Abraham and Faith

In Chapter 4 of Romans Paul talks about the righteousness that God has established through faith. This righteousness isn't accomplished by outward obedience to the Law of Moses, but upon the principle of faith. Righteousness through faith eliminates any boasting on man's behalf. "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith" (Romans 3:27).

My salvation is a work of God. I can't boast in my own works, because my salvation is God's work in me. He did it and I believed it. God counts my faith in the righteousness of Christ as my own righteousness.

In Chapter 4 Paul also emphasizes that justification by faith isn't a new concept with God. He explains that God had established the principle of faith with Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, long before the Mosaic Law was ever given.

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? (4:1). What did Abraham, the physical father of the Jews, discover about faith and justification?

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (4:2-3). If Abraham was justified by obediently leaving his home by Babylon to look for the Promised Land or by offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice, then he would have been able to boast in himself. He could have said, "I left my home and was willing to give up everything, even my son, to follow God. I'm really righteous!" However, Abraham was justified solely by faith, not by works.

This same principle of justification by faith is true in our own salvation. If we were justified by our works, we could glory in ourselves and, thus, our boasting wouldn't be in God's work. For this reason Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14a). Our only place of boasting is in the Cross. Jesus said, "So you also, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, We are unworthy servants, for we have done only what was our duty" (Luke 17:10).

Glory for my salvation should always be given to God, yet my flesh delights in self-glory. How I'd love to take credit for my salvation, and I keep trying! Every time I say, "God, there must be some good in me somewhere!" He lets me fall flat on my face. There's nothing in my flesh about which I can glory.

Paul repeats this same truth in Chapter 7. "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18a). If you haven't discovered this fact yet, you will. God doesn't plan to redeem your flesh; He condemns your flesh to the Cross. He must change you from this corruptible body into an incorruptible one before you can enter into the eternal kingdom. "This corruptible [perishable] must put on incorruption [imperishable], and this mortal must put on immortality" (I Corinthians 15:53).

Even when I know that no good dwells in my flesh, I often say, "Lord, surely I can conquer this problem. Give me a chance and I'll do better. I promise that I won't fail again." Every promise of doing better and being more faithful is doomed to failure, because it's rooted in the confidence of my flesh. My boasting and confidence must be in Jesus Christ and His finished work for me.

The concept of righteousness by faith is quite foreign to us. We often attempt to achieve righteousness by the do's and don'ts of Christian behavior, and we're soon legislating our own religious laws. Since there are always amendments and modifications, the list eventually becomes so long that no one can keep up with it.

If I have followed the rule of keeping my temper and have blessed others when I was abused, I feel very confident and begin to boast of conquering another area of my old nature. I feel very good, until I lose my cool and yell at my kids. Then I cry, "O God! I'm a miserable failure! I promised that I'd never do that again." I now feel so miserable and alienated from God.

Why did God establish the principle of righteousness by faith? It's the only way that my relationship with Him can remain constant in spite of my human failures.

The Mosaic Law failed to bring righteousness because its benefits depended upon man's obedience. "The man who obeys them will live by them" (Leviticus 18:5). The Law's fulfillment was based on man's flesh, but his flesh is weak. The Law didn't fail. Man failed. So God has established a new basis for righteousness: faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus has promised to cleanse a man from all sin and to present him faultless before the Father.

This New Covenant is based on God's faithfulness to keep His word. I fulfill my part of the bargain by trusting in God through faith in Jesus Christ. My righteous standing is complete once I stop trying to justify myself before God and rest where God is resting - in the finished work of Jesus Christ. (The Bible explains more about this "rest" in Hebrews 4.)

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt (4:4). If righteousness was credited to a man for his works, then God would owe him the reward of salvation. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they can work for their righteousness by door-to-door witnessing. Trusting in a righteousness that goes back to the Law, they seek to put God in debt to them. However, God will never be any man's debtor.

When I work for an employer, he is legally obligated to pay me my wages. But a right relationship with God is a gift that I do not, cannot, and never will deserve. This gift demonstrates the grace of God, as He gives me what I could never earn: perfect righteousness.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (4:5). Some people may look at this statement as almost heretical, but it's scriptural. They may protest that justification by faith is a dangerous thing to preach. "Christians will become lazy. They'll sit around believing in the Lord and do nothing." However, it's impossible to believe in Jesus Christ and do nothing. True faith will spark a tremendous response in a man.

The works of a Christian are in no way intended to make him holier or more righteous before God. One of the curses in the Church throughout the centuries has been the holier-than-thou attitude. They come to you with dreamy eyes and say, "Brother, are you ready for the secrets of God that have been made known to me?" That super-spiritual attitude is a curse among Christians.

