The ultimate act of obedience is to offer the thing we love most. It would be easy for me to give you something from my closet that I never wear – but to give you my favorite thing would be a real sacrifice. Sure you can have my Amazon earrings, but the jewelry I bought in Italy is a totally different story. That’s a treasure to me. It would be unfair of you to ask me for my treasure.
God asked Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his greatest treasure. His son. The son he loved with every fib...
The ultimate act of obedience is to offer the thing we love most. It would be easy for me to give you something from my closet that I never wear – but to give you my favorite thing would be a real sacrifice. Sure you can have my Amazon earrings, but the jewelry I bought in Italy is a totally different story. That’s a treasure to me. It would be unfair of you to ask me for my treasure.
God asked Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his greatest treasure. His son. The son he loved with every fiber of his being. The son he had prayed and waited his whole life for. And honestly, what an unfair ask of God – right? But today, we will take another look at Genesis 22 and reveal the unmatched love of God within the story of an unfair ask.
When God asked Abraham for the ultimate demonstration of his love and sacrifice, he asked him for his son. When God the Father wanted to show us the ultimate demonstration of his love and commitment to us, HE GAVE HIS SON. God knew just how unfair it was to ask for Abraham’s son, because he was preparing to do it himself.
All these years, I’ve avoided the story of Abraham’s test of faith because it seemed so cruel. Was he really willing to sacrifice his son? Was he really prepared to lay his son on the alter? He most certainly was – and here’s why: He knew God could do anything. His faith was stronger than his feelings. And just as he laid his son on that alter, God provided a sheep for the sacrifice instead.
That day, God came through with a substitution in the form of a sheep. A sheep that would be sacrificed for the cleansing of sin. And about 2,000 years later, God came through with the ultimate substitution – his own son. Jesus is called the Lamb of God, the perfect lamb without blemish or spot, sacrificed on a cross to redeem us. God gave the ultimate sacrifice of his greatest treasure. His ultimate demonstration of love and commitment to us is in offering his son, Jesus.
He saved Abraham from having to give his son, and God himself gave us his. What greater love could there possibly be?
When God tested Abraham with this unfair ask, he specifically said, “Take your son, your only son – yes, Issac, whom you love so much.” Do you see the divine connection here? God did that for us! God took his son, his only son, who he loved so much. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God did that. He did it for Abraham. He did that for me and for you. The unfair ask, the unthinkable sacrifice, the ultimate demonstration of love, has been done for us! Why? To save us from the life we deserve.
We often say things like, “I work hard, I deserve a new car”, or “It’s been a bad day, I deserve to relax”, or “a woman like me deserves to be treated better.” That sounds good – but let me tell you something, we should never ask for what we deserve. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve all failed to measure up. What we deserve is death. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Because we’ve gotten it wrong before, we really don’t “deserve” what is right. So let’s be clear – God says you don’t deserve it, but he says you’re WORTH IT!
What is the life you really deserve? Do you deserve to be successful? Do you deserve to be happy and healthy? Do you deserve to get to go on vacation, have nice things, and be treated good? It’s easy to assume we are deserving of a good life because of our efforts and performance – but we have never once lived up to the standard of self-righteousness. No one has and no one can, except for Jesus. We don’t get what we deserve because Jesus accepted what he didn’t deserve. Jesus came to pay a debt he didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay – So, Jesus unfairly did it for us.
I could never ask someone to give up a life to save my life, but that’s precisely what has been done for me. That’s what has been done for you. The ultimate sacrifice.
My favorite detail in the story of Abraham is in verse 6, “So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders.” The son is carrying the wood for the sacrifice of his own life. Oh, the foreshadowing of what God was preparing to do. God’s only son, Jesus, our savior – he carried the wood for the sacrifice of his own life. John 19:17 tells us Jesus carried the cross by himself and went to the Place of the Skull, Golgotha. There, they nailed him to the cross and Jesus gave up his life willingly.
He carried the wood for the offering on his own shoulders. Jesus did that!
What God spared Abraham from, he did for us. Abraham walked back down from that mountain with his son. God watched his own son be crucified on that mountain. Why? To save us.
I often share the story of the strangers who one day rang my doorbell and asked my name. I said, “I’m Pamela.” Then, they looked me in the eye with tremendous love and unshakable confidence and said, “For God loved Pamela so much that he gave his one and only son, so that she would have eternal life.” If I would have been the only person in the world, God would have given Jesus to save just me. And that has forever changed my life.
I’m not just one of many who happens to sneak in by chance. No, I’m chosen, counted, selected, and personally accounted for by God, covered individually by the blood of Jesus. Do you understand that’s true of you too? You don’t just fit in with the crowd and sneak you way in. You’re not saved from a distance by accident. You were personally sought out, loved, and paid for by Jesus. God did that!
An unfair ask was fulfilled just for you. God asked his own son to give up his life for yours, and Jesus did it. He did it for you. He got what he didn’t deserve so you could have the fulfillment of what you don’t deserve. And this sacrifice has made you holy and righteous. You are forever forgiven, forever made right, forever covered in a blanket of grace.
And when you really understand the sacrifice that was made personally for you, you simply can’t ever see your life the same. You’re living the life that was saved. You’re waking up to a day that has been fully covered. Your tomorrow has been bought and paid for. Your forever has been secured.
So totally and completely unfair. We could never be good enough to deserve it, but God asked his son to sacrifice for us anyway – and Jesus said yes.
Imagine how Abraham must have felt walking down from that mountain having personally experienced God’s sacrificial provision. He had been saved. His son had been saved. And life could never be the same.
We have experienced something even greater. Greater than a sheep showing up on a mountain – we have a savior who hung on the cross for us, and is now risen in power and glory, overseeing our lives! Girls, life can never be the same when we know this!
The unfair ask on our behalf was declared a YES in Jesus! I don’t deserve it, but I’m forever grateful for it.
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