A PASTORAL LETTER
Dearest family,
Last Sunday we continued our observations about the ways that Abraham is our “father” in the faith. The basis for Paul’s teaching about how and why we are sons and daughters of Abraham, is grounded in Jesus’ teaching. This is what I spent most of the time on last message. Jesus is already identifying traits of Abraham that will be evident in true sons of Abraham, and thus true sons of God:
• Jesus said “do the things that Abraham did” (Jn.8:39) God himself is specific about what these things were in Gen. 26:5, “Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees, my laws.” To put it simply, he welcomed God’s word and walked in it. Jesus is arguing that if they were true offspring they would have the characteristics of the father. If they shared the same parentage as Jesus the son, then they would love the same things. But they didn’t so they weren’t.
• Jesus mentions another mark of true sonship in the words of 8:46 “He who belongs to God hears what God says.” Did you ever turn a deaf ear to your parents when they called or commanded? Was your hearing ever selective? Did you engage that kind of deceit? True spiritual sons do not close their ears. You can understand why Jesus’ opening parable deals almost exclusively with hearing. “He who has ears to hear let him hear.” It is actually a sonship parable. As a listening and obedient son himself, Jesus knew that if the Father’s words were not listened to, or were overcome by the birds of the air, and the thorns and the rocks of interference, then the relationship with His Father that he desired for all to have, would be impossible.
Paul concludes in Romans 4 that the key issue is not about the physical family of Abraham but the spiritual faith of Abraham that then defines the family. Now we have it. Here is the key mark of father Abraham that will be the disposition of those who are his sons in the faith, that’s you and me. Let me review, from the text, a few of the constituent elements of this faith that are ours as sons and daughters. Twice the spiritual fatherhood of Abraham is emphasized: “He is the father of us all…He is our father in the sight of God…” (Roms.4: 17) And lest someone says that this is only applicable to the Jews he was addressing, sandwiched between those two statements we read: “I have made you a father of many nations” which affirms what has already been said in v11: “so he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised.” So what is it about Abraham as a spiritual father that will be characteristic of you and me, his spiritual sons and daughters, his “offspring” (4:13, 16, 18) as Paul describes us. We began to observe and apply four things:
1. The persuasion of faith: “…being fully persuaded…” (v21)
2. The person of faith: “…in the sight of God, in whom he believed…”
3. The promise of faith: “I have made you…” (v17)
4. The provision of faith: “Gives life to the dead…calls things that are not as though they were…” (v17)
The text says that Abraham is our father. Does our sonship and daughterhood bear his DNA? Are we sons and daughters who have a persuasion of faith? Are we sons and daughters who are persuaded about the person of faith, about the utterly trustworthy character of the Father, who is not an absent parent of a spiritual latch-key child? Are we sons and daughters who are persuaded about the promise of faith that guarantees our position at the Father’s table? Are we sons and daughters who are persuaded about the provision of faith? Did not Jesus say, “O ye of little faith…your heavenly Father knows that you need them” (Mt. 6:32)? What’s your “them” list? Isn’t that Jesus’ version of Abraham’s “things that are not” list?
We then looked briefly at Genesis 22 where we read of that testing of Abraham’s faith and obedience in the offering of his “one and only” son Isaac. It is this faithful obedience of Abraham that is presented on three specific occasions in the NT to give us an understanding of what our faith as sons and daughters will look like if we have been truly spiritually fathered. As sons and daughters we will be obedient. We cannot be obedient without faith. At the very end of Romans Paul tells us that the proclamation of the gospel is for the obedience of faith. The NT writers uses Gen.22 and interpret it to help us know how sons and daughters can make every day a Father’s Day. Abraham is our father in the faith. Faith marks the DNA of the sons and daughters.
THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH (Romans 8:32) – “He who did not spare his only son but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things.” This is taken directly from the language of Gen.22. Paul is concerned to assure us that our Father is for us. Things like indwelling sin, the unbelieving world, the devil and all his works, are bad enough without feeling that God is somehow against us. Paul is arguing that without a shadow of a doubt we can know our Father by the same name that Abraham did, Jehovah Jireh. Father God’s covenant commitment to us has been demonstrated in that he did the greater thing – he spared not his own son but gave him up for us. Thus he can do the lesser thing – provide us all we need to secure us safe passage in this life and our final salvation. Jesus was not taken from God, but God gave him up. As one saint said, “Who delivered Jesus up to die? Not Judas for money; not Pilate for fear; not the Jews for envy; but the Father for love.” The offering of the Father of Christ is the guarantee that we are now covered and cannot be abandoned. That sacrifice is the guarantee of the Father’s continuing care and generosity. This is the basis of our assurance of faith.
THE ANTICIPATION OF FAITH (Hebrews 11: 17-19) – “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did bring Isaac back from the dead.” Though bewildered, Abraham believed and refused to set limits either on his obedience or God’s trustworthiness. Despite the awfulness of what he was facing, his faith in God anticipated what God could do, on two different levels. First, on a personal level, he grasped the promises and word of God and knew that God could not lie, so even if Isaac was reduced to a pile of ashes, God would raise him from the dead! But Hebrews also tells us that he was “looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder was God.” So his faith was anticipating what God could do on a cosmic level! He anticipated the demonstration of God’s power, not only in this life but also in the life to come.
THE ACTIONS OF FAITH (James 2:21-24) – “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness’ and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” James is here targeting the “vain” or empty person who has a profession without practice. They purport to be sons. It does not follow that if you acknowledge God that you love Him. Many believe in God but do not know him as Father in a personal sonship relationship. Abraham was not justified by offering Isaac, because righteousness was credited to him 30 years earlier when he chose to believe God’s promises. What it did do was demonstrate the true nature of his faith, that produced the works of obedience. His life was not a vague impression of belief but full of specific expressions of faith in God. Invisible faith was made visible. As Calvin said, “We are saved by faith alone but saving faith is never alone.” As someone else has said, “Works follow faith as sexual intimacy follows marriage.” The covenant relationship of sons with the Father is always demonstrated in our woks of love and obedience.
And there you have the NT’s application of Genesis 22. Is your conviction of your heavenly Father’s care for you grounded and rooted in the cross and its spiritual meaning? As a son and daughter, do you have the assurance of faith in the Father? Can you trust God with the outcomes of your obedience, especially when it hurts your prospects and promises, and can you believe the Father to do right by you and raise that which is dead in your eyes? As a son or daughter, do you have a holy anticipation of faith in what the Father can and will do for you that is in your best interests? Is your saving faith also a serving faith and a sacrificing faith? When all is said and done, is there more that is said than done? Are you expressing the actions of faith in your Father?
I have tried to show you how Romans 4 and Genesis 22 show us why Abraham is a spiritual father to us in the faith, but having noted his DNA, they show us what should be characteristic of our sonship and daughterhood, making every day a Father’s Day for our heavenly Father!
Pastorally yours,
Stuart
http://www.christourshepherd.org/pastlet.htm (and follow links to download MP3 audio of sermon)