What Abraham Taught us about Faith
It is stated in the Bible that we are saved through faith and not through the law, but does that mean we are not to keep the law of God—the Ten Commandments? Is walking by faith a matter of having only a blind trust in God, while ignoring the significance of the law in defining our reconciliation with God? The subject of faith is little understood even by most professing Christians. Even when people fall back on Scripture for the definitive answer as to what faith is it seems that most still can’t understand it or explain it well. However, one way to better understand the subject of faith is to review examples of those individuals who lived by faith as recorded in the Bible, and a particular example for us is the Patriarch Abraham. Abraham has been considered to be the “father of the faithful,” and by looking at his life we can learn something important about faith, and that something is the significant and meaningful relationship between God’s will and the law of God—that is to say the Ten Commandments. Now, God made it known to Abraham that he was to leave his homeland in Ur of the Chaldees. So he, along with some of his relatives, departed for the region of Harran where some of his relatives chose to remain, while Abraham and his wife Sarah continued to move into the region of Canaan. From the biblical perspective, we see that the nature of the promises given to Abraham, and perhaps the curses pronounced upon Canaan by Noah, indicates to us that God was in support of Abraham’s heirs supplanting some of the descendants of Canaan from their lands in that region of the world (Ex. 33.2). Bringing us then to an interesting part of the story regarding Abraham. We find that Abraham was eventually confronted with a most unusual circumstance and trial, as God had commanded him to sacrifice the only heir of the promises, his son Isaac. In this severe trial Abraham was given what appeared to be a conflicting choice between God’s will and God’s law, knowing that it is indeed God’s will that we keep his law—the Ten Commandments. Making us think then that it is difficult sometimes to understand what the right thing to do is when confronted with opposing views or situations where both seem equally as good or right. Sometimes that’s how it seems with God’s will and God’s law. Nonetheless, it was Abraham who sorted out the answer for us so that we can understand the relationship between the law of God and the will of God. Now, God had promised Abraham a son out of whose lineage would arise many nations over time that would influence the entire world. This promise began to be fulfilled in his son, Isaac, and as we see from the story of Abraham, he undoubtedly trusted God to fulfill what was a direct and clear promise from God. Then, in what was certainly tragic news to Abraham, God commanded him to sacrifice his only son—the heir of the promises—promises that included a landed inheritance and a lineage in which a savior would be born for the sake of giving us a way to eternal life. So, Abraham was faced with a dilemma. Was God asking Abraham to stand in opposition to the law—the very law that God had given to him? Does this mean that if Abraham had sacrificed his only son that it would not have been murder according to the law of God? Well, according to the law of God it would have been murder, noting that it is specifically stated as such in the Ten Commandments. Therefore, the taking of human life, whether we believe it is warranted or not, is defined by the law as murder, and as it is stated without qualifications or exceptions, it should lead professing Christians to challenge their views about God’s law and recognize how many have watered down the application of this law. In the case of Abraham, he knew that God was not giving this command to him without meaning what he said, otherwise God would have been lying to Abraham. Consequently, it appeared that God was directing Abraham to break God’s own law—the same law that measured Abraham’s obedience to God. However, Abraham had faith to believe God, and it was accounted as righteousness to him, and so what Abraham demonstrated in his life was that he knew that the law of God was subject to the will of God. It didn’t really matter if Abraham knew that Isaac could be resurrected, noting that this issue is not really relevant because what matters is that Abraham was asked to perform an action contrary to the law of God. (It is unfortunate that through the centuries it has too often been Christians who have subjected the law to their own will to make provisions for circumstances that might occur to save themselves, and also that they might appear justified in their actions before God.) Now, Abraham could have mounted a legal defense and used obedience to the law as an argument against God’s command to sacrifice his son, Isaac. He could have quoted the law to God and used the law to justify his disobedience to God’s direct command, but as we know from the story Abraham did not disobey the command from God. Bringing us to say that Abraham understood the relationship of God’s will to the law, and it was in the will of God that Abraham trusted when he prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Thereby, Abraham walked by faith in his obedience—not rejecting the law of God—and trusted in God to make it possible to fulfill the law in this trial. And, so we read that the promises were given to him: “because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Gen. 26:5). What we begin to learn from