But Through the Righteousness of Faith

Through Abraham's believing and obeying God's promise, this passage deals with how salvation came not through the Law but through faith. Even when it was impossible for him to father Isaac at a hundred years old, Abraham did not doubt God's word, and even in the extreme test of offering Isaac on the altar of burnt offering he trusted God. The sermon stresses that although Abraham sometimes made wrong choices out of human anxiety and weakness, in the end he realized that human effort is futile and reached a mature faith that relies on God alone.

In particular, it sheds light in depth on the painful inner conflict and spiritual battle Abraham must have gone through as he offered Isaac. Through the way his spirit, even amid physical pain and fear, focused on God and found peace, it shows that true faith lies in overcoming emotional conflict and looking wholly to God. It also explains that Abraham's faith was not only for his own sake, but so that it would be counted as righteousness for all believers who believe in Jesus Christ as well.

The sermon asks believers to learn, in suffering and trials, the patience of waiting for God's timing rather than trying to solve things by human strength. It leads them to reflect on how a pure faith in the God who raises the dead makes a life steadfast, and the reader looks back on what they are holding on to in their own life, and how that faith is growing through suffering.