{"id":3945,"date":"2017-06-14T16:08:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T16:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/?p=3945"},"modified":"2023-08-29T11:21:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:21:15","slug":"for-sarahs-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/for-sarahs-sake\/","title":{"rendered":"For Sarah’s Sake"},"content":{"rendered":"
With the May-June <\/span>Sola Fide <\/span><\/i>issue in readers\u2019 hands and the July-August <\/span>Sola Gratia<\/span><\/i> edition wrapping up, I\u2019m thinking today about the inseparable union of grace and faith, particularly witnessed in the first family of faith, Abraham and Sarah.<\/span><\/p>\n Paul writes more than once about this couple. They are crucial figures in his exposition of the gospel of God in Jesus Christ, scriptural forbearers of that great, sacrosanct dance of grace and faith. Paul also offers our most beloved expression of this simple gospel pattern in abbreviated form: <\/span><\/p>\n For\u00a0by grace you have been saved\u00a0through faith; and that not of yourselves,\u00a0it is\u00a0the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Grace is God\u2019s mighty love directed toward us. Faith is our simple, trusting response. This transformative gift beyond grasping is bound up in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished in life, death, and resurrection. Little wonder that Paul found, and pressed into service, the miraculous story of Abraham and Sarah as the central Old Testament paradigm and foreshadow of the grace and faith now fully revealed in Jesus. He is, after all, their promised child.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah\u2019s central<\/b><\/p>\n Usually the story is rehearsed, with Abraham, the father of the faith, as the central character. Here, however, I want to note how the pattern of grace and faith therein finds Sarah as the crucial, pivotal character of the story. If grace is God acting freely from His love, working the impossible in us, Paul finds in the mother of faith God\u2019s covenantal purpose and promise fully illustrated.<\/span><\/p>\n For this is the word of promise: \u201cAt this time I will come, and\u00a0Sarah shall have a son\u201d (Romans 9:9).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a huge promise and a theological gem that goes well beyond its historical moment. It\u2019s a word from God that draws out a response of trusting faith, or nothing at all. Paul already reminded his Roman readers of the impossibility of their situation: Abraham must believe not only what God will do for him but also how God will do that <\/span>through his barren wife<\/span><\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of\u00a0Sarah\u2019s womb (Romans 4:19).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul observes in the following verses that Abraham did not falter in unbelief but grew strong in faith, trusting that God who promises also performs. This way is righteousness \u2014 \u00a0not Abraham\u2019s only but ours as well (vv. 20-25). All this turns on the gracious miracle God performs <\/span>in<\/span><\/i> Sarah. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself. We know the end of the story: the laughter that becomes baby Isaac. But let\u2019s go back to the beginning, to Genesis to see how favored Sarah is in this story, how focused God\u2019s grace is on her, and how all of it ultimately points to Jesus and the empty tomb that our faith is built upon.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cListen to me, you who\u00a0pursue righteousness, w<\/span>ho seek the\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>: l<\/span>ook to the\u00a0rock from which you were hewn a<\/span>nd to the quarry from which you were dug.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cLook to\u00a0Abraham your father a<\/span>nd to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain\u201d (Isaiah 51:1, 2a).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sarah\u2019s story <\/b><\/p>\n Her start is inauspicious. In Genesis 11 we get a brief, gloomy description of Abram\u2019s wife, named Sarai. She is barren (v. 30). Despite the discouraging prognosis, especially for a woman in the ancient Near East, it does not take long to realize her centrality to this story of promise. God\u2019s call of Abram out from his country, family, and home to a new land is followed by the divine promise of blessing to make Abram a great nation and bless all families through him (12:1-3). \u00a0We don\u2019t know how God will do this. Though vague, God\u2019s grace is seen in God\u2019s initiating word. Abram and Sarai set out for Canaan in faith (vv. 4, 5). <\/span><\/p>\n Once they\u2019re in Canaan, God renews and expands His promise to Abram: \u201cTo your descendants I will give this land\u201d (v. 7). But where will these descendants come from? We don\u2019t know yet. Abram travels on, but famine drives him to Egypt. Fearing that Sarai\u2019s beauty will make him a target, Abram passes her off as a sister. She must have been an exceptional woman. It\u2019s not a good moment for Abram, but his instinct is right: The Egyptians sing her praises to the Pharaoh, who snatches her up quickly, rewarding Abram in the process. <\/span><\/p>\n But God is looking out for Sarai, and His promises to Abram have everything to do with her, even if Abram doesn\u2019t know it yet. Anticipating the Exodus story, God plagues Pharaoh and his house for Sarai\u2019s sake. She is quickly sent back to her husband and escorted out of Egypt. <\/span><\/p>\n In Genesis 15, God again reaffirms His promise to Abram, just as his doubts and frustrations are mounting. God addresses them:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNow look toward the heavens, and\u00a0count the stars, if you are able to count them.