Called To A Living Faith
By
John Orlando
Westminster
Theological Seminary, May 2, 2007
Have you ever been in a situation that was just so counterintuitive and defied common sense, but you had no choice but to press ahead anyway, and maybe you cried out “Why God?!”
As seminarians, I am certain that we can relate to some of that. I mean, doesn’t it seem completely counterintuitive to turn your whole world and life upside down so that you can subject yourself to the torment of Hebrew and Greek and classes like Gospel Communication (J), not to mention the financial burden that it will put you under? It would if you were not absolutely convinced that this one who saved you has called you to sacred mission, and He will be with you as He teaches you what it really means to walk by faith.
In our text today we find Abraham, who has his whole world turned upside down as God tells him to offer his son as burnt offering to God. Of course, we know how the story ends, and Abraham’s obedience now serves as an everlasting example of what a living faith looks like. While Abraham’s faith is to be commended, and while the title of this sermon is “Called to a Living Faith,” we must keep in mind that the hero of the story is not Abraham, but the LORD who provides what we most desperately need: salvation. In light of all that He has done for us then, I want to examine the truth that [Proposition]: our great God and Savior calls us to a living faith, where we are completely abandoned to the one who saves us and is faithful to all of His promises. I want us to look at three scenes in our text today that help bring out this truth. The first scene that we are brought to in our text is:
I. God’s Test (vv. 1-12)
A. The Nature of the Test: When we examine Abraham’s life prior to this test, we discover that he was man of incredible faith, with the possible exception of the incident with Hagar that produced Ishmael. After that incident, we recall in Genesis 17 that God tells Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son to be named Isaac, and it was this son that was to be the heir, not Ishmael. God indeed makes good on His promise as Sarah conceives and gives birth to Isaac, and eventually Ishmael had to be cast out of Abraham’s household. The years passed by, and Isaac became a young man. All seemed to be going so well! Abraham had his child of promise, and they were living happily ever after! But then, as we turn our attention to verses 1-2 of our text, God tells Abraham the unthinkable: sacrifice Isaac! And note particularly how the text is careful to say that this is the son whom Abraham loves. How could this be! Can God really be serious? How would Abraham respond?
B. The Response to the Test: Well, in v. 3 we are told that Abraham rose early. Scripture does not tell us why Abraham rose early, but I believe along with other commentators that we can infer that this shows Abraham’s desire to obey God immediately, and that is just how it should be. God’s commands are not given for us to mull over in our heads. They are not wishy-washy, take it or leave it “propositions” spoken by an impotent heavenly bystander. When the Sovereign King of the universe speaks He requires nothing less than our immediate compliance, and that is the nature of faith: it obeys.
That
is not to say that such faith and obedience is ever without any angst.
We recall our Lord’s desperation in the
To really get a feel for this though, I want us to take a few moments to try and get inside Abraham’s skin so to speak. As noted already, verse 3 tells us how Abraham rose early, and we also note that he saddled his donkey and cut the wood for the sacrifice. While we can infer that Abraham’s rising early speaks to his immediate compliance, I don’t think it’s a stretch to suppose that Abraham had a restless night of sleep. And then we note that this 100 year old man who has servants nevertheless saddles his own donkey and cuts his own wood. Again, no reason in the text is given for this, but what must Abraham have been thinking as he swung the ax and chopped the very wood that he knew would be used in the slaughter of his son?
We note further that Abraham was told
to go to the
And as they stopped to sleep at night, you can picture Abraham sitting there by the campfire, gazing at the son that he loves…“that’s my boy…I love him so much!” Then as they went to sleep, you can picture Abraham laying on his back and gazing up at the stars, which surely had to be an amazing sight in the countryside, and as he did maybe he even recalled the promise that God had made to him to make his offspring more numerous than the stars in the sky; yet now he is told to sacrifice Isaac.
While we are not certain as to when Abraham contemplated the promise that God made to him, we do know that he did indeed think along those lines at some point. Heb11:17-19 bears this out as it states, “17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
Then in verse 6 of our text, as Abraham and Isaac are about to go make the offering, Isaac asks the simple question “where’s the lamb for the burnt offering?” Surely these words had to pierce right through Abraham. I can just picture the beads of sweat on Abraham’s brow as he answers simply, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." And the agony is far from over! When they get to the place of sacrifice, we are told in verse 9 that Abraham builds the altar, and arranges the wood on it, and he binds Isaac and lays him upon the altar of sacrifice. His heart had to be pounding! This is the moment of truth! As Abraham reaches out his hand for the knife to slay his son, the voice of the angel of the Lord, God Himself, tells Abraham to stop, and says simply, “now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." This calls attention to:
C. The Reason for the Test: Ultimately, the test was not to provide information to our sovereign and omniscient God, rather, it was for Abraham’s benefit as God condescends and interacts with Abraham in a relational way. Abraham had proven to himself and to the rest of us, what true living faith was, and his story is now forever enshrined in Scripture for our edification.
