Primary Bible Passages: Genesis 15 and Genesis 22

Key Verse: Genesis 15:6

Memory Verse: John 8:56

Preparatory Daily Bible Readings:

• Monday: Genesis 15; Genesis 22
• Tuesday: I Peter 2:24; Hebrews 13:12; Matthew 1:21-23; John 1:29
• Wednesday: Isaiah 53
• Thursday: Mark 1:11; John 3:16; Psalm 40:7-8; John 10:17-18
• Friday: I Samuel 16:7; Revelation 2:23; Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 139:1-13
• Saturday: James 2:17-23; Ephesians 2:10; Romans 4; Romans 10:10; Galatians 3:6
• Sunday: I Corinthians 2:10; Galatians 3:8; I Corinthians 15:1-4; John 8:56

I. THE OFFERING OF ISAAC. (Genesis 22:1-14)

A. As if the wait for the arrival of this child was not trying enough, God   commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a human sacrifice. (Genesis 22:1-2)

1. God commanded Abraham to take Isaac, who at the time was a boy old enough to carry a load of wood (Genesis 22:6) and converse intelligently regarding sacrifices. (Genesis 22:7) By conservative estimate, at the time of the sacrifice of Genesis 22, Isaac would have been at least a teenager. There are highly respected scholars who believe that Isaac was fully grown at this time, and that he could have easily resisted the aged patriarch. By quietly following his father, fully acquiescing, taking the wood on his own shoulder, and in fully submitting himself without resistance, he pre-figured the Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly submitted to the will of the Father in all things, even to the laying down of His life. (Psalm 40:7-8; John 10:17-18)

2. In this passage, the word "love" is first seen in the Bible. (Genesis 22:2) It is noteworthy that in this "first mention" love is not used in connection with a man and his wife, a mother and her child, or even of God to man or man to God. The word is used to speak of the affections of a father to his son.

In a subtle way, the Bible is announcing that there is no greater relationship and no greater affection than the affection of the divine Father for His divine Son. (Mark 1:11; John 3:16)

3.Abraham took Isaac to the land of Moriah where he erected an altar. (Genesis 22:2;9) As they journeyed there, Isaac recognized the fact that they had everything needed for the sacrifice except the sacrificial animal. (Genesis 22:7) Isaac asked Abraham about this matter and Abraham’s answer in Genesis 22:8 is one of the most striking verses in all of the scriptures. He said to Isaac, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."

B.God did provide himself a lamb, in a two-fold way.

1. First, as Abraham laid Isaac on the altar and prepared to take his life, "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." (Genesis 22:13) In a very literal sense, God provided a substitutionary lamb to take the place of Isaac in the sacrifice.

2. Second, and most important of all, God later personally became the sacrificial lamb of God as He went to the Cross and gave Himself in the person of Jesus Christ as the ultimate and only true sacrifice for sins.(I Peter 2:24) After the sacrifice there with Isaac, Abraham named that place Jehovah-jireh meaning "In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." (Genesis 22:14) On one end of this mountain, Solomon later built the Temple. On another part of it is Calvary, the place of a skull, where Jesus was crucified as God’s eternal sacrifice for sin. (Hebrews 13:12) Jesus on the Cross literally fulfilled Abraham’s prediction. Notice that Abraham used the future tense. Abraham was aware that the substitution of an innocent lamb in the place of guilty Isaac was merely a foreshadow of the coming sacrifice of the true Messiah in which God would personally become (provide) "himself" the lamb. There was no other way for sinners to be forgiven. Thus, John the Baptist, who realized what the Old Testament was predicting by its incessant sacrifices of innocent sheep in the place of guilty men, announced of Jesus, who was God in the flesh, (Matthew 1:21-23) "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)

3. The picture of Abraham offering an innocent sheep in the place of guilty Isaac is a clear typological preview of the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. It is the picture of substitution, the innocent taking the place of the guilty. (Isaiah 53:4-11)

II. ABRAHAM’S JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. (Romans 4)

A. Many efforts have been made to pervert the life of Abraham and to use him as an example of salvation by works.

1. James 2 is the primary text which is misused in an attempt to support the false "works for salvation" theory. James asks, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" (James 2:21)

The answer is an emphatic "yes" when it comes to justification before men, which is the issue being discussed by James. It is men who cannot see the heart, but who look only on the outward appearance. (I Samuel 16:7) As James made clear in chapter 2, verse 18, the only way one man can make his faith known to another man is by his works. When it comes to other men, "faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." (James 2:17)

2. Who would be so brazen as to insult the greatness of the God of heaven by reducing Him to the limitations of men? He "searcheth the reins and hearts." (Revelation 2:23) (Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 139:1-13) Why would anyone suppose that He could not know faith in the heart apart from works? Is He, like mortals, so blind and limited that He does not know what a person really is, on the inside, apart from any outward manifestation thereof?

