DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- THE SEED

DAD'S RAMBLING – THE SEED

"Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made, He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as on one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." (Galatians 3:16)

The Apostle Paul used Abraham as an illustration of the difference between the natural and the spiritual. The natural man thinks he can please God and do His will by his own actions or deeds. The spiritual man understands that God's great plan does not depend on what we as humans do.

Abraham had two sons. The first son, Ishmael, was a result of Abraham trying to accomplish God's plan through his own actions. This is the picture of the natural man. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son. After waiting for many years, they decided to help God along by doing things their own way. So Sarah proposed the plan for Abraham to have a son – an heir. She offered her maid for Abraham to use to conceive an heir.

But as so often happens, when we try to help God out, it ends up in confusion. The son born to Hagar was named Ishmael. It seems that Abraham loved Ishmael, but God made it plain that this was not God's plan.

Isaac was born to Sarah, and he was the true heir to Abraham's legacy. It is interesting that when God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, God said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burn offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you" (Genesis 22:2). Obviously, Isaac was not the only son of Abraham. There were two seeds, Ishmael and Isaac. But there was only one seed that was destined to be the lineage through which the Messiah would come, and that was Isaac. Christ is the seed of Abraham through Isaac.

God has one plan for salvation. There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. We cannot be saved by man's idea of how to be saved. It cannot be a combination of Ishmael – man's way, and Isaac – God's way. Only as we follow God's plan of promise can we have eternal life. Jesus spoke truth when He said that no one could come to the Father except through Him. It is only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that confirms our salvation.

Love, Dad