The People of God: The Story of the ChurchSample

The story of how God is putting the world right again leads us to a man called Abram, later called Abraham. We often see God changing people’s names like this as he takes people and sets them on a path to become part of his plan of salvation. A new name for a plan of a new creation. God is beginning to build a new family through whom he will display the way back to relationship between God and humanity.

Abraham receives a call to adventure - a call to leave what he knows and follow God, receiving promises that he will be the father of many nations. Abraham obeys God, but not perfectly. After trying to produce the son that God had promised in his own way, his son Isaac is eventually born. God then tests Abraham. Is he willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of obeying God? Incredibly the answer is yes. The ram that God provided points forward to when God would not spare his own Son’s sacrifice. Abraham and his family after him needed to display the same kind of sacrifice that God himself was eventually going to make if they were to be the people of God, his representatives on earth.