If Ye then be Risen with Christ - Now We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the Children of Promise

• Isaac is Abraham’s “Only Begotten” Son - In Gen 22:1-2 we learn about how God tested Abraham with regard to his son, Isaac: “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of”. In order to appreciate the significance of this severe test, we must consider what led up to this. Many years before, God had promised a son to Abraham and Sarah. We know from the Bible that Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born – a result of Sarah giving her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham in the hope of achieving conception, which did take place. However, when Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90, God informed them in Gen 17:21, “But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year”. That was just as God had indicated to them initially. The reason God did this was to show that his salvation program would be established through the son of promise (pointing spiritually to Jesus Christ as the Savior) and not by the son after the flesh – a picture of salvation by works as we learn from Gal 4:22-23: “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 Bible also highlights the fact that Isaac was indeed a gift – a “miracle baby”, if you will – as Rom 4:19-21 teaches: “And being not weak in faith, he [Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he [God] had promised, he was able also to perform”. But, now God is telling Abraham to take this son of promise, Isaac, and kill him! Notice how quickly Abraham obeys God’s command in Gen 22:3-5.

Gen 17:16-21 “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed [pointing to the Seed, the Lord Jesus] after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.”

Gen 22:3-5 “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him... And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Gen 22:9-14 “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh [LORD will provide]: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.”

• Jesus Christ is the “Only Begotten Son” of the Father - In the Genesis 22 account we find the following three verses with the phrase “thy son, thine only” that relates to Isaac, whom Abraham “offered up” as a sacrifice to God. God’s testing of Abraham’s faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah in this beautiful historical parable is to emphasize the point that God’s love is an important aspect of His salvation program as we see in 1 John 4:9: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” The term “only begotten” is translated from the compound Greek word monogenes (G3439). The first part of the word, mono, is not a problem because it means “only” and Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. The second part of the word “begotten”, genes, which means “to come into being”, “to beget” or “to be born”. It is a word that has to do with a beginning, and that makes it a very problematical word when applied to the Lord Jesus. After all, He is Jehovah God (Isa 9:6), Who is from everlasting to everlasting – that is, He has no beginning and no end (Rev 22:13). Wonderfully, the Bible is its own dictionary and commentary; and God has given us sufficient information so that we can know why Jesus is repeatedly called God’s “only begotten Son”. We will see how God defines the spiritual meaning of monogenes by using the three elements of an “only begotten” - only child, the child has died, and the child was raised from the dead (Col 1:15, 18): “... Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature ... And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence”. Spiritually, it points to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would come as the Lamb of God. Therefore, when God uses the special term “only begotten” (monogenes) in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, we know for certain that it has nothing to do with His taking on a human nature and being born of Mary. Instead, it has everything to do with the fact that Christ is the Only Son within the Godhead and the fact that He endured the most horrible second death – the eternal death in hell – and was resurrected unto eternal life (Col 1:18). We can clearly see from the account in Genesis 22 how Abraham and Isaac are figures or types of God the Father and His “beloved Son”, in the Atonement at the Cross. God does not require Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac – and yet God willingly offered up His beloved Son – the Lord Jesus – to suffer the punishment of eternal damnation. This fact is vividly highlighted in 2 Cor 5:21, “For he [God the Father] hath made him [God the Son] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. Is it any wonder that Rom 8:32 asks this vital question, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Gen 22:2, 12, 16 “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 16And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:”

John 3:14-16, 18 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”

