Far As The Curse Is Found Series

This is an important prophecy of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The hill of Calvary where Jesus died was only a stone’s throw from where Abraham took Isaac. Like Isaac, Jesus walked up the hill. But He had no substitute; He WAS our substitute. But like a living Isaac, Jesus walked down the hill after God raised Him from the dead.

When some people read this story of Abraham and Isaac they have two objections. First, they say, “What kind of God would ask a Father to sacrifice his son?” The short answer to that is, “The same kind of God who would also sacrifice His Son on the same hill.” But remember, God knew Isaac wasn’t going to die. The second objection people have is, “What kind of father was Abraham, to even consider killing his son?” I don’t have to answer that question, because the New Testament answers it.

“By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—and this after he had already been told, ‘Your descendants shall come from Isaac.’ Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that’s what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.” (Hebrews 11:17-19 The Message) Radical faith was believing that even if Abraham killed his son, God would raise him from the dead.

The Bible says, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now, there’s a word most of us understand “credited.” I don’t have any cash on me, but I could walk into a restaurant after church and enjoy a delicious meal. When I get ready to pay, I can say, “I don’t have any cash on me, but this credit card means there is a bank somewhere that will pay you for this food.” The restaurant will swipe the card through a reader and if I’ve been paying my bills, and I haven’t gone over my credit limit, it’s going to say, “approved.” Of course, the sad thing about credit cards is you have to get around to paying for everything you charge on them.

What if I got my credit card statement one month and it had a notation that said, “Credited to your account $40 million?” Well, once I got up off the floor, I would wonder if it was mistake. But after I call the company, I’m told that Warren Buffett just decided to randomly play secret Santa to someone, and I was it! Wow! What would I do with $40 million? I’d pay off the debt on the Crosswalk Conference Center and then give most of it away!

But in order to access the $40 million that was credited to me, I would have to exercise faith. I would have to BELIEVE Warren Buffett exists and he has the resources to transfer that amount to my account. But only when I actually SPENT the money would I be demonstrating faith.

When you believe God, He credits to our account something a billion times more valuable than money; He credits the righteousness of Jesus to our spiritual account. Will you believe Him and act on it? Abraham did and so should we!