Believe like Abraham did
Skjulte Skatter, published in December 1988
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Genesis 14:24; Genesis 15:1,5-6; Genesis 17:1; Romans 4:16-21.
Not only did Abraham believe that God is, and that He is a mighty God; he also believed the things that God said to him! What he believed most firmly was that God would do what He had promised, even though it appeared to be totally impossible according to his own understanding.
This is what it means to have the faith of Abraham, to be a child of Abraham.
Being our heavenly Father’s children in the dispensation of the new covenant is to believe in all the words of life that Jesus spoke and the words that the apostles wrote in their letters, so that we are obedient to them—to everything that is written in the Sermon on the Mount and everywhere else in the New Testament (which, of course, is in perfect harmony with this famous message that Jesus Himself delivered), just as Abraham was faithful and obedient to God when he sacrificed his son Isaac! Read Romans 1:5; Romans 16:20; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 5:9 and 2 Thessalonians. 1:5-10.
Truly believing in Jesus obviously means believing His Word and His promises. And this in turn includes believing unreservedly that we must fulfill the conditions so that the promises can be fulfilled! God said to Abraham, “Walk before Me and be blameless,” or perfect and irreproachable! We see this perfect obedience when he was to sacrifice Isaac!!!
It is precisely the same in the new covenant with which Jesus came, only to a much, much stronger and deeper degree! “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48. (Ephesians 5:27; 2 Peter 3:11,14.)
If you do not believe Jesus’ words about being obedient, then you are making Jesus out to be a liar and a false teacher, without actually saying it or meaning it. When you take this pointless stand, that is the result! By doing this, you have quite simply rejected Him! Then you have also, in fact, rejected His true and good and glad tidings, that is, His gospel, because it contains the message about obeying all His words in deed and in truth, about being transformed and re-created on the inside, about walking in His steps, about becoming like Him, about partaking of divine nature.
Almost everything in the New Testament is concerned with precisely this!!! If a person cannot see this, he must be—necessarily—blind!!! And he is blind because of his unbelief in the Word. Therefore it is almost ironic to call himself a believer.
What James writes is especially relevant: if our faith does not have works (or obedience), then we have the same faith as Satan. With such a faith we are not saved from sinning. (James 2:19.)
