Session 3 Recap: Trent Hunter, “Abraham”
Editor’s Note: Spencer Brown is the Lead Pastor at Center City Church,
Albuquerque, NM. He is a member of the Albuquerque Chapter of The Gospel
Coalition. This post is a summary of Trent Hunter's message from Saturday
morning at Clarus, March 17, “Abraham.”
Trent began by encouraging us all to take a moment to considering the blanket of glittery stars in the New Mexico night sky. Those stars can remind us of the night God met Abram under a similar sky making a promise of offspring as numerous as those very stars. The promise of God to Abram, however, also reminds us—“If you are ever tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God, you need only take up the story of Abraham.”
Last night Stephen Wellum and Trent Hunter had us reflect on three contexts for each passage of Scripture. In keeping with that theme, Trent looked back at Abraham’s life, further back to creation, and then he looked forward to salvation through Christ.
The first context, or immediate context, answers the question: Who is Abraham? Trent highlighted six elements of Abraham’s life necessary for understanding his story:
1. Abraham is one of Noah’s descendants.
2. Abraham is a 75-year-old, successful land and business owner in the land of Ur, but also a worshipper of foreign gods.
3. Abraham is a recipient of tremendous promises: land, descendants, and blessing.
4. Abraham is like Noah in being a believer, but also different—Abraham is credited with righteousness (15:6).
5. Abraham is a sinner and a son of Adam. Because of this, God puts Abraham to sleep while he goes through the covenant; Abraham’s passive role in this covenant-making symbolized that the fulfillment of this covenant relied solely on God himself.
The second context, looks back at how Abraham’s life connects to what has come before in Genesis. God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 continues three key elements of the creation story:
• God promises the land as a new Eden
• God promises that filling the Earth will occur, not primarily with physical descendants, but with Abraham’s elected descendants
• God promises blessing to his creation through Abraham and his family
The third context, looking ahead in the story, shows that God’s story for Abraham is actually our story through salvation in Christ. Through Abraham, God shows us salvation in six ways:
1. Salvation by grace
2. Salvation by faith
3. Salvation through substitution
4. Salvation with a new heart
5. Salvation to the ends of the earth
6. Salvation leading to a heavenly city
Conclusion: Trent closed as he began by challenging us in this: the next time we see the stars in the night sky, may we remember our call to fix our eyes on Jesus and follow God in faith as Abraham did.