Sermon for midweek of Advent 1
Genesis 22:1-19 + Colossians 1:15-29
Can you even imagine Abraham’s shock and horror at hearing God’s instructions? Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him up to Me as a burnt offering. It seems so uncharacteristic of God to demand such a thing, and yet, knowing the outcome as we do, it makes perfect sense. Not only did it serve to prove Abraham’s faith and devotion to God, but it has given us all a shining example of unswerving obedience, and what it looks like in practice to truly have no others gods, but to fear, love, and trust in God above all things—all things, even your only son whom you love.
But more than that, this account of Abraham and Isaac provides a vivid foreshadowing of the Lord’s providence, specifically His providence of a victim, of a sacrifice. As Abraham replied to his son when Isaac asked where the lamb for the burnt offering was, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. Those words of Abraham beautifully foreshadowed the ram caught in the thicket which would be offered in place of his son. But not perfectly, because it was a ram caught in the thicket, not a lamb. And it was an animal, not a much-more-valuable human being. An animal’s death can’t truly take the place of a man. No, the lamb that this foreshadowing truly pointed to would be the one whom John the Baptist explicitly declared the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, the Lord Jesus. He is the Son, the only Son, the beloved Son whom the Lord has provided to be the sacrifice who would truly prove the Father’s love and devotion to the human race, who would become a man in order to be the legitimate substitutionary sacrifice for men.
Paul describes that Lamb in our second lesson this evening from Colossians 1, the only Son, the beloved Son of God the Father. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. So not only is the Lord Jesus true Man; He is also true God. The “image of the invisible God.” For by Him—or better, “in Him, in connection with Him”—all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Did Abraham think Isaac was precious? Of course he did! But see how more precious this only Son, this beloved Son is! He was with the Father in the beginning. He perfectly represents the Father, reveals the Father, is loved by the Father, took part in the creation of all things together with His Father, and holds all things together, together with His Father. That’s the One whom God the Father provided for Himself to be the lamb for the burnt offering.
But, of course, He is descended from Abraham. And from Isaac. So God promised to Abraham after he showed he was willing to sacrifice his son: In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
How do we become blessed in this son, in this seed? Paul tells us: He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
First, He was provided by the Father as the willing sacrifice, to shed His blood on the cross and to make peace, to make atonement through His blood, to pay the price, to earn forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Second, having provided the merit for our reconciliation, He was provided as the head of the church. In other words, He, through His Spirit, calls sinners to believe in Him, true God and true Man, the substitute, the sacrifice provided by God to make peace between Him and us poor sinners. To believe in Him is to be united with Him, brought into His body, the Church, of which He is the Head, and thus reconciled with God. That’s how we’re “in Christ.” That’s how we’re “in Abraham’s seed,” so that we’re blessed beyond measure by becoming children of God.
That’s not what we were. We were like the Colossian Christians were before they were called to faith. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
You were enemies of God, separated from God. But now He has brought you into Christ by Holy Baptism and by holy faith. You’re “in the seed” of Abraham. You’re among the blessed of all nations. The Lord has truly provided.
It’s that “if indeed you continue in the faith” part that really makes this text excellent for Advent. The King is coming again. You’ve been brought into Him and have been reconciled with God in Him. And now His goal is to “present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” When does He intend to do that? At the end of the age, when He comes. And even now, He’s preparing you for that day, training you for that day, urging you to “continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.” That’s the threat of this time in between Christ’s advents, that you would allow yourself to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. Don’t allow that to happen. Stay close to the Word. Stay close to the Gospel. Stay close to Son that the Lord has provided to take your place on the altar of sacrifice, so that you might go on living with your Father, even as Isaac went on living with his. Amen.
