THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Meditations in the Paul’s letter to the Romans
THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM

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THE Apostle Paul is seeking to give understanding as to the nature of true Christian faith, that is the faith that brings us into the blessings of salvation. Paul seeks to do this by using Abraham to illustrate this saving faith. Paul shows us from the Old Testament that Abraham’s faith "was credited to him for righteousness", and this is why his faith is a model for all Christian believing.

Faith is absolutely necessary for salvation, but what is the nature of this faith? This is the important question. Any faith will not do. We are exercising faith, in something or someone, all the time. Even in the religious realm, there are all sorts of different expressions of faith, but which is the right one? Paul speaks of Abraham’s faith so we may have an example of a faith that did result in salvation.

Paul makes it clear that it is not the activity of believing which saves, but that faith turns our trust from ourselves and our doings to someone else and his works. Let us now look into what Paul says about the faith of Abraham, to draw from Abraham’s faith the nature of Christian believing.

The centre of Abraham’s faith and where it begins and ends is that he believed the promise of God, and rested his whole life upon that promise. We read in verse 20 of Romans 4 "Yet he (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God". We have considered several times before in these studies the promise that God made to Abraham, and we have seen that, though perhaps dimly understood by Abraham, it was the promise of a Saviour, through whom all the nations of the world would be blest (v.18 - Abraham would be the father of many nations). Hebrews 11 makes clear that Abraham saw that this promise extended further than just this temporal existence; beyond the land of Palestine, to a better country, which is eternal and whose builder and maker is God. In fact a heavenly country which is heaven and glory to come beyond this life.

This promise of a Saviour was for Abraham narrowed down to a personal son that God would give him, for unless he had a son, the promise of a Saviour from his family line could not be realised, but the point where Abraham began was that God made him a promise of salvation. He had nothing really to substantiate this promise except the word of God. Abraham believed God, and here is the essence of Christian saving faith.

The promise of God to the world is in Christ and concerning Christ. This is the promise Abraham was given that he would have a ‘seed’, a progeny, through whom salvation would be given. The bible is full of this promise. The promise is that whosoever believes in Christ will not perish but have eternal life. It is God’s promise that we will be delivered from judgement to come on sin, and given a safe haven in God’s eternal glory.

Like Abraham we have this promise but the full realisation of it is in the future, but we believe this promise that it is true, and rest our souls upon it. Such faith is credited to us as righteousness. In other words, God sees this faith and as a gift of grace, for the sake of all that Christ has done, blots out all our sins, accounts us righteous in his sight eternally, and assures us that a place in heaven is reserved for us. But it is still in this life a promise which we believe and rest our souls on.

This faith is something further. Paul tells us in verse 21 of Romans 4 that Abraham was "fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised".

Christian faith is to put our whole trust in God and his power. It is a giving up of all trust in ourselves, and placing our confidence in God alone. As far as Abraham was concerned this faith was narrowed down to something very tangible. He and Sarah had tried to have children. To have a son was very important to them in their society, and in the case of Abraham and Sarah it was more important because God’s promise of eternal salvation was bound up in their having a son. Yet Abraham and Sarah had tried in vain for children and Sarah was found to be unable to have a child. As they grew older the problem became greater and greater until they were totally beyond having a child humanly speaking. But Paul tells us that even when Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah ninety, they still hung in there, believing God’s power was sufficient to perform the miracle, and give them a son so that the promise may be fulfilled.

We are the same. We believe in the power of God to perform his promise. At the moment the promise of God becomes real to us and we believe in Christ, the promise is gloriously certain for us. However the way forward is not always approached with such certainty. There are many and varied trials and difficulties we have to face. Satan assaults us with many a doubt and fear. We find that our lives continue to fall short of the glory of God, and we are often brought to the brink of despair. We face the fact of death, and our faith falters as we contemplate that event, and can hardly believe we are safe, but at the heart of our life our faith is the persuasion that God has the power to perform what he has promised.

At the moment of this conviction we are reminded of the victory of Christ. God has already performed the impossible. He has performed in his only begotten Son, in his life and dying, the impossible task of procuring our safety from the just condemnation and judgement we deserve on account of our sin, and the impossible concept of God justifying the ungodly, and doing it justly and securely.