My works don't add a whit to my righteousness. God has imputed to me the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and trying to improve on it is sheer folly. The fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Christ, and I'm complete in Him. (Colossians 2:9-10)

Then what are my works as a believer? Just the glorious and natural response of my heart to the goodness, grace, and love of God. Paul said, "The love of Christ constraineth [compels] me" (II Corinthians 5:14). Love drives me to do whatever I can for Him.

Love is the highest motivating force, and it's the only acceptable motive for any true service for God. If love doesn't motivate me in my service for God, I might as well stop. If I think that my Christian service is making me holier or more righteous than others, I'm badly mistaken. "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing" (I Corinthians 13:3).

Many times the urgings from the pulpit prompt people to serve the Lord for rewards. I was guilty of doing that for years. "I'll give you a giant lollipop if you bring ten kids to Sunday school." However, the entire work-reward concept is carnal, not spiritual. By appealing to this carnal motive, many pastors have created a spirit of competitiveness within their congregations. Though a person may work himself to death, he'll receive nothing for his carnal efforts, except perhaps some personal glory and applause when he collects his giant lollipop.

Not striving to do God's work doesn't mean that I'm spiritually lazy. It usually means that I'm doing more than ever, but my motivation is God's great love. Rewards could never have prompted me to do the things I've done. As Paul said, "Neither count I my life dear unto myself" (Acts 20:24a). To please and serve Christ becomes the joy, desire, and delight of my life, because He loves me so much.

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (4:6-8). The word "blessed" means "Oh, how happy!" How happy is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity.

Did you know that God no longer charges sin against you if you're believing in Jesus Christ? "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son continually cleanses us from all sin.... If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins" (I John 1:7, 2:1b-2a).

Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only? (4:9a). Is this blessedness of divine forgiveness just for the Jew? Or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision (4:10b). To the Jews circumcision was the most important ritual that a man could experience. According to their teaching, God wouldn't accept an uncircumcised man. Yet Paul says that faith, not circumcision, gave Abraham his standing before God. God credited his faith for righteousness while Abraham was still uncircumcised.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them [Gentiles] also: and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised (4:11-12).

God has imparted perfect righteousness to me, a sinner, totally apart from works and rituals. The bread and wine of the Lord's Supper are only a memorial. They will not save me. The water of baptism is only a symbol. It will not save me. Salvation is the work of God within my heart through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law (4:13a). Abraham lived 400 years before the Mosaic Law was given. His righteousness must have been apart from the Law, since the Law didn't even exist yet.

But through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression (4:13b-15). A man can't transgress a law that doesn't exist. So, mankind couldn't violate the Law until it had been given.

Therefore it [our righteousness] is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure (4:16a). A righteousness predicated upon your works could never be sure. Neither could it be sure if it depended upon your faithfulness. Because God wants you to be assured of your salvation, He promises to save you if you'll just believe in His Son Jesus Christ and His finished work for you on the cross. Salvation isn't premised on your works but on His work, not on your faithfulness but on His faithfulness. Only thus can your salvation be sure.

The guarantee of your salvation is certain. You don't need to constantly worry yourself with doubts and questions, such as, "Did I confess everything today? Forgive everybody? Love everybody? If I go to sleep and die tonight, will I find myself in hell?" Not knowing for certain whether you're saved would be miserable. Your attitude would be, "I hope I've done my best. I hope I haven't sinned. I hope..." You'd never have any confidence in your salvation, whereas God wants you to have confidence and certainty. So, He has established His New Covenant on the basis of faith in the complete work of Christ. Your salvation is secure and you don't have to worry, because Jesus has covered your sins of the past, present, and future.

To the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all (4:16). Abraham is my father not in an ethnic but in a spiritual sense. He's the father of all who believe in God and are accounted righteous by their faith in Christ.

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were (4:17).

Long before Abraham had fathered Isaac, God spoke to him as though his son already existed. I'm greatly comforted when God speaks about me as righteous, justified, glorified, holy, pure, and sanctified completely. God can talk about such things before they exist, because He knows they will exist. Jesus Christ will present me before the Father "faultless... with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). In the Bible God talks about my future state as a certainty. My dwelling with Him eternally is a fact to Him, just as Abraham's unborn son was a fact. Abraham against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be (4:18).

We now come to the four keys of Abraham's faith. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb (4:19). Ignoring the physical limitations of the situation was the first key of Abraham's faith.

Whenever I'm faced with a problem, I usually try to work out my own solution. As long as I can devise a plan, I feel confident. However, when a situation seems to have no solution, I start to worry. If I can't figure it out, how will God be able to solve it?

So often when I've worked out a possible solution in my mind, I then begin to direct God in my prayers according to my planned solution. At this point my prayers become direction prayers rather than direct prayers. God does answer prayer, but He often refuses to follow my directions.

