THE
EMPHASIS AND IMPETUS OF FAITH
(AND
GROUNDS OF ASSURANCE)
.
BELIEF
in the reality of God is the great underlying truth behind all references
to faith in the Bible. But that is not the main thrust of faith as found
there. Ancient man, not that far removed from creation and the Garden of
Eden, had no problem believing in God. In fact, two psalms (Psalms 14 and
53) dogmatically assert that only a fool would say there is no God. Even
though man fell into idolatry with its corrupted concepts of deity, he
still believed in a higher being (or beings). Overall then, the main thrust
of faith in the Bible is trust and consequently hope (and not just basically
believing in the reality of God). "Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). It involves
taking the one and only true God at His Word and living in hope.
.
Genesis
3:15,
The
Moving Impetus of Faith
.
In view of this, trusting God, the great moving
impetus of faith begins in Genesis 3:15, continues throughout the Bible
and has its climax in the New Testament (and finally in eternity). Aside
from this, all other exercises of faith were secondary, simply feeding
into the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. This Scripture reads, "And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Mankind had
sinned in rebellion against God, and consequently fallen; the sentence
of death had been passed upon them. These words were directed at the different
parties involved in the transgression. There would be an ongoing struggle
between right and wrong. Finally of the seed of woman one would come to
bring a crushing blow to the devil (and death), restoring life. This one
of the seed of woman is distinguished from others by use of the words "it"
and "his." This refers to the coming Savior. In the meantime, mankind would
learn to trust God and live in hope, looking forward to that day.
.
Let us highlight these truths in this article
as we focus on men of faith who trusted God, what they looked forward to,
and God accommodating Himself to them to enhance this trust. Abraham, who
was assured by God, will first get our attention and then we will notice
the fulfillment of this assurance in the New Testament with the coming
of the Savior.
.
I. THE CALL
OF ABRAHAM:
PROMISES, PROMISES,
PROMISES
.
Abraham,
a Nation, the "Seed"
.
The first major step in the fulfillment of
Genesis 3:15 is seen in the call of Abraham. This happened about 2000 BC
as he cut ties with his homeland in Mesopotamia to migrate to the land
of Canaan. Genesis 12:1-3 tells us all about it, "Now the lord had said
unto Abram [Abraham], Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will
make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth
be blessed." It is no exaggeration to say that the rest of the Bible unfolds
through these few verses of Scripture. These promises were stated over
and over again as they moved toward fulfillment. God would use Abraham
and his descendants as the means of bringing the "seed" into the world
that would destroy the power of the devil over death and restore life to
man. This didn’t happen all at once, and it took real faith on the part
of Abraham and those who came after him to live in anticipation of its
fulfillment.
.
God
Accommodated Man
.
God accommodated Himself to man in this preliminary
time of preparation for fulfillment. Although God is Spirit, at certain
times He has communicated with man through angelic beings who momentarily
took the form of man (Genesis 18:1,2, 17-22; 19:1,5; 32:24-30; Exodus 24:10,11
[Acts 7:53]; Joshua 5:13-15 [Exodus 23:20-23; 33:2]; Judges 13:3, 6,15-33;
etc.). And, although God cannot lie, He has accommodated Himself to the
customs of men to enhance their trusting Him. This can be seen when God
put Himself under oath with Abraham (Genesis 22:16) and His making a covenant
with him (yes, even literally "cutting" a covenant, Genesis 15:9-21—Jeremiah
34:17,18). In those early days of partial and limited revelation, this
was especially reassuring (as well as later with more of an extensive revelation).
God can be taken at His Word, trusted, and man who had entered into covenant
relationship with God is made to realize that he must likewise keep his
word.
.
Promises
and the Oath
.
The writer of the book of Hebrews sums up these
dealings of God with Abraham in a most excellent way (and finds a lesson
and reassurance for us today). "For when God made promise to Abraham, because
he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing
I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after
he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear
by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable
things [His promise and His oath], in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us; Which hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and stedfast…" (Hebrews 6:13-19). God cannot lie. What
He says stands. As Isaiah said in the Old Testament Scriptures, His Word
will not return unto Him void (Isaiah 55:11).
.
The
Mission and Hope of Israel
.
The promises and oath were repeatedly given
to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 15:4-6; 17:1-8;
22:15-18; 26:2-5; 28:12-15; Exodus 32:13). Abraham’s descendants would
indeed be a great nation, and at the heart of all that God said, and the
end results, was the promise of the coming "seed" through whom all families
of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14). This
was really the reason why God chose to make of them a nation, a distinct
people; to be the vehicle of bringing the Savior into the world. That was
their mission and hope, not to be just a pampered people with no purpose.
