Abraham was informed, that " in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed" —
[This was repeatedly declared to him, and at an interval of nearly fifty years a. The full import of this promise was not clearly revealed in the declaration itself; but it was doubtless made known to him by the Spirit of God, and was typically represented to him in the sacrifice of his son Isaac. By the command of God, he took his own son, the child of promise, in order to offer him up as a burnt-offering to the Lord. On this his son he laid the wood which was to reduce him to ashes ; he led him to Mount Moriah (the very place where the Promised Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, was after- wards offered) ; he bound him, and, in purpose and intention, offered him up a sacrifice to God : and then, having actually offered up the ram which God had substituted in the place of Isaac, he received his son as from the deadb: and thus was taught, that, by the death and resurrection of the Promised Seed, the blessings of salvation were to be brought to a ruined world. Such was the view given him of this great mystery ; and by his faith in the Promised Seed so " dying for our offences, and so raised again for our justification," he was jus- tified, as all his believing posterity shall also bec.
Here it is particularly to be remembered, that the law bore no part in his justification ; for it was not given till four hun- dred and thirty years after the promise of a Saviour had been made to him, and by faith in that promised Saviour he had been justified. It must be remembered also, that circumcision bore no part in his justification ; for no less than twenty-four years elapsed between the period of his being justified by faith, and the appointment of that rite d. It is of the utmost importance that these things be borne in mind : for, if we once admit the idea of his being either in whole or in part justified by any thing but faith, we shall subvert the Gospel altogether ; seeing that there is but one method of a sinner's justification before God for him and for use. True it is, that before men he was justified by his obedience, as St. James has truly saidf : for it was by the fruits which his faith produced, that it was seen to be a living, and not a dead, faith : but in the sight of God he had nothing of his own whereon to place the least dependence : it was by faith only, without any work whatever of his own, that he was counted righteous before God : and, if it had not been so, his salvation had been, not a gift of
a Gen. xii. 3. and xviii. 18. and xxii. IS. b Heb. xi. 17—19. c Rom. iv. 22—25.
A Compare Gen. xii. 3, 4. with Gen. xvii. 1, 7, 10, 23, 24. c See Rom. iv. 9—14. f Jam. ii. 21—23.