Over the last several Sundays we have been tracing the story of Abraham from the pages of the Book of Genesis. One of the most dramatic episodes in his life is recorded in Genesis 22 where, under direct orders from the Lord, Abraham journeyed to the land of Moriah and offered his only son as a sacrifice. However, a strange thing happened in the very course of the sacrifice. The angel of the Lord stopped the patriarch in his tracks, and God provided a substitute sacrifice in the form of a ram.

This incredible episode is taken up in the New Testament and used in two marvelous ways. First, it presents us with a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, whom God the Father provided as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And then, the obedience of Abraham, born out of a heart of faith and trust in the promise of God, is set forth as an example of what saving faith does. Abraham, then, is the prime example of how God freely justifies sinners apart from their works solely upon the basis of Christ’s imputed righteousness. But, he is also an example of how the same faith in Christ that freely justifies the sinner also bears spiritual fruit–the fruit of love and obedience.