The Gospel that was Preached to Abraham

Millat-a-Ibrahim: The True Faith of Abraham

« Abraham's Contemplation of the Command

We have seen, in the early chapters of this booklet, that Abraham was called the friend of God, that he was made the father of many nations, and that his faith was a prototype of the true religion yet to come. In this closing chapter we shall see the real essence of all three of these great teachings about Abraham which Islam and Christianity have in common.

Abraham was a man who carefully considered all that God said to him, so he also thought much about God's statement to him, "I have made you the Father of many nations" (Romans 4:17). Why, he reasoned, should he be made a leader for mankind and the father of the faithful? We return to the illustration of the sun and the moon. The sun brilliantly generates light and the best the moon can do is to reflect that light. So Abraham, as we have seen, merely regarded his faith and trust in God as a reflection of God's own inherent faithfulness and eternal trustworthiness. In the same way, therefore, his status as father of the faithful could only be a reflection of God's own glory as the true Father of the faithful.

Abraham saw his high status, therefore, as a reflection of God's great glory in heaven. He realised that he was merely a type of the true Father and this surely meant that all that had happened to him was likewise only a human and an earthly type of a divine and heavenly course yet to be revealed. If he was, thus, only a type, then his son Isaac, the unusual circumstances of his birth, the sacrifice, the resurrection from the dead, and the innumerable descendants were also all types of a greater reality yet to come. He realised that the whole process had issued from him purely as a man and that a similar process, therefore, must yet come from God.

Abraham put it all together. The course he had perceived that was yet to be emulated in a divine parallel was this - the father was to have a son born in this world, born in unusual circumstances by the intervention of the Holy Spirit, and this son would be a decidedly spiritual man all his days. Before he could have any descendants, however, he was to be offered as a sacrifice to God, struck down by the hand of his own father. But he would rise from the dead and the risen son would beget descendants of a great number through whom the nations of the world would be blessed.

God had promised Abraham descendants "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore" (Hebrews 11:12). Were the latter not surely a reflection of the former? Both appear to be tiny specks to the human eye and both are too many to number. So the true children of God appear to be of the same stature today as the natural children of men and both are a great multitude. But what a vast difference there ultimately is between a grain of sand and a star. The first is really only a speck of dust on the earth, the second is a heavenly giant of unimaginable glory and splendour. Grains of sand are only feeble types of the splendid stars that shine in the heavens.

So Abraham realised that his earthly descendants through his promised son Isaac, namely the Hebrew people, would only be an earthly shadow of the true children of God who would one day "shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43). He realised that he would have physical offspring through Isaac but that he would also have spiritual offspring through the one that Isaac was representing and that they would be men of the very same faith that had commended him to God.

Abraham searched out the meaning of all this as he moved away from the reflection to the reality, from earth to heaven, from man to God, and in doing so discovered God's glorious process of salvation and the true religion that was yet to come. God, the true Father, was to send his own Son into the world. He would be born miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit, he would live solely by the same Spirit as the image of his eternal Father in every way, and would transform men of all nations from sinners of mere flesh and blood into saints of true spiritual dignity, bringing them eventually into eternal glory in the kingdom of God. But first he must be cut off and sacrificed as an offering for sin. He was to burn within as he endured the wrath of God on behalf of those he was to redeem. He was to be struck down, not only physically at the hands of men, but spiritually by the hand of his own Father as he endured his wrath against the sins of men so that he might make full atonement for them.

