All you need is faith. Well, you also need love and hope and a few other things, but in order to receive a not-guilty verdict from God and be guaranteed a place with him in glory, Paul tells us that all we need is faith. He cites Abraham as the father of all those who have faith.
Some will say that is too easy. What about living an ethical life, being kind to others and working hard at our salvation? Is this not the kind of “easy believism” that results in a shallow Christian experience that has not been thought through?
My first answer is that faith is allied to obedience. Paul says of himself in Romans 1: 5 Through him (Jesus) we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. We all want to live obedient lives; the problem is that none of us manages it. Thus we need forgiveness, and that is something our Father God chooses to give to us, on the basis that Jesus has died in our place. An attitude of submission to the will of God is a primary evidence that we have received his grace, and have gone through that narrow door of faith in Jesus. Peter is very happy to make the joyous statement that Jesus is the longed-for messiah; he is not so willing to accept it when Jesus talks about his necessary betrayal and death. Peter has his own ideas about how the will of God should play out. He (and we) must learn obedience, and this is the flip side of believing and trusting Jesus. God is good – all the time, even when outward circumstances do not seem to confirm that.
My second answer is that faith is allied to perseverance. Paul here assumes that we are familiar with the life history of Abram, whose name was subsequently changed to Abraham. He originates in Ur in Mesopotamia, and we meet him in Haran, aged 75, married to Sarai who is barren. God promises him descendants, a land of his own, and that he will be a blessing to many through his descendants. He has many adventures in Canaan and Egypt, and by the age of 85 has become prosperous and respected – but he has no children. God renews his promise of descendants; they will be as numerous as the stars they can see in the heavens. Genesis 15: 6 says Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
So all is well, except that Sarai his wife is still barren. Sarai persuades Abraham that God needs a little help, and that he should sleep with her servant girl Hagar who duly conceives. This causes upset in the family(!). Furthermore it appears that the son Ishmael who appears 9 months later is not the child of the promise. Silence falls for 13 years and then God speaks again. He changes the name of Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of many), and changes Sarai’s name to Sarah. God reaffirms his promise that Abraham will be the father of a son, and that Sarah will be the mother. Abraham is at this point 99, and Sarah is 89 or 90.
Do you see the patient nature of faith? Abraham has been carrying this promise for 13 years, wondering how God would fulfil it, watching himself and his wife getting older. It was not getting any easier. He was obedient, and he was dogged in his expectation that God would do what he had said. He was obedient in that he acted; nothing much would have happened if Abraham and Sarah had slept in different beds or even tents. And in due course Isaac, the child of promise, was born. Do you see that faith is far from easy? Abraham looked at that which was as good as dead, their own bodies, and saw the possibility of life. He staked everything on this.
This is the same faith that we have that God could take the lifeless body of Jesus and raise it to new life. This is the same faith we have for ourselves. We trust that the Holy Spirit will shed God’s love abroad in our hearts and help us to a personal relationship with him. As we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, so we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds, proving in our own lives what his good and acceptable will is. We will truly encounter him and grow in him, as we experience his love and forgiveness across all that life throws at us.
How can we have this faith? It is a gift that we receive. Ephesians 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So we see that an ethical life, being kind to others and working hard are entirely in keeping with a life of faith in God through Christ Jesus. We live the life of Christ in the office, shop or school where we work, at the school gate, or when we meet our neighbours and friends. We are God’s handiwork when we are pacing the midnight hours away with a fractious child, or brushing away our neighbour’s snow.
These things are not what make us Christian, though. They are rather what we should expect to see in our lives because we are Christians. Our Lenten disciplines of prayer, bible reading, fasting and the like are ways that many find helpful to unfog the mind, remove the distractions, and free us to receive the gift.
May God give us obedience and perseverance as we grow in the faith of Abraham, and follow Jesus in the way of the cross.
Discussion Starters
1. What do you think Sarah (Sarai) thought when it was announced to her that she would conceive Isaac? (Genesis 18)
2. Paul bases his argument upon the experiences of Abraham. How do you respond to the stories of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph)?
3. How would you define faith? What is it in your experience?
4. Please take time to pray for each other to encounter God afresh by faith, and take steps of growth in him.
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