3. James cited Abraham’s works, particularly his offering of Isaac, as an example of what faith in God produced and of how those works justified him before men, even we who centuries later read about those great works. It is certain that none of these works, including the offering of Isaac, were necessary to let God know that there was faith in Abraham’s heart. He’d have known it even if Abraham had never done one work.

B. There are many great messages in the life of Abraham, but neither of them equals the gravity and scope of the main message of his life, the message of justification exclusively by faith in Christ.

1. Under divine inspiration of God, (I Corinthians 2:10) the Apostle Paul discussed the justification of Abraham before God in Romans 4. He said it was exclusively by faith "without works." Consider verses 1-8. He argued that the righteousness of God was imputed or given without merit to Abraham when he believed God.

2. He further contended that to be true of all who are saved or righteous before God, for, as he continued in Romans 10:10, "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." The only way to be right with God is by faith in the finished sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Apart from one’s personal application of that sacrifice by faith, he remains lost and damned regardless of the quality or quantity, coupled with absolute sincerity, of his works. Furthermore, if such faith is present, he is saved, even if he never performs the first work.

3. However, this is not to discredit, nor discourage good works, for it is the intent of God that all of the saved abound in every good work. (Ephesians 2:10) The purpose of such works is not to procure justification before God, but rather to manifest that existing justification to all mortal observers, just as Abraham did by his offering of Isaac.

C. The factual information of the scriptures emphatically precludes the justification of Abraham before God by his offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah.

1. Remember that Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised. (Genesis 17:1) Ishmael was 13. (Genesis 17:25)

2. God had appeared to Abraham and promised a son long before Ishmael had been conceived. (Genesis 15:4) It was then that Abraham "believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6) That verse is repeatedly quoted in the New Testament in connection with the justification of Abraham before God. See Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6, and James 2:23.

3. After God’s promise of a son to Abraham, he waited for a period of time before going in to Hagar sexually.

4. Once Hagar conceived Ishmael by Abraham, it was nine months before he was born.

5. Thus, from the time of the promise of a son to Abraham, at which time he believed God and his faith was counted for righteousness, to the birth of Isaac was not less than 14 years and probably longer.

6. From the birth of Isaac to Abraham’s sacrifice of him which is recorded in Genesis 22 (and to which James refers) was at least another 12 years and probably much longer.

7. From the Genesis 15 promise of a son until the sacrifice of that son by Abraham was factually not less than 26 years; the circumstantial evidence indicates that it was longer.

8. God specifically states that Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, which was much more than a decade before his offering of Isaac.

a. Romans 4:1-8 discusses the justification of Abraham before God by faith. Romans 4:9 says "we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness."

b. Then, Romans 4:10-11 continues, "How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised."

9. It would be impossible for language to make it clearer. Abraham was justified before God while he was still uncircumcised, and he was circumcised before Isaac was ever born, which was many years prior to his offering him in Genesis 22. The facts of the Bible make it absolutely certain that Abraham was a saved man long before the offering of Isaac and that the offering of Isaac is not what justified him before God.

D. The scriptures go to great length to prove justification before God to be exclusively by faith.

1. Careful examination of Bible examples offer no support to those who would propagate salvation by works.

2. Abraham was justified before God solely because he looked forward by faith to the coming Messiah who would offer himself for sinners, and that Messiah was, and is, the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Galatians 3:8 specifically says that God preached the gospel unto Abraham, and according to I Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Listen to the Galatians text. "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."

4. That is why Jesus, who was the eternal God who was present in Abraham’s day, said in John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." Yes! By faith, Abraham "saw it." He saw the crucified, buried, and risen Christ to be the only hope for sinners and Abraham received Him by faith and became justified before God in the process, and that is what every man must see and believe in order to be saved or justified before God. (Romans 4:23-25)

1. Entzminger, Louis, Studies in Genesis, Fort Worth: The Manny Co., 1946, page 86.

2. Morris, Henry, The Genesis Record, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976, page 375.

3. Rice, John R., In the Beginning, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1975, page 359.

Isaac was no small child. He was at least a teenager; many think he was a fully grown man. As a prefigure of Christ, he went to the sacrifice of himself willingly, even carrying the wood as Christ carried his own Cross.

