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Jesus came to give himself as a sacrifice for all peoples so that we could escape our corruption and reconnect with God. God declared this plan at the beginning of human history. He then signed it in the sacrifice of Abraham by pointing to Mount Moriah where Jesus’ sacrifice would be provided. Then the Jewish Passover sacrifice pointed to the day of the year when Jesus would be sacrificed.

Bad News … The Law of Sin and Death

Why is his sacrifice so important? This is a question worth asking. The Bible declares a Law when it states:

For the wages of sin is death…
Romans 6:23

“Death” literally means ‘separation’. When our soul separates from our body we die physically. Similarly we are even now separated from God spiritually. This is true because God is Holy (sinless) while we have become corrupted from our original creation and so we sin.

The diagram illustrates this. It pictures two cliffs with God opposite from us with a chasm between us. Just like a branch cut from a tree is dead, so we have cut ourselves off from God and become spiritually dead.

We are separated from God by our sins like a chasm between two cliffs — We are separated from God by our sins like a chasm separating two cliffs

Merit from our Good Efforts is insufficient

This separation causes guilt and fear. So what we naturally try to do is build bridges to take us from our side (of death) to God’s side. We do this in many different ways: going to church, temple or mosque, being religious, being good, helping the poor, meditation, trying to be more helpful, praying more, etc. These deeds to gain merit can be very difficult – and living them out can be very complicated. The next figure illustrates this.

Good Efforts – useful as they may be - cannot bridge the separation between us and God — Good Efforts – useful as they may be – cannot bridge the separation between us and God

The problem is that our hard efforts, merits, and deeds, though not wrong, are insufficient because the payment required (the ‘wages’) for our sins is ‘death’. Our efforts are like a ‘bridge’ that tries to cross the gap separating us from God – but in the end cannot do it. This is because good merit will not solve our root problem. It is like trying to heal cancer (which results in death) by eating vegetarian. Eating vegetarian is not bad, it may even be good – but it will not cure cancer. For cancer you need a totally different treatment.

This Law is Bad News – it is so bad we often do not even want to hear it and we fill our lives with activities and things hoping this Law will go away. But the Bible stresses this Law of sin and death to get our attention to focus on the cure that is simple and powerful.

For the wages of sin is death but…
Romans 6:23

Good News of Life

The small word ‘but’ shows that the direction of the message is about to change directions, to the Good News of the Gospel – the cure. It shows both the goodness and love of God.

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23)

The good news of the gospel is that the sacrifice of Jesus’ death is sufficient to bridge this separation between us and God. We know this because three days after his death Jesus rose bodily, coming alive again in a physical resurrection. There exists historic, compelling evidence for this. Abraham’s sacrifice and the Passover sacrifice prophetically acted out Jesus’ coming sacrifice. God planned these signs pointing to Jesus to help us find the cure.

Jesus was a human who lived a sinless life. Therefore he can ‘touch’ both the human and the God sides and span the gap separating God and people. He is a Bridge to Life which the diagram illustrates.

Jesus is the Bridge that spans the chasm between God and man

Given as a Gift, not earned by Merit

Notice how God offers this to us. He offers it as a … ‘gift’. Think about gifts. No matter what the gift is, if it is really a gift it is something that you do not work for and that you do not earn by merit. If you earned it the gift would no longer be a gift – it would be a wage! In the same way you cannot merit or earn the sacrifice of Jesus. It is given to you as a gift. It is that simple.

And what is the gift? It is ‘eternal life’. That means that God has cancelled the sin which brought you and me death. Jesus’ bridge of life enables us to re-connect with God and receive life – which lasts forever. God loves you and me that much. It is that powerful.

The Gift Received

So how do we cross on this bridge of life that Jesus gives to us as a gift? Again, think of gifts. If someone gives you a gift it is something you do not work for. But to get any benefit from the gift you must ‘receive’ it. Every time a gift is offered to a recipient there are only two alternatives. Either recipient refuses the gift (“No thank you”) or receives it (“Thank you for your gift. I will take it”). Likewise, you must receive this gift that Jesus offers to benefit from it. You cannot simply believe, study, meditate upon it, or understood it. The next figure illustrates this as we ‘walk’ on the Bridge by turning to God and receiving His Gift offered to us.

Jesus sacrifice is a gift that each of us must choose to receive

So how do we receive this gift? The Bible says that

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
Romans 10:12

Notice that this promise is for ‘everyone’. Since he rose from the dead Jesus is alive even now and he is ‘Lord’. So if you call on him he will hear and give his gift to you. You call out to him and ask him – by having a conversation with him. Perhaps you have never done this. Below is a prayer that can guide you. It is not a magic chant. The specific words used do not give it power. It is the trust like Abraham had that we place in him to give us this gift. As we trust him He will hear us and answer. The Gospel is powerful, and yet also so simple. Feel free to follow this guide if you find it helpful.

Dear Lord Jesus. I understand that with my sins I am separated from God. Though I can try hard, no effort and sacrifice on my part will bridge this separation. But I understand that your death was a sacrifice to wash away all my sins. I believe that you rose from the dead after your sacrifice so I know that your sacrifice was sufficient. I ask you to please cleanse me from my sins and bridge me to God so I can have eternal life. I do not want to live a life enslaved to sin so please free me from sin. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for doing all this for me and would you even now continue to guide me in my life so I can follow you as my Lord.

