Sacrifice what you love most

Dear Mosaic Family,

In Genesis 22, we see God calling Abraham to do the hardest thing he has ever done. God calls him to sacrifice whom he loves most, his only son.

"Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

The Scriptures are silent about Abraham's emotional reaction here, but we can imagine how his heart was torn asunder.

The Lord isn't asking here. He's telling. He's commanding. Take the son of your old age. The son whose birth was a miracle. The son for whom you have waited many years. The son who is the apple of your eye. The son upon whom Abraham rested all his hopes for the near and distant future. He had already lost one son, Ishmael. Now it appears he would lose another, by his own hand.

In perhaps the single greatest act of obedience in Holy Scripture, he does it. Or is about to before being stopped by the Angel of the Lord.

The text is about Abraham passing the test of obedience. True faith isn't exercised when it's easy to obey. True faith is exercised when God demands we sacrifice what we love most. Abraham passes the test.

But the text is mainly about Abraham's obedience of faith. The text is about one of the deepest truths in the Universe: even at our very best, even at our most obedient, even at moments of greatest sacrifice, we still fall short of God's will. We cannot atone for our sins with our obedience or our righteousness. Even at our best, we need a substitutionary atonement. We need someone better than us, dying for our sins. Who's that? Who's the only One, better than anyone? The one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ. Abraham's obedience, as great as it was, can't hold a candle to the obedience of Jesus.

The story of Genesis 22 is an enactment of God the Father, putting God the Son to death, as our substitutionary atonement. All we can do is stand in awe, fear, reverence—and worship this great God!

With Love,

Pastor Jan

This Week's Announcements

Baptism Seminar

Sunday, July 11th at 1pm

Want to be baptized? The first step toward baptism at Mosaic is to attend our baptism class. For more information or to sign up, visit Brookline.MosaicBoston.com/Baptism.

Kids Summer Nights

July 26-30th from 6-8 pm

Registration is now open for kids ages 4-11 to attend our free, weeklong VBS program this summer! You can register your child(ren) or sign up to volunteer here.

Songs for Sunday 

If you would like to know what we'll be singing on Sunday, you can find the playlist here.