Thursday, June 23, 2011

father adam or father abraham?

So we established that we all have four fathers. Potentially anyway. We have our biological father and our first father, Adam, just by being born. We find our Father in heaven by being born again through faith in Jesus. In fact the bible calls Jesus the second Adam, who redeemed us from the curse of our first father by becoming a curse for us. Its here that we are empowered to follow the example of Abraham the father of our faith instead of Adam the father of our fallenness. There is no perfect father like God our Father, but God does give us a good, earthly example in Abraham.

A quick contrast between father Adam and father Abraham reveals one stark difference.
Where Adam's doubt led to disobedience, Abraham's faith led to obedience. This is essentially how we differentiate the two. In Genesis 12, God appears to Abraham and calls him to leave his father's house and 'go to a land that I will show you.'God's covenant was that He would bless him, make him into a great nation, and that all the people's on earth would be blessed by him. The condition is to go not knowing where he would end up. That was the kicker.

The nature of this covenant was very similar to God's intention for Adam and Eve' - 'be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.' They also had a condition. 'Do not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden.'That was their kicker.

Sometimes God keeps things off limits for us. Other times he keeps things mysteriously unclear. Essentially, He is testing our trust in Him and our willingness to submit to him as God, instead of asserting ourselves as our own god.

Will we echo Adam, like the poet in Invictus?
"My head is bloody but unbowed,
I am the captain of my soul,
I am the master of my destiny"

Or will we humbly echo Abraham? It's far less profoundly poetic than Invictus.
Obedient faith's potency is in its uncontentious simplicity.
"So Abraham left, as the Lord told him."

No comments:

Post a Comment