Where’s the Gospel in the Story of Abraham and Isaac?

Following Abraham’s call to faith in Genesis 12, he’s asked by God to offer up his beloved son, Isaac. Genesis 22:2 says, "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 that I will show you." This story is so rich with gospel foreshadowing! 

First, Abraham is asked to offer up his son, just as God would later send His. Isaac carries the wood on his back up the mountain (Genesis 22:6), just as Jesus carried His cross. When the father and son get to the top of the mountain, Isaac asks, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7). Abraham’s response: “God will provide for himself the lamb” (v.8) is a prophetic glimpse of Christ, the Lamb of God. Isaac willingly submits to his father, just as Jesus did in Gethsemane.

Sure enough, A ram is provided by God, caught in a thicket, taking Isaac’s place on the sacrificial altar, just as Jesus takes our place on the cross, bearing the judgment we deserved. If we jump ahead to the new testament book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verses 17-19 we’re told, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”

While God called Abraham to obedience through faith, the focus of this story is on God’s faithful provision and substitution. I don’t know about you, but growing up in Sunday school the focus of this story was often on surrendering and giving all we have to God to receive His blessing. While worshipful surrender is beautiful, The gospel is not that we must offer our sons to God or be perfectly obedient to receive salvation, but that God offered His Son for us, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Trust in His atonement and His work, and receive the peace that surpasses understanding.