Lights of the World: Abraham

Part 3: Justified By Faith

As they went forth with the gospel the apostles proclaimed the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus. They told the Jews, in particular, that: (Acts 13:39) “… through Him everyone who believes is freed (justified) from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.” Some thought that such a doctrine was nothing but an innovation. However, as both Peter and Paul make clear, this is simply not true.

(Acts 10:43) “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”

(Rom 3:21) But now apart from the Law the righteousness (justification) of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets

(Rom 1:1-2) … the gospel of God … [was] promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures

The law and the prophets bear witness to the truth that the just will live by faith. In his letter to the Romans, for example, Paul offers several lines of evidence for this. In chapter one he presents the testimony of the prophet Habakkuk. Having set forth what becomes the theme of this epistle – the gospel is God’s power to save Jewish AND Gentile believers (vs. 16). – Paul explains why in the next verse: “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from (Gk. ek) faith to (Gk. eis) faith.” In the gospel God reveals that He will declare the believer to be righteous and the aim of this message is to produce believers. When a person with an honest heart and good heart (Luke 8:15) learns whom it is that God justifies, it motivates him to become such a man, a believer (cf., Gal. 2:16)!

Paul says this message is in harmony with what is written: In the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, even as it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith’” This quotation from Habakkuk 2:4 is a testimony that the gospel is not an innovation! On the contrary, it is an “old, old, story” and it was old even in the first century.

In chapter four Paul presents his strongest arguments from the law and prophets that the just shall live by faith. His primary argument is from the experience of Abraham. The irony about this is that the Jews who were fighting so hard against the apostolic message also appealed to Abraham. They figured that because they were his physical children that they would share in his spiritual blessings.

When John the Baptist was preparing the nation for its Christ, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3), he “found it necessary to disillusion those where were saying within themselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’ (Matt 3:9). Jesus met Jews who were boasting, ‘We are Abraham’s seed,’ and ‘Our father is Abraham’ (John 8:33, 39).” (Mott, Faith in the Book of Romans, p. 18) In Romans 4, however, Paul shows that in reality, Abraham is his witness.

While the Judaizers stressed their physical relationship with the patriarch, Paul shows who his real children are.

Rom 4:11 - Abraham is “the father of all who believe.”

Rom 4:16 - His descendants are “those who are of the faith of Abraham.”

Rom 4:12 – His true seed are those “who … follow in the steps of the faith of … Abraham.”

Jesus himself taught this when he said the Jews: (John 8:39) “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.” The real children of Abraham are those who do his deeds, who follow in the steps of his faith.

Prior to Romans 4 Paul charges both Jews and Gentiles of sin - “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). This being the case Paul argues, “no flesh will be justified” in the sight of God “by the works of the Law … for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (vs. 20) When the light of the law is brought to bear upon men it reveals not their innocence – their righteousness – but their guilt. A few verses later Paul says:

(Rom 3:28) For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

In vss. 29-30 Paul gives another reason why this must be so. If it were through works of the Law of Moses that God justifies a man, He would be the God of Jews alone. But He is not such a God! He is God of both Jews and Gentiles (vs. 29). And He shall justify Jews in the same way that He will justify Gentiles “through faith” (vs. 30). It is at this point that Paul brings forth his star witness – Abraham: “For what does the Scripture? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as (Gk. EIS) righteousness’” (4:3).

Paul explains what he means by righteousness through another Old Testament verse – Psalm 32.

(Romans 4:6-8) … David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

The gift of righteousness (Rom 3:24) that God reckons through faith apart from works is the forgiveness of sins!

Paul wrote: “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as (Gk. EIS) righteousness’” (4:3). This is a quotation from Gen 15:6. At the time when God said this Abraham had been a man of faith for a number of years.

Contrary to Calvinism, Paul is not just referring to Abraham’s initial faith—his experience of faith (as some call it). Instead, “he is dealing with the faith that one must have at any point in his life in order to stand justified in the presence of God” This is not only made clear from Abraham’s life prior to Gen 15:6, but from the Holy Spirit’s use of this verse in the writings of Paul and James. In all Paul specifically refers to this verse three times – twice in Romans and once in Galatians. In the first instance (Rom 3:4) he is referring to the actual event of Gen 15. In this place God promises Abraham (not for the first time, however) that he would have innumerable descendants.

