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‘That faith of our father Abraham.’
Rom_4:12
I. The lofty characteristics of Abraham’s faith.
(a) He believed in the being of God. This, in fact, was the prime article of his faith, as it must be of that of every man. He looked to God, therefore, far more than they did who worshipped the orb of heaven, and he relied upon Him more than they did who confided in immediate kindred or powerful tribe. God was verily ‘the all and in all’ of his creed and belief (Heb_11:6).
(b) He believed in the promise of God. A promise relates to the future. Its aim and tendency is to beget or strengthen confidence in the God Who made it; and this was the effect of the promise on promise Divinely made to Abraham until his faith became so Samsonian and victorious that he believed when there appeared no possibility soever of the fulfilment of any one of them. His faith laughed at every impossibility, because he was absolutely sure that God’s hand would accomplish the word His lips had spoken (Heb_11:8-12; Heb_11:17-19).
(c) He believed in the ordinance of God. Circumcision was enjoined by God upon him when He made His first covenant with him (Genesis 17). And circumcision was the seal of this covenant. Immediately after Abraham woke up and found himself in the possession of a new life. And so baptism, which circumcision prefigured by a sign, is a seal of the covenant of grace (Rom_4:14).
(d) He believed in the heaven of God. He felt in his innermost self that there was another and higher and happier world than this in the deeps of infinite space, and his heart stole away from the desert to ‘the land that is very far off’—from the unsightly and shaky tent to ‘the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Php_1:23).
II. The blessed results of his faith.
(a) He was justified by it. God accepted him because he exercised faith in God. He regarded him as justified; and justification is the non-imputation of sin and the actual imputation of righteousness (Rom_4:3).
(b) He was sanctified by it. The moment he believed, his sanctification commenced. His justification was perfected instantly; but his sanctification progressed throughout his life. Justification gives a title to heaven; santification gives a meetness for heaven.
(c) He was honoured by it. He became not only ‘the father of circumcision,’ but the father of the Hebrew nation; nay, of all God’s elect, and therefore the father of the future Church of the Redeemer. At first he was a childless man; but at last his seed, both natural and spiritual, became as ‘the dust of the earth’ and ‘the stars of heaven.’
(d) He was at last beatified by it. His faith led Him first to God, and then, finally, to go up to God. ‘God is in heaven,’ and ‘heaven is His throne,’ and the place where His throne rests is the final home of all believers in Him. So faith begins, and so faith is consummated. There is no need for faith in heaven, but it certainly conducts to heaven, and is the golden key with which its pearly gates are opened.