How the cross of Jesus compares with Abraham’s test
In the previous posts we have seen in Genesis 22 that God tested Abraham by commanding him to journey to a distant mountain and there sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obeyed God, to the point that he was moments away from slaying his son. At that moment God intervened and directed Abraham to a ram to sacrifice in Isaac’s place.
How is this test of Abraham thousands of years ago relevant for us today?
First, Abraham’s test resembles the Cross of Christ in too many ways to be a coincidence. Both involve the substitutionary sacrifice of a lamb who is a ram. Both involve a father giving his beloved son. And both involve a son submitting quietly to their father’s action, going like a sheep to the slaughter.
Both involve God’s provision for what man lacks. Both involve the ultimate test of a man’s life, in particular the test for obedience and surrender. And both involve a son to be sacrificed on wood.
Both involve death and resurrection (see Hebrews 11:19). Both happened on a mount in a region named Moriah, perhaps the same mountain (see 2 Chron. 3:1 and 1 Chron. 21). Like the Cross on Golgotha, the altar on Mount Moriah showed the ocean depths of God’s heart.
The Cross of Jesus is the greatest revelation of God. Given its similarity, the testing of Abraham must also be one of his greatest revelations. It was not an anomaly.
Further relevance
As he did with Abraham, God calls everyone to the same obedience and the complete surrender of what we love most. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple…. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26–27, 33).
Jesus said the most important commandment is “to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Jesus calls us to surrender in spirit every relationship and priority dear to us, to sacrifice our very selves. God calls us to sacrifice Isaac.
Differences
How does Abraham’s test differ from our similar tests? First, again, God has commanded in Scripture that no one may offer a child in sacrifice. He never intended for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and he forbids anyone today to slay a person in ritual sacrifice.
The second difference is how God communicates. When he tests you about surrendering something, he ordinarily does not speak with an audible voice as he spoke to Abraham, but rather through his written Word, your conscience, and other people and circumstances. But such a call is no less a test. Jesus summons everyone to full surrender, and you know whether you have complied. You know if you love something or someone more than God. You know when the central issue in a trial is whether you will surrender what you most value. You also will know whether God is returning what you surrender, just as he restored Isaac to Abraham.
Abraham’s test reveals God’s heart, for he does not change. This trial shows how important it is to God that you fear him in a way that results in obedience. This trial also shows his jealous love. He will not have rivals. His jealousy is not the insecure, sinful jealousy we experience but rather a divine jealousy based in covenant love. God does not need your love, for he is perfectly self-sufficient, yet he has freely chosen to set his steadfast love on you and enter covenant with you. Divine love is covenant love, which we must requite in faithfulness.
Continued next week