We also note the words “seeing you have not withheld your son…” This test was directly related to Abraham and his relationship with Isaac. This was the son that he loved. This was the miraculous child of promise upon whom God had promised His blessing. God had done precisely what He said He would, and Abraham had received precisely what he wanted to receive. Thus, I believe there was a very real temptation for Abraham to focus all of his affection and hope on Isaac to the exclusion of God. In this test then, God asserts His ownership over Abraham, and over all that he has been given, and proves to Abraham again that the supreme object of his affections and hope were to be focused on God alone. So when God tells Abraham that he had not withheld his son from him, I believe that an issue of idolatry could very well be in view. This reminds me of the words of our Lord in Matt 10:37-39 when He said, “37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
That sounds easy enough, but let me assure you beloved, it is indeed challenging. We are adept at allowing something else to take first place in our hearts, and we hold those things tightly in our fists. The thing that has replaced God as the supreme object of our affections; the thing that we are holding onto tightly, refusing to give over to God, is the thing that is ruling the affections of our heart. So, let me ask you, what are you “withholding” from God? Is God alone your all consuming passion, or is there another “god” that you are looking to as the source of your hope? Our great God and Savior has called us to a living faith; which involves us denying ourselves, and following Him; loving Him more than anything or anyone.
This test of Abraham also teaches other things as well which are alluded to in Scripture:
1.
James 2:17-24 specifically references this incident to prove both that
faith without works is dead, and also that true justifying faith is demonstrated
by our works, as Martin Luther once commented, “we are justified by
faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.”
Sadly this great doctrine is under attack today, even within
Reformed circles. So, let me state
briefly: justification is a
one time instantaneous divine act where
by grace alone and through faith alone the undeserving sinner rests his entire
hope of heaven on the perfect works of Christ alone, and at that moment the
righteousness of Christ imputed to him, and he is declared both “not guilty”
and “righteous” by God forever,
all to God’s glory alone. Our
works are in no way meritorious, but only demonstrate that our faith was indeed
a legitimate, genuine, or “saving” faith.
2. The need for tests and trials – In school tests are used to measure what we have learned and to help us grow in our knowledge of the course material. It is the same thing spiritually. Trials and tests show us the nature of our faith and help us grow, as Peter tells us in 1 Pet 1:6-8, “you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
3. Lastly, and maybe most surprisingly, I believe God is teaching us that He is indeed our Provider; our great and mighty Savior who is faithful to all of His promises, who has indeed called us to a living faith. This takes us to the second scene for us to examine:
II. God’s Provision: Verses 13-14
We have journeyed with Abraham to this place of sacrifice, and now we come to the most dramatic scene, to this place that Abraham simply calls “The LORD will provide.” The first thing to notice is:
A. God’s Sovereignty: Notice that the ram did not appear in the bush by accident! God’s sovereignty is so pervasive that it extends even to the beasts of the field! Think about that. God had so ordered the steps of this ram by such a sweet and amazing providence so at to ensure that this ram was in the precise place that it was supposed to be at the precise time it was supposed to be, caught in the precise thicket it was supposed to be caught in. You see beloved, God’s plan of redemption is not a Divine afterthought, but was conceived and implemented before time even began, and accomplished at the precise time it was supposed to be, as Paul tells us in Gal 4:4-6, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law...” Just as God then sent this ram to be the substitute for Isaac at just the right time, so our substitute, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, was sent at the precise time set by God to redeem those given to Him by the Father. We can also take solace in the fact that everything that comes into our lives: every trial, every test, every good thing, every bad thing, has been ordained by God and is being governed by Him according to His wisdom and for His own purposes, and ultimately that purpose for God’s people is our conformity to Christ. Secondly we see that:
B. God is our Provider: Abraham names this place “The LORD will Provide.” F.F. Bruce notes that the Hebrew verb here encompasses both seeing and providing, and Spurgeon states, “Our heavenly Father sees our need, and with divine foresight of love prepares the supply.” While we can think of God’s provision in terms of needs such as food and clothing, I’m convinced that the Provision ultimately in view here is not so much about those types of needs as it is about the salvation that only God Himself provides. In the context of our passage Isaac needs to be delivered from death so to speak, and as we noted earlier, Hebrews 11:17-19 makes mention of the fact that Abraham anchored his hope upon his belief that God would raise Isaac from the dead, and that “figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
And how did God do this for Abraham? He sovereignly provides the ram to be sacrificed, as the text says, “instead of his son.” Abraham then names the place “The Lord will provide” because God graciously provides a substitute to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac!