The crescendo of Bible history continually moved in the direction of fulfilling
Genesis 3:15 as anticipated and outlined in Genesis 12:1-3. The whole Old
Testament system and the nation of Israel itself, and even the history
of that nation, were symbolic prophecies pointing to that day (this in
addition to the more explicit prophecies that are found in the Old Testament).
When the New Testament finally comes, we find people who were eagerly waiting
and looking for the coming Messiah (Luke 2:25,38; Matthew 11:3; John 6:14;
11:27). Later, in his defense, Paul looking back, said, "And now I stand
and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:
Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night,
hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the
Jews" (Acts 26:6,7; also, Acts 28:20).
.
Abraham
Believed God
.
Although Abraham was called by a name that
meant exalted father, and later the father of a great multitude, the initial
part of the promise as well as the last part made to him would be long
in coming. He believed God, although he would live to see only a little
of it fulfilled. Being repeatedly called by such a name, which for so long
seemed redundant, could get pretty threadbare. His marriage was childless,
he was 75 years of age when they first came into Canaan (Genesis 12:4),
and he would remain childless for years to come. He didn’t understand the
details of the working of God, but he believed it would come to pass. And
while he seemed to have been put on "hold" in even being a father, God
told him that his unborn descendants would be sidetracked in Egyptian bondage
for a few hundred years before they would even be a nation and possess
the Promised Land (yes, the land wherein he was then camping out as a nomad
and would be doing so the rest of his life) (Genesis 15:13-21). Still he
believed God. He remained childless for the next 25 years, and contrary
to nature when he was about 100 years old and Sarah, his wife, about 90
years, a son was born (Genesis 17:17; Romans 4:16-21). Then, seemingly
in contradiction to all that God had promised him, Abraham was put to the
test when called upon to sacrifice his son (Genesis 22:1-19). He took steps
to comply, believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews
11:17-19).
.
The
Climax of
Faith
Now and in Eternity
.
Hebrews 11:8-19 highlights the faith of Abraham,
even looking beyond the earthly fulfillment into eternity. The concluding
part of all of the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob always
had as its goal the "seed" through whom all families of the earth would
be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18; 26; 4; 28:14). This was the great impetus
of it all. Of course this involved man’s spiritual restoration to God (Acts
3:25,26), which reached into eternity. It is amazing that these old patriarchs
saw the eternal beyond the more immediate fulfillment of the physical in
God’s promises. Hebrews 11:13-16 reads, "These all died in faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that
they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country
from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God
is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a
city." God’s whole plan for humanity would be filtered through Abraham
and his descendants, and he believed it. No wonder he is called the father
of all who believe (Galatians 3:7,29; Romans 4:16; 9:8) and was called
the friend of God (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23). He knew
that God couldn’t lie. This was the assurance of his faith.
.
The
Promise
Narrowed
and Expanded
.
There are other great and wonderful Scriptures
that line up in showing us the route through which the promised "seed"
would come, but for the purposes of this article we will not explore them
all now. It will suffice to say that the route, now being narrowed to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob (and the nation of Israel), was next directed through the
tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10). And finally more specifically we are pointed
to the house of David and his "seed" (Psalms 89:3,4; Jeremiah 33:15-17).
Then to see what would be actually entailed in the fulfillment of Genesis
3:15, the coming of the concluding "seed" would involve a virgin birth
without the instrumentality of man in conception (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew
1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35). And all of the time while this line was being narrowed
through which the Savior would come, the revelation of just whom and what
he would be is expanded. Yes, he would be the one to crush the head of
the serpent, but he also would be a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18,19;
Acts 3:22,23). He would be the Messiah, raised to sit upon the throne of
David (Psalms 89:3,4; Luke 1:31-33; Acts 2:30-33,36). Daniel explicitly
speaks of the Messiah and matters in reference to him (Daniel 9:23ff).
He is pictured as the suffering servant by Isaiah, bearing the sins of
all (Isaiah 53:1-12; Acts 8:26-35). Amazingly, he would be raised from
the dead (Psalms 16:8-11; Acts 2:22-33; Romans 1:2-4). Also, he would be
a priest (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:5,6f). These are great and wonderful
prophecies, and we could go on. Behind all of them stand the immutable
counsel of the Mighty God of eternity whom cannot lie. Consequently the
Scriptures cannot be broken and God’s Word would not return to Him void.
All of this inspired trust and was the grounds of blessed assurance for
the saints of old. God would bring it to pass.
.
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