"I will
multiply your descendants as the stars
of heaven, and will give your
descendants all these lands; and by your
descendants all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed
Me and kept My charge, My Commandments,
My statutes and My laws." Genesis 26:4-5
Because Abraham is called the father of
the faithful and because he acquired the
righteousness of God through his faith,
many assume that he did not walk
according to the Laws of God. Our text
clearly shows that "because" Abraham
obeyed God and kept His Laws, God made a
Covenant with him and greatly blessed
him and his descendants forever.
Of course, these Laws did not include
those added later due to transgressions
under Moses.-"Why
the Law then? It was added because of
transgressions. . .until the Seed would
come to whom the Promise had been made."
(Gal.3) Verse
10 identifies these additional Laws as -"the
Book of the Law" which
refers to the more than 600 Laws added
later under Moses in the Sinai Covenant.
But now that Jesus, the Promised Seed
and Mediator of Abraham's Covenant of
Promise has come we have entered a
better Covenant - a Covenant of Grace
but not a Covenant without Law, but
without the additional Laws. Like
Abraham, we obey God and keep the Ten
Commandments, the Food Laws, the Law of
Tithing and the Holy Day Statutes.
The true children of Abraham and the
true heirs of the Covenant of Promise,
are those born of the Spirit, -"And
if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s descendants, heirs according
to promise" (Gal.3) "It is not the
children of the flesh who are children
of God, but the children of the promise
are regarded as descendants." (Rom.9) This
is not to say that Abraham obtained
righteousness because He kept God’s Laws
because we have all sinned and there is
no Law that can wash away sin or impart
righteousness. The Law reveals to us
what sin is,-"Sin
is the transgression of the Law." (1
Jo.3)
Because Abraham believed God it was
reckoned to him as righteousness, so we
see that his righteousness came by faith
not by Law. However, he was not lawless
but obedient to God’s Laws, Commandments
and Statutes.
To the