\u201d And He said to him, \u201cSo shall your descendants be.\u201d Then he believed in the\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:5, 6).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is the essential justification by faith moment that the New Testament turns to again and again. But the promise is still vague, if undeniable. <\/span>How is God going to do this?<\/span><\/i> In chapter 16, Sarai and Abram come up with a plan: Hagar! Oops. And Ishmael follows. But this work of the flesh looks too much like Sarai and Abram and not enough like God Almighty. <\/span><\/p>\n Though they presumptuously stumble, God renews His everlasting covenant with Abram, and his heirs to be, in chapter 17. His promises are as vast as ever: \u201cI will multiply you exceedingly\u201d (v. 2). God finally makes His objectives clear, directing His attention to Abraham\u2019s aged and barren wife, Sarah, and the impossible: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I will bless her, and indeed I will give you\u00a0a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be\u00a0a mother of\u00a0nations;\u00a0kings of peoples will\u00a0come from her\u201d (Genesis 17:16)<\/span>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Abraham, the father of faith, \u201cfell on his face and laughed\u201d (v. 17). Grace has never looked so amazing, and faith can only hoot at what God is up to. Fittingly, it is at this very moment of revelation that Sarai\u2019s name is changed to Sarah, meaning <\/span>princess<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n Of course, Sarah laughs too when she overhears the Lord\u2019s word of promise in chapter 18. Let\u2019s be practical here. Wouldn\u2019t you? And now we get to the nitty gritty of grace and faith: <\/span><\/p>\n And the\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>\u00a0said to Abraham, \u201cWhy did Sarah laugh, saying, \u2018Shall I indeed bear\u00a0a child, when I am\u00a0so\u00a0old?\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>Is anything too\u00a0difficult for the\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>? At the\u00a0appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son\u201d (Genesis 18:13, 14)<\/span>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n God is determined to do the difficult \u2014 nay, the impossible \u2014 in and through Sarah. What else is there but faith in the face of this sort of grace? <\/span><\/p>\n But the story is not over yet. In chapter 20, Abraham is up to his old tricks, passing Sarah off as a sister. Poor King Abimelech is the unsuspecting suitor this time. God warns the king in a dream, but not before shutting up the wombs of his household. Mortified, he returns Sarah to Abraham with 1,000 shekels of silver, equivalent to 100 years of average wages. And all \u201cbecause of Sarah, Abraham\u2019s wife\u201d (vv. 1-18).<\/span><\/p>\n It seems that God knows no bounds in showing His grace for Sarah\u2019s sake.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah\u2019s finale<\/b><\/p>\n In chapter 21 the promise reaches its climax. Sarah conceives and gives birth \u2014 a baby boy in her old age. He\u2019s named Isaac because <\/span>\u201cGod has made\u00a0laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh\u00a0with me\u201d (v. 6). <\/span><\/p>\n The fullness of our faith is the laughter that issues forth in rejoicing at what God\u2019s grace has accomplished in old, dead bodies. The faith of Sarah and Abraham trusts God to act, not just in them individually, but also in the <\/span>other<\/span><\/i> \u2014 one close, or perhaps far off, in whom we cannot imagine God\u2019s grace to be effective. <\/span><\/p>\n Sarah\u2019s story ends poignantly and prophetically. Having walked a lifetime of faith alongside her husband, through hardships, temptations, and joys, God\u2019s princess died at 127 years of age. Abraham grieves his loss and makes his final pilgrimage to obtain a burial place for her. For Sarah\u2019s sake, he pays a fortune of 400 shekels of silver (40 years of average wages) for the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23).<\/span><\/p>\n There she is buried, the matriarch of faith. Her husband and descendants will follow her into that cave, one after another, death reigning. But those of faith know that this grave, Sarah\u2019s cave, is pregnant with hope. Centuries later, another heir of hers \u2014 a child of Isaac, born of Mary in other impossible circumstances \u2014 will be born, die, and be placed in a cave. But death and grave will not hold Him, just as Sarah\u2019s dead womb could not prevent Isaac. Her grave, Machpelah, speaks of faith and of grace unlimited; it points toward the One raised. This is God\u2019s Son, the seed of Sarah, the grace of God made flesh. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the resurrection of Jesus, in that empty cave, it is not just Sarah\u2019s laughter that we hear echoing off the rocks; her heirs of faith laugh with her. For Sarah\u2019s sake, and for ours, God\u2019s grace continues to do the impossible, bringing forth life from death through Jesus Christ our Lord. <\/span><\/p>\n Believe Him. And laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Scripture quotations are from the <\/span>New American Standard Bible<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the May-June Sola Fide issue in readers\u2019 hands and the July-August Sola Gratia edition wrapping up, I\u2019m thinking today about the inseparable union of grace and faith, particularly witnessed in the first family of faith, Abraham and Sarah. Paul writes more than once about this couple. They are crucial figures in his exposition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,36],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n