(17) By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, (18) Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: (19) Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Most illustrious as this instance of the Patriarch's faith is, and highly to Abraham's honor, as God the Holy Ghost hath recorded it; I feel constrained to pass this view of it by, in order to attend to what is infinitely more to be regarded in it; I mean, in the typical representation it was evidently intended to set forth, of the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It appears from the whole history, that Christ, as the Mediator represented, was the visible Jehovah here appointing Abraham to this service. And in proof, let the Reader remark, that in the original history of this solemn transaction, while it is said in one verse, that God did tempt Abraham to the offering of his son, Genesis 22:1, in another it is said, that the Angel, as God, calleth to him from heaven, and said: By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, Genesis 22:15-16. A plain proof, that it was the Son of God in the representation of his mediator-character, in the whole of this transaction. And indeed it could be no other, for Christ is the visible Jehovah all along spoken of in the scripture, John 1:18. And the whole may serve to teach us, of what infinite importance in the sight of Jehovah, is that one offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, which God the Holy Ghost was pleased to shadow forth, from the very institution of sacrifices in the garden of Eden, to the coming of Christ, by type and figure through all the different periods of the world from age to age, in order to teach the Church, that without shedding of blood, there is no remission; and that the blood of Christ alone cleanseth from all sin.