Too often we trust in human evaluations and the analysis from the laboratory. Is the tumor malignant? The report says that it's benign, so we praise the Lord. But should word of malignancy come, we panic and give up all hope. We're only seeing the human possibilities.

Sarah could have called on the doctor and said, "My husband and I want a son of our own. However, I went through menopause about 30 years ago."

The doctor would have said, "Sarah, you're dreaming!"

Can you imagine Abraham coming in for his annual check-up saying, "Sarah and I want a son. Can you give us some vitamins or something?"

"No chance," the doctor says. "You're almost 100 years old and your wife is past 90. A son now? Abraham, forget it. That's humanly impossible!" God's promise to Abraham was humanly impossible to fulfill, but Abraham simply ignored the natural considerations.

When God is the working agent, any talk of limitations or difficulty is absurd. For example, consider the events in II Kings 7:1-20. When the Syrians besieged the city of Samaria and cut off all their supplies, the conditions became hopeless. The people, starving to death, resorted to eating their own children. A donkey's head sold for 80 shekels on about two pounds of silver.

When the king and his officer visited the home of Elisha, the prophet promised a complete reversal of circumstances. He said, "Tomorrow, about this time, a seah [seven quarts] of flour will sell for a shekel [65 cents] and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. "

The king's officer said, "Elisha, even if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing ever be?" The prophet replied, "Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat it." Such a provision sounded so impossible under the circumstances that the officer didn't believe it.

Such is the price of unbelief. It robs you of the blessings God has already provided. So often we look for the ways that God might work - "If God would open windows in heaven" - but we don't need to understand the ways of the Lord. All we need is to believe and trust in Him.

The second key to Abraham's faith was not staggering in unbelief at the promises of God. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief (4:20a). How many times we stagger at God's promises through unbelief! God's promises often seem too good to be true. I can accept what God did for Elijah and Paul, but I can't believe that He would do it for me.

The Bible says, "He has given us exceeding great and precious promises" (II Peter 1:4a). One of these promises is "My God will meet all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). The promises of God are so great that our belief in them is prone to waver, and we hesitate rather than confidently claim them.

Abraham didn't waver, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God (4:20b). This was the third key to Abraham's faith. He was praising and thanking God for a son even before Sarah was pregnant.

Years ago while pastoring in another area, I was working at a supermarket to meet the family's needs. We had three children and the church only paid twenty dollars a week.

My mother-in-law had died in Phoenix, and we went there to take care of the funeral arrangements. While I was gone my union dues at the supermarket lapsed. When I returned to pay them, the union had attached a fifty dollar fine. I couldn't afford to pay the fine plus the dues. I was in a bind, because the union wouldn't let me work, and I couldn't get the money without the work.

Since my income from the supermarket had stopped, things were pretty tough and I became discouraged. I've always believed in keeping my accounts up to date as a witness for Jesus Christ. Now for the first time in my life I started receiving letters from my creditors.

One morning I got up and totaled our debts. They came to $416.00. I laid them before the Lord, but I was very disheartened. "Where in the world am I ever going to get $416.00?" About that time the phone rang. I picked it up, and a friend said, "Chuck, I'm calling to let you know that I put a check in the mail for you. I sent it special delivery, and you should get it tomorrow morning. It's for $425.00."

Was I ever elated! I ran into the kitchen, grabbed my wife, and danced her around the room. I was praising the Lord. "Victory! Bless God! Hallelujah! We'll be out of debt! We even have enough money to go out for dinner!"

Later, after I had settled down again, God began speaking to me. "How do you know that he sent the money to you?"

"Lord, I've known my friend for many years. He wouldn't call me unless he'd done it. I trust his word, Lord."

"Very interesting," said the Lord. "You had My word this morning that I would provide the money, but I didn't see you dancing your wife around the kitchen. Instead, you were down in the mouth and blue. Now that you have a man's word for the money, you're all excited. Tell Me, whose word is greater?" I had to repent. My faith didn't include praising God for His promise before it was fulfilled.

We often become defeated and discouraged even though we have God's guarantee of victory and success. Abraham was strong in faith and gave glory to God before Sarah conceived, because he had the promise of God.

The final key to Abraham's faith was being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform (4:21). How big is your God? Is your God able? Many times God is too small for our problems, because He is the product of our imaginations.

The God of the Scriptures is eternal and almighty. He measures the heavens with the span of His hand, and to Him "the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance" (Isaiah 40:12,15). Oh, the greatness of the God we serve! "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20a). Abraham simply believed that God would fulfill His promises, and therefore it [his faith] was imputed [credited] to him for righteousness (4:22).

Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification (4:23-25).