Amen

Abraham lived 4000 years ago, traveling to modern-day Israel. God promised him a son that would become a ‘great nation’. But he had to believe and then wait until he was very old to see his son born. Jews and Arabs today come from Abraham, so we know the promise came true and that he is an important person in history as the father of great nations.

The Test: The Binding of Isaac

Abraham was now very happy to watch his son Isaac grow up into a man. But then God tested Abraham with a difficult task. God said:

“Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar.”
Genesis 22:2

This is hard to understand! Why would God ask Abraham to do this? But Abraham, who had learned to trust God – even when he did not understand

… got up early the next morning … and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go.
Genesis 22:3

After three days travel they reached the mountain. Then

…when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son.
Genesis 22: 9-10

Abraham was ready to obey God. Just then something remarkable happened

But the Lord’s angel shouted from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am!” he answered.

“Don’t hurt the boy or harm him in any way!” the angel said. “Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son.”

Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.
Genesis 22: 11-13

At the last moment Isaac was saved from death and Abraham saw a male sheep and sacrificed it instead. God had provided a ram and the ram took the place of Isaac.

Now let’s ask a question. At this point in the story is the ram dead or alive?

Why do I ask? Because Abraham will now give a name to the place, but many miss its importance. The story continues…

Abraham named that place “The Lord Will Provide.” And even now people say, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Genesis 22:14

Another question: Is the name that Abraham gave to that place (“The Lord Will Provide”) in the past?

Looking to the future, not the past

It is clearly in the future tense. Many people assume that Abraham, when naming that place, was thinking of the ram. God had provided it by getting the ram caught in the thicket. Then Abraham had sacrificed in place of his Isaac. But when Abraham gave the name that ram was already dead and sacrificed. If Abraham was thinking of that ram – already dead and sacrificed – he would have named it ‘The LORD has provided’. He would have named it in the past tense. And the closing comment would read ‘And even now people say “On the mountain of the LORD it was provided”’. But the name looks to the future, not the past. Abraham is not thinking of the already dead ram. He is naming it for something else – in the future. But what?

Where is that place?

Remember where this sacrifice occurred, told at the beginning of the story:

(“Go get Isaac, …. Take him to the land of Moriah”)
Genesis 22:2

This happened at ‘Moriah’. Where is that? It was wilderness in Abraham’s day (2000 BCE), with only some bushes, a wild ram, and Abraham & Isaac on that mountain. But one thousand years later (1000 BCE) King David built the city of Jerusalem there, and his son Solomon built the First Jewish Temple there. We read later in the Bible that:

Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah…
2 Chronicles 3:1

Mount Moriah became Jerusalem, the Jewish city with the Jewish Temple. Today it is a holy place for the Jewish people, and Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel.

The Sacrifice of Abraham and Jesus

Let us think a little about the titles of Jesus. Jesus’ most well-known title is ‘Christ’. But he had other titles, like:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
John 1:29

Jesus was also called ‘The Lamb of God‘. Think about the end of Jesus’ life. Where was he arrested and crucified? It was in Jerusalem (which is the same as ‘Mount Moriah’). The Bible states very clearly that:

He [Pilate] learned that Jesus was under Herod’s authority. Herod was in Jerusalem at that time, so Pilate sent Jesus to him.
Luke 23:7

The arrest, trial and death of Jesus was in Jerusalem (= Mount Moriah). The timeline shows the events that have happened on Mount Moriah.

timeline of major events at Mount Moriah — Major events on Mount Moriah

Back to Abraham. Why did he name that place in the future tense ‘The LORD will provide’? Isaac had been saved at the last moment when Abraham sacrificed a lamb in his place. Two thousand years later, Jesus, the ‘Lamb of God’, is sacrificed at the same location. He did this so you & I could also live.

A Divine Plan

It is like a Mind has connected these two events separated by 2000 years of history. What makes the connection unique is that the first event points to the later event by creating the name in the future tense. But how would Abraham know what would happen in the future? No human knows the future, especially that far into the future. Only God can know the future. Foreseeing the future and having these events happen at the same place is evidence that this is not a human plan. Rather, it is a plan from God. He wants us to think about this like below:

Abraham's sacrifice at Mount Moriah is a sign pointing to sacrifice of Jesus — Abraham’s sacrifice at Mount Moriah is a sign pointing to sacrifice of Jesus

Good News for all nations

This account also has a promise for you. At the end of this account God promises to Abraham that:

“…and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me”
Genesis 22:18

If you belong to one of the ‘nations on earth’ then this is a promise to you. It concerns a ‘blessing’ from God.

So what is this ‘blessing’? How do you get it? Think of the story. Just like the ram saved Isaac from death, so Jesus the Lamb of God, by his sacrifice at the same place, saves us from the power of death. If that is true it would certainly be good news.

The sacrifice of Abraham on Mount Moriah is an important event in ancient history. Millions remember and celebrate it around the world today, especially in the Islamic traditions. But it is also a living story of life for you 4000 years later. Its theme continues with Moses.

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Simple but Powerful: What is the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice?