Genesis (Program #49) – The Progress in Answering God’s Calling
Our life study today is dealing with progress in answering God’s calling. A central item in God’s call to Abraham was the necessity for him to cross a river. What does this mean? The explanation should take into account both literal and the spiritual significance of this. Literally, Abraham had to cross a great river in order to go from one realm, the land of Chaldea into the realm, the good land into which God was calling him. Spiritually speaking, this points to the reality of the experience of baptism. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, when God’s people were to go from one realm to another, they pass through water. Noah passed through water to get into the realm of God’s new creation. The children of Israel passed through the water of the Red Sea and again through the water of the Jordan. All of these may be understood and rightly as types of baptism. When God calls us, we began in an old fallen realm. God wants to bring us out of that realm into a realm where Christ is everything to us. In order to make this transition by the Lord’s grace, we need so to speak to cross a river. We need to pass through water which spiritually signifies death and resurrection. So in summary, Abraham’s crossing the river indicates our need to go through death and resurrection in Christ signified by baptism in order to be transferred out of the realm of old creation into the realm of God’s new creation…
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