Abraham believed - seen as a summary of his whole life.

"Abraham believed" - a closer look! "Believed" is in the Aorist tense and this dynamic grammatical tool should not be overlooked. It would be easy as English speakers to interpret this verb as a singular "event" or as some scholars say "simple past tense". However, the beauty of the Aorist tense is seen in its intentional use as a "summary statement." The idea is looking back over a span of time and summarizing the span as a whole.
Moses looking back upon Abraham's life and Paul drawing from Moses, "summarized" Abraham's life using the Aorist tense. He summed up Abraham's life with "Abraham believed."
How can we know that Paul intended the reader to see this as a "summary" of Abraham's walk rather than a singular event? We can see this by the description of Abraham given in Romans chapter 4, especially in verses 18-22.
These verses describe a span of years rather than a single event. Abraham hoped against hope for many years, and it was over a long period of time he was not staggered by unbelief. He became strengthened by faith through the process of having to face his age and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Many times, over and over again, he chose to believe what God had promised - until he came to the full assurance of faith and became fully persuaded by grasping the truth that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why Abraham is the premier example of the righteousness of God FROM faith TO faith.

Paul even concluded that the statement "and it was reckoned unto him unto righteousness" was not written solely for him but for ALL who WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FAITH, which Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
Those who live by faith in Christ, walking in the footsteps of faith as they abide in Christ, from faith to faith with CHRIST abiding in their heart, will have righteousness reckoned unto them just like our father Abraham.
This is what the Son of Man will be looking for when He returns, people living by faith, walking in the faith, servants found faithfully serving. He will not be looking for what someone believed at one time, but for those who are believing, still walking by faith and continuing in the grace that is accessed by faith.

Very Good.

The issue arised in Abrahams life, When he felt that the fruit needed to be produced by his own strength.

He descided to do for the Lord instead of waiting on the Lord to do through him.

He activated out of his will power rather than solely resting on the promises.

Yes, the ALL SUFFICIENCY of CHRIST and the RELIABILTIY OF His promise to abundantly supply all grace at all times so that all may experience His grace in abundance, proves one very important truth.

Any lack of progress, any failure to advance in the grace and knowledge of our Lord is never the fault of CHRIST, it is always the lack of faith on our part.

The fact that CHRIST is so willing and able to be all that anyone needs is why unbelief is evil. To disbelieve Him who has overcome death and hell and fully exegeted God the Father in the demonstration of perfect holy life, is to "refuse to be persuaded " - apatheia in the Greek.

Christ's ALL SUFFICIENCY absolves Him of all responsibility for any lack of progress in our lives. If we are lacking, He is not at fault, we are! If we go astray, He is not to blame, we took our eyes off Him! If we draw back from Him, He has not denied His promise to be with us - we have broken faith.

The truth that grace abounds to ALL men ALL the time - is the foundation for judging the unbelieving heart as evil!

"Still our redemption would be imperfect if he did not lead us ever onward to the final goal of salvation. Accordingly, the moment we turn away even slightly from him, our salvation, which rests firmly in him gradually vanishes away. As a result, all those who do not repose in him voluntarily deprive themselves of all grace."

From John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.

That sounds rather un-Calvinly.

I have a question for makrothumia.

I have the impression that the aorist tense speaks about a singular event and not something that happened over a period of time. I like the idea of Paul "summarizing" Abraham's life. However, how then can we reconcile Abraham's account in Genesis? His name was first mentioned at the end of Genesis 11. It was not until Genesis 15:6 that he was declared righteous. Or was he righteous before that?

Please explain.

Abraham's journey of faith began in Ur of Chaldea when "by faith he obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going."

Certainly, Abraham had faith before the event where God specified the promise to him with even greater clarity, but that event was still very significant. Each time we take God at His word, it is significant - for this is the hearing of faith, without which it is impossible to please Him.

So, yes, Abraham was a man of faith, even before chapter 15 of Genesis. An important aspect of the Aorist tense is that it does not focus primarily upon "time" but upon "means". The means by which Abraham was justified was by faith, is far more important than the exact moment. That's why James can make the same statement about Abraham being justified when he offered his son Isaac upon the alar.
In both instances, Abraham's faith was the "means" by which God reckoned righteousness unto him.

Both in Chapter 15 and Chapter 22 of Genesis, Abraham's faith was reckoned unto him as righteousness. Without this faith, it is impossible to please God, for those who come to Him must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We are to continue to draw near Him in full assurance of faith, for if we shrink back from faith, He will take no pleasure in us. Faith is the means, always, at all times, in every trial, by which men receive the grace of Christ to overcome.

Misunderstanding the Aorist as a singular event is also a reason for real difficulty found in the book of Hebrews 4:3 for those reading "believed" as a "time" element rather than the element of "means". If the Aorist tense "believed" is understood as conveying the "means" by which we enter God's rest, there is no problem with speaking of a future rest for "believers" who have already placed their faith in Christ. There remains a Sabbath rest even for those who have begun their walk of faith and that rest is always entered "by means of faith." Faith is always the "means" by which God's rest is experienced.

The term "Aorist" means "without limit or boundary." When seeing the nuance of "means" we are able to gain rich insight into the "way" of salvation without getting hung up by the "when" of it.

makrothumia

Brother Tuc wrote; " Re: John Calvin on the importance of faith\tReply To This Post |
"Accordingly, the moment we turn away even slightly from him, our salvation, which rests firmly in him gradually vanishes away."

This is so wrong. If this was true the whole New Covenant is completely worthless because it would just like the Old Covenant that only demanded Mankind's faithfulness but it never solved the issue.

If the New Covenant did not deal with mankind's unfaithfulness, then Christ died in vain!

I thank God it does NOT depend on my faithfulness to Him but it depends on His Faithfulness to me."

So are you saying you subscribe to a sort of OSAS doctrine, or am I reading too much into what you're saying?