The Son of God was to rise from the dead, however, and the risen son was to make available to all men of true faith the Spirit of God so that they might inherit the blessings of God and become his children in his heavenly kingdom. Ibis, Abraham realised, was the logical divine parallel that would follow the pattern God was al ready taking him through To put it plainly in one glorious flash of inspiration and revelation, Abraham saw the whole of the Christian Gospel By a faithful consideration of nothing more than two apparently contradictory statements, he worked out the whole of God's plan of salvation that was yet to come. By exercising faith in the "unchangeable character of his purpose" (Hebrews 6:17), he saw the glory of the Gospel of the grace of God. As Abraham walked with Isaac to the place of sacrifice, his son asked him what they were going to sacrifice. He had to explain to Isaac that he himself was to be the sacrifice, but as he did so he made a remarkable statement. He said to Isaac:

"God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son". Genesis 22:8

Abraham's answer to him was, "My son, you are to be the sacrifice. I, your own father, must offer you like a sacrificial lamb to God. But take heart, God will give of himself a lamb for an offering. God, the true Father, will give his own Son as the lamb for the salvation of the world". Abraham genuinely believed that he would have to go through with the sacrifice of his son Isaac. He did not anticipate that God would stop the process and put a sheep in his place. This would have negated the whole test Abraham was being put through. No, Abraham obviously had another lamb in mind - the Lamb of God who would yet come as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, God's own Son. When God stopped the sacrifice and told him to sacrifice a sheep instead, Abraham saw his perception of God's ultimate plan of salvation being fulfilled. The sheep was sacrificed as a substitute for his son Isaac, and so Abraham saw that God's own son would become the true Lamb who would be substituted for sinful men as he died as a sacrifice for their sins.

We have already seen that, whereas Judaism, Chris-tianity and Islam all came after Abraham, each one sees Abraham as an example of true faith in God, and we noted that Abraham must have had some knowledge of the true religion to come. Now it is important to observe that, whereas Moses and Muhammad both knew much about Abraham, neither ever claimed that Abraham had anticipated their day. There is no suggestion that Abraham looked forward to the form of religion they were to introduce. On the other hand Jesus Christ, in an argument one day with the Jews about Abraham, boldly declared to them:

"Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it, and was glad". John 8:56

It is thus clear that the one to whom Abraham was looking as the Son of God who would come into the world to redeem men from their sins was Jesus Christ. He rejoiced, said Jesus, "that he was to see my day" and it was to him that he looked for the ultimate fulfilment of all his hopes, not to Moses or Muhammad, but only to Jesus. He looked ahead, not to his immediate son Isaac, but to his greater son yet to come who he knew would be the Son of God. Be had exercised his faith in a very deliberate way, had reasoned carefully about the promises, and thus foresaw, in one glorious comprehension of the significance of the sacrifice, the coming of the Son of God as his greater offspring to bring salvation into the world. It is for this reason that one of the very first titles of Jesus in the Christian Scriptures is "the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). Indeed one day, when John the Baptist (the prophet yahya in the Qur'an - Quran 3.39) saw Jesus coming towards him, he cried out:

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". John 1:29

Abraham had comforted Isaac, promising that God would "provide of himself the lamb for a sacrifice" and, when John beheld Jesus, he exclaimed "There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". The whole key to Abraham's remarkable discovery of what was to happen is found in his faith, a trust in God's faithfulness through which he reconciled the promise of descendants with the command to sacrifice. He foresaw the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and worked out that the Son of God would become the ultimate sacrifice for sin and that through him the blessings promised to Abraham would become real to all men in all nations who would emulate his faith and trust in the same Jesus. The whole of this vision which Abraham had of the coming salvation of God is well summed up in these words:

That in Christ Jesus the blessings of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:14

The Qur'an says that Abraham could not have been a Christian because the Gospel, the Injil, was only revealed long after him through Jesus Christ (Surah 3. 65,67). But we can see clearly that this very "Gospel", that is, the "Good News" of God's saving grace, was in fact revealed to him during his very lifetime and that he fully discerned it when he, in true faith, contemplated the command to sacrifice his son. This revelation is well described in this verse:

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed". So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith. Galatians 3. 8-9.

When the promise of descendants as many as the stars of the sky was made to Abraham, the Injil was in fact revealed to him. The Qur'an asks why Christians dispute about Abraham when the Gospel was "not revealed till after him" (Quran 3.65), yet here we see plainly that this very Gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham (Galatians 3:8). His faith led him to a full realisation of what was to come and he thus anticipated the atoning death and resurrection of the Son of God and so became a prototype of all true Christians, rejoicing that he was to see the day of Jesus Christ.

