| Introduction What we are celebrating today, and celebrate every Sunday when we gather together for worship, is the coming back to life of the Savior of the world. Christ is risen from the dead. He has defeated the last enemy, death itself. He was vindicated. God accepted his sacrifice. Without the resurrection of Christ, we would be of all people most pitiable. But Christ is risen, and because of that we can sing, "'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 'O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?'" "Life conquered death. Jesus Christ has won it." Keith Green "The three sad days have quickly sped; he rises glorious from the dead: all glory to our risen Head! Allelulia! He closed the yawning gates of hell; the bars from heavn'n's high portals fell…. Alleluia!" Latin hymn "Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o'er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, And He lives forever, with His saints to reign." Robert Lowry You may be thinking that this is not an Easter passage, but in one way or another every passage in the Bible is an Easter passage. And Abraham had a lot to do with Easter if by Easter you mean the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. As a matter of fact, Abraham looked forward to Easter. Abraham believed in the promise of the Messiah (the Christ) that was going to deliver him from his sins through his death and resurrection. Thus, Abraham is the pattern for our faith. So, I want us to learn from good, old Abe! I. The Faith of Abraham Described, 13-22. A. God promised to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that in him all the nations of the world would be blessed, 13-15. Gen. 12:1-3 – Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 1. In a different place, God tells Abraham to look up at the sky and count the stars and to look at the seashore and count the grains of sand and says, "Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand in the seashore." 2. This promise was given to him, not because he was a good man (he was a pagan idolater at the time), but because God was going to transform Abraham. a. This promise was going to be received by believing, not doing. b. Not through the righteousness of doing what is right, but through the righteousness that God provides through faith. 3. As a matter of fact, Paul says that there is no promise where there is an attempt to earn the promise by doing things, 14. 4. And the reason for that is that no one can really do what God requires in order to get the promises on his or her own because God requires perfection, 15. a. No one is perfect, 3:10-18. b. The law of God confirms that as we try to obey it. Rom. 7:7-12 – What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bringdeath. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. B. Since no one can do the things that God requires to receive the promise, God does it on their behalf, 16-17. 1. Because God does it, then it is sure, certain, guaranteed for those who have the same faith of Abraham. a. Abraham is our father in the faith. b. When he looked at the stars on that evening thousands of years ago, he saw us here today, and every person who has believed or will believe in Jesus Christ for his/her salvation. 2. Abraham believed God and that was counted to him as the reason he should be saved, 17; 4:3-5. a. He believed in the God who gives life to the dead and is all-powerful to the point of being able to call into existence things that don't exist. b. A God who is able to bring life from a dead womb and who is able to bring life out of a tomb. c. It's starting to sound more like Easter, isn't it? C. Contrary to his circumstances (contrary to hope), in hope of receiving the promise of God, Abraham believed in whom God was and in what God was going to do, 18-19. 1. How is it contrary to his circumstances? He was about 100 years old and his wife was about 90! 2. Talk about biological clock ticking! D. Though Abraham did not waver in his faith, he did have his struggles, 20-21. 1. He had the Hagar and Ishmael issue. 2. He suggested that the promise be brought about through Eliezer, his senior servant. 3. But even in that, he was confident that God was going to bring his promise to pass (God didn't need Abraham's help). a. Abraham persevered in his faith because he was fully convinced that God could and would do what he promised. Heb. 11:17-19 – By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. b. Paul had the same conviction. 2 Tim. 1:12 – For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. c. Did God do what he promised to Abraham he would do? YES!!! Gal. 3:16, 26-29 – Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ…. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Rev. 5:11-13 – Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!" And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" E. So, it was this belief that God was who he said he was and that he was going to do what he said he was going to do that caused Abraham to be accepted by God, 22. 1. Why spend so much time on Abraham and his faith? 2. Why describe his faith so carefully? 3. Because God preserved this story and this faith transaction in Abraham's life so that we could understand how God saves his people, 23-24a. II. The Faith of Abraham Applied, 23-25. B. Why is this necessary? Why salvation? 1. Explain the first two elements of the Gospel: creation in perfection the Fall. a. The fall brought separation from God. b. The fall brought sin into our lives and made us all sinners. Rom. 5:12 – Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… 2. So, we don't have any righteousness (rightness) of our own. 3. Therefore, we can't approach God and are condemned to eternal separation from God. 4. So, God provided a way in which justice is met and we can be declared to be perfect in God's eyes Faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. a. Through faith in Christ, the same righteousness that was reckoned, declared, imputed to Abraham is declared to be ours. b. What is that righteousness? What is that perfection that God accepts? It is the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ secured on the cross and accepted in the resurrection, 24b-25. c. In the resurrection God declares loud and clear for all the world to hear YES! I ACCEPT THE WORK OF MY SON ON BEHALF OF HIS PEOPLE. 5. Christ died for our transgressions. a. We tend to think of the Romans and the Jews as those who crucified Jesus. b. Movies have depicted the Roman soldiers nailing Jesus to the cross while Jewish leaders watch it with pleasure. c. "They crucified Jesus," we think. d. In reality, we too were part of that gruesome act – we too actively nailed Jesus to the cross. e. It was our sins that put him there. f. It was our sins that separated Jesus from his Father. g. He was delivered up for our offenses, 4:25 – see Is. 53 "I saw one hanging on a tree In agony and blood Who fixed His loving eyes on me As near His cross I stood And never till my dying breath Will I forget that look It seemed to charge me with His death Though not a word He spoke My conscience felt and owned the guilt And plunged me in despair I saw my sins His blood had spilt And helped to nail Him there But with a second look He said "I freely all forgive this blood is for your ransom paid I died that you might live." Thus while His death my sin displays For all the world to view Such is the mystery of grace It seals my pardon too With pleasing grief and mournful joy My spirit now is filled That I should such a life destroy Yet live by Him I killed." John Newton 6. But on that glorious third day, Christ was risen from the dead for our justification – for us to be declared perfect in the sight of God, 25. C. The result of all of this. 2. New living (not just new life), 6:4.
The faith of Abraham, better yet, the Christ in whom Abraham believed is our only comfort in life and in death. This faith tells us that we are not our own because we now belong to Christ on account of his life, death, and resurrection. Christ is risen! Because he is alive, we too are alive with him.
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