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The second chapter of the New Testament book of James is one of the most famous, some would say infamous passages in all of the Bible. Let me read you a section from it and you’ll see the connection to Genesis 22 

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

(James 2: 18-24)

But look what this passage says, right in the middle. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works? When he offered Isaac his son on the altar”. That is a direct reference to what’s coming up here in Genesis Chapter 22. But hold on a minute it suggests we are justified by works? I mean, that’s what it says. Abraham was justified by works wow. I thought the Bible taught you were justified by faith and the answer is your exactly right. As a matter of fact, if you’ve been following me through the Book of Genesis so far, you may recall back in Genesis Chapter 15 verse 8, it says, and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for. Righteousness and Paul quotes that several times. Once in the Book of Romans and again in the book of Galatians, to demonstrate that salvation is by faith.  The writer to the Hebrews also quotes that verse in Genesis 15, so Genesis 15, which happened years before Chapter 22, says Abraham believed God and that justified him before God. 

Here, James says there is a justification by works in that if you. do what the Lord told you to do. If you work, serve him then there is a justification by those works. So, what does that mean? Well, it means several things, but one of the things it doesn’t mean is that not going to impress God with your good works. We know already you’re not going to get to heaven by being righteous or by being religious. You get to heaven by trusting Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life. It’s a gift all you do is trust. That’s all God cares about in terms of us getting to heaven, but James is reminding us we’re justified before other people by what they see in our lives. Our works demonstrate to other people who don’t know the Lord, that we have faith. The key is, you see is that God sees our faith and declares that we have the gift of eternal life.  People see our good works and conclude that we are authentic in what we believe. But works. Do something else and that is what I think is the key to Genesis chapter 22. Look again at verse 21-22 in James 2.

Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 

Ah, one of the other things that works does is it completes our faith. And I have already pointed out several times when you see the word perfect or complete in the Bible the word usually means mature. When you trust Jesus Christ, you’re going to heaven that sealed and settled and nothing can change it.  But when you start obeying the Lord then that faith that you have begins to be strengthened and matured.  So what James is saying is that when you read Genesis 22, remember what’s going on is the fact that Abraham’s faith is being strengthened and developed and matured. 

That is what is going on. Now let me make a comparison. The Bible talks about trials and the Bible talks about temptation and the Bible talks about tests. The tricky part about this is that sometimes it’s all wrapped up in the same event. The trial is what we go through. The temptation is the way in which Satan tires to allure us to respond and the test is what God sees going on. From our point of view a trial is a heavy burden to bear but  from Satan’s point of view its an opportunity to tempt us to bring out the wrong response in us, but from God’s point of view it is a test to bring out the faith in us. Satan tempts us to bring out our sinful nature, and God sometimes allows the test to allow us to develop our faith. Knowing this beforehand I believe will help us make sense of the events we are about to witness. This stuff will make a whole lot. more sense as we progress through Genesis chapter 22