As they approached the place of the sacrifice, Isaac asked Abraham about the sacrificial animal. The answer of Abraham is a striking two-fold prophecy. He told Isaac that "God will provide himself a lamb." (Genesis 22:8) God literally did just that by providing a sheep caught by his horns in a thicket near where Abraham and Isaac were. Abraham, who was about to drive the knife through Isaac, released Isaac and offered the sheep in Isaac’s stead. Here is one of the Bible’s most outstanding examples of substitutionary sacrifice. This picture is often repeated in the scriptures, and invariably shows the innocent dying in the place of the guilty, a prophetic foreview of the innocent, sinless Jesus Christ dying on the Cross in the place of guilty, sinful sinners.

Not only did God provide Himself a lamb in the form of a sheep for Abraham to use in the place of Isaac, God literally came into the world and became the sacrificial lamb of God dying on the Cross. It is thus that Isaiah saw him "as a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7) and He is seen in Revelation 5:12 as "the Lamb that was slain." It was in this role that John the Baptist identified Him as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). "God himself a lamb!" What an awesome thought!

There are those who contend that justification with God is by works, and who cite Abraham’s offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah as supposed proof. Nothing could be farther from the truth than justification before God by works.

It is true that James 2 goes to considerable length in discussing faith and works, even contending that Abraham was justified by his work of offering Isaac on Mount Moriah. Indeed he was before men! Men can only see the outward appearance. They cannot see faith, which is a condition of the heart. Only God can see the heart. For anyone to be just with other men, those men must see some sort of works as outward evidence of the unseen (to men) faith of the heart. No such condition applies to God. He knows where men are, in their hearts, apart from anything they say or do. Works are what justify men before other men, but faith is what justifies men before God.

That is precisely the subject and point of Paul’s divinely inspired discussion in Romans 4. He pointed out that before God, the only way any man can be just is by faith. Apart from faith, his works are worthless. In fact, in that passage Paul said that works have absolutely no part in salvation.

Paul cited Abraham as proof. He referred to God’s appearance to Abraham in Genesis 15, at which time He preached the gospel to Abraham. At that time, he said, Abraham believed the gospel and it was counted unto him for righteousness. This occurred over 15 years before Isaac was born, long before Abraham was circumcised. Of course, Abraham was circumcised prior to the birth of Isaac. Paul thus went on to explain that Abraham was justified "Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision." (Romans 4:10)

It is an irrefutable fact that Isaac was not offered on Mount Moriah until many years later, after Abraham’s circumcision, which occurred 14 years prior to Isaac’s birth. From Paul’s divine writings, it is clear that before God, Abraham was justified by his faith long before he offered Isaac on Mount Moriah. The offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah was, like circumcision, merely an outward manifestation of the faith and position he already had with God. It was an act which justified him in the eyes of men, not God who already knew Abraham’s spiritual status.

It is beautiful to contemplate the fact that God has never had more than one plan of salvation from sin’s penalty. Men in any age are saved exactly as Abraham was, by faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham looked forward in faith to Him, (John 8:56) when He came to earth many saw him first-hand and received Him in faith, and since His earthly coming many have looked back to Him; in either case, the method is the same. Paul expressed it succinctly in Acts 16:31 when he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." That is essentially the gist of his message in Romans 4, particularly the last three verses.

2. Discuss Isaac’s age at the time of Genesis 22.

3. In his spirit and attitude toward the sacrifice, how did Isaac foreshadow Jesus Christ?

4. Discuss the first use of the word "love" in the Bible.

5. Explain how God provided a literal lamb for the Genesis 22 sacrifice.

6. How is Genesis 22:8 a statement about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross?

7. Explain Abraham’s prediction that the work of the Messiah would be fulfilled on Mount Moriah.

8. Explain the statement of John the Baptist in John 1:29.

9. Explain substitutionary sacrifice as seen in both Genesis 22 and the work of Christ on the Cross.

10. In what sense did James discuss justification in James 2?

11. Why are works essential to one’s justification before men?

12. Is the knowledge of God concerning men limited to what He hears them say and sees them do?

13. What does true faith produce in men?

14. What is the main message in the life of Abraham?

15. What role do works play in justification before God?

16. How are sinners made righteous before God?

17. What should be the role of works in the life of every believer?

18. Explain how the factual evidence of the Bible precludes the possibility that Abraham was justified before God by the offering of Isaac.