Abraham A Journey Of Faith, And Ours As Heirs Of The Promise. Series

About the faithfulness that Abraham and also one of the pointers to Jesus divinity and good verses to refer to if you are ever challenged about Jesus never stating that he is God, are these from John eight where Jesus was being challenged by the pharisees as to not being a man of God, and being demon possessed he said this In John 8, verses 49-59:

“I am not possessed by a demon,” ... “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon- possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

The reason I read that passage from the Gospel of John is that Jesus mentioned one of the promises of God, one that was realised by Abraham and that Abraham because of his faith saw Jesus day. It is great significance as we approach Easter. Jesus told the Pharisees this; “Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” Jesus came to defeat sin and death, we know hie is the fulfilment of the law and the prophets, in that he defeated sin and death on the cross bringing many in his train, as in following him into eternal life. There is the part of the sentence where he says “Whoever obeys my word will never see death.” We live in the meantime between Jesus having been and his return, we will most likely die in this form, but spiritually not, as we pass from life to life, earthly to eternal, and like Abraham see Jesus at the right hand of the Father. However, there is more to Jesus' statement as he said Abraham has seen my day and that before Abraham was “I am” Jesus at this moment is claiming to be God, he is claiming to be timeless. Abraham believed that from him all the nations of the earth would be blessed, it is a rabbinical belief that “Abraham knew that that the Messiah of God would come from his family line and rejoiced in that promise.” (P 34, William Barcley, John Vol 2)

The Pharisees wanted to stone Jesus as John recorded, because Jesus was claiming divinity. Before Abraham was I AM. I AM as we know is a name of The One True God.

The rescue plan of God started with Abraham and Sarah at chapter twelve of Genesis. Abraham was a man faithful to God and responsive to God’s promises. He was obedient to God’s direction for his life, he saw that. I often think of the danger even the horror of being separate from God as the old self without Christ is a damned thing without salvation. I leave you with some promises of God, for he is always faithful to his promises. These all relate in some way to Abraham, his faithfulness and his belief in God that was credited as righteousness. These are also promises for us and we have a part to play in responding to God's promises to us for he is faithful.