For the Sake of the Gospel # 11
The Faith of Abraham

In last week’s column I explained there are two ways of thinking about faith: (1) faith as the content of what we believe and (2) faith as the act whereby we entrust ourselves to God. In this column, I will focus on the act of faith as illustrated in the example of Abraham who believed in God even when it appeared there was no reason to believe.

Abraham provides us with an example of what it means to put our trust entirely in God, even when it appears there is no human reason to believe in God’s promise. In the Book of Genesis, God promises Abraham and his wife Sarah that they will have a child who will be the father of a great nation. There is only one problem, Sarah is barren, and both she and Abraham are beyond the age for having children. From a purely human point of view, then, there is no reason for Abraham to believe in God’s promise. Despite this obstacle, Abraham trusts that God will fulfill the promise he has made. This promise is eventually fulfilled through the birth of Isaac (who becomes the father of Jacob, the father of the people of Israel) when Abraham is a 100 years old!

But then a new complication arises. In Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, the son through whom Abraham is suppose to become the father of a great nation. What is Abraham to do? If he obeys God, how can God fulfill his promise? If he disobeys God, will God fulfill the promise? Realizing that he must rely on God even though he does not understand God’s plan, Abraham obeys God’s command, confident that God will fulfill his promise. And so God does. God does not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac; for God now knows that Abraham is perfectly obedient because Abraham believes and trust in God.

Centuries later, reflecting on the example of Abraham in Romans 4, Saint Paul writes of Abraham’s faith: “Hoping against hope, Abraham believed that he would become the father of a great nation … 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. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

The essence of Abraham’s faith is his unflinching trust in God. Abraham trusted in God when, from a human point of view, there was no reason to trust in God; for Abraham believed that God is powerful to do what he promises. Thus Abraham believed in God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:18). Abraham believed in God who raises the dead!

Faith is an act of trust in God. Faith trusts and believes that God will do what he promises. Faith may doubt but it does not waver, because it believes in the God who raises the dead.