Romans Chapter 8 Vs 32 - Something Big Happened at Calvary - J Stewart Gillespie 

26th to 27th August 1883 

Largest volcano in living history erupted 

2/3 of the island of Krakatoa disintegrated 

Krakatoa erupted with the power of 13,000 atom bombs the size of the bomb used to destroy Hiroshima 

Bodies were still being washed up on the coast of Africa 1 year later 

Global temperatures were affected for 5 years 

The final explosion was recorded as it reverberated around the globe 7 X! 

When something big happens you feel the after shocks 

We know enough of the person of Christ to know this that He is infinitely far greater than any volcano, any rock or explosion. 

For an event of the magnitude of Romans 8:32 we would expect to record the after shocks around the whole globe. 

2000 years later we are still seeing the effects of this great event. 

The shock waves from Calvary do not go out like the waves on the shore but rather like a pebble dropped in the pond - those waves echo out 360 degrees - they go out in all directions. 

The shock waves from Calvary can be seen and felt going back into the past, in the present and into the future. 

As they echo back into the past we call that typology, into the future we call that prophesy and in the present we call that experience. 

I want to look at shock waves from that great event of Calvary: 

Abraham and Isaac (Gen 22) 
Jacob and Joseph (Gen 41) 
Hannah and Samuel (1 Sam 1) 

Abraham and Isaac (Gen 22) 

Consider the: 

Person 

The person is Isaac - one of two sons but according to Gen 22: “thine only Isaac” - the Hebrew uses ‘yachid’ 

Not Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman but Isaac 

He is to be taken and “offered” for a “burnt offering” : “olah” - the Hebrew word from which the comes the word Holocaust. Literally, take your only boy Isaac and ‘incinerate him’! 

How could God command such a thing! 

Such a thing is too great, too big, too heavy, too gruesome and is it not even expressly prohibited later on in scripture? 

How could God command such a thing? 

For the first time, that is the first of 12 times in the Hebrew Bible the Spirit will use the Hebrew word ‘Yachid’ - only son, only begotten, solitary. 

These 12 uses of that word will be carefully intertwined and worked into the Word of God, through Genesis 12 (3 X) and Psalm 22 until finally the 12th and last mention of that word is given to Zechariah to place into the canon of inspired scriptures: “...and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall morn for me as one mourneth for his only Son.” 

Was it not for the completed canon of scripture we would never have perceived this: that God does not ask me to do more for Him than He has done for me! 

God did not ask Abraham to do for God what God was not prepared to do for Abraham! 

The commandments of God come with a moral authority that could come from no man! 

If God commands us to do it He fully expects us to obey! 

Place 

Mount Moriah (Gen22:2) 

Moriah became a very important place for the Jewish people 

A special place in the history of the Jewish people: 2 Chron 3:1; 1 Chron 21:21 

Here is the place that David would offer up a sacrifice for the plague to be stayed from his people 

At Moriah Solomon would build his temple 

For 100s of years the whole Jewish religion would revolve around this spot! 

All of the priestly orders and all of the sacrifices and all of the Levitical system would focus on this spot. 

Here is a fascinating question: what about the Jew with an inquisitive mind? 

What about the Jew determined to dig for answers? 

Why is their temple where it is? 

What is so important about Moriah? 

If they were to dig and to dig deep, to dig as deep as you can dig, spiritually rather than physically, they would discover this that you could go no deeper into the past of this place of Moriah than Genesis 22! 

That is right at the foundation of that glorious temple, the Jewish system and the sacrifices lay 3 things: 

A Son 
A Sacrifice 
A Substitute 

Isn’t God glorious?? 

Provision 

Genesis 22:8 “God shall provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering” 

At this place of Moriah, Abraham found a special place: ‘Jehovah Jireh’ 

At this place the Lord would do the first of 7 things 

Abraham would hear the double call of God for the first time in scriptures: “Abraham, Abraham” 

A call that comes in the depth of mans need, when all that a man needs will only be found in God alone. 

This is a personal call to God as all sufficient for man in his need. 

Consider: 

Abraham Abraham (Gen22) 
Jacob Jacob (Gen 46:2) 
Moses Moses (Exodus 3:4) 
Samuel Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10) 
Martha Martha (Luke 10:41) 
Simon Simon (Luke 22:31) 
Saul Saul (Acts 9:4) 

Jacob and Joseph (Gen 41:40ff) 

Joseph - a type of Christ 

Beloved of his father 
Hated without a cause 
Before whom every knee would bow in heaven and on earth 
Leaving Hebron the place of fellowship 
Heading to Shechem the place of danger where Dinah was raped and Simeon and Levi killed the sons of Hamor 
Sold by Judah for 20 pieces of silver 
Sold as a slave to the gentiles 
Tested in all points like we are yet without sin by Potiphars wife 
Falsely accused and ‘taken from prison and from judgement’ 
Exalted over all Egypt and given a name above every name, before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father! 
The source of bread for the world 
The one whom his brothers would look upon whom they had once despised and rejected 

As far as Jacob was concerned Joseph was dead (Gen 37:33) 

But now exalted and at the right hand of Pharaoh 

Hannah and Samuel (1 Sam 1) 

A child promised to the Lord 

Taken to the temple at 3 years of age with a 3 year bullock and offered up as a sacrifice 

Samuel visited the temple every year with a sacrifice (1 Samuel 1:21) 

For Hannah every year was a sacrifice 

Ah but just a minute! 

You’ve got it all wrong! 

These 3 boys were pictures of a greater sacrifice? 

Are we saying that these 3 boys were really a shock wave coming out of Calvary? 

Are we saying that these 3 boys were really echoes going out from the sacrifice of God the Father in giving the Son? 

Here’s a problem: these 3 boys are all alive! None of them died! 

So much for your pictures! 

So where did we leave them then? 

Isaac: A son on the altar an a son in resurrection (Heb 11:17-19) 
Joseph: A son at the right hand of the throne 
Samuel: A son in the temple in priestly ministry 

Where did the sacrifice of God leave His Son? 

A Son on the Altar - “it is Christ that died...” 
A Son in Resurrection - “yea rather that is risen again....” 
A Son at the right hand of the throne - “who is even at the right hand of God...” 
A Son in priestly ministry - “who also maketh intercession for us...”

 

Notes from our bible study teaching series of messages preached systematically, verse by verse, through Paul's letter to the Romans. Free to download audio mp3 recordings of this sermon and other sermons are available at the end of this blog and on the website page.    

Yours by Grace in Christ    

Dr J Stewart Gillespie