Col 1:14-18 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

• God Gave His “Only Begotten Son” as a “Sacrifice” - In Gen 22:9-12 we see that Abraham proceeded to sacrifice Isaac in principle. God stopped Abraham from killing his son in actuality at the last second; but why would Abraham do such a terrible thing? In the historical setting and from a human perspective, this seems to be such an unemotional, matter-of-fact conversation between Abraham and Isaac. After all, God had instructed Abraham to kill his son and offer him as a burnt offering, and they have been carrying wood for the fire on a three-day journey at this time. Finally, Isaac asks his father, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Then Abraham’s answer “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” indicates his great faith in God’s promise to establish an everlasting covenant with his seed, as we read in Gen 17:19. What constantly amazes and humbles me (and if you are a parent, you can certainly identify with this) is that God did not require Abraham to actually sacrifice his “only son… whom thou lovest”, yet God [Jehovahjireh] willingly offered up His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to pay the equivalent of eternal Hell for each child of God. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ was the spiritual fulfillment of Gen 22:13 “… the ram caught in a thicket by his horns…” as He hung on the Cross, as the Lamb of God , “…slain before the foundation of the world”. In fact both the ram’s horns and the altar which Abraham built in Gen 22:9 are ceremonial observances which identify altogether with Christ. Of course, the altar and all the Old Testament animal sacrifices pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Thus, Jesus had to “go unto the altar of God” as the Ultimate Sacrifice for the sins of His people, according to Heb 9:24-26.  Obviously, God knew in advance that Abraham would not fail the test. Abraham could not possibly have known God’s ultimate purpose at the time; but he obeyed God’s command solely “by faith” as we read in Heb 11:17. We also read the reason in Heb 11:19: “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead”. This New Testament verse explains that Abraham was confident that God would raise his son from the dead in order to keep His promise to “establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him” (Gen 17:19).  We know from Gal 3:16 that the “Seed” in view is physically the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The sacrifice of His “only begotten Son”, is the centerpiece of God’s salvation plan. Lord Jesus Christ was “lifted up” (hupsoo:G5312) on the Cross (John 3:14) to indicate that He was made a curse for us. The “seed” of Abraham through Isaac also refers spiritually to the eternal body of believers, who will be as “the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” (Gen 22:17). Then, in Gen 22:16-18 God is speaking directly to Abraham about his unwavering obedience. Heb 11:19 is also superb example of the faith that true believers have in God’s many promises in the Bible to raise them from the dead unto eternal life. We saw that Isaac, who typified Christ in the Atonement, did not actually die there. Nevertheless, God insists that he died and was resurrected in principle in verse Heb 11:19. We can clearly see from the account in Genesis 22 how Abraham and Isaac are figures of God the Father and God the Son in the Atonement at the Cross. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the pinnacle, the keystone, and the centerpiece of Gospel. It is the most critical factor of God’s whole salvation program, as is emphasized in 1 Cor 15:16-18. Concerning the Lord Jesus, we read in Acts 10:43, “... through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission [forgiveness] of sins”. This is how a sinner — and it is the only way — can escape the judgment of God. It is only through His blood that anyone can find forgiveness and have their sins washed away and be cleansed. 

Heb 11:17-18 “By 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 [Isaac] in a figure [figure of Christ].”

Heb 9:24-26 “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”.

Heb 10:11-18 “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man [Lord Jesus Christ], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”

• Promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – God first called Abram in Genesis 12 and 13 to leave his country and go to a land that He would show him. God promised in verse Gen 12:3, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” and in Gen 13:15, “all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever”. God repeated that promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2-3, Gen 17:5, 8, Gen 13:14-15) many times afterwards. Moreover, after Abraham’s death, He reassured Isaac of that promise in Genesis 26 (Gen 26:2-4) and to Jacob in Genesis 28 (Gen 28:13-14). Back in Genesis 13, when Abram and Lot separated, and later in Genesis 17, when God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (which means “father of a multitude” ), He said in verse 5, “for a father of many nations have I made thee”. What did God mean, when God promised Abraham in verse Gen 12:3, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”? or in Gen 17:5 “thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee”? Notice that with both Isaac and Jacob, God linked the giving of land, to His promise that in them shall all nations be blessed. Actually, that was also a reiteration of what God had previously promised Abraham. In Gal 3:8, the Bible is giving us a tremendous statement saying that it has always been God’s plan to save the heathen, the non-Jewish people, through faith in Jesus Christ. Foreseeing that, or anticipating that, the word of God announced in advance the Good News or “The gospel of Christ” to Abraham by telling him, “in thee shall all nations be blessed” (Gal 3:8). Actually, Abraham was by no means the only one who was preached the gospel of grace in the Old Testament. We read in Heb 4:2, that “unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them”. The Gospel was preached to “them” referred to the millions of Israelites that perished in the wilderness. They were preached the gospel, but they did not profit, or benefit, from it because of their unbelief. In verse Gen 17:8, it’s highly significant that the promised land was to be given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their seed for an everlasting possession. That’s because they never received the promised land in their lifetime. Since God is faithful in fulfilling all His promises, He will have to raise them up at some point to give them the land. When might that be? Four times in John 6, Christ says that He will raise up those who have become saved on the last day (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54). The last day, of course, is the final day of this earth’s existence (2 Pet 3:10) : “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up”. The land that God promised to give Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their seed thus has to be the new creation, eternal new heavens and new earth. Only then will they have it for an everlasting possession. So “Canaan” is a picture of the Kingdom of God. Inheriting the New Holy city - “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”, of course, is the ultimate outcome of the salvation of all believers (Heb 11:8-16). The Bible is thus saying that there is no difference between Old Testament and New Testament believers, they are all saved by the same gospel of grace; they all have “obtained a good report through faith”, and their salvation will be all consummated on the last day, when they will all receive the promise.

