Hindrances to Full Faith (7)

Therefore it is of faith that it might beaccording to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all… Romans 4.16

No resemblance
“He’s a chip off the old block.”

We’ve all heard someone say that, and we know what it intends. This child we’re looking at bears a distinct resemblance to its parents. There’s no mistaking whose child this is; he or she is just like Mom and Dad.

Abraham is the father of all those who have true and full faith in God – those who long for His promises and focus on them daily, who are not held back by their limitations, or trying to do God’s work their way, who know how to seek the power of God and nurture faith through praise, and who are faithful in taking the daily steps that allow them to turn their Personal Mission Field into a glorious harvest for the Lord.

Are you a chip off that old block? Or, as we might ask, “Who’s your daddy?”

Jesus challenged a group of men who were claiming to be Abraham’s children by saying that couldn’t possibly be the case. He said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham” (Jn. 8.39).

Abraham, we know, believed God. Abraham set his heart on the promises of God, and devoted himself to seeking the Lord and His power day by day. The men to whom Jesus was talking had let their religion become a mere formality, a cultural or social activity. Oh, sure, they had some claim on the faith of Abraham. After all, they worshiped and prayed and so forth.

But Jesus was clear that, while they may have been going through the motions of faith, they were not, in fact, the children of Abraham. They resisted the One Who was the very incarnation of the divine promises. They balked at His teaching and insisted they knew better than He did how religion ought to go. They refused to follow Him because their present way of life was “good enough” and all their friends agreed. They weren’t about to exchange their comfortable ways for abiding in Jesus’ Word, becoming serious disciples of the Lord, repenting of their sins, and living in the liberty of God’s Law and Spirit (Jn. 8.31-34).

These people, it was clear, had no resemblance to Abraham.

The devil, you say?
Jesus told these outwardly religious men that Abraham was not their father at all. The devil was their father, because they had chosen to live the Lie that said that Jesus, while He may be a great guy, an excellent teacher, and a nonpareil as a healer, was not God, not really, not in any way that required them to change their lives and follow, really follow Him.

Their father, Jesus insisted, would lead them to disillusionment, disappointment, and destruction. A day was coming, He insisted, in which their foolish religion and smug self-satisfaction would leave them without a leg to stand on before the God of heaven and earth. As God the Father gathered the true children of Abraham into the patriarch’s bosom, through faith in Jesus Christ, all the rest, the children of the devil, would be cast into eternal darkness and doom.

Examine yourself!
So, who’s your daddy? Abraham – the man of promise, praise, and practiced faith? Or the devil, the one who tolerates your shallow religion, and can supply you with plenty of “good reasons” and “explanations” for why you aren’t any more serious about following Jesus than you are?

This is serious business, friends. The days of playing at being Christians are long since past. If we aren’t willing to struggle to attain full faith, take up our cross in pursuit of the promises of God, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus every day, then, all our sinner’s prayers, pious pretensions, and religious rigamarole notwithstanding, we probably are yet the children of the devil rather than of Abraham, the father of the faithful.

As Paul wrote the “believers” in Corinth: examine yourself (2 Cor. 13.5). Do you really have faith? Full faith? Or is your life in fact a series of hindrances to faith, ways of avoiding really following Jesus, by which you deceive yourself and everyone else, as you live out a “good enough” Christian confession?

Don’t wait until the last day to be stunned to find out that you have been clinging to the wrong pedigree all these years. Who’s your daddy? It’s Abraham, the man of faith, or it’s the devil. Think about it.

For reflection
1.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day considered that they were the true children of Abraham? Why?

2.  Why were they wrong about that? What did Jesus expect of them?

3.  What does it mean for you to “examine yourself” in the light of what it means to have full faith?

Next steps: How can we tell who are the true children of Abraham? Talk with a Christian friend about this question.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 6 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “Hindrances to Full Faith” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.