Every person who truly
believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is interested in having what
we might term "saving faith."
The Bible is clear we need such faith in order to have salvation for Paul
tells us "by grace you have been saved through faith." (Eph. 2:8
NKJV) If you omit the faith you omit the
grace. We are “justified by faith."
(Rom. 5:1 NKJV)
The only question then
to be resolved is the nature of the faith that saves. We know its object (Christ) but need to know
the characteristics of saving faith. In
Rom. 4 Paul says Abraham "is the father of us all" with the reference
to all who believe. (Rom. 4:16) He says
in Galatians, "only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." (Gal.
3:7 NKJV) And, then finally, "So
then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." (Gal. 3:9
NKJV) If we can learn the nature of
Abraham's faith and then copy it in our own lives we too will be blessed.
In Romans 4:3 Paul talks
about Abraham's faith quoting a scripture found in Gen. 15:6, "Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." (NKJV) The context in Gen. 15 is God's promise to
Abraham that "one who will come from your own body shall be your heir"
(Gen. 15:4 NKJV) and that his descendants would be as the stars of heaven,
impossible to count them for their number (Gen. 15:5). Abraham believed that and it was
"accounted to him for righteousness." (Gen. 15:6 NKJV)
It is easy here to be
led astray by carelessness as a student of the Bible and come to the false conclusion
that up to that point in time Abraham was a lost sinner and this is the first
time God accounted to him his faith for righteousness. This was not a conversion experience for
Abraham.
The truth is Abraham
believed God, walked with God, and was in obedience to God long before this
event, a thing which we now set out to affirm from scripture. Bear with me for a few paragraphs for this is
important. Stephen in Acts 7 said,
"The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in
Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, 'Get out of your country
and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.'" (Acts
7:2-3 NKJV)
Note that God had chosen
Abraham for he could have just as well have appeared to any one of thousands of
other men but he chose Abraham telling him, "I will make you a great
nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a
blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen.
12:2-3 NKJV)
Note that God actually
"appeared" to Abraham at that early stage of his historical record
(Acts 7:2). He was 75 years old when he
departed Haran for Canaan (Gen. 12:4).
When he arrived in Canaan the Lord appeared to him again, promised to
give the land to Abraham's descendants, and Abraham built an altar to the Lord
there (Gen. 12:7). From there he moved on
to Bethel where it is said, "he built an altar to the Lord and called on
the name of the Lord." (Gen. 12:8 NKJV)
Thereafter Abraham went
to Egypt for a time and then returned to Canaan to the place of his first altar
to the Lord and it is said at that time that again "Abram called on the
name of the Lord." (Gen 13:4 NKJV)
After Lot had separated from Abraham the Lord God spoke again to Abraham
and said, "All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants
forever." (Gen. 13:15 NKJV)
We next read of Abraham
building another altar after having moved to Hebron (Gen. 13:18) and then read
of Lot's captivity and rescue by Abraham and later of his meeting with
Melchizedek king of Salem ("priest of God Most High" – Gen. 14:18).
Finally, we come to
chapter 15 where "the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your
shield, your exceedingly great reward." (Gen. 15:1 NKJV) Note that this is stated in Gen. 15:1 and is
before Gen. 15:6. This will be the
vision where God tells Abraham that he shall have a son from his own body who
will be his heir, that his descendants will be as the stars in multitude being
impossible to count (Gen. 15:4-5), and where it is said, "And he believed
in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness." (Gen. 15:6
NKJV)
What has been the point in following through all of this
chronologically? It is to point out that Abraham had long been
a man of faith and had been so for years before it was ever said in Gen. 15:6 that
Abraham's faith was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham had been
walking with God by faith and God had been communing with him, talking with him,
and making promises to him for years. I
want to emphasize that and then ask a question.
Do you believe, based on your reading of Gen. 12, 13, and 14 and the
first verse of Gen. 15 that Abraham was a lost sinner condemned in God's eyes
before Gen. 15:6?
As the writer of the
book of Hebrews said it was "by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to
go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was
going. By faith he sojourned in the land
of promise as in a foreign country." (Heb. 11:8-9 NKJV) By the time Isaac was born Abraham was 100
years old (Gen. 21:5). He had left Haran
at the age of 75.
When God said to him,
"I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward" (Gen. 15:1 NKJV)
that was before it was said of Abraham that God counted his faith for
righteousness.
The point Paul was
making was not that this was a conversion experience for Abraham in Gen. 15:6
but rather that Abraham was saved, as all are, by faith that God counts for
righteousness. That is true for a man or
woman at any and all points of time in life if that person is a saved
individual. It was just as true of Abel,
Enoch, and Noah (men before Abraham's time) as it was for Abraham. All three of these men are listed along with
Abraham in what we often call the Bible's hall of fame for faith chapter--Hebrews
11.
Does this mean that the
promise of a son and Abraham's faith in that promise was of no particular
importance? Not at all! Quite the contrary!
