Category: Gospel

The Gospel for the City in Genesis 18-19

Genesis 18-19 contrast Abraham and Lot as Abraham is visited by angels and a theophanic presence of the Lord who brings affirmation of God’s promise, while Lot is visited by angels of judgment without any theophanic presence of God. These chapters also take us back to Lot in Sodom and let us know how he fared in the city culture that had allured him.  Abraham apparently had hope in Lot’s ability to counteract the allurement of Sodom’s culture and to influence others toward the God of Abraham. His intercessory prayer ends with a plea to spare Sodom, if only ten righteous persons could be found there.  But even if, and it is questionable, Lot’s family of four could be called righteous, the tepid spiritual influence of Lot leaves the city under judgment. Abraham’s intercession cannot prevent the inevitable judgment of a city that defies God.

It appears Lot did not fare well in Sodom. Instead of being an influence for the God of Abraham, Lot has succumbed to the power of the dominant culture of the city. He honors the good cultural value of hospitality and the evil cultural value of promiscuity while dishonoring his God-given parental responsibilities of protecting his daughters and of preserving the one-flesh relationship of marriage.  When called upon by his angelic visitors to flee the city under judgment, his appeal to his future sons-in-law is not taken seriously. They could not imagine why Lot would fear God’s judgment on a culture that he had come to affirm.

Lot, in God’s mercy, is forced from the city with his wife and daughters. His wife loses her life because she had already lost her soul to the allurement of the city. The deleterious impact of the depraved city culture is evident also in his daughters who get their father drunk and commit incest with him.

These chapters again contrast Abraham and Lot and affirm God’s selection of Abraham as the one through whom He will create a new humanity bringing together the nations of the world.  Lot fails to influence the city for God while Abraham relentlessly cries out to God to spare the alien city. Also the ignoble birth of sons through a drunken Lot’s incestuous acts contrasts with God’s promised gift of Isaac through an aged and doubtful Sarah. Abraham is distinguished from Lot because he believes the promise of God. It is only through Abraham-like faith in the promise of God (now centered in Jesus Christ) that we see the false promises offered by the enticements of urban culture

As we labor in cities which often display the depraved culture of Sodom, we hope, unlike Lot, to withstand the allurement of cultural values that deny God and to counteract those values with a godly life and witness to the gospel. Like Abraham we intercede for cities deserving of judgment, hoping that God in his mercy will delay judgment. We recognize as Peter did later, that Sodom-like conditions often exist in urban centers, calling out for judgment, yet God in His longsuffering sometimes delays that judgment, ‘not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ We also realize that not all our prayers of intercession are answered in the way we desire. Sometimes the ‘Sodoms’ of this world are destroyed with only an undeserving few being rescued through God’s mercy.

The Gospel for the City in Genesis 15

Genesis 15 reminds us that God is a God of promise who often allows delayed fulfillment as a test of our faith in His Word. Abraham had God’s promise of descendants, yet time had passed and he had no children by his wife Sarah. His heir at that point would have been one of his servants.

God reaffirms his promise to Abraham that he would have innumerable descendants. Abraham believed God and is counted as righteous on the basis of his faith. He yet had no son; he only had the Word of God.

God also reaffirms the promise of an inheritance, a land for the descendants of Abraham to call home.  But even then, there is no immediate possession of the promise; rather God tells him that it will be another 400 years before the promise of land is fulfilled. The fulfilling of the land promise is tied to a time when God would judge those who enslaved His people and when the overflow of sin in the land of promise would finally call for God’s judgment on that land.  In and through His judgment on the enslavers and the inhabitants of that land of promise, Abraham’s descendants would be granted new life in the land.

In an unusual act, God then symbolically participates in an ancient covenant ceremony in which He vows death to Himself should he break his promise to Abraham. The subsequent history tells us that God fulfilled His promise of descendants and land.

This instance in the life of Abraham foreshadows the greater judgment, deliverance, and granting of an inheritance that occurs in the New Covenant. However, in the New Covenant, the Covenant-maker does die, but not for His own covenant breaking. He dies the death that covenant-breakers deserve. In his own body, sin is judged; through his death, deliverance is brought about; in his resurrection, an inheritance is granted to the true seed of Abraham, those who believe.

As we minister in urban places, we have the privilege of looking back on God’s faithfulness to Abraham, having even more reason to live by faith in the Word of God. We live on this side of the cross and resurrection so we know that the great judgment on sin has taken place and the great liberating power of the resurrection has been displayed. We have tasted in the Spirit, the down-payment of our inheritance, but like Abraham, we still wait for that eternal land, that city whose builder and maker is God.

We can joyfully tell city-dwellers that the sin which plagues their guilt-ridden consciences has been judged on the cross; they can be set free from the sin that enslaves because Christ in His resurrection has broken sin’s power; they can live above the false promises of urban idolatries by tasting in the Spirit the promise of the world to come.