“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Galatians 6:14–15
Today we get to witness the beginning of the nation of God. God took one man, Abraham, and said, “I choose you to be the man through whom I will work wonders.” And then He made a promise. He promised to grow, from this one man, a nation who would belong to God. He would be theirs and they would be His. He would be the protector of His people, the faithful one when they are not, the strong one when they are weak.
Can you imagine how confused and overwhelmed Abraham must have felt?
It is easy, at times, to think that we are such good little Christians who read our Bibles, pray, go to church, and obey all the rules. But if we think this way we have an inaccurate view of ourselves. We fail daily, we are unfaithful every time we choose sin, we are weak and easily distracted. We may have it together on the outside, but our hearts tell the truth.
When God made His covenant with Abraham He did all the work so that none of His people would have grounds to brag about how great they are.
Just as Paul said, “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God worked through Abraham and all of his shortcomings to create a people for Himself. Jonathan Edwards once said, “We contribute nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” It is easy to compare ourselves to other sinners and think we are better. We must guard ourselves from this. We are no better. We sin and deserve hell, but through the promise and mercy of God we have been saved. The punishment we deserved has been taken from us and placed on Jesus and instead we are showered with blessings that we definitely do not deserve.
As we continue with the story of Abraham, remember that we are witnessing God creating a nation for Himself, where He will be their God and, despite all of their rebellion, He will remain faithful.
Looking to Jesus,
