Faith of Abraham

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Faith of Abraham

Introduction
Many times have we heard a phrase called the faith of Abraham. We often look at Abraham and we equate him to the start of the Israelite nation. The childless older couple who received a promise from God to become the father of a nation more numerous than the sands on the shore. Yet this promise of God in unique. We talked about the promise of God with Noah and creation required nothing from creation and required God to never flood the entire earth again. You can look at the covenant between God and the Israelites before entering the promised land and both sides had their own part to fulfill. Abraham also received a promise of God but it was because of his faith not because of fulfilling the law of God like future Israelites had to do. Look at what Paul said about Abraham’s faith in Romans 4:13-25
Romans 4:13–25 NRSV
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
Trouble in the passage
Abraham had no children and Sarai was barren. In that culture, the family depended on children for many things: for helping the household work, for working in the family business, for continuing the family’s name. Yet, Abraham had no children for this. God told him his descendants would be so numerous, yet Sarah was barren and he had no children. They tried with Sarah’s servant Hagar. Yet this was not the answer. God assured Abraham and Sarah their legacy, their descendants would become many nations and it was not through Hagar’s son.
Seeing this as humanly impossible, what were they to do? They tried the only way the knew possible with Hagar but this wasn’t the right plan. God wanted them to believe the promise and a choice was to be made. God was asking them to accept a promise they could not see possible. It required something much different than what they had been asked of before. It was not cleverness or deception or working hard enough or thinking outside the box that could remedy this situation. God asked something different of Abraham: to have faith.
Trouble in the world
Often times we too are faced with the impossible. A lot of times, we exhaust our own abilities in the attempt to reconcile a situation. We often exhaust our resources trying to come up with a working fix to a situation. We even sometimes try to work ourselves to exhaustion just to make sure we have put in all the effort possible. Yet, sometimes it just isn’t enough.
I think Abraham and this passage talking about his faith. Why is it faith sometimes is our last option we rely on? Our independence and pride I believe gets in the way. We are upset at our government and our resolution is to replace them with either one party or the other or people aligned with none of the existing options. We are upset over the pandemic and the freedoms being stripped away in the name of trying to eradicate a virus that is killing people. We are upset with certain groups of people because they are trying to change our world for the worse, so we need to deal with them.
In none of this are we asking God what we should believe. We believe in our own abilities and power to fix it all, but honestly, none of it is getting fixed is it? Rather than focusing on our abilities to create a solution, perhaps it is time to go back to Abraham and learn from him how to deal with such an uncertain future.
Grace in the passage
We know the story with Abraham but it is easy to miss in the original story found in Genesis because it is one verse and only a few words that mean so much in their implications or impact to Abraham’s life. Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God could do the impossible. God believed that if God said he would, then he would. Abraham found faith as the answer.
Abraham was fully aware of his old body and Sarah being barren knowing that physically it was impossible with them to have children on their own, yet because God said he would, he believed him. When God said that he would become the father of many nations, the 12 tribes of Israel, he believed God would fulfill this promise. Abraham had faith in the promises of God.
Abraham and Sarah were blessed by God with Isaac. Isaac was blessed by God with Jacob. Jacob was blessed by God and had twelve sons. These twelve sons in turn would become the father of a nation each on their own. Abraham believed so God counted him as righteous because he believed. Paul even mentions here it was not because Abraham was righteous or perfect in following the law, in fact the law did not exist for many hundreds of years later. God counted Abraham as righteous simply because Abraham believed God’s promise would be fulfilled. Abraham was not forced to accept it, he was not said if you believe this will happen, nothing like this occured. Abraham arrived at his faith on his own. He weighed the facts and chose to believe God. Grace surrounded Abraham and brought forth something new: faith that made Abraham righteous.
Grace in the world.
We too need something different than what we are trying today. I don’t know about you but the truth is, we have exhausted our own abilities in trying to control the world and everything that happens within it. These things are beyond our control and impossible to fix or address. Where is grace leading us? The answer is to have faith in God’s abilities and God’s promises. We too have been given a wonderful promise, a wonderful gift that makes us righteous when we are like Abraham and choose to believe.
When we choose to believe who Jesus is, when we choose to accept God’s promise, we too are counted as righteous because of faith. When we choose to believe God’s promise that he is in control of both heaven and earth, then we can leave these things in His capable hands. We must decided whether to trust our own abilities and power, or the unlimited ones of God. Like Abraham, we are faced with who to place our faith in, who do we believe will be the one to fulfill the promise of setting all the wrongs of the world right?
Today let your answer be faith. Today let your trust be in God. Today let go of wanting to control and conquer the world. Today place your faith in God. This is the righteous faith Abraham discovered when he was childless and expected to be the father of many nations. Today we see lots of wrongs in the world and our inability to resolve them all. Today is a good day to turn to faith and let God take control over our lives. Today is the day to believe God’s promises. Today is the day to place your faith not in your works but in Christ’s works to bring about your salvation and the redemption of this world.
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