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The Rev. Paul J Cain

Genesis 22:1-18
Testing, Faith, & Works
Fifth Sunday in Lent, 22 March 2015
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Todays Old Testament lesson may remind you when you heard it back in Sunday
School days, but there is more here for us than a mere story. This historical narrative
has much to teach adults about Testing, Faith, & Works. Lets begin by reviewing the
first 18 verses of Genesis 22. Note things that surprise you about God, that catch you
off-guard.

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said,
"Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to
the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of
which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and
took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the
burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the
third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said
to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and
worship and come again to you." And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and
laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went
both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said,
"Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb

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for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt
offering, my son." So they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the
altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the
altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to
slaughter his son. But the angel of the L ORD called to him from heaven and said,
"Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the
boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not
withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And
Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his
son. So Abraham called the name of that place, "The L ORD will provide"; as it is said to
this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."
The official reading for the Fifth Sunday in Lent ends there. We need to hear
the Lords promise:
And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and
said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have
not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply
your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your
offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

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God tested Abraham. Isnt that what the text says? We pray, And lead us not
into temptation. What does this mean? God tempts no one, Luther begins. We pray in
this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our
sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, shame and vice.
Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome
them and win the victory.
The Scriptures use the words tempt, temptation, and test in two ways. The first
is the testing of our faith, which God uses to bring us closer to Himself. The second
consists of the attempts of our spiritual enemies to lure us away from God and His
ways. Related to this are the attempts of humans, without Gods direction or
invitation, to test God.
(Kaiser, Hard Sayings) But if it is asked, How could a holy God put his servant
through such an ordeal as this? the answer rests in the special relationship that
Abraham and the Lord enjoyed. The relationship of father and son which existed
between Abraham and Isaac was exactly the same relationship which existed between
God and Abraham. [Do we not call God our Father as well?] Abrahams test was indeed
a qualifying test, which had as much evidential value for Abraham as it had for the
Lord who issued the test.
The point is that the test was not a temptation to do evil or a test that was
meant to trap the hapless patriarch. [Lets put things in historical and divine
perspective. The Ten Commandments, including, You shall not kill, were still 430
years in the future. (Galatians 3:17) Besides, Abraham could hardly have argued with

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Gods request. God gives life and gave Isaac to him. The Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.]
The test was not a temptation to do evil or a test that was meant to trap the
hapless patriarch. Instead, it had the opposite purpose: it was intended to strengthen
him and to build him up, as did the numerous tests in the desert. As used here, the
ideas of tempting, testing, or trying are religious concepts. It is Gods testing of the
partner of the covenant to see if he is keeping his side of the agreement. God never
tests the heathen [in this specific way]; He tests His own people exclusively. Thus, the
test is ever a test of Gods own in order to know whether they will love, fear, obey,
worship, and serve Him [alone].
Testing, finally, is one of the ways by which God carries out His saving purposes.
Often people do not know why they are tested until after the test is over. Only after
they have been preserved, proved, purified, disciplined, and taught [by the Lord] can
they move beyond the situation, strong in faith and strengthened for the more
difficult tasks ahead.
Consider Our Lord in St. Marks brief account of the temptation: Jesus was out
in the desert forty days, tempted by Satan himself. This was His preparation for
preaching, teaching & healing, ultimately leading to His journey to Jerusalem and the
cross for you, a difficult task, indeed.

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the
flesh? So asks St. Paul in Romans 4:1-5. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has
something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the Scripture say?

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"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one
who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who
does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as
righteousness
By faith, Abraham trusted God. Abrahams faith faced the fire of the test and
came through. God was faithful. Salvation is by faith alone, as Paul also writes in
Galatians 3:6-9. Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as
righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 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 of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
We are children of Abraham by faith, not by blood. We are among those
mentioned in the blessing at the end of the sermon text: I will surely bless you, the
Lord said, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the
sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have
obeyed my voice."
Consider the insight of the Holy Spirit granted to the author of the letter to the
Hebrews (11:17-19). By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he
who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it
was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was
able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did
receive him back.

