Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Abraham is the father of faith. All who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have a God given faith that Scripture exemplifies in the person and life of Abraham. This fact permeates the entirety of Scripture and especially the New Testament, where we have the name of Abraham mentioned 70 times; most commonly by our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, and the author of Hebrews.
It is from the inspired exposition of Old Testament Scripture by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans that we learn this most important doctrine by which we call Justification by Faith. The power of this doctrine, being hidden and distorted by the Roman Catholic church’s apostasy throughout the dark ages, was brought into the glorious light of the gospel once again in the 16th century by the early Reformers. In fact, Martin Luther, seeing the importance of this doctrine, in the Bible of which he translated himself into the German tongue, added the word “alone” to the phrase so that it reads in Romans chapter 1 and 17 “the righteous shall live by faith alone”. For, as Paul writes in chapter 4 and verse “to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” The meaning of righteousness is unlocked here by the apostle; what we learn is that this righteousness is something imputed by God to the ungodly soul. “Him that justifieth”, literally rendered, means that God renders, declares, or pronounces as it were, that this ungodly soul is now righteous as it ought to be, even more so, as it must be in order to be acceptable to the Living God. It is this righteousness of which once belonged to Jesus Christ as both man and God, who in the “likeness of sinful flesh” had our sin condemned in His flesh that we might be able to receive the righteousness of His godly perfection; and this righteousness we receive as a gift from God by the means of faith. Faith is a vessel by which the righteousness of Christ has been freely placed upon all Christians. And, it is in Abraham that God, by Scripture, has chosen to express this gift of faith by which He justifies, sanctifies and glorifies His children.
As is always the case when we examine any of the apostles’ writings, we invariably find that they always agree with what our Lord Himself teaches throughout the four Gospel books. We find that our Lord uses the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Abraham over and over again, both positively and negatively. This is significant, of course, due mainly to the fact that the entirety of the nation of the Israelites is attributed to God setting this people in contradistinction to the rest of the world and separating them for the purpose of being His very own holy people. What the Jews didn’t know, however, was that Israel as a nation was a type of God’s people that would be gathered as sheep under the Lordship of Christ; and, that the true Israel was not an Israel of the flesh, but, the true Israel are all believers redeemed by the blood of Christ, that in Christ “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”(Gal 3:28,29) Our Lord, in emphasizing this fact, tells us that all Christians “… shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.”(Mat 8:11)
In John chapter 8 we read that there were Jews that believed that Christ was the Messiah; but, they arrogantly refused to submit to our Lord as their Lord and denied that they were in bondage. Bondage to what we might ask? We answer, to the Devil, sin, death, the Law and the wrath of God! The Lord informs them that if they believe His teachings and keep them, viz. the gospel of which He declares, that this gospel truth would “make them free” from the bondage of which they are in. Full of pride and hatred of what the Lord was insinuating, they immediately ran to the shade tree of their national pride and stated to our Lord that “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?”(vs 33). An interesting point to make about the Jews response, and one that has been made and we think misunderstood; is that the Jews throughout their history had indeed been in bondage as a nation, Egyptian bondage, Babylonian bondage, and Persian-Medo bondage immediately come to mind; but, the Jews at this point are not ignoring these historical facts. What they are addressing is this very fact of what our Lord is telling them about the condition of their souls; the Jews truly believed that their souls had never been in “bondage to any man”. For, what the Lord had just told them was that they had to commit their minds, hearts, and souls, utterly and completely to Him as Christ and Lord . Yet, in their state they felt that being genealogically related to Abraham was all that was necessary to make them right with God. But, then our Lord informs them that “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”(vs 34); so, Abraham’s seed or no, they are spiritually children of the devil and without a saviour they would remain in house of the strongman armed as possessions of the devil. The Lord tells them that they have murder in their heart and want to kill Him and yet again all they respond with is “… Abraham is our father”(vs 39).
In other words, these Jews just informed our Lord that they had no need of the truth of which could only be found in Him as the Christ and the Son of God, why?, because of their confidence of their genetics as being the flesh and blood descendants of Abraham. For them, they understood that the Christ would be a man only and a man descendant from the seed of Abraham, not the Son of God; this is an important distinction; for, do not all the heretics deny the deity of God yet try to hold on to the” … name which is above every name:”(Phil 2:9) and the “… name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”(Acts4:12)?
It is at this junction in John chapter 8 where the believing Jews go straight on by the the narrow path and head on up the Broadway of destruction; they are now unbelievers and deniers of Christ and, thus also, the living God. Notice how our Lord uses the fact that Abraham is the father of the believers to reprove these Jews. The Lord tells them that “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.”(vs 38) and then He informs them of this fact, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.”(vs 39) Thus the Lord has told them two great truths; one, He informs them that He is indeed the Son of God; and, that though they are the genetic descendants of Abraham as a matter of fact, that as their true lineage is concerned they are the ‘children’ of the Devil. When the Jews say “Abraham is our father”(vs 39) the Lord proceeds to change what they previously referred to as “seed” and “father” in their temporal manner of speaking, to “children” and “father” which is the spiritual manner of speaking concerning this subject of ‘who is your father really?’.
In verses 39 and 40 our Lord states “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.” This is a very significant moment in the entirety of Scripture. Abraham is declared to be the spiritual father of all who are believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is his type of faith that all believers must have in one sense, but, will never have in another sense. Must have because faith is required, and thankfully God provides that faith, this is typified for us on the walk to the top of Mount Moriah where Abraham told Isaac “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”(Gen 22:8); and God stopped the hand of Abraham from sacrificing Isaac “and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”(Gen 22:13) But, on the other hand, who of us can ever say that we would have this kind of faith that we find in Abraham? We should always pray for this faith.
Abraham is the believer of all believers, he never once questioned God. When God said leave this land of Haran he said I’ll go (gen 12); when God said that the seed of the Messiah would be from his natural son of whom would be born to him at 99 and his wife with a dead womb at 90 he considered his own body and his wife’s dead womb and then upon reckoning the fact that God was telling him this, he immediately believed that she would conceive and bear him a son. And, in Genesis 22 we learn that upon going up the mountain to sacrifice his only son unto God that Abraham knew that Isaac would return “Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you”(Gen 22:5). So, on the one hand, we must all have the faith of belief in Christ Jesus that God gives to us by the regeneration of our souls, this is the belief of which Abraham was counted righteous, or justified, as it were. But on the other hand we can never be that ‘genesis of faith’ that Abraham is as our father of the faith. He received a faith from God that will always surpass all believers faith that have and will come after him until the advent of our Lord at the end of the age.
This is the beginning of sound words, this is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Our Lord said this :”…If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”(Jhn 8:31,32) And, the apostle Paul in quoting Habbukuk in Romans chapter 1 says “…The just shall live by faith.”(vs 17). Restated, he tells us that the “the righteous by faith shall live”; not only living in faith, but, being made alive from the dead by this very same faith that we learn is “a gift from God”, and “not of yourselves”. Again Paul in Romans chapter 4 clarifies this doctrine once and forever by saying “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”(Rom 4:3) So Abraham is the father of faith, and all those of whom are truly regenerated and adopted into the family of God the Father through Christ Jesus can honestly be called “Abraham’s children”. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” (Gal 3:7)
Scripture Alone 