“Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV)
In the name of Jesus. Amen. What did Abram do to be promised all those wonderful things by the Lord? What did Abram do to be promised to be a great nation? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. The Lord told Abram to go, gifted Him, and promised to make his name great.
Abram had sins. He was an idol worshiper. The Lord called him out of his sins, blessed him, and showered him gifts.
This is how God deals with you too! He does not treat us as we merit. He gives gifts, not because we deserve them, but solely by His grace.
How bad are we? Try to think of a time in which you are NOT sinning! All we ever do is sin! Our thoughts, our words, our deeds are all tainted with our sins. So what do we try to do? We try to do better so that God will take notice. We may do well for a while, then it is right back into our same old sins. Or we even seem to get worse!
What does the Lord do? He takes all your sins, all the evil you have ever done, and puts them on His Son. All our failures, all our successes, all the things we did for God, all the things that we did for ourselves, the Lord puts them all on Jesus. Jesus’ death wins for us the forgiveness of sins.
The Lord made Abram’s name great, just as He promised. He gave Him a new name, calling him Abraham, the father of many nations. The Lord does the same for us in Holy Baptism, where He takes water and His Word and gives us a new name. He names us, putting His name on us, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And just as He did it for Abram, He names us for free, by His grace alone.
The thing which holds everything together is Christ. Apart from Christ, God has every reason to treat us as we deserve. The Cross of Christ is the reason, the only reason, that God refuses to treat we as we merit or refuses to harbor His anger forever.
Through Abraham all families of the earth are blessed. It wasn’t because of Abraham, it was because of Abraham’s son. Jesus is the Son of Abraham. In Jesus, we are saved. Blessed be Abraham because of Jesus!
As He did for father Abraham, so He does for you. He gives and gives and gives without any merit or worthiness in you and me. He gives in Christ. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Higher Things Reflections are written by Rev. George F. Borghardt III, Assistant Pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church, Conroe, TX.