“By faith Abraham, when he was tried offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:17-1917By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:17‑19)). The presence of sin in this world shows itself in its results and effects of dishonor to God, and of sorrow and toil for man all his days, with death at the end to be followed by judgment afterward. But it has given God occasion to reveal Himself in grace in the person of His beloved Son, not only with a view to the final restoring of all things by Jesus Christ now hidden in the heavens of which God has spoken by the prophets from the beginning, but also that the fruit of the Spirit and of faith might be fully developed in those who were once sinners, saved by grace and standing in righteousness of faith, approved of God in Christ. It is indeed wonderful that, after all man's sad history set before us in Old Testament scripture and now closed up at the cross, the righteousness which is of God by faith of Jesus Christ should be unto all (in presentation) while effective upon all them that believe. But God delights to conduct the believing soul, now accepted of Him, to far greater spiritual elevation than any to which unfallen man could ever have been advanced, and develops in him fruits of such excellence as would have been impossible in a world in which everything answered to the will of its Creator. It is good to notice then that righteousness which is of faith, and essential for subsistence before God, is first revealed in Gen. 15:66And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:6) in connection with the earliest and most elementary exercise of the principle of faith in the beginning of Abraham's pathway, while the apostle Paul in writing to the Romans and Galatians carefully maintains the same connection (Rom. 4:33For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:3), Gal. 3:66Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. (Galatians 3:6)).
But James pleads with equal necessity as to the saints, and with equal wisdom as an inspired teacher, for the principle of justification by works, and refers to the latter and more fully matured example of faith quoted above, justifying his title of the “Friend of God,” referring indeed to the righteousness of faith as an already revealed principle. “And the scripture was fulfilled” (James 2:2323And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23)). The title must have had its origin in connection with Gen. 22 and not Gen. 15. Had it been otherwise what confusion there would have been for our souls? The earlier scripture shows us our God can accept and justify a sinner that believes. The latter shows us what God can make of a justified man under His own special training. The great central doctrine of Paul's gospel has for its foundation in fact before God the death and resurrection of Christ, “delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.”
Gen. 22 sets before us in a figurative way the only-begotten Son of the Father in the full enjoyment of the Father's love, in the world the place of man's responsibility, and in His devoted obedience to the Father going far beyond all that could possibly have been required of man as such merely. He became obedient unto death. Righteousness, obedience, His love to the Father and His love to us, took Him into the very place where sin had brought us. Then came the intervention of divine power. He “was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father” for the perfect display of righteousness in His present exalted position on the Father's throne. These blessed truths are (of necessity) but imperfectly shadowed forth in the type. Instead of the glorious ascent from the lowest parts of the earth to the Father's throne, there is angelic interposition that the hand of Abraham might be stayed, and what would otherwise have been an unfinished sacrifice, completed and accepted by that which God Himself had provided.
Instead of the revelation of accomplished righteousness in which every believer stands accepted, there Was the oath of God pointing Abraham still onward to Him who should be received (not in figure but actually) from the dead, in life, and glory, and blessing. Without doubt God had His own delight in all this. The thoughts of God were concerning His own beloved One: the divine counsels and plans could only be fully accomplished by one who could say, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” But there is another side to this: it was in God's heart to bring blessing to man by the very One in whom He Himself shall be glorified. Just as Abraham was required to surrender Isaac through whom alone the promises already received could be made good; so would the godly in Israel when the Lord Jesus actually came to them have to give up an earthly Messiah that they might receive a heavenly Christ and for the time abandon all hope of earthly blessing and glory in display here, receiving instead the Holy Ghost who should bring heavenly things to their knowledge and communicate to their hearts all that concerned Christ risen and exalted in the heavens. It was not until the Spirit came that they were at all able to appreciate this change from earthly things to heavenly and from a Christ living and walking amongst them to Christ glorified and known only by faith. Hence the insistence upon this by the Spirit in this Epistle to the Hebrews, and especially in chap. 11.
The twelve apostles seemed to enter more readily into the spirit of their Master's teaching when they were first in His company, than at the close of His ministry when dullness and incapacity to understand characterized them. They were disinclined too; the cross and the separation which death would bring were most unwelcome to them. Compare John 1 with its rapturous confessions of faith in Him. “We have found Him” etc. with chapters 13-21. “Show us the Father.” “How, is it that thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world?” “Why cannot I follow Thee now,” etc. Abraham had honored God before by faith and obedience, he had been for a long time a fruit-bearing plant. But now as the result of the skilful pruning and purging of the divine husbandman (John 15:22Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (John 15:2)), fruit of such exceeding excellence had been produced that God was glorified and man could be blessed.
The good olive tree (Rom. 11:2424For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:24)) was here seen at its best in its “fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man” Precious in itself as an example of faith, it was most applicable to the Hebrew saints partakers of a heavenly calling, and accentuates the contrast between the Jewish and Christian positions. The former is limited to earth; the latter connected with a Christ seen by faith in heaven itself, crowned with glory and honor; so that Isaac passes into the heavenly position typically to whom the Servant conducts the Bride chosen of the Father. G. S. B.