Abraham

Paul confirms that Abraham was special.

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gal 3:6).

We do not know why God called Abraham rather than someone else. Maybe God has called his father Terah first, because he set out to go to Canaan, but only got as far as Harran, which is north of the Euphrates River (Gen 11:31).
Anyway, God call Abraham and told him to move to Canaan.

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you... So Abram went, as the LORD had told him (Gen 12:1-4).

Abraham trusted God when he was called, and he obeyed the Lord’s calling and took his family and herds to Canaan. This was an amazing step, because Abraham knew nothing about the place that he was going. He obeyed God anyway.

The scriptures say that Abraham’s trust in God was sufficient for him to be right with God. I think we have forgotten what that means. Abraham was put right with God because he trusted him; nothing more.

The interesting thing is that Abraham did not have to make an offering to appease God for his sins, before declared him to be right. No doubt, Abraham had sinned, but his sins did not prevent God from calling him. God forgave him, because he loved him. His wrath did not need to be appeased. Abraham did not need to shed blood. God forgave Abraham and Abraham trusted God. That was sufficient for God.

I presume that Abraham escaped the spiritual powers of evil when he moved away from Ur and Harran. They let him go, because they thought he was unimportant, but God uses outsiders who are ignored by the powers of the world ignore.

Our gospel should reflect this truth. God loves the people he created. He is calling out to them to trust him and serve him. Jesus death on the cross paid a ransom to redeem those who are enslaved by the powers of evil. People should not let their shame full them into thinking that the problem is that God’s anger is the problem. The problem is the spiritual powers of evil who manipulate and control those who have rejected God. The good news is that Jesus defeated them on the cross.