The consequence of Abraham's Faith

Gal. 3:6-18, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

We have all heard many messaged about the faith of Abraham but I want to epiphanize the fact of the consequence of his faith that even affects all of us today.

God told Abraham that IN HIM all nations will be blessed because HE WAS FAITHFUL. When Abraham believed God’s promise to him, he was justified by HIS faith. As God spoke words of the promise to Abraham, he responded with faith. This faith was actually contained in and supplied in the message of God to Abraham as a gift. Remember that Christ Himself is the only source of true faith. So Christ was the initiator and the author of this faith. It was not a WORK of Abraham.

When Abraham believed God, it was accounted to him for righteousness but there was consequence that affected all nations as the RESULT of his faith. They were all BLESSED IN him. Now all the descendents of Abraham were automatically blessed and justified by the FAITH OF Abraham. They could rightly say, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of Abraham.”

This blessing and justification DID NOT REQUIRE ANY FAITH of the decedents because as a consequence of Abraham’s faith they were totally blessed and justified IN him. So the decedents of Abraham did not have to mimic or even attempt to somehow get faith or somehow work faith up. They were BLESSED AND JUSTIFIED BY WHAT ABRAHAM had already done. They could now count on these facts and just enjoy the benefits of the accomplished work.

Jesus Christ was the seed of Abraham and in Christ ALL OF MANKIND was blessed and Justified BY HIM!!

We were all in Christ and we can now rightly say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me’:

It is very important to recognize and see the fact that it is only by CHRIST’S FAITHFULNESS that this is possible. Jesus Christ is the RIGHTEOUS ONE and we were are in HIM by HIS DOING!!

This blessing and justification DOES NOT REQUIRE ANY FAITH of us because as a consequence of Christ’s faith that we are totally blessed and justified IN HIM. So we do not have to mimic or even attempt to somehow get faith or somehow work faith up. We are BLESSED AND JUSTIFIED BY WHAT CHRIST has already done. We can now count on these facts and just enjoy the benefits of HIS accomplished work.

Eph. 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

We are saved and live by HIS faith not in our human efforts, energies, or our reasoning’s to somehow generate faith. He can see HIS FAITHFULNESS to us and rest in HIM!

Look again what the Bible says, "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”

Do not forget God justified the ungodly in Christ. Now these people were justified by WHAT CHRIST HAD ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED.

Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Romans 5:6, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Now it is important to see that this justification took place BEFORE the ungody repented or even believed. This was based on the work Of Christ - NOT on anything we could ever do.

I am NOT an universalist - Not every person will go the heaven. The answer your question - it is true that are all blessed and justified but not all count on these facts or just reject them.

Gal. 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”

Now everyone is an active participant in Christ’s Life.

Here is an example of a rejection.

In 1830, Andrew Jackson the president of the United States, issued a pardon for George Wilson who was convicted of killing a government employee while robbing the U.S. Mail. George had been tried and sentenced to be hanged, but Wilson did a strange thing: when he was handed the actual pardon document, Wilson tore it in pieces and threw it on the floor of his cell.

This prompted a question: what to do with Wilson?

Was he pardoned because of what the President did?

Or did his bold act of rejection nullify the pardon?

This was a legal question, and a tough one at that.

The matter went all the way to the Supreme Court.

To read what the court wrote - http://supreme.justia.com/us/32/150/case.html

After extended deliberation, the United States Supreme Court put forth the following verdict:

"A pardon is a writing, the value of which is dependent upon the acceptance by the individual for whom it is intended."

George Wilson was to be hanged -- not because there was no pardon, but because the pardon was not accepted.

And so it is with the pardon of God the Father through the sacrifice at the cross of his son Jesus Christ for all mankind.

If the pardon is not accepted, it has no effect and George Wilson must be hanged. And he was.

Now the pardon was real and a done deal once the president signed it. All that George Wilson needed to do was accept it. He did not.

Many have said, "He was crazy!" or "What a fool!" Perhaps they were right.

And so it is with the pardon of God the Father through the sacrifice at the cross of his Son Jesus Christ for all mankind.

We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, but if a person refuses what God has already done, it has no effect for him.

When I look at at my "Christian" experience I see a whole lot of my wasted time, efforts and struggle to somehow try to work up faith or to make my self really believe.

I experienced failure after failure and defeat after defeat. All my efforts to repent, believe, surrender, trust, obey and really be in union with Christ only made maters WORSE.

Why did I fail? Did I REALLY mean and want to obey? YES!!!

This was not the problem. The bottom line was I still was in unbelief. I knew If I could only truly believe the problem would be SOLVED.

So the question was how to get the required faith. I confess scriptures over and over thinking that this would bring me the faith I needed.

Nothing I DID worked! Why? because I was still attempting to get faith using my own efforts and human reasoning's. I was done - I quit all my efforts. I knew I was not accomplishing anything at all and the fact was I was only matters worse.

