Faith in God

Romans 4:1-3 (NLT)
1 Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? 2 If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. 3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

Here the Apostle states that Abraham was the founder of the Jewish nation. He does so because he wants the people to understand where they came from. They came from a man who believed the promises of God and placed his faith in God and because of his faith he was righteous in God’s sight. It was now the time to place their faith in God’s promise of salvation, Jesus Christ.

 

 

C.H. Spurgeon once said in a sermon, delivered on December 6^th, 1868: I would have you note that the faith which justified Abram was still an imperfect faith, although it perfectly justified him. It was imperfect beforehand, for he had prevaricated as to his wife, and bidden Sarai, "Say thou art my sister." It was imperfect after it had justified him, for in the next chapter we find him taking Hagar, his wife's handmaid, in order to effect the divine purpose, and so showing a want of confidence in the working of the Lord. It is a blessing for you and for me that we do not need perfect faith to save us. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove." If thou hast but the faith of a little child, it shall save thee. Though thy faith be not always at the same pitch as the patriarch's when he staggered not at the promise through unbelief, yet if it be simple and true, if it confide alone in the promise of God-it is an unhappy thing that it is no stronger, and thou oughtest daily to pray, "Lord, increase my faith"-but still it shall justify thee through Christ Jesus. A trembling hand may grasp the cup which bears a healing draught to the lip-the weakness of the hand shall not lessen the power of the medicine.

So far, then, all is clear, Abram was not justified by works, nor by ceremonies, nor partly by works, and partly by faith, nor by the perfection of his faith-he is counted righteous simply because of his faith in the divine promise.

Spurgeon concludes the sermon saying, “To believe that God speaks truth ought not to be hard; and if we were not very wicked this would never need to be urged upon us, we should do it naturally. To believe that Christ is able to save us seems to me to be easy enough, and it would be if our hearts were not so hard. Believe thy God, man, and think it no little thing to do so. May the Holy Ghost lead thee to a true trust. This is the work of God, that ye believe on Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. Believe that the Son of God can save, and confide thyself alone in him, and he will save thee. He asks nothing but faith, and even this he gives thee; and if thou hast it, all thy doubts and sins, thy trials and troubles put together, shall not shut thee out of heaven. God shall fulfil his promise, and surely bring thee in to possess the land which floweth with milk and honey.”

 

As Spurgeon said some have a hard time finding faith because of the world we live in. I pray you would find faith in God, faith in God’s promises, and faith in the promise of Salvation through Jesus Christ. You only have to start with a small amount of faith and God will grow that faith into something bigger and more wonderful than you can imagine. Have faith in God!