And the Scripture, forseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, ‘In thee shall all nations be blessed’. Galatians 3:8
Hey Abraham, do you remember that promise God gave you before you ever left Ur, that all families of the earth would be blessed through you? Yes, I remember that great promise. OK, Abraham, look around the world, and tell me, did God keep His promise? Yes, God has blessed all the world with the Gospel, which He first preached to me. So, Abraham, are you glad that you did as God commanded? Of course, but God’s blessings were not a result of what I did. God blessed me because I believed him. But Abraham, you did great things for God, you accomplished so much for Him. Maybe so, but that is not why God blessed me; He blessed me because I believed Him.
Now do you see why we are told that God preached the Gospel to Abraham? He was not looking for Abraham to DO; He was looking for Abraham to believe. The doing would follow as the direct result of his belief. But it was the belief that God was looking for. In our Gospel messages, we never urge people to be baptized, attend prayer meetings and Bible study, distribute Bibles and tracts, witness to their relatives and friends, and other activities that we associate with Christian living. No, we tell them to believe God. After they have believed His word concerning their sinfulness and Christ’s sufficiency, then they can begin to do the works of a Christian.
Another term for faith is believing God. We read His Word to find out what He is like and what He expects of His children. And we believe what the Word says; we believe God. The proof that we believe God lies in our response to it. Just like Abraham, we venture forth on the path God sets before us, regardless of where it takes us. Because we believe God. If we don’t believe God, we won’t set forth. We won’t do what He wants.
Just as Abraham did not stop believing God as soon as he set forth for Canaan, but believed Him for each stage of his victorious life, so we continue to believe God as we move from one step to the next, from one act of obedience to the next, from one victory to the next. God’s victories for us are not based on our actions, but on our beliefs. We believe He is true. We believe that His Word contains all that we need for our satisfaction, encouragement, edification, guidance, and inspiration. We believe that whatever He has for us is for our best and highest. We believe this, and we are able to perform. If we doubt God, we don’t perform.
How much do you and I really believe God? What are we doing to prove it? -Jim MacIntosh