The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than
we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour
down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our
conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy
to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our
Lord. Amen
13 For the promise, that he should be the
heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the
law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because
the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore
it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure
to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which
is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (Romans 4:13-16)
In
our discussion of the Types of Christ found, primarily, in the Old Testament,
the conclusion is unavoidable that most are in the very presumed genealogical
line of Christ. Adam was the first man and, therefore, father of all according
to the flesh just as Christ is the firstborn of the Kingdom of God. Seth was
the father of the Semites of which the children of Promise (Israel) and the
Children of the Law and Flesh (Hagar/Ishmael) are descended. Rachab, Boaz,
Ruth, and David are also in that same genealogical family line. Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph and others shared that line as well in a more immediate sense. So a
beautifully painted mural of Christ begins to emerge as we study these faded
types of that Masterpiece which is Christ. Today we will undertake to study the
ways in which Abraham is a type of Christ in both his life and calling.
Our
ancient father, Abraham, speaks to us from the dust of the earth and from the
more articulate pages of Holy Scripture. It is a story of a promised Redeemer
first revealed eastward in Eden, confirmed in the arrested sacrifice of Isaac
on Mount Moriah, and fulfilled and consummated on the brow of a rugged hill
called Golgotha (also Mt Moriah) by the only Begotten Son of God. The account
given of Abraham is a story that is not a parable, but a true-to-life story of
a man whose entire life was under the Providential and predestined will of
Almighty God. It is true that God reveals Himself to us often through the lives
of His people. What aspect of the nature of God is being revealed to others through
your life, dear Reader?
Neither
shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father
of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding
fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And
I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in
their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. (Gen 17:5-7) Before ever there was a called-out
People of God, Abraham was called and chosen to be the progenitor of, not the
fleshly seed, but the Promised (or spiritual ) Seed of the coming Redeemer.
Christ, too, was called and appointed as the Savior when there was no world, no
sun or moon, and no people to populate the world that God would create. Christ
accepted that awful role as the Lamb of God in the Hall and Council of Heaven
in Eternity past.
It is interesting to note that God made
Abraham the Father of Many Nations before there was yet a single nation to
qualify for the role. Christ also is the everlasting Father who was so
designated before the foundations of the world. For unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6) The
everlasting Father suggests that Christ was Father of His people
before there were any to be father of. This demonstrates the amazing
Providence, Foreknowledge, and Predestined Will of God active from before the
worlds were made in eternity past. Abram means `high father' in the Hebrew. His
name was changed by God to Abraham meaning high father of multitudes.
The
life of Abraham's son, Isaac, was spared by a lamb caught in the
thicket.(Genesis 22:13) That lamb was a foreshadow of Christ's sacrifice. The
life of Barabbas was spared by Christ when Barabbas was caught in his crimes.
Christ died in place of Barabbas just as Christ died in place of Isaac, and you
and me. So you believe that you are good and righteous? Christ died for a
hardened murderer in the same way He died for YOU.
Remember that animal that suffered the first death on earth after Adam sinned?
Adam and Eve were naked, just as the sins of you and me make us naked to God's
view. There must needs be a covering for our sins to save us the reproach of
God and man: Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make
coats of skins, and clothed them. (Gen 3:21) An innocent
animal had to die to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve, and the Lamb of God
had to die to cover the sins of you and me. God made a promise in the distant
dews and damps of Eden: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen 3:15) That seed of the woman (not of
man but of Mary) would be the promised Redeemer through the lineage of
Abraham. Abraham, too, sojourned for a time in Egypt just as the presumed
parents of Jesus had taken Him into Egypt to sojourn until the wrath of Herod
had expired. That Promise made to Abraham of a blessed Seed is the same promise
realized in Christ. It is not the seed of the flesh that is blessed by God, but
the children who have received and believed the Promise (the spiritual Seed).
That Promise has nothing to do with race or tribe, but with the treasures of
the heart in Christ. They which are the children of the flesh (neither
Jews, Hebrews, Greek or others), these are not the children of God: but
the children of the promise (those who believe upon the name of Jesus
Christ whether Jew or Gentile) are counted for the seed. (Romans
9:8)
Abraham
served as king, priest and prophet in his own family; so is Christ King,
Priest, and Prophet of His Church.
Abraham and Sarah erred in not waiting upon the promise of God. They were
childless in old age. Sarah gave her maidservant to Abraham by which he might
have an offspring. That was not the will of God! That child of Hagar (the
mother by law of the firstborn) was not the child of Promise. Ishmael was the
child of the law and of the flesh. So God gave Sarah conception of that Promised
Child in Isaac – the Seed of Promise which came, like Christ, through the
agency of a miracle.
You will remember that Abraham cast out Hagar
(the mother of the firstborn in the eyes of the law) and Ishmael (the seed of
the flesh) just as Christ cast out the legal covenant and fleshly seed from His
Church. For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a
bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born
after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an
allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in
Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her
children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us
all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth
and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children
than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless
what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of
the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then,
brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Gal
4:22-31)
I pray that you, Reader, will see the
profundity of promise verified in these choice verses. Hagar is referred to in
the Hellenized text as Agar. Hagar represents the Jewish legalist as well as
the Moslem legalist, and all other legalist. Sarah represents the mother of
Faith. Isaac, and you and I, as believers, are children of the promise made
free in Christ. Those who are the children of fleshly desires and motivations
persecute those of us of faith. In the USA, that persecution has started as a
subtle hushing of the voice of faith and conscience. It has recently grown
beyond that subtlety and is manifested in the arm of the law to stop Christian
worship.
Abraham is called the heir of the world. Christ is the consummate heir of both
heavenly and earthly power. Are you sincerely a child of the Promise?
