Jesus the Offspring of Abraham

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (Galatians 3.16)

Do we really fathom the depths of the Father’s love for us? Do we step back long enough and focus hard enough to see that throughout human history God was preparing a pathway for us to be redeemed? For us who live in the present age before we were born God had already seen the fall of humanity, promised a means of salvation and chosen a concrete path of redemption through the man Abraham and his offspring. We stand on this side of salvation history and marvel at the Father’s love, the intricate and fragile plan God chose to enter into his creation and restore us.

Fallible Abraham received a promise and we reap the full benefits of which he could never have imagined. We need not cling to a future promise of an unseen offspring. We see Jesus, the promised offspring of Abraham. We see the course cut through history of how God illustrated our reason for existence, our failure to achieve His holiness, and His commission of Jesus the anointed Savior of the world.

More than Abraham could love Isaac or truly any father could love his son, so God the Father loves Jesus. And now we are grafted into that love. We have been brought into the family of God through the Son of God who is the Son of Abraham, fully God and fully man. Let us step back now and worship the anointed Savior, promised to the ancients and promised to return again!

Jesus, thank you for your love for the God the Father and for me. You stepped into human history through the promises you made to Abraham and purchased my salvation!

Jesus the Cursed

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us— for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3.13)

As wonderful as we can sometimes dilute ourselves into thinking we are it does not take long to be reminded of our shortcomings. Turning through the pages of the law given to Moses we find ourselves woefully condemned. We have no strength in ourselves to stand before the Holy God and claim righteousness. We could never successfully find righteousness through observing the law. Misapplied observation of the law itself is tantamount to self-salvation because the responsibility of unstained purity falls squarely on our insufficient shoulders. We are cursed in our inadequacy.

For us to find salvation, to stand in perfect righteousness before God, we must believe what He has revealed to us. He placed our hope of righteousness within our ability to believe. We will live in spotless righteousness by faith. We will live because our Lord Jesus saw us condemned and cursed in our sin and became cursed for us. Jesus the cursed took our immoveable burden and carried it to the cross. The Divine God took upon Himself the divine curse of our disobedience. Without Jesus, our cursed redeemer, we would have no hope of holiness. And without faith in Jesus we could never rejoice in the blessing of Abraham.

Jesus suffered the curse on our behalf. In His perfection He remembered us in our imperfection. In our failure he called us to the cross where, if we will believe Him, He will remove our condemnation with His nail-pierced hands. And all He asks of us is to believe.

Jesus, I believe and I thank you for redeeming this life I had no hope to redeem.