The faith of Abraham

Abraham's bond and relationship with God was solid and it came to a point that it could withstand testing not of adversity but of voluntary worship and obedience.

Trials promote and train us for involuntary worship - because we want to get out of the trial we know out of survival instinct to obey. Freedom is a different thing. When we are not compelled, freedom trains us and calls us to voluntary obedience.

Abraham experienced the reality of God. Abraham heard His voice of promise that spoke to his deepest desire and dream of his heart to be a father.

he experienced supernatural protection of himself and His wife, provision that made him rich, fought impossible odds in battle and won, worshiped and finally saw a supernatural miracle in the promise God spoke over his life the birth of Isaac Gods fulfillment of his promise and a miracle child.

ll these things pointed to one main thing - that God is good lovely and mighty and wild and a good father to Abraham giving all things into the hand of this man. Abraham did nothing - God did everything for him. Abraham believed God that he may be a father of faith to us.

We who believe the gospel of a God doing everything for us and wanting to show us His mercy and power and grace if we will but believe the gospel.

What is the gospel? the good news that He is king of the universe and wants to be a forgiving and saving and healing king to us. we do nothing but believe in the divine exchange of Christ for us sinners given once for all.

we are in similar faith and straits as Abraham for we are also given these awesome promises of new life, forgiveness of sins walking w god as righteous through the word of God. if we believe the gospel the bible indeed calls us children of faith.

and what is the gospel? that Christ is our God, savior and righteousness and we are called to forsake all other forms of saving ourselves and abandon ourselves to him in submission obedience and trust Him.

The Faith of Abraham and reasoning on the resurrection

slaying his son in worship and sacrifice was a voluntary act not co erced in any way. he demonstrated an extraordinary form of human love for God as yet unknown. a love like Christs love for the father in the sacrifice of everything dear in obedience to god Himself.

saying in effect God you are my possession above all possessions. without you I cannot live and would rather live in eternity with you than have the present world a brief moment without you.

yet it was more multi layered than that for Hebrews says Abraham believed god would raise isaac from the dead. this is advanced and sophisticated thinking on Abrahams part.

for he reasoned thus if God spoke once to me that I would be a father of many nations then fulfills his own word by bringing me a son, then tells me to sacrifice him, he will not by this new order undo his previous promise to me , for He is no liar but true - through and through as his previous experience with God had informed him.

so he reasoned that God was true and faithful and could not be faulted with duplicity - double mindedness.

He saw a consistency in Gods character through multiple and tried and proven experiences. the conclusions in Abrahams mind and in his heart were concrete. God is good. God is faithful. god is merciful and kind to me. he will never betray me. he got at God's heart and perceived it and honored God he was God's friend.

God is single minded and sure. and his promise certain. psalms says his purposes are unchanging from generation to generation. Abraham saw that.

so everything he knew about God was filtered through this solid matrix of knowing Gods character. he could be tested. this thing would stand. 

every new order was fit into this paradigm of faith in the character of God which was built over time by God.

so he reasoned that God would raise up Isaac up from the dead. an extraordinary reasoning that reasoned and depended on the goodness of God. faith sees God is good despite the circumstances. it sees beyond this realm to a good God. praise him for he is good and His mercies endure forever the Israelites were commanded to do so especially in dire straits. because that is the nature of our faith.

abrahams faith in which he believed that God would resurrect isaac was a precursor to Christ's time in which  Christ believed that His Father would raise Him from the dead because of His goodness.

this is the faith we are called to have as we give God our puny lives can we believe that God wants to raise us up from the dead and make us new?

we are called not only to believe in resurrection but also to experience resurrection of our own personalities our lives our relationships everything can be resurrected by God but do we believe and will we go on till we experience this personally for ourselves?

the teaching of resurrection can be found in Romans 6 Hebrews 12 and the gospels the message is consistent. give all to God and He will give u far more than u can imagine but all on His terms do we dare follow his rules and prove his promise?