(Genesis 15:5-6) And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Abraham’s faith in Gen 15:6 was not something different than the faith that …

·        Caused him to leave his father’s house when God first called him in Mesopotamia.

·        Cause him to leave Haran, after his father’s death

·        Manifested itself various different ways during his 10 years in Canaan.

Abraham’s faith in Gen 15:6 was a continuation of this faith!

Abraham was about 85 years old at the time of Gen 15:6. About 15 years later, when Sarah was about 90, God told him: (17:4-5) “… My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham; for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.” Speaking of this Paul writes: (Rom 4:18) “In hope against hope he [Abraham, KM] believed….” Returning to Gen 17 (vss 15-16) the Lord went on to say Sarah would bear a son and through him “she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” When he heard this (vs. 17) “Abraham fell on his face and laughed,” saying “in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” Was the laugh a laugh of joy of or disbelief? Scholars, even conservative ones, are divided. All that I know for certain is what Paul, through inspiration, said about this incident

(Rom 4:19-21) And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being full assured that what He had promised, he was able also to perform.

Sure, Abraham contemplated the physical problem that would be involved in fulfilling this promise – how a ninety year old woman with a womb that has always been dead would now have a child with a man whose “own body” was “now as good as dead” – but Paul says that he did this without wavering in unbelief. Abraham confident that what God had promised, he was able also to perform.

(Rom 4:22) Therefore IT (Abraham’s faith, KM) WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Abraham’s faith in Gen 17 is not a different faith, but the same faith of Gen 15, which was the same faith that Abraham had back yonder in Mesopotamia. In each situation it was the same faith manifesting itself under different conditions.

The Holy Spirit uses Gen 15:6 in connection with one final incident in Abraham’s life. In Gen 22 God said to Abraham: (vs. 2) “‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’” Abraham went as God commanded. Having bound Isaac upon the altar, the patriarch “stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.” The deed would have been done had God not intervened. Through the angel he said: (vss. 12) “‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’” In writing of this event James says:

(James 2:21-22) Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected

And then listen to what the Spirit says:

(vs. 23) and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.

What took place in Gen 22 is simply another manifestation of that same faith on account of which righteousness was reckoned to Abraham … in Genesis 15.

These three different occasions in the life of Abraham show how that same faith behaves under different conditions. Genesis 15 and Genesis 17 show the behavior of justifying faith when it is asked to accept something solely on the basis of God’s word – with no supporting evidence, with nothing to rely upon except one’s general knowledge of God’s character, and even with the other factors involved seem to be against it. Genesis 22, on the other hand, shows how that same faith acts when it is called upon to do something solely on the basis of God’s word, when there is no other reason for doing it, when in fact the act may seem unreasonable in itself. But all three chapters are dealing with the same faith, and showing how it behaves under different conditions.” (Mott, 22)

There is one final use of Gen 15:6 in the New Testament that I would like to mention as we close this lesson; found in Gal 3:6. After quoting the Old Testament passage Paul, in the very next verse draws this conclusion:

(Galatians 3:7) Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

But as verses 26 and 27 Paul tells the Galatians that became the sons of God through faith by putting on Christ in baptism.

(Galatians 3:26-27) For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

“He concludes the chapter in verse 29 by saying that such persons who are in Christ are Abraham’s seed. The sons of Abraham, then are those who have become sons of God through faith by putting on Christ in baptism. These are the ones who have the faith of Abraham. And this passages shows how the Abrahamic faith behaves today.

“Incidentally, that also explains how Paul can say what he does about baptism in Romans 6:1-7. In this passage Paul teaches that a person is justified (or freed) from sin through a spiritual death that takes place in baptism. How can he say such a thing when he has just been contending that one is justified by faith? The answer is simple enough: Paul does not understand baptism to be something different from faith. With Paul baptism is not in opposition to faith. It is an act of faith. It is the very embodiment of faith. It is an essential element of that faith by which we are justified.” (Mott, pp. 22-23)