Saturday, October 27, 2012

God's preferential plan for Abram, a rich man.

"So Abram left, as the LORD had told him....He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there." (Gen. 12:4-5)

When God calls Abram, he already owns people. I can't boast that about myself, but the liberation theologians mentioned earlier would certainly target me as belonging to the class of "the rich." Abram far surpasses the objects of their ire. And were their ire based on truth, it would follow that God would overlook rich Abram and choose some trodden down poor woman from a modest caste in India to begin the creation of His inheritance.

You don't have to be a snooty Wrightian to appreciate the importance of God's covenant with Abraham. It's a scriptural milestone. In fact, the exigencies of its interactions form the prophetic basis for justification by faith alone, as we see in Rom. 4, Gal. 3, and Heb. 11:8-10. The Gospel.

Abram, with all of his possessions and slaves, is justified by God and becomes the justified man par excellence.

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