25. Abraham’s Faith

Meditations in James: 25 : Abraham’s Faith

Jas 2:20-24 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

If you think James has said enough about faith to convince us, you would be wrong.  It is a measure of how important he considers this subject that he now carries on by giving examples of faith in action.  His first example is that of Abraham, often known as the man of faith.  Now this is an interesting illustration because Paul had used the illustration of Abraham to prove that we are saved by faith alone: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (Rom 3:28)….. “What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” (Rom 4:3) so how do the two teachings harmonise?

Well, let’s look carefully at what is being said.  Let’s consider Paul first.  He is citing the incident where Abram had been bemoaning to God the fact that he still had no children and the Lord came to him and reassured him that he would have a child: “Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:4-6).  It was by his simple believing that the Lord declared him righteous.  Now of course the Lord can see into our hearts and see the genuineness of what is there.  God saw that when He told Abram he would have a child, he genuinely believed this would happen and he would go to Sarai and they would continue to try having a child.  Yet at the moment he believed, that was the moment that God credited him with righteousness. Similarly when we come to the Lord, He sees the genuineness of our conviction and our repentance and purely on the basis of what He sees, He justifies us. However, we have to emphasise that it is when God sees genuine faith that He justifies and only He knows when that actually is.

Now when James speaks about faith and Abraham, he used the Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness quote simply to confirm what he has already been saying through a different example. He uses the example of Abraham taking his son, Isaac, to be sacrificed. God had told him to do this and, as the writer to the Hebrews says, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Heb 11:19). Because he reasoned this he went ahead with the preparations to sacrifice Isaac which, as James said, was a case of his faith and his actions working together. His faith believed it and his actions confirmed it. James then uses an important phrase: “and his faith was made complete by what he did” Yes, Abraham had faith at the point God told him to sacrifice Isaac, but that faith was made complete or revealed when he went ahead and did it.

So yes, when it comes to our salvation, as Paul said, we are justified by faith, we are justified at the moment we have faith, which God sees to be genuine. We are actually justified without doing anything, so that we may not fall into the trap of believing that we work for our salvation. Yet our faith is proved or completed when we start living in accordance with that faith. James is absolutely right. If we do nothing as a response to what we say we believe it throws doubt on the reality of what we believe.  The person who acts out their faith is the one who has been justified.

We need to re-emphasise this, because many people get confused by it.  You ARE justified at the point of believing as God sees the genuineness of your belief.  When He sees it is genuine and that a transformed life will follow, He justifies.  From our perspective, because we do not know the genuineness of what is going on inside, it is only as we see the faith being lived out that we can look back and say, Yes, that person has been born again and has been justified by faith by God.  From our perspective, and this is what James is saying, we are proved to be justified by the fact acts that follow.  As we said yesterday, it is a faith that works.

So, yet again, the same challenge comes: are we indeed a people who are living by faith, responding in a living relationship to God’s word, His word that comes through Scripture and through His Holy Spirit?  As Paul said, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:6), i.e. it doesn’t matter what our background is; the important thing is, are we living by faith, expressing His love?  May it be like that!