Gospel Commentary

Listen to Dr. Warren Gage & Pastor Robey Barnes discuss the story of Abraham & Isaac, and how it teaches the gospel by pointing us to the suffering and glory of Jesus!

Find the Gospel in the Story

In Luke 24, Jesus taught his disciples that every story in the Bible points directly to him! He explained that we simply need to look for the gospel pattern of "suffering followed by glory." That is, we need to look for something that points to his suffering on the cross, followed by something that points to the glory of his resurrection! Use the gospel chart below to help you find "the story within the story!"

Gospel Study Notes

Connection #1

There can be no overstating how precious Isaac was to his father, Abraham. He was not only Abraham’s beloved son (Gen 22:2), he was Abraham’s unique son, the son in the covenant line of promise that would one day bring forth the Savior of the world. As such, Isaac was the very hope of the world. But as precious as Isaac was to his father, Jesus was even more precious to his Heavenly Father. Jesus was the beloved son in whom the Father was well pleased (Matt 3:17). He was the Savior born in fulfillment of the covenant of promise given to Isaac and the true hope of the world.

Connection #2

The command that Abraham must sacrifice his beloved son is intended to be horrifying. We know that the Living God is a God of life who abominates child sacrifice (Deut 12:31; cf. Deut 9:5, Lev 18:21, Deut 18:10, Isa 106:37, Jer 32:35). So what was God’s purpose in issuing this dreadful command? The answer is that God intended to teach Father Abraham the grief that he would have to endure when he offered his own Beloved Son as a bloody sacrifice for the world.

It is for this reason that God identified the hill outside Jerusalem called Mount Moriah as the location where Abraham must offer up Isaac. God chose this location because he would one day have to offer up his own beloved son on the hill outside Jerusalem called Mount Golgotha.

Given the shocking nature of God’s command, Abraham’s unquestioning obedience is all the more striking. Abraham immediately undertook to obey the Lord, gathering the wood for the sacrifice and heading out to Moriah the next morning (Gen 22:3). The author of Hebrews gives us insight into Abraham’s line of thinking, though. When Abraham reached the foot of Moriah, he instructed the servants to remain behind while he and Isaac proceeded up the hill, promising in no uncertain terms that “we will return to you” (Gen 22:5). The author of Hebrews cites this statement as evidence of Abraham’s resolute faith (Heb 11:17-19). Abraham was fully expecting to have to sacrifice his beloved son at the top of Mount Moriah. However, because he believed in all of God’s covenant promises that rested so singularly on Isaac, he placed his confidence in God’s ability to raise Isaac once again from death. Abraham reasoned that if the Lord had already brought Isaac forth from a barren womb that was as good as dead, he could just as assuredly bring a living son forth from death itself.

Connection #3

In a poignant scene, Father Abraham looked on in grief as his beloved son was made to carry the wood for his own sacrifice up the hill of Moriah. It was here that Abraham learned something of the grief that God the Father would one day experience when Jesus, the far greater son of Abraham, would be made to carry the wooden cross of his own sacrifice to the hill of Golgotha.

Connection #4

When Abraham revealed that Isaac was the intended sacrifice atop the hill, Isaac could have resisted. We can infer that Isaac was the stronger of the two because Abraham had him carry the wood for the sacrifice on his back as they climbed up the hill. But while Isaac was the stronger, precisely like Christ, he chose to submit his own will to the will of his father. Like Christ, Isaac willingly extended his hands to be bound and willingly lay down upon the wood to receive the lethal piercing. What remarkable faith Isaac showed that day!

Connection #5

When Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” (Gen 22:7), Abraham had assured him that God would provide a lamb for the sacrifice. But God didn’t provide a lamb that day. In Isaac’s place, he provided a ram—crowned with thorns, seeing as it had been caught by the horns in a thicket bush. Still, a ram is not the same as a lamb. So Isaac’s original question is left open: where is the lamb for the sacrifice? We find the answer at the beginning of the Gospel of John. When John the Baptist sees Jesus, he proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

This brings us to the key difference between the stories of Isaac and Jesus. While God provided a substitute for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of his son Isaac, when the time came for the Heavenly Father to sacrifice his own beloved son, he did not provide a substitute to take the place of Jesus. Instead, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was crowned with thorns and pierced as the substitute sacrifice in our place. Unlike Isaac, he suffered authentic death for us.

Connection #6

Isaac came under the judgment of death the very moment that God demanded his sacrifice. For the following three days (Gen 2:4), Abraham lived with a father’s grief over the coming death of his son. Then, on the third day, God sent his angel to deliver Isaac from death! The fact that Isaac escapes death on the third day is significant. Paul said that the Scriptures taught the third day resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor 15:4). This passage is one among many such examples!

Gospel Takeaways

Abraham’s binding of his beloved son Isaac teaches us to appreciate the sacrifice of the cross in the most authentic way possible. Every parent can empathize with the grief that the father of our faith experienced during this trial. But it is through Abraham’s grief that we are given an intimate look into the heart of Father God and how he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son!