Gal 3:8 “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”

Rom 9:27, 30-31 “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 30What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31But Israel [as a nation], which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.”

Heb 4:2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them [Israel as a nation]: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

Rom 4:16-17 “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 [remnant of Israel], but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham [remnant of Gentiles]; who is the father of us all, 17(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

Heb 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise [earthly], as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

Rev 21:1-2 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

• Now We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the Children of Promise - We read in Gen 17:19: “And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him”. We know from Gal 3:16 that the “Seed” in view is physically the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (according to John 1:29) as declared by John the Baptist. Gal 3:16 declares: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ”. Abraham, of course, is the progenitor of national Israel. The Jewish people have, therefore always assumed that they are the seed of promise. Since the Old Testament Scriptures make up over 70 percent of the Bible, those who fail to recognize the typology between the OT and NT miss out on much of what God has to teach us about His salvation program. For eg; in Gal 4:22-28, Hagar and her children and Sarah and her children are two covenants, “Which things are an allegory”, typifying the two Gospels, the gospel of works – where people trying to get right by keeping the law of God and the Gospel of grace – where people are saved by God’s grace and mercy. The Covenant (or the Gospel) describes the astounding and incomprehensible facts about how God became a man, became sin, and suffered Hell for those He came to redeem, as Mat 1:21 indicates, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins”. The Bible also highlights the fact that in the same way that Isaac was indeed a gift to Abraham and Sarah – a “miracle baby”, if you will – so was the Savior Who would be born over 2,000 years later in their bloodline. Thus, Isaac was a type, or figure, of the Lord Jesus according to Rom 4:19-21. The birth of Isaac underscores the fact that God can create life even out of that which is physically impossible – a miracle indeed! The spiritual implication of this historical parable is even more miraculous, as it meant that God would infuse eternal life into a previously dead soul. To accomplish such a feat, the Lord Jesus had to suffer the equivalent of eternal damnation in Hell for each individual He had chosen to save from before the foundation of the world. In Genesis 17 God further told Abraham that he is making “everlasting covenant”. The word “everlasting” immediately tells us that “thy seed” there refers to those who are in Christ, because they are the only ones who will inherit the new heaven and the new earth. Everything on this earth will be destroyed by fire on the last day (2 Pet 3:10). The seed in Christ are who are saved by grace through faith, which is the gift of God. God specified in His will that the beneficiaries were to be Abraham and his seed. In Gal 3:16, the apostle calls particular attention to the word “seed”, as distinguished from “seeds”. And that singular seed that God had in Christ, NOT all the blood descendants of Abraham. The promises, as we learned earlier in this lesson, is the free gift of eternal life. As the testator of the will, Christ had to die to activate the bequest. But because Lord Jesus Christ is testator of the Will and also a beneficiary of that will and because the Lord Jesus is the promised seed of Abraham, all those who are in Christ are joint heirs according to the promise. Rev 21:9b-11 speaks of the heirs of salvation as the Bride of Christ – the Lamb of God – Who is the principal Heir.

Rom 4:17-21 “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”

Gen 22:16-18 “And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only [begotten] son: 17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

Rom 9:6-8 “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”

Gal 4:22-28 “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh [unbelievers from both Jews+ Gentiles]; but he of the freewoman was by promise [believers from both Jews+ Gentiles]. 24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27For 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. 28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”

Gal 3:16-18 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 18For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

Gal 3:26-29 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”