Many people today think of religion as a metaphorical stairway that leads to heaven. Basically, it’s an upward path that all of us are meant to ascend by our own good works. In Genesis 28, however, Jacob encounters a great stairway between heaven and earth, but he’s not invited to climb it. Instead, God graciously descends the stairway and makes one-sided promises to Jacob, who is fast asleep at the bottom. What’s the point of this chapter and how does it foreshadow the work of Jesus Christ? On this episode Shane Rosenthal discusses this fascinating scene with White Horse Inn founder Michael Horton as we continue our series on The Gospel in Genesis.
Show Quote:
The narrative about Jacob portrays Israel in its most earthy and scandalous appearance in Genesis. This narrative is not edifying in any conventional religious or moral sense. Indeed, if one comes to it with such an agenda, the narrative is offensive. It is nowhere argued that Jacob is good or honorable or respectable. This grandson of the promise is a rascal whose purpose is tangled in a web of self interest and self-seeking. Jacob is born to a kind of restlessness so that he must always insist, grasp and exploit. His life is a scandal from the beginning and therefore the powerful grace of God is a scandal.
Walter Brueggeman
Recommended:
Putting Amazing Back into Grace
Author: Michael Horton
“The gospel is a very specific announcement,” says Michael Horton. “It’s a message delivered from God to people in a precarious and hazardous spot–that is, to people like you and me.” But what exactly is that message? What does it mean to be “saved by grace”? Now revised and updated, Putting Amazing Back into Grace reminds us of the Reformation’s radical view of God and his saving grace, the liberating yet humbling truth that we contribute nothing to our salvation. Horton lays out the scriptural basis for this doctrine and its implications for a vibrant evangelical faith.
Justification Volume 1 & 2
Author: Michael Horton
The doctrine of justification stands at the center of our systematic reflection on the meaning of salvation as well as our piety, mission, and life together. In his two-volume work on the doctrine of justification, Michael Horton seeks not simply to repeat noble doctrinal formulas and traditional proof texts, but to encounter the remarkable biblical justification texts in conversation with the provocative proposals that, despite a wide range of differences, have reignited the contemporary debates around justification.