Now God had mercy on me and I started to see that "MY FAITH” was not even demanded or even required. I saw that the necessary faith was SUPPLIED to me by Christ's faithfulness to me. So I no longer had to somehow work up faith up or even try to believe because my UNION WITH CHRIST did and could not depend on ANY EFFORT I could ever make. It only depended on Christ's faithfulness to me!!

Look at what Hudson Taylor wrote to his sister when he had a similar experience.

"As gradually the light dawned on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite to laying hold of His fullness and making it my own. But I had not this faith . . . I strove for it, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior - my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith but it did not come. What was I to do?

When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never seen it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One."

As I read I saw it all! "If we believe not, He remains faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, "I will never leave you." "Ah, here is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?" And Dearie, He never will!”

He saw the victory, the holiness, the power and all the fullness in Christ. He knew that the solution was in Christ so he kept on trying to somehow acquire it. He did everything he knew to make it his own but again he only found more failure and disappointment. He saw that it was his sin of unbelief that was the root cause of all his other sins. Then, he found out that he could not even believe. He tried and prayed to believe but no faith came. He was utterly, and completely hopeless.

When he saw Christ's Faithfulness, his eyes were opened to the truth that had already existed. "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. If we believe not, He remains faithful”. This was the secret of what he saw that he had never realized before. He saw that God in Christ had already given him the faith and the belief that was required. God had placed Him in Christ and now he could just rest in God's faithfulness to keep him there.

So stop trying to work up faith or to make efforts to somehow believe.

All the Love, faith, obedience, trust, that you thought was required by YOU to somehow do, is freely supplied to you by what God in Christ has already accomplished for you and in you.

Can you justify yourself?
Can you make yourself Holy?
Can you crucify yourself?
Can you make your self one with God and Christ?
Can you ever generate the Love the law demands?
Can you ever generate any true faith?

You can not do any of these things in your own efforts, or abilities.

The truth is that God does NOT demand you to do any of these things.

God in Christ has Justified you, Made you holy, Made you righteous, and you are a new creation in Him.

What was your part in this? NONE!!!

God in Christ did what the law and you could have never done!

Under the old Covenant God DEMANDED man to be faithful ”“ man failed.

Under the new Covenant, It no longer depends on our faithfulness to Him. but only on Christ‘s FAITHFULNESS TO US!

Do you see His faithfulness to you?

The gospel does not demand faith ... it supplies faith. The gospel does not demand faith ... it supplies faith. ..
The gospel does not demand love ... it supplies love. The gospel does not demand love ... it supplies love. ..
The gospel does not demand repentance ... it supplies repentance. The gospel does not demand repentance ... it supplies repentance. ..
The gospel does not demand surrender ... it supplies surrender. The gospel does not demand surrender ... it supplies Surrender. ..
The gospel does not demand obedience ... it supplies obedience. The gospel does not demand obedience ... it supplies obedience. ..

See His love and faithfulness to you it and embrace it.

I understand why you think that if all are justified it would be troublesome. When God justified the ungodly in Christ then we were all justified. We were all ungodly.

The reason why God justified us is because there is NOTHING that we can ever do to justify our self.

Yes HE did justify us in Christ us. We did not have a part to play in that.

Now we can never experience this justification because we are busy attempting to establish our own justification for our own self.

The true Gospel message CONTAINS and SUPPLIES the faith necessary for us to fully experience what God in Christ has already accomplished for us.

Yes this faith works by love and is VERY ACTIVE and it does please God very much.

If anyone is busy trying to justify them self they will miss out on the existing reality of it.

We can give up all self effort only when we see that our Justification was already accomplished for us by God in Christ.

I am sorry to mess with your theology, but I assure you that the comfort you have found in your interpretation of these scriptures is a false comfort.

When God said to Abraham "In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed,” God was really saying "in FAITH shall all nations of the earth be blessed.”

The man Abraham is synonymous faith. Those who are blessed in Abraham are those who have a faith like Abraham had.

Paul couldn’t have made this much clearer:

Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Those who have faith like Abraham (those who wouldn’t waiver at God’s request to put the knife to the throat of their most beloved child) are the one who receive God’s favor (grace). God is pleased with these who possess a faith like Abraham. In his pleasure, he will bring them to his son Jesus and make this person of faith his child through the glorious gospel.

I am sorry you have to "work up” faith. I don’t understand what there is to "work up.” You simply go outside on a clear night, look to the sky and realize that some magnificent being created everything that the night sky reveals. You then realize that such a magnificent being is worthy of your utmost trust, allegiance, and love. You then bow you knee unto him, declare unwavering loyalty to him, and live the rest of your life according the will of your creator. This is called faith. Those who live such a life of faith are blessed in Abraham, because they have faith like Abraham.

Yes I agree - Faith is more than just mental assent.

The gift of faith gives me the ability to respond.

I now have Christ dwelling in me and I walk out my daily life IN HIM as HE works in me both to will and to do of HIS good pleasure.

There is NOTHING passive about it. Christ's LIFE is always active.

1 Cor. 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

Edit: added verse.