Abraham, my Friend 30

From grace to grace

Just a final catch-up as regards Abraham and justification by faith, and then we will move on to later steps in his pilgrimage.

Let’s restate the key verse:

And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. (Gen 15:6 ASV) 

The best exposition of the verse is, as we have already said, the letter to the Romans. 

Did I mention that William Tyndale regarded Romans as the best possible introduction to the Old Testament? This is an ancient wisdom which was known by Augustine: ‘The New is in the Old concealed. The Old is in the New revealed.’ This truth is sometimes reversed by modern Bible students who declare that we cannot understand the New Testament without studying the Old; it is, of course, a question of emphasis. In recent years some Bible teachers have complained that Christendom embraced a Hellenistic (Greek) mindset that has hidden the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith. We need to take care that in de-Greecing the many modern themes we don’t run into the opposite error of Hebra-ising the New Testament. Paul was not introducing a Greek mind-set into Old Testament thought but expounding the relevant OT scriptures in the light of the revelation of a New Covenant. Paul will expound Abraham for us, not the other way around.

Abraham, says Paul, is the ‘father of all believers’ irrespective of their ethnic histories (Rom 4:11,12). There is one aspect of Abraham’s faith which we will return to for this last visit to a ‘series within a series’. ‘Abraham believed God’ (Rom 4:3). Abraham’s faith was not in data about God; it was ‘in God’. This has very important ramifications for the evangelical family in the 21st Century. Evangelicals have specialised in ‘data about God’ and in a very careful exposition of ‘justification by faith’. We have created doctrinal statements to ensure that wrong ‘data about God’ does not get into the family. In some circles, we have itemised the doctrine of ‘justification by faith’ so that it can now be presented in ‘Four Spiritual Laws’. The concern is that although there is nothing wrong with getting right ‘data about God’ or careful explanations of ‘justification by faith’, it is possible to get all this right and yet still to miss ‘God’.

Justification by faith, in the person and work of Jesus Christ

We do not receive ‘justification by faith’ because we believe in ‘justification by faith’. Please let that statement really sink in. Abraham was not ‘reckoned as righteous’ because he believed in the doctrine but because Abraham believed God. I wonder how many who respond in meetings are putting their faith in God? An 18th Century evangelical once said, ‘It is much easier to join oneself to a sect than to God.’ That is frightening and true. The purpose of evangelism is not to produce another evangelical but to bring a hearer to put their confidence in God: 

 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’ (Acts 26:16–18 NKJV)

It was not to change their data about God, although that is necessary. It was ‘and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God’. The ‘destination’ on the front of the ‘gospel bus’ is not an improved theology or even forgiveness of sins and an inheritance. The destination is not ‘justification by faith’, the destination is ‘faith in me’; the destination is God.

Let me illustrate by tracing this truth through Romans 4.

• The first reference is our current starting point: ‘Abraham believed God’ (Rom 4:3). There are three more pointers to the same vital truth:
• ‘Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…’ (Rom 4:4–5 NKJV).
•  ‘(…as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did…’  (Rom 4:17 NKJV).
•  ‘Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in (upon) Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead…’ (Rom 4:23–24 NKJV).

This last point states our case very clearly. Righteousness is reckoned as we believe upon Him. I am trying here to draw attention to the ground of faith; it is Him. An old hymn-writer captured the idea:

‘My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the Ever-living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.’

Just a simple wrong turn

Did you ever notice the point at which the Galatians began to go wrong? 

   I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. (Gal 1:6–7 NKJV)

They switched (removed/transposed) from a ‘Him’ to an ‘it’. All ‘its’ are as deadly as each other. If we switch our faith from ‘Him’ to prayer, evangelism, revival, bible reading, quiet times, church governance, sanctification, whatever… we become 

…foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? (Gal 3:1 NKJV)

The Bible seems to reserve the description of ‘fool’ for those who leave God out of their thinking — people who have something other than Jesus Christ ‘before their eyes’. They are, says Paul, bewitched, and the enchantment with other things always begins when we take our eyes off Him.

By grace through faith

Before we move on, there is another important thing to note about ‘justification by faith’; it is not an end in itself but an entrance into what God has prepared. Justification and reckoned righteousness, says Paul, is of faith, that it might be by grace (Rom 4:16). This is stated very clearly in other places: 

 …being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…  (Rom 3:24–25 NKJV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God… (Eph 2:8 NKJV)

And much more

But grace is more, much more, than ‘unmerited favour’; it is also God’s enabling power. However, we need grace to enable us to access grace.

  And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.  (John 1:16 NKJV)

Or as translated by JN Darby:  

…for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace.  (John 1:16 DRBY)

This is grace being replaced by more grace.

Let me make the point by returning to Romans: 

 ‘Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God’ (Rom 5:1–2 NKJV).

At this point Paul is not referring to Abraham and his experience but to us and ours; the ‘he’ of Abraham becomes a ‘we’ in Rom 4:24. Paul now begins with Abraham but goes beyond him: 

 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Rom 5:1–2 NKJV)

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (Rom 5:1-2 NASB) 

In Romans 4 he has concentrated on ‘justification by faith’ and its basis in ‘reckoned righteous’ but now he is moving on. Oh that we might all ‘move on’ into the ‘much more’ of Romans 5.

As a result of ‘having been justified by faith’ we have ‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’. This is wonderful and not to be hurried, but there is more… ‘by whom also’… we have an ‘introduction’ as the NASB says or more familiarly with the NKJV ‘we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand’. Justification by faith is a wonderful demonstration of the grace of God, but it is more than that. 

In this New Covenant, it is the open door into ‘this grace in which we stand’. Abraham, blessed man though he was, never accessed ‘this grace wherein we stand’. He saw Christ’s day and was glad but in the ‘much more’ of the New Covenant he was one of those who 

  …all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Heb 11:13 NKJV)

It is challenging to notice the repetition of the phrase ‘much more’ in Romans 5. 

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Rom 5:9–10 NKJV)

These two verses parallel Romans 5:1,2; they begin with justification and reconciliation but they both take the theme forward by speaking now of ‘salvation’. The pattern is very deliberate; justification and reconciliation have been achieved by the cross: ‘his blood’ or ‘the death of his son’. But ‘salvation’ is the result of ‘his life’. The cross has dealt with the past; His life will determine the future.

His life is available through His Spirit. 

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom 5:5 NKJV)

…and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom 5:5 NASB) 

The defining experience of the New Covenant 

Paul’s question at Ephesus was not, ‘did you believe correctly’ but, ‘did you receive the Holy Spirit’. 

 And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:1–2 NKJV)

It was also Paul’s basic axiom and the starting point of personal Christian experience: 

 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Gal 3:2–3 NKJV)

This is righteousness, not only imputed, but ‘much more’ so, imparted. Righteousness not only reckoned but received.

The foundation of it all, however, remains ‘justification by faith’. God receives us not because of our achievements or experiences but because Christ died… ‘for the ungodly’… ‘while we were yet sinners’. This wonderful blessing, however, giving access to so ‘much more’ is dependent, on man’s side, upon a particular kind of faith: 

   Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all  (Rom 4:16 NKJV)

It must all begin here in our response, and that provokes an important question.

Do I have the faith of Abraham? Do you?