There are many misconceptions of
faith abroad today. Some think of it as a commodity. They say:'I wish I had
your faith'. Others think of it as simply the means of salvation, to deliver us
from hell. Much of the evangelistic preaching in recent years has been directed
in that way. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved'. A
decision is made and it is as if there were no further implications for an
on-going life of obedience. Many are under the impression that there exercise
of faith frees them from the law. 'Once saved, always saved.' Such faith is
superficial.
Is this the faith that is so
highly extolled in Hebrews 11 in particular? In that eulogy on faith Abraham is
given the chief place. He is more fully portrayed than anyone else in the
gallery. He is the father of the faithful. Reference is made to him some ninety
times in the New Testament. He is the pattern we are to follow. There are three
things in particular in his life that demonstrates the nature of true faith.
1
True faith changes our whole perspective
In God's dealings with Abraham we
have the beginning of the redemptive activity that will lead to the unfolding of
the Covenant of Grace. We see three things:
1 The Divine initiative Abraham is a shining example of the divine
initiative. At the time of his call he was living in Ur of the Chaldees,
'worshipping other gods' (Josh 24.2), and in pagan darkness. He had no thought of the true God. Suddenly,
as we are told in Acts 7.2, by the
martyr Stephen: 'The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when
he was in Mesopotamia'. He is described
as the 'the God of glory' because His glory is His self-manifestation. What
kind of reaction this must have produced in Abraham's mind! It was like the
revelation that Isaiah had in the temple. It was a sovereign revelation and
call, and he was given grace to respond to it. So it is for everyone that 'born
of the Spirit'.
2 Absolute obedience 'By faith Abraham, when he was
called...obeyed.' (Heb 11.8) It was an efficacious call. He had not fulfilled the purpose of his
creation, which is to glorify God. He had dethroned the living God and set up
idols of his own imagination. God's call was to bring Abraham back to
allegiance to Himself and there must be an immediate and unqualified
response. He had to come out from among
the pagan worshippers and make God his own God and his inheritance. The Word of
God became everything to him. He did nothing that was not by the command of
God. As Thomas Manton observes: 'Faith is the life of our lives, the soul that
animates the whole body of obedience'.
3 Separation to God Abraham's whole perspective changed. He
was living for the things of this life and the riches and honours of it. He
began to live life in terms of his final destiny. He was set free from the
desire to make this world his home. God promised him an inheritance. This
inheritance was a 'better country' and 'a city which has foundations whose
builder and maker is God'. It is the fatherland or the homeland where God
dwells. He has prepared it for His people and He is their ultimate inheritance.
The whole plan is beautifully portrayed in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, where
we see Christian fleeing from the City of Destruction and journeying on to
the Celestial City.
2 True
faith stands on the promises of God
The second characteristic of true
faith is trusting in the promises of God. The writer is still talking about the
faith of Abraham but he brings in Sarah.
Both had to be committed to the promise because it pertained to their
offspring. 'Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed'
(v 11). It seemed an impossible
situation. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. She was past the age of
child bearing. When first hearing the news of an heir, her faith wavered:
'Sarah laughed within herself' (Gen 18.12). Unbelief had a temporary hold. 'And
the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a
surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord'.
(Gen18.13-14). What brought the change? She stopped looking at the problem and
started looked to the Lord, 'because she judged him faithful who had promised'
(v11). She took her mind of the problem to the Promiser. He became the object
of her faith. 'True faith', says Sinclair Ferguson. 'takes its character and
quality from its object and not from itself'. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? He created the world out of nothing. (Heb 11.3). He promised and He will
bring it to pass. Isaac was conceived in
the normal way.
3
True faith is tested
The third characteristic of true
faith is that it is tested. 'By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up
Isaac'. (11.17). There is a Jewish tradition that Abraham was tested on ten
different occasions. If so, certainly this must have been the most painful. The
commandment forbade the taking of life. Isaac was the best gift God had given
to him. In Isaac he had everything he longed for, and yet he was to be taken
away. It was through him the promise was to be fulfilled. Is providence going
contrary to the promise? But Abraham believed that the God who had promised was
able to raise him even from the dead. He did in effect offer him in will, heart
and affection. God accepted the will for the deed, 'for now I know that thou
fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from
me' (Gen 22.13). 'From hence also he
received him in a figure' (v19).
As Christians we should not be
afraid of trials and troubles. Indeed an undisturbed life is great cause for
concern. James begins his Epistle with the words: 'My brethren count it all joy when ye fall
into divers temptations (trials) (James 1.2). It is the great common experience
of the Redeemer and the redeemed. There is a purpose in it. 'Knowing this that
the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect an entire, wanting nothing'. ( v 3-4). Trials and tribulations blow away the chaff
and produce endurance in a life of undivided obedience. Peter, in his First Epistle, speaks of
rejoicing in our great salvation, and
then he brings in a caution, 'though now
for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honour
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ' (1 Pet 1.6-7). The genuine element
in the faith is proved by a process
similar to that of metal-refining and is found to be something more precious
than the precious metals. The result is what meets the approval of God and
redounds to His glory.
Many passages of Scripture warn us
of the dangers of a temporary faith and a faith that fails. The faith of the
Hebrew Christians was wavering, 'Cast not
away your confidence' (Heb 10.35). The writer goes on to say, 'we are not of
them which draw back' (v 39) and then immediately introduces to us the gallery
of faith, of whom it is said 'these all died in faith' (Heb 11.13). Faith
dominated their lives while trials abounded. As John Calvin says their
achieving such triumphs with limited resources ought to put us to shame. Luther
puts it in his own way: 'When Abraham shall rise again at the last day, then he
shall chide us for our unbelief, and
will say:I had not the hundredth part of the promises which ye have, and yet I
believed' (Tabletalk, 2009, p233).
The 'cloud of witnesses' are there
to stir us up to endure unto the end (Heb 12.1-4). This faith, as Luther
maintained, is an operative grace, it is an overcoming grace and ultimately it is a victorious grace. God
grant that it may be ours!
