Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Why had Isaac not been sacrificed?

This famous incident was also about something that Abraham could not see, or at least could not see very well in his time. Why had Isaac not been sacrificed? The sins of Abraham and his family were still there. How could a holy and just God overlook them? Well, a substitute was offered, a ram. But was it the ram’s blood that took away the debt of the firstborn? No.
Many years later, in those same mountains, another firstborn Son was stretched out on the wood to die. But there on Mount Calvary, when the beloved Son of God cried out “My God, My God- why hast Thou forsaken Me?” there was no voice from heaven announcing deliverance. Instead, God the Father paid the price in silence. Why? The true substitute for Abraham’s son was God’s only Son, Jesus, who died to bear our punishment. “For Christ died for sin once for all, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Paul understood the true meaning of Isaac’s story when he deliberately applied its language to Jesus: “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, Dutton, 2009, pg. 17

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