THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF GOD continued

THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF GOD continued

Act 2:23 

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,"

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 

God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Act 2:24

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was

not possible that he should be holden of it." 

          When Isaac was a grown young man, God called on Abraham to take Isaac to the top of a chosen mountain and offer him as a burnt offering to God.  God would not do that would He?  Yes, He did.  Now God was not asking something of Abraham that He would not do Himself.  Abraham’s first son was named Ishmael.  He was a bastard.  God commanded Abraham to put him out of his house.  Abraham was obedient in regard to this first son by banishing him from his home.  Now God had already done that.  He banished his first son, Adam, from his home in Eden.  Now God has called on Abraham to offer his second son as a sacrifice to God.  Again this is not something God would not do.  In the fullness of time God offered His Son, the Second Adam, as a sacrifice to God for all His people.  "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:…”  Acts 2:23  Thus what God ordered of Abraham was a type of what would be done in the sacrifice of Jesus.

     While Abraham was fully ready to do as God ordered, and he had bound Isaac and put him on the altar, God called out of Heaven and told him to do his son no harm.  Abraham then saw a ram caught in a thicket.  He offered him in the place of Isaac.  Two things are seen here.  One is the doctrine of substitution with the ram being sacrifice in the stead of Isaac.  Likewise Jesus was sacrificed in our stead.  The vicarious sacrifice spared Isaac and gave him back to his father as if he had been risen from the dead.  The book of Hebrews says of this picture that Abraham believed God would give him back as risen from the dead from which he was risen in a figure.  Likewise the doctrine of the resurrection is here pictured.  After Jesus was offered for sin He too rose from the dead.  Act 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed by pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."  What think you of this.  Have a question or a comment?