"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him." Introduction We are saved by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ! The gospel is the good news that God has intervened in human history to deliver man from sin, and our ultimate good and joy are found only in trusting and obeying Him. The gospel is the power for real change. But how does this change occur, and what does it look like in real life? The primary means God uses to produce this change is His Word, as it is through the hearing of the Word that faith comes (Rom 10:17). Consequently, it should be no surprise that Scripture calls for the public reading and explanation of the Word of God to the people of God (Deut 31:9-13; 1 Tim 4:13; 2 Tim 4:2-5). Believers in the church should be committed to faithfully listening to the Word of God, seeking to embrace all that it promises and commands. But the turning point between knowing what God says and experiencing salvation is the exercise of faith. Faith is the only means by which God’s Word benefits the hearer. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” So what does biblical faith do, and what does it require? We see the answer to this question in Genesis 22:1-19. Faith Embraces God’s Revelation
First, we see faith embraces and trusts God’s promises. In Genesis 22:1-2 we read, “God tested Abraham and said to him, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love...and offer him there as a burnt offering.” God’s test of Abraham was intended to reveal the nature and work of faith. Testing does not change one thing into another; instead, testing reveals what something already is. Many look at Abraham’s test and focus on the hardship of choosing to love God more than your child, and certainly, that is part of this test, but the real test for Abraham goes much deeper. This test is a challenge to the promise that Abraham has trusted for the last 30 or more years. God promised to bless him and make him a blessing, and all of this would be achieved through a promised child (Gen 12). This promise had become Abraham’s hope. Abraham turned from idols to follow the LORD. Abraham left everything he knew to pursue this promise. There were many times he struggled to believe this promise, and God had confirmed its validity. In Genesis 15, God committed Himself to the fulfillment of this great promise by promising to suffer the consequences of death if He failed to deliver. This was signified when God walked between the dead animals as a pillar of fire. The act of walking between slaughtered animals cut in two was customary for making covenants in the Ancient Near East, as a sign of the consequences to be suffered by the covenant-breaker. God promised in the strongest possible terms that Abraham could trust Him. Romans 4:18-22 provides a succinct description of what it meant for Abraham to have faith. We are told that Abraham understood the fulfillment of God’s promise (a son) was beyond his ability (due to his and Sarah’s age), but “he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He promised” (v20-21). Faith enabled Abraham to see more than his physical eyes could, and this enabled Abraham to trust God to keep His promise. Abraham was justified (made right with God) by this faith (Rom 4:22). The Tension of Faith But faith is not virtuous in and of itself. Everyone has faith because everyone trusts something. The object of faith is what makes it good or bad. Faith can be misplaced or betrayed. Biblical faith, the kind that justifies sinners in the sight of God, has the promises of God as its object. Or perhaps a better way to state it is that faith has the God who made the promise as its object. Faith acts according to one simple mantra: I can obey because God has promised. There is, however, a difference between simple and simplistic faith. Simple faith accepts everything God says as good, trustworthy, and requiring obedience. Simplistic faith picks and chooses what to believe in God’s revelation, and ignores other parts of Scripture that conflict with their desires. Simple faith understands that there will be tension in what God has revealed (e.g. the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility; Jesus is both fully God and fully man; or the promise to bless you through a child but then commanding you to sacrifice that child), and simple faith does not ignore or add to what Scripture says to remove the tension. Simple faith lives in the tension; simplistic faith ignores or rejects parts of Scripture to remove the tension. Abraham’s faith was simple, not simplistic. God told Abraham that the fulfillment of the promise would come through Isaac, but then God commanded Abraham to kill Isaac. This created a problem, and this problem was the test. If Abraham believed the promise, which required Isaac to be alive, how could Abraham go forward with God’s command to kill Isaac? Simplistic faith is unable to both believe the promise God made and obey the command to kill Isaac. Either the command is to be ignored for the sake of the promise, or the promise is to be forfeited to obey the command–or so it would seem. But Abraham’s simple faith was able to hold onto both the promise and the command without compromise or contradiction. How did he do this? Hebrews 11:17-19 reveals the answer. Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise [Isaac] from the dead (v19).” Abraham’s faith required him to embrace both the promise and the command, and the only way he could make sense of it in his mind was to conclude God was going to raise Isaac from the dead. He has never seen a resurrection before, as far as we know according to the Bible. Abraham reasoned that God’s resurrection of Isaac was the only way for Him to both keep His promise and expect Abraham to obey the command. This required a lot of thinking about the power of God. This required serious faith. His faith was not simplistic, but it was simple. God made a promise and gave a command, and both required trust and obedience. Faith Obeys God Since faith embraces all that God promises, it follows that faith also produces gospel obedience. By gospel obedience I mean that someone obeys God because of God’s promises. If a person does something in gospel obedience, then the explanation for their actions should be, “Because God promised.” Abraham’s obedience in the matter of Isaac flowed from his confidence in God who made the promise. Ultimately, a promise is only as reliable as the person who makes it. God not only made the commitment to Abraham about Isaac in Genesis 12, but He also made a covenant to guarantee it in Genesis 15. Abraham believed God would keep His promise, and that is why he was able to proceed in obedience. This was not a split-second decision; it was one made repeatedly for days. Abraham had to start the three-day journey with Isaac (v3); he took the wood and put it on his son’s back to go together to the designated spot (v6); he built the altar and put his bound son upon it (v9); and he was in the act of taking the knife to his son when the voice from heaven stayed his hand (v11). This was gospel obedience; it was based on confidence that God would keep His promise. Gospel Obedience Brings Blessing Finally, we see faith brings blessing. Abraham was not only stopped from killing Isaac, but he was also given greater assurances of the promises he had been given (Gen 22:15-18). Abraham’s obedience provides the grounds for assurance; he has the benefit of seeing God’s faithfulness on the other side of his obedience. Many blessings can only be received on the other side of gospel obedience. James 2:21-23 reminds us that Abraham’s obedience in this test was the completion and fulfillment of his faith. This was the fruit that proved genuine faith. Abraham was justified by faith alone, but the legitimacy of his faith was confirmed through this test with Isaac. The point of Genesis 22 is to demonstrate what faith does, it is not to show how uniquely awesome Abraham was. Faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8-9), and faith is the same regardless of who possesses it (1 Pet 2:1). Therefore, the one who has faith can read Genesis 22 and be encouraged by the power of God’s gift of faith. The call for believers is to exercise this gift once they realize what is possible through it (Phil 2:12-13; Heb 4:1). Abraham’s confidence was that God would provide (v8), and when God did provide by calling off Isaac’s sacrifice and supplying the ram instead (Gen 22:13-14) this brought greater assurance to Abraham. It is easier to trust someone who has a track record. This is why Abraham named the place “The LORD will provide (v14).” But what if Abraham disobeyed God’s command to kill Isaac? What would Abraham have missed or lost had he ignored God’s command? While it is difficult to know the specific consequences of disobedience in this particular test, we know that Abraham’s faith would have been weaker had he not obeyed. Abraham would have robbed himself of seeing God act. Previously, Abraham had failed to wait on God and decided to pursue God’s promises according to his own ability (Hagar in Genesis 16, which produced his son Ishmael), and the results were disastrous with ripple effects that are still felt today. There are displays of God’s faithfulness and power that we cannot see until we step out in faith. Will We Exercise Faith? Christians have a good, ordinary example in Abraham of what the gift of faith can do in a believer when it is exercised. God saves through faith. God promises good for those who trust and obey Him. Do we exercise our faith like Abraham? Do we think deeply about the promises of God and seek to understand how to make them fit with God’s commands, especially when it appears the promises and commands conflict? Simple faith is what is pleasing to God; simplistic faith is merely a disguised form of rebellion. Abraham’s story was recorded to aid our faith. We need to consider how to help, rather than sabotage, the faith of others. How would you have counseled Abraham had he come to you the night before he was supposed to sacrifice Isaac and asked you what to do? Would you have assured Abraham that God would never require such a difficult decision from him? Would you console him by claiming God would understand if he could not go through with it? Would you have appealed to God’s love and mercy to discourage Abraham from the heavy burden of obeying? Or would you have helped Abraham make the hard decision to obey God even if you could not fully explain why? It is tempting to lend support to others in making the easy decision, but faith required a hard decision from Abraham, and it often requires one from us. Faithful followers of Jesus understand faith exists and grows in the tension that comes between God’s promises and His commands. The exercise of faith is obeying God because of, not despite, what He has promised. And for the one who exercises the faith of Abraham, there is great reward.
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AuthorI am follower of Jesus Christ by God's grace, married to Kelsey, father to four children, and pastor of Lighthouse Church (EPC). Archives
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