Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God Tests Abraham

22 And it happened that after these things, God tested Abraham. And he said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² And he said, “Take your son, your only child, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains where^[a] I will tell you.” ³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. And he took two of his servants with him, and Isaac his son. And he chopped wood for a burnt offering. And he got up and went to the place which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw the place at a distance. ⁵ And Abraham said to his servants, “You stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go up there. We will worship, then we will return to you.” ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and placed it on Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand and the knife, and the two of them went together. ⁷ And Isaac said to Abraham his father, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ And Abraham said, “God will provide^[b] the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went together.

⁹ And they came to the place that God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood. Then he bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar atop the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ And the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² And he said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy; do not do anything to him. For now I know that you are one who fears^[c] God, since you have not withheld your son, your only child, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, a ram was caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of that place “Yahweh will provide,”^[d] for which reason^[e] it is said today, “on the mountain of Yahweh it shall be provided.”^[f]

Trust in the Salvation of Yahweh

For the music director. A psalm of David.^[a]

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires, ¹³ and do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will not be master over you, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Set Free from Sin

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whomever you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whomever you obey, whether sin, leading to death, or obedience, leading to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸ and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you presented your members as slaves to immorality and lawlessness, leading to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with respect to righteousness.

²¹ Therefore what sort of fruit did you have then, about which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, having been set free from sin and having been enslaved to God, you have your fruit leading to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. ²³ For the compensation due sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

On Rewards

⁴⁰ “The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives the one who sent me. ⁴¹ The one who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴² And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will never lose his reward.”