The Way of Faith and the Altar
“And Abram went up out of Egypt…
Unto the place of the altar”
Genesis 13:1-4
The faith of Abraham will always produce in one who is held by its grip a life of forsaking Egypt (the world) and coming to the place of the altar. It is at the altar where, by the mercies of God (Romans 12:1), we offer ourselves unto Him as a living sacrifice. True faith is given with the express purpose for a life to communicate the nature, works and heart of Christ. Faith is the divine enablement to live beyond our own resources and to draw from the wells of the living Christ. What is impossible for man becomes the natural outflow of a life in which the living faith of Christ resides.
In Hebrews chapter 11 we read of the lives of normal people just like us who “by faith” lived to see the extraordinary works of God through the fragility of their earthen vessels. It is “by faith” we can enter into the same resources, the same surety of God and the same assurance of faith whereby they made a difference in their generation.
The leading of God is ever out of Egypt and unto the altar, for the altar is the way of life to those who are in Christ Jesus. It is in the losing of our own self that we discover His. It is in looking past our own faltering resources that we discover the vastness of His. The “I can’t” of Romans 7 is swallowed up in the “Law of life in Christ Jesus” of Romans 8.
The Altar is the place of our transactions with God. It is here we exchange our strength for His. It is here that the doctrines of salvation become flesh, substance and reality in our lives. In the offering of all that we are to Him we become “partakers” of all that He IS. The measure of our offering will be in proportion to our partaking of Him.
“Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple
get their food from the temple,
and that those who serve at the altar
share in what is offered on the altar?”
1 Corinthians 9:13
“And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood,
upon the altar of the Lord thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices
shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God,
and thou shalt eat the flesh.”
Deuteronomy 12:27
The priests would eat of the Burnt Offerings they offered. This is the secret of His provision for each one of us. “Give and it shall be given unto you” is the measure of our receiving. It is in this freewill offering that we discover the glory and wonder of our God.
We are bidden by the “mercies” of God to offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto our God (Romans 12:1). While many may speak of God’s mercies as a sentiment, here we see the power of mercy at work in the human heart to offer ourselves without reserve to Him and Him alone.
Brian Troxel
