? Would He declare us righteous if He foresaw us refusing to comply with our requirement of circumcision?
God had said
that any uncircumcised male would
be cut
off.
Abraham knew that God would keep His word that any uncircumcised male
would be
cut off from his people and he obeyed. God keeps His promises
and Abraham knew
that he had to obey. When God gave him credit for
righteousness because of his
faith, God had already foreseen him believing God's word and meeting
his
covenant requirements with his works of obedience.
God did not cause Abraham to believe in Him but He foresaw Abraham show his faith by his works. When Jesus foresaw it, He gave Abraham credit for righteousness before he did anything. Abraham was given credit for righteousness apart from works but, because of his works, his faith was perfected. He would receive the covenant promises because he obeyed God’s voice.
That
is the same message that we got when we heard Paul speak of how God
causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.
Remember, only those who obey the commandments of Jesus really
love Him. Just as true love obeys God's word, true faith obeys
God's word. God's covenant promises are to those who love God and
show their faith with obedience.
Paul spoke of
the Law and works
(Romans
Abraham did his works because of his faith in God's word. He obeyed God's word with his works because He believed in God's Word (Jesus) and he showed his belief by his works.
Righteousness
will be credited to
us by faith in Christ if we believe like Abraham believed. It
must be a
faith
that will believe in and keep God's Word. We must keep His
word because
Jesus
tells us
"if anyone keeps My word he will never
see
death" (John
God sees our
obedience before it
happens. That is how we are predestined. If He
foresees us having a life of
obedient faith, we will be predestined for eternal life. It
is not because God
chose to make us believe and obey. He sees us make the choice
and He sees it
long before it happens. It can be seen in the life of
Abraham. He was given
credit for righteousness before his faith became obedient.
The scripture was
fulfilled when it happened. We must be like Abraham and obey
God when He
speaks.
Abraham knew that God would keep His word regarding his son, Isaac, and that is faith that justifies. It appears that it will justify us before we do anything if Jesus foresees us keeping His word before He speaks to us (Before we see it in scripture).
We must believe in Jesus. We must be like Abraham and believe Him and obey Him each time we hear Him speak. We must keep following Him.
If we hear
Him speak and refuse to obey,
Jesus will have foreseen it and He will not have given us credit for
righteousness when we first believed. We will only have been
made righteous by
faith if Jesus foresees our future obedience.
We are called just as Abraham was called, with one exception. Scripture tells us (Jesus tells us), "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8).
Abraham had
no help from the written scriptures because there were none.
He could not see
where he was going but we can. We can see where he was going
and we can see
where we are going because the scriptures are telling us about
it. We must be
like Abraham and believe in Jesus if we wish to be among the ones who
are
called.
If we are of
the faith of Abraham
we will be like Abraham and when Jesus calls us, we will obey and do
what He
commands. Each time Abraham heard Jesus speak he believed Him
and obeyed His
voice. Remember, Jesus once said that, "My sheep
hear My voice, and
I know them, and they follow Me" (John
For Abraham, following Jesus
required him to do that work of splitting the altar wood for the
sacrifice of
his son and taking it to the place of sacrifice. It caused
him to make that
offering. We must be like Abraham and take up our cross and
follow Jesus.
If we are of the called, we will keep listening to His word (We will keep studying it) and we will meet our covenant requirements. When we hear Him commanding us to follow Him to where we have never been before, we will be like Abraham and go there. If we hear Him speak and refuse to act on His word, then we do not have the faith of Abraham.
Jesus knows before we are born whether or not we will have the faith of Abraham. If He sees us having Abraham's faith and He sees us being obedient, then He will give us credit for righteousness when He first calls us. The Potter will have foreseen what the clay's faith and love will be and we will have been predestined for eternal life.
Having a home (an abode) with God
is the promise. That promise is only made to those who love
Him. Only
those who
love Him with obedience will receive the promise.
James
included Abraham's example
when he spoke of faith and works and said, "Even
so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself"
(James
As James said, the Scripture was fulfilled.
Jesus is speaking to us
through James just as He speaks through Abraham. Jesus said
that the promise is
to those who obey His voice. We must show our love for Him by
obeying
His
voice.
Paul said that we are saved by grace, through faith, but he also said that we have been created in Christ for good works that He has prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Works can't save us. We are justified by faith but it must be a faith that believes like Abraham believed. It must be a faith that believes and obeys God's word.
Because Abraham obeyed God's voice, God's gospel promise of everlasting life to all nations would come through his Seed. We are saved through a living faith. If our faith does not believe and obey God's word with action then our faith is dead. We can't be justified by a dead faith. When Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow Him, He expects us to do that work.
Abraham met
the requirement of
having a circumcised heart when he offered his best to God.
God is telling us
the same thing. He is telling us that we must carry our cross
and place
ourselves on the altar as our spiritual sacrifice to God.
I am not a
theologian, just a
Christian trying to hear Jesus as He speaks of His cross. As
a retired engineer
with over a half-century of Bible study, some of it is just beginning
to sink
in. Those Old Testament stories really were written for our
instruction (Romans
15:4). Within the last ten years or so, I have come to
realize how God
caused
some Old Testament true stories to happen to show us copies of our
spiritual
story. He caused them to come about and to be written in the
Old Testament
scriptures to give us the same lessons that He would state plainly in
the New
Testament scriptures.
The old stories teach nothing new being required for salvation that we can't read in the New Testament. They give us the same requirements in earthly story form that the New Testament scriptures are telling us about spiritually. If we are confused with the spiritual statements of the New Testament, we need to study the old earthly stories. We need to study them anyway, so that we can know that, "JESUS IS LORD".
Remember,
Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables
but He explains everything privately (To those who will bother to read
it with
open hearts) to His disciples (Matthew, chapter 13). We need to
be sure to come near and listen to Jesus as He explains the meaning of
His parables to His disciples. If we only hear Him speaking in
parables, we will never understand the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven.
You will
notice that I have used
the New American Standard translation for the copied scriptures in this
book.
You may wish to also read the same scriptures from the
translation that you
normally use.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
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