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We arent told in Genesis what was rolling around in Abrahams head. In
Hebrews, we are. We observe how deeply Abraham trusted in the promise, "Through
Isaac shall your offspring be named." Even if it took a death and a resurrection to pull
it off, Abraham trusted that it would take place. That, dear friends, is the confidence
of faith.
People sometimes think to themselves, sitting in the pew, I dont have that
kind of faith. This is a real concern, but it is misplaced. People sometimes
misunderstand faith as if it were a quantity thing. How long is it? Get out the ruler.
How heavy is it? Grab a scale. How big is it? See if it can fit into this box. No. No. No.
Thats thinking about faith according to the law. Do not succumb to that temptation of
Satan. Instead of asking, Do I have enough faith? let me ask you instead, Do you
have a Savior? Yes, you say, by faith. Faith doesnt talk about itself. Faith holds
onto the Savior. Faith is always in action.

To illustrate this, consider another text about Abraham, a text thats much
more difficult to understand, James 2:14-26. What good is it, my brothers, if
someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a
brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to
them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for
the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith
apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that
God is one; you do well. Even the demons believeand shudder! Do you want to be

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shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see
that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and
the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to
him as righteousness" and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is
justified by works and not by faith alone. For as the body apart from the spirit is
dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
You may be thinking, Pastor, it was so clear before, and now Im confused.
Whats this guy James saying about being justified by works? Good. I have your
attention again. Lutherans tend to rankle at hearing this language in James. Were
much more familiar with St. Paul and how he uses the words faith and works. For
example, Ephesians 2:8-10. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this
is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
James is not saying anything different from Paul. James is saying the same thing
differently, of course. James is using his own way of speaking under divine inspiration.
He writes, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not
have works? Can that faith save him? Of course not, we answer. A so-called faith,
a faith surrounded by quote marks, a fake kind of sitting-down-all-the-time-faith is
really not even faith at all. And we agree saying with James, faith by itself, if it does
not have works, is dead.

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This makes sense. We now read what comes later and understand. But someone
will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your [so-called] faith apart from
your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. James is a good Lutheran.
(Dr. Scaer clarifies:) James is so theologically precise that he avoids saying that
works follow faith in favor of faith was active along with his works. Works follow
faith in a logical but not temporal sense. As soon as faith is conceived, it has no other
choice but to express itself in activity. Even before faith can contemplate itself, it is
busy in carrying out Gods will.
[This paragraph is worth pondering again.] James is so theologically precise that
he avoids saying that works follow faith in favor of faith was active along with his
works. Works follow faith in a logical but not temporal sense. As soon as faith is
conceived, it has no other choice but to express itself in activity. Even before faith can
contemplate itself, it is busy in carrying out Gods will. Though such a view may be
easily recognized as Luthers, it has earlier roots in James
[Are works necessary for salvation? Scripture clearly says no. Are good works
necessary? Scripture clearly says yes. Our Lord says, Every tree that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their
fruits. Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my father in heaven. James message is
fundamentally the same as that of Our Lord or St. Paul.]
You see that a person is justified by works and not by [a dead] faith alone
again is a reference to the eschatological, [i.e. end-times] justification, as James
places the works of Abraham before the congregation as the evidence [of his living

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faith,] for his being considered justified by God. From the perspective of the Last Day,
God will demonstrate Abraham as justified to all, holding up his willingness to sacrifice
Isaac [by faith] as the evidence.
And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and
said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have
not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply
your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your
offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."
"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."

Testing, Faith, & Works. They are connected, as the Lord has taught us from the
example of Abraham. We observe how, by faith, Abraham trusted in the promise,
"Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."

Even if it took a death and a

resurrection to pull it off, Abraham trusted that God would fulfill His promises. That is
the confidence of faith.
God Himself provided the ram in Isaacs place. He later provided His only Son,
the Lamb, the sacrifice who carried His own wood, the wood of the cross. God
fulfilled His promise to bless all nations on earth through Jesus, though it took a death
and resurrection to do it.
Consider your own tests, trials, and tribulations. Often we do not know why we
are tested until after the test is over. Only after we have been preserved, proved,

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purified, disciplined, and taught [by the Lord] can we move beyond the situation,
strong in faith and strengthened for the more difficult tasks ahead.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into
this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than
that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us
to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us(Romans 5:1-5). Amen.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

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