Abraham’s faith

In his letter to the Romans, Paul used Abraham’s faith to illustrate how justification works. Quoting from Genesis 15:6, Paul said, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). The Greek word that is translated counted, logizomai (log-idˊ-zom-ahee) means “to reckon or count to someone, particularly: to put to one’s account (Romans 4:4); hence figuratively: to impute, to attribute: generally, of God’s imputing righteousness (Romans 4:6, 11)” (G3049). The thing that caused righteousness to be imputed or attributed to Abraham was him believing God. Believing God has to do with confiding belief in the truth, being persuaded of the truthfulness of God (G4102). Paul explained about Abraham’s faith:

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:18-22)

Paul said that Abraham’s faith did not weaken when he thought about how old he was or the fact that Sarah was not able to conceive a child (Romans 4:19). “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God…That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness’” (Romans 4:20, 22). Unbelief is not just a lack of belief but can be a turning away from the truth such as in apostasy (G570) or an unwillingness to be persuaded, obstinacy (G543). Abraham grew strong in his faith and was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20-21).

Paul used the word logizomai eleven times in Romans Chapter 4 to emphasize the point that God has an accounting system that is used to consider sins against him. Faith is what gets measured by God to determine our right or wrong standing before him. Paul explained in his letter to the Ephesians that faith is not something that we can produce on our own, it is a gift from God. Paul said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul indicated that the heart is where faith originates, stating, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10). Paul also said, “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Jesus talked about this in his explanation of the Parable of the Sower. Jesus said:

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:11-15)

Matthew’s version of Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower included a statement about the amount of fruit that could be produced by holding God’s Word fast in an honest and good heart. Matthew said, “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23). Matthew indicated that the key to bearing fruit was understanding God’s Word. The Greek word that is translated understands, suniemi (soon-eeˊ-ay-mee) means “to comprehend; by implication to act piously.” When suniemi is used figuratively, it means “to bring together in the mind, to grasp concepts and see the proper relation between them. Hence, to comprehend, understand, perceive” (G4920).

James emphasized the point that faith without works, or the producing of fruit, is useless to us in God’s accounting system. James reasoned, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead” (James 2:14-17). James argued that it was the acting out of one’s faith that God counts to him as righteousness. James asked, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God” (James 2:21-23).

Paul cautioned the Corinthians against boasting about outward appearances rather than what is in the heart (2 Corinthians 5:12). Paul made it clear that being reconciled to God was the primary objective of God’s justification of sinners. Paul said, “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21, NLT).

The book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed God was able to raise his son Isaac from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19 states, “By faith Abraham when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” The resurrection of the dead was the main focus of the Apostle Paul’s gospel message. When Paul testified before the chief priests and all the council, he said, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial” (Acts 23:66). Luke went on to explain that, “a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, or spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all” (Acts 23:7-8). Believing in the resurrection of the dead is one of the key aspects of Abraham’s faith that endured throughout the history of Israel. This belief was embedded in Judaism, and was transferred to Christianity after Jesus’ resurrection.

Abraham’s belief about the resurrection of the dead went beyond the general principle of life after death. Abraham’s belief about the resurrection of the dead was linked to God’s instruction to sacrifice of his only son Isaac. When Isaac asked Abraham about the lamb for the burnt offering, “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son’” (Genesis 22:7-8). The burnt offering was first used in the consecration of the priests after the people of Israel were delivered from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 29; Leviticus 8). The Hebrew word qadash (kaw-dashˊ) is translated as both consecrate and sanctify. God told Moses, “Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests” (Exodus 29:1). Qadash is “a verb meaning to be set apart, to be holy, to show oneself holy, to be treated as holy, to consecrate…to declare holy or consecrated, to behave, to act holy, to dedicate oneself” (H6942). It seems likely that Abraham believed God was asking him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering because he was being set apart for a divine purpose. Abraham may have thought that Isaac was like the Lamb of God that would eventually take away the sin of the world. “Abraham proved that his faith in God was genuine, for he believed that God could bring Isaac back to life if need be (Hebrews 11:17-19). God’s provision of a ram as a substitute showed that he did not want human sacrifices. The only human sacrifice approved by God was that of his Son, the sinless Lamb of God (John 1:29)” (note on Genesis 22:12).