C. Dramatic Pictures: As we contemplate this text, we discover that it serves to demonstrate not only what a true living faith looks like, but also gives us a vivid and dramatic picture of what God Himself would do in the salvation of sinners. Here is just a sampling:
1. Abraham named the place where this
sacrifice took place “the Lord will Provide, and v. 14 says, “On the mount
of the LORD it shall be provided." The ultimate mount where the LORD
provided is
2. As Abraham is the father who was wiling to offer his one and only son whom he loved, so we read where God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
3. As Isaac was the obedient son who willingly submitted to be placed on the altar of death, so Christ submits to the Father’s will, and willingly lays down His life on the altar of sacrifice to pay the full penalty for the sins of His people.
4. While Abraham was prevented from offering his son, and Isaac the son was spared, Rom 8:32 tells us that God “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.”
5. As Isaac was bound and unable to deliver himself from the altar of death, so man is bound in sin, unable to deliver himself from the altar of death. We were dead in sins, but by the perfect work of Christ on our behalf, God raises us up!
6. And just as a substitute was sacrificed in the place of Isaac, so Christ comes and offers Himself as our substitute, who bears the full wrath of God in our place.
We come now to the final scene:
III. God’s Reward: Gen 22:16-18
A. Covenant of Grace: Here God confirms the covenant of grace that he had established with Abraham years earlier, which can be found in Gen 12, 15, and 17.
1. Reformed theology distinguishes between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works promises life on the condition of perfect obedience. When Adam and Eve failed to obey, they and their posterity incurred the sentence of death. The covenant of grace on the other hand entails the free offer of salvation by Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfilled the covenant of works and stands as our Mediator, and also provides for the continued sanctifying work of the Spirit in the lives of believers.
2. In Gal 3:6-8, 16-18, the Apostle Paul provides a wonderful commentary on this very passage and how Christ is indeed the offspring mentioned in v. 18, and what we discover is that Christ alone is both the central figure of this covenant, and He is the one who fulfills it perfectly. And it is only those who are of faith who are the true sons of Abraham and are blessed along with him, being declared righteous by virtue of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to them by grace alone, through faith alone, to God’s glory alone. As for this covenant, we note some important things in passing about it:
1. Unilateral in Nature – v. 16: “By myself I have sworn…” God Himself both initiates the covenant and fulfills the terms of the covenant.
2. Abundant in Nature – v. 17: “multiply your offspring…” God’s sovereign plan of redemption encompasses, as Revelation 7:9 makes clear, “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…”
3. Triumphant in Nature – v.17 “offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies” God’s kingdom is indeed advancing, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and as Paul tells us in 1 Cor 15:24-27, Christ is “destroying every rule and every authority and power...” and “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet."
4. Universal in Nature – v. 18 “all the nations…” Both Jew and Gentile.
5. Redemptive in Nature –
v. 18 “in your offspring” referring to the person and work of Christ and
what He will do in and through His people. In this covenant God is not pointing
us to a little sliver of land in the
IV. Conclusion
A. So today we have seen God’s Test of Abraham, and how he demonstrated what a true, living faith looks like. Just as Abraham did not withhold his son from God, so we must keep God as the center of our affections, and not withhold anything from Him.
Also we see how Abraham trusted God despite the completely counterintuitive nature of the task at hand, knowing that God kept His promises. But, we have so much more than Abraham had! He looked forward to what we have in Christ! So you can be take heart and be encouraged when trials and tests come into your life because you know that God is working all things to grow you in the faith and conform you to the image of Christ.
B. We have seen God’s Provision, and how He saved Isaac as it were from death, and how this all pictured what God would do in sending His Son to be the substitute for His people to bear the penalty for their sin, and who was raised gloriously from the dead for our justification!
C. And finally we saw God’s Reward, and He how confirmed the blessings of the covenant of grace to Abraham, which all point to the perfect and finished work of Christ, and how those who are of faith, as a result of the perfect work of Christ, receive an inheritance that can never perish or fade away.
D. We may find ourselves in situations that are completely counterintuitive and defy common sense. We may feel the weight and burden of a test or trial, but we, like Abraham, look to our hero, the Lord of Glory; this one who has saved us and fulfilled all of His promises, and who indeed has called us to a living faith. In light of the incredible mercies of God beloved, let us offer ourselves as living sacrifices, completely abandoned to the King of kings and Lord of lords who is faithful to all of His promises and has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Amen.