Faith lays hold of the promise of God, and is assured of the power of God to make that promise real and assured.

Here is the most comforting aspect of the faith of Abraham. Paul says of Abraham in verse 19 of Romans 4 "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and Sarah’s womb was also dead".

Now this is a staggering thing to say. The history of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 to chapter 18 hides nothing from us. We find Abraham following Sarah’s suggestion that the only way Abraham was going to have a son was to have a son by Sarah’s slave Hagar. As Hagar was owned by Sarah in the law and culture of their day, the son from such a union could be considered in law as Sarah’s son as well. The reason they both went along with this idea is recorded plainly. They had come to the point, because of their increasing age, where they could not see how the promise of God could be fulfilled, and they were seeking some way they could make it happen. In a word we see their faith faltering.

God tells them, and history told them, that this action was wrong. Ishmael, the son from the union of Abraham with Sarah’s slave, could not be Abraham’s true heir, and could not fulfil the promise of God. Far from not staggering in unbelief surely they did falter. Even when God comes to them at the time in their lives which Paul refers to in our reading in Romans and tells them Isaac would be born in a year’s time, both Abraham and Sarah laugh in derision at such an improbable idea, and God has to rebuke them. Even as God is renewing his promise that Isaac would be born to Abraham, Abraham is still seeing the fulfilment of the promise as only possible in Ishmael (Genesis 17:18).

In spite of all this, Paul speaking in the Holy Spirit, tells us that Abraham and Sarah did not weaken in their faith, but were persuaded that the power of God could perform this impossible thing. This is in fact the truth about those who truly believe the promise of God in Christ. Though on the surface Abraham and Sarah showed every sign of loosing faith, in their heart and deep in their soul and mind, they held fast to God and their faith in him, even though humanly speaking they could not see how the promise could be fulfilled. Their outward doubt, was not showing a lack of faith, but rather their constant struggle to hold fast to their faith in God, and to understand the ways of God.

We have the same doubts and fears in our life of faith. We may be cast down in despair at times in our lives, and seem to have no faith left. We may feel that it must be impossible that God should love us, and all sorts of reasons come to our minds why the promise in Christ surely can’t have relevance for us. However God sees differently, and seeing into the depth of our heart and soul. He sees that though we express doubts and despair outwardly, inwardly in the depth of our being we have no other faith than in God and his promise in Christ, and we are holding desperately to God’s promise and will not let it go. The evidence of this sustained faith is that we always come back to believing, and throwing ourselves in faith upon God and his promise.

This is what Paul means when in our text he says of Abraham "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed." Christian faith is what believes the impossible as it is in human terms, but believes in the power of God to perform the seeming impossible that he has promised.

Faith and hope go together. We believe therefore we have hope. Our hope is in eternal salvation. As Abraham believed against hope that God would give him a son, even though in age he and Sarah were beyond all possibility of having a son, so we believe in hope that in Christ we have eternal life.

Christian hope has a quality that is different to all other hope in the world. It is a characteristic about hope in this earthly life that there is an element of doubt as to the realisation of the thing hoped for. This doubt is because of the limitations of human power and ability. Some things are more sure than others, but in all, even the most certain, there is an element of doubt and uncertainty exists, because something may occur that prevents the realisation of our hope.

Christian hope is still something in the future yet unrealised, but there is no uncertainty about it, even though in our human frailty sometimes we feel there is. We believe in a sure and certain hope, founded on the promise of God who can not lie, and upon the power of God which is infinite, and in the work of God in Christ which is perfect.

Abraham, Paul tells us, gave glory to God in his faith. Faith is a grace of highest order because of this fact that it gives glory to God. Faith affirms God. It affirms his integrity. It affirms God’s power. It affirms God’s grace and love that God provides such sure and complete salvation to those who are totally undeserving. It affirms God’s massive wisdom. By faith we affirm God as our glorious God and Saviour, and so show him to be glorious in love and goodness.

Christian faith is a very special thing because it is credited to us as righteousness. Faith is not a blind unreasoning belief, but a taking God at his word, and resting our souls on that promise. Faith is renouncing all trust in ourselves and placing all our trust and confidence in God, and in him alone. Faith is a surrender of our whole life and living to Jesus, that our lives may be his, and his life and death may be ours.