Abraham's faith was so
strong that he believed God was able to do what appeared to man to be
impossible. The original promise to
Abraham of a son (in Gen. 15) was made quite a number of years before Isaac,
the son of promise, was born. In the
time between the promise and the birth of Isaac, Ishmael had been born and was
at least 13 years old by the time of Isaac's birth. Read Gen. 17.
God appeared to Abraham when
he was 100 years old and again promised him a son (Gen. 17:15-21) and then
appeared to him again only this time Sarah was within hearing distance and
overheard the promise of a son also (Gen. 18).
She was 90. (Gen. 17:17)
By man's way of
measuring the possible, it was an impossibility due to advanced age for Abraham
and Sarah to have a son but Abraham believed God as did Sarah. "By faith Sarah herself also received
strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age,
because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as
dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude--innumerable as
the sand which is by the seashore." (Heb. 11:11-12 NKJV) Rom. 4:19 tells us Abraham "did not
consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old),
and the deadness of Sarah's womb." (Heb. 11:11-12 NKJV)
A second instance of
this man's faith in the impossible, believing only because God had spoken, is
found in Heb. 11:17-19.
"By faith Abraham,
when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'in Isaac your seed
shall be called,' concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." (NKJV)
God had spoken, God
cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and thus Abraham's faith in God was so strong he was
even willing to obey this command to offer up his son Isaac as a burnt offering
(Gen. 22:2) while still maintaining faith in God's promise. The promise was that in Isaac your seed shall
be called meaning God would have to resurrect Isaac from the dead if he was
going to be sacrificed as a burnt offering.
Abraham's faith in God keeping his promise was so strong he was going to
sacrifice Isaac in full faith God would resurrect him from the dead.
So what have we learned
about this great man of faith that would be applicable to us today? One lesson is that which we have just talked
about--we ought to believe whatever God
has said no matter what, no matter how incomprehensible or unreasonable to us
the command or declaration he makes may be.
Faith requires obedience
when a command is given. A failure of
faith always leads to a failure to obey which is the reason the children of
Israel never entered the Promised Land.
"And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but
to those who did not obey? So we see
that they could not enter in because of unbelief." (Heb. 3:18-19
NKJV) Had Abraham not obeyed would we be
talking about his faith? To ask is to
answer.
What really matters for
a man of faith is not what we think about what God has said but what he has
said. We can get to reasoning with the
word of God to the point where we can convince ourselves that God did not
really mean what he said in a commandment or in a statement. Abraham just believed and obeyed no matter
what.
A second lesson we learn
is that faith comes by hearing God's word.
What Abraham believed was what he heard, what he was told by God. He did not come to conclusions by way of human
reasoning. Men have faith today in all kinds of things
not found in God's word and have convinced themselves it is of God. What Abraham believed was what he heard. What we are to believe today is what we read
in the word of God--the New Testament.
That is how God talks to us today.
That is how we hear him today.
Personal opinion is
passed off for faith in the time in which we live. The "it seems to me" or "I can
see no wrong in it" has replaced the book, chapter, and verse word of God
in our lives and worship. Again, this is
not the faith of Abraham. "So then
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17
NKJV) If there is no book, chapter, and
verse for a practice it is opinion, not faith.
A last lesson I take
from a study of Abraham's faith is that it was a perpetual faith. It was not here today and gone tomorrow but
was a continual walk with God throughout his life. Sinless he was not for he was a man but he
did believe God.
Many believe in God to
save them but they don't believe God, don't believe parts of his word, don't
believe some of the things he has said they should or should not do. Is that faith like Abraham's? When a person is like that can it honestly be
said they believe in God if they don’t believe him, don’t believe his words?
Faith in the case of
Abraham was never a matter of does God exist.
He made himself known to the extent it was a matter of knowledge, not
faith, as it related to his existence.
It was impossible to not believe that God was. Faith
came down to trust and obedience. In the
final analysis, is that not always the case?
Is that not the true measure of faith?
James says, "And
the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness.'
And he was called the friend of God." (James 2:23 NKJV) James referred back to the same passage Paul
did in Rom. 4:3--the passage being Gen. 15:6.
Paul used the passage in reference to a time prior to Isaac's birth
while James used it in reference to a time some think to have been around 30
years later--at the time Abraham was prepared to offer Isaac as a
sacrifice. Whatever the exact time there
is no doubt there were many years in between the two points of reference.
Well, when was Abraham's
faith accounted to him for righteousness?
Who was right--Paul or James? Since
they both wrote by inspiration it is obvious both were right. At any point in time in a man's life when he
is believes and obeys what God has required of him he is a saved-by-faith
individual. He is a person whose faith
is accounted for righteousness. However,
when more is required more must be believed and obeyed. Time moves and is not static.
Abraham was a saved man
before he was required to sacrifice Isaac but what if he had failed to believe
God and obey God when the command to offer Isaac was given? A man can lose his salvation. Our faith must always be strong enough to
lead us to obedience to what we know God has commanded if it is to be accounted
to us for righteousness. Faith that will
not obey is not saving faith.
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