09/03/2021
“Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:39
The Patriarch Abraham was an incredible man.
Incredibly faithful.
And incredibly flawed.
Like many of us, Abraham’s story was pretty checkered. In Genesis 22, when God declared the patriarch finally feared him, He wasn’t being poetic. We don’t know just how long Abraham wavered. But Scripture indicates he was at least 85 years old when God promised a son, and 100 years old when Isaac was born. By Genesis 22, Isaac was old enough to complete a lengthy hike to Mount Moriah.
During the interim, Abraham fathered a child with his wife’s servant, made light of God’s prophecy, and lied to a king - after getting caught once before - to save his own skin. And those are just the highlights.
But here’s the amazing thing: none of Abraham’s mistakes affected his standing with God.
Genesis 15:6 plainly states that God saw Abraham’s faith and counted it righteousness. He knew Abraham’s story before it even played out, and He still considered him a righteous, beloved child on the basis of his faith. Before Abraham even gave Hagar a second thought. Before he deceived the king. Even before he was circumcised as a sign of his faith, as the Apostle Paul notes in Romans 4.
Likewise, Abraham’s circumcision - and other obedient acts - were not a part of the equation.
“And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised,” Paul writes in Romans 4:11.
What does this mean for God’s children today?
It means that our failures don’t diminish God’s love for us. It also means the mistakes our brothers and sisters make don’t lessen God’s love for them, either. By grace through faith, God sees His children as blameless in His sight. He doesn’t take our sins lightly, as they cost the blood of His Son. And neither should we. But rather than wallowing in our own guilt, or heaping shame upon others, we must repent, and move on, recognizing that we are forgiven.
If God loved Abraham in spite of his sins, delivered on His promises, and used the patriarch’s eventual victory to glorify and inspire, He certainly can redeem our mistakes the same way.
Once we grasp this beautiful reality, we can stop living in the shadow of our guilt, quit letting shame damage our relationships with others, and encourage one another to walk daily in ways that honor the grace He’s shown us.
These kinds of uplifting relationships and sacrificial acts are just one part of the abundant life God offers us when we accept His gift of righteousness by faith.
What often holds us back from seeing everyone for who they are is not trusting, not hoping, not protecting, and not persevering in knowing the truth according to God’s eyes.
Perfect love and fearlessness are synonymous for God’s children. We ought to know that we are the apple of His eye. Let’s keep eating from the good tree and represent the Father of lights with confidence.
Let’s choose to make His life the testimony of our residence in Him as He takes authority over our surrendered hearts.