John the Baptist was the first and one of only a few people who recognized Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). On one occasion, Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was. Luke 9:18-20 states:

Now it happened as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

The Greek term Christos (khris-tosˊ) means “anointed, i.e. the Messiah” (G5547). Christos is derived “from chrio (G5548), to anoint. Anointed, a term used in the OT applied to everyone anointed with the holy oil, primarily to the high priesthood (Leviticus 4:5, 16). Also a name applied to others acting as redeemers.” Peter identified Jesus as “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). The Greek word that Peter used to refer to God, theos (thehˊos) is used “of persons, the God of someone, i.e. his protector, benefactor, the object of his worship” (G2316). Identifying Jesus as The Christ of God was Peter’s way of making a connection between who Jesus was and God’s purpose for bringing Christ into this world.

All three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ identity differently, but the series of events that follow Peter’s disclosure are the same. After Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, then Jesus foretold of his death, then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” and after that, Jesus was transfigured. It could be that the timing of these events was significant and that’s why it was kept intact by each person who remembered and recorded it. The central theme of these events was identification of and association with Christ and in a nut shell, they conveyed the essence of God’s plan of salvation. It was like Jesus was stating the bottom line of his work on earth, this is who I am and this is what I’m here to do. This is what you need to do and this is how it will all turn out.

During Jesus’ transfiguration, God confirmed his identity and his mission. Luke’s account of Jesus’ transfiguration is as follows:

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. (Luke 9:28-36)

Moses and Elijah referred to Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension as a departure and described this as something that Jesus was going to accomplish. The Greek word that is translated departure is exodus (exˊ-od-os). Exodos means “an exit” (G1841) and is a combination of the Greek words ex “a primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence motion or action proceeds), from, out” (G1537) and hodos (hod-osˊ) which means “a road; (by implication) a progress (the route, act or distance).” Hodos is used figuratively to describe “the way of access, e.g., into the direct presence of God (Hebrews 9:8)” (G3598). Jesus told his disciples shortly before his death, “I am the way (hodos), and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The reason why Jesus’ exodus was described as an accomplishment was because it was charting a new course for all who would follow in his footsteps. Jesus told his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3). The place that Jesus was referring to is identified in the book of Hebrews as the holy places or sanctuary. In the Old Testament, the holy places were only accessible by the priests, but the writer of Hebrews explains that believers have obtained access to the holy places through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:1-14 states:

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

The writer of Hebrews indicated that the blood of Christ purifies our conscience so that we are able to serve God. The conscience is “that faculty of the soul which distinguishes between right and wrong and prompts one to choose the former and avoid the latter” (G4893). The need for our consciences to be purified is rooted in a condition of being lost. Jesus used the term lost to describe people who are excluded from the Messiah’s kingdom (G622) and told a man named Zacchaeus who had received salvation, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Being lost means that when you die, you will be separated from God for eternity. The most important part of Christ’s sacrifice for sin and death on the cross was that through his resurrection he triumphed over death and made it possible for us to do the same. Paul talked about what Jesus accomplished in the context of a mystery and a victory. Paul said:

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:50-57)

Paul indicated that the Christ of God is the means of our success. Christ made a way for humans to achieve deathlessness or as Paul stated it, to be clothed in immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53). Immortality is defined as the opposite of death (G110). Often in the Septuagint, death or in the Greek thanatos has the sense of destruction, perdition, misery, implying both physical death and exclusion from the presence and favor of God in consequence of sin and disobedience. Opposed to zoe (G2222), life and blessedness (Sept.: Deuteronomy 30:19; Proverbs 11:19; 12:28). In the New Testament, this sense is applied with more definitiveness to the gospel plan of salvation, and as zoe is used to denote the bliss and glory of the kingdom of God including the idea of a joyful resurrection, so thanatos is used for the opposite, i.e. rejection from the kingdom of God” (G2288).

After Jesus’ resurrection, he appeared to his disciples on multiple occasions. Luke records one of these in the final chapter of his book. Luke said, “As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them” and then, “he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’” (Luke 24:36, 38). After eating a piece of broiled fish to further demonstrate his restoration to life (Luke 24:42-43), Jesus went on to explain his role as The Christ of God. Jesus said, “’These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:44-47). Luke tells us that Jesus had to open the minds of his disciples in order for them to understand the Scriptures. The implication being that Jesus’ disciples were still not able to comprehend that The Christ of God was intended to die for the sin of the world and rise from the dead three days later (Luke 24:46).