This, then, is the true faith of Abraham, the only real mil/ata-Ibrahim - faith in the Son of God who died that we might be forgiven and rose from the dead so that we too might conquer death and obtain eternal life. This Abraham worked out by exercise of faith in God's faithfulness and here his faith rested. He "died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar" (Hebrews 11:13). It was through this very kind of faith that he became approved of God and it is through the same kind of faith that we too can become acceptable to God.

But the words, "it was reckoned to him", were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4. 23-25.

Abraham became the friend of God because he trusted him and rejoiced to see the day of Jesus Christ who likewise promised that all who become his disciples will also be his friends (John 15:15). He became the father of all true believers who are now his children if they share his faith and believe in the Gospel (Galatians 3. 8-9). He was the prototype of the true religion to come and, as his search for the purpose of God led him to discover the coming of the Son of God as the Saviour of the world, so the true religion has to be Christianity for it was in Jesus that his faith reached its goal.

In conclusion it needs to be said that if the willingness of Abraham to offer his son to God was the highest proof of love that any man could show for God, then the grace of God in giving his Son Jesus Christ for us must be the greatest manifestation of God's love for men. The sacrifice of Isaac was only a type and shadow of God's love for us revealed in the gift of his Son as the means of our salvation. No greater love than this could have been shown by God to sinful men.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins . . . So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:9-10,16.

Furthermore Abraham, as the servant of God, was obliged to obey God in whatever he commanded him, and it was only a man of dust like himself, though his own son, that he was willing to offer to the God of glory in heaven. But what obligation lay on the heart of God to give his Son, who had always shared his everlasting glory, for sinful, feeble men on earth? It goes further. God eventually spared the son of Abraham but he did not spare his own Son. What further proof do we need that all the blessings promised to Abraham will one day be ours if we will commit ourselves in faith to the one who laid down his life for us, whose day Abraham eagerly anticipated - what more can we ask or need?

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Romans 8:32

Both the Bible and the Qur'an mark Abraham out for his faith and declare that this faith is the essence of true religion. We have shown comprehensively that Abraham's faith reached its zenith when he saw the coming of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world and thus "rejoiced" to see his day "and was glad" (John 8:56). The Christian faith is, therefore, the only true faith and Abraham was accordingly a prototype of a true Christian.

The command to Abraham to sacrifice his son may be regarded as the greatest example of the love of a man for God being tested and proved to the limit, indeed it reveals this love almost to perfection. But it cannot be treated in isolation. God was surely not just putting Abraham through an exercise of faith and love as an end in itself. It is unthinkable that God could ever ask more of a man than he was willing to do for man. And if he did not in turn give his own Son as a sacrifice to save us from our sins and give us the hope of eternal life, then what expression is there, in all history, of the love of God for man to compare with this supreme example of a man's love for God in giving his own son, the closest thing to his heart, as a sacrifice to God? It surely must be true that God's command to Abraham was only a shadow and foretaste of what God himself intended to do for the human race in time.

It is often said that a good leader will never ask anything more of his followers than he himself is willing to do for them. So likewise Abraham saw that the command to sacrifice was not a one-sided test that would tear at his heart without any reciprocal act of love from heaven in return. He willingly went ahead with the sacrifice, because he had, by the time he took his son up the appointed mountain, worked out that all that he was doing was only a shadow and human example of a real and divine work of grace to follow. It is little wonder that Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day and that he was delighted in his spirit.

Will you not, too, become one of the true children of Abraham by putting your faith in Jesus Christ so that you also may shine one day as one of those stars of heaven who was promised to Abraham? Will you not believe in Jesus as your Saviour and Lord and likewise rejoice and be glad with Abraham that you will also be privileged to see his day? Will you not acknowledge him as your only true Master so that you too may enjoy the riches of God's grace and kindness towards us?

If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:29