He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3:6)

It all began with Abraham—the continuity of faith that extends to our present day. Our faith is one and the same with his. When Moses was commissioned at the burning bush to lead God’s people out of Egypt after 400 years of silence from God, he wasn’t called to begin a new religion. His role, though, was different from Abraham’s. While God called Moses to communicate the Law to Israel in its nation-formative years, Abraham is rightly called the father of faith. God made this absolutely clear to Moses.

Abraham is the first of the big names of faith in biblical history that also include Moses and King David. The list begins with Abraham and leads to the greatest, of course: the Lord Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh.

When Abraham first appears in the Scripture, 11 chapters of the Bible had already happened, including the history of creation and the fall, the Tower of Babel, the flood and Noah. However, God’s program of faith began with Abraham, first introduced at the end of the genealogy of Noah’s son Shem (Gen 11:26).

God’s three-fold promise to Abraham of a land, seed (descendants) and blessing form the foundation of everything else God does in biblical history. Israel still has a future in the physical land of promise. Abraham’s descendants, the Jews, are still a large, recognizable people group. Through his descendants came the “seed,” Jesus Christ, who is the blessing for all the world. Paul in his grand polemic writes to the Galatians:

Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. (Gal 3:6–7)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Gal 3:13–14)

Today, we believers in Christ worship the God of Abraham. The God who justified Abraham through faith is the same God who justifies us through faith.

Lord, though time and culture have changed, You remain the same today as in Abraham’s day. Time has not changed You or the role of faith in coming to You.