One of the Bible characters revered by Christians,
Jews, and Moslems alike is the patriarch Abraham. To the Jews, Abraham
is the ancestor from whom the Hebrew people sprang. They look back to Abraham
as a Father, the first Hebrew, the man whose dealings with the Lord God
of heaven and earth were the foundation of Israel’s intense monotheism—belief
in one God only—and its religious worship in the midst of pagan nations
serving a multitude of idols.
To the Moslems, the followers of Mohammed,
Abraham is remembered and revered as the father of Ishmael and grandfather
of Esau, ancestors of the Arabian people from which Mohammed sprang and
in whose land Islam, the Mohammed religion, began and is yet centered.
Islam, too, with its worship of Allah alone, has always been intensely
monotheistic.
Christians, also, with the Old Testament as
an integral part of the Bible, regard Abraham with affection and respect,
remembering the very first verse of the New Testament speaks of Jesus Christ
as “the son of Abraham.” Christians, too, claim to worship only one God—the
God of Abraham—the Lord God of heaven and earth. It cannot be denied that
the true Christian faith of the New Testament is thoroughly monotheistic.
Abraham, thus, is seen as the physical or spiritual
ancestor of peoples who alone in a polytheistic or atheistic world teach
the worship of the one and only God. Abraham appears as a great beacon
light in the history of mankind—one of these extremely rare individuals
who tower head and shoulders above the common lot and from whose lifetime
a new era can be dated.
It is no wonder, then, that Abraham is mentioned
time and time again in the New Testament, that he is held up before the
eyes of Christians as an example whose faith and obedience to God are to
be followed. It is strange to hear professing Christians today dismiss
Abraham’s life and faith as having little importance for us, in light of
New Testament teaching to the contrary.
The Apostle Paul, for example, in the midst
of his great doctrinal epistles to the Romans and Galations, makes it a
point to bring into his discussion the faith of Abraham. Almost the entire
fourth chapter of Romans is taken up with this matter. In verse 11, Paul
calls him “the father of all them that believe,” that is, of all true Christian
believers. If you are a real Christian, should you not wish to know something
about one who is called your father? In verse 12, he is called the father
of those who walk in the steps of his faith. It is apparent, then, that
the faith of Abraham, or Abrahamic Faith, is or should be an important
matter to Christians.
Galatians 3, also, is largely concerned with
the Abrahamic Faith. Here, Paul stresses the great importance of the covenant
God made with Abraham. The Apostle points out that Jesus Christ, our Savior,
is the promised Seed of Abraham. (V. 16). He goes on to declare that those
who belong to Christ, who have been truly baptized into Christ, have also
now become the seed of Abraham. Let us read verses 26, 27, 29: “For ye
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
From the Bible standpoint, it is a momentous
thing for a person to be reckoned of the seed of Abraham. Paul implies
as much, when he declares that those who are Abraham’s seed are “heirs
according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). It is obvious that an heir
should be interested in his inheritance, and if we are heirs as Paul says,
we should have a vital interest in what we are to inherit.
This inheritance is inseparably joined to a
certain “promise” connected with Abraham. Notice Galatians 3:18; “For if
the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it
to Abraham by promise.” What is this promised inheritance and what part
do Christians have in it as the seed of Abraham?
The writer of Hebrews, summoning up the history
of Abraham from the Book of Genesis, says in Hebrews 11:8, 9; “By faith
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after
receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither
he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country.” This land in which Abraham sojourned, or lived as a stranger,
was the land of Canaan, later called Palestine. It says that Abraham was
to inherit this land “afterwards” and calls it the land of “promise.” Verse
13 says that he died in faith, not having received the promise. In Acts
7:5, the martyr Stephen refers to the same fact, declaring that God gave
Abraham “none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on:
yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his
seed after him.”
This might seem like a contradiction—that God
promised Abraham and his seed the land of Palestine as an inheritance—and
Abraham died without ever inheriting it, first living there as an alien
and a stranger.
But here is where the Abrahamic Faith
comes in. Abraham believed in resurrection, that God is able to raise the
dead. Hebrews 11:19 states as much. Though he died, not receiving the promised
inheritance of the land, this could not frustrate God’s purpose or promise.
There is a resurrection coming some day, and then, according to the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Abraham will have his inheritance in the Kingdom
of God. (Luke 13:28, 29). This Kingdom will be established on the earth
when Christ returns, and will have its center in the Promised Land. The
Abrahamic faith holds dearly to God’s great promises, for “if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Our faith and hope as Christians, as the seed
of Abraham, look forward to the inheritance with Abraham in the Promised
Land of the Kingdom of God on earth, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
THIS is what “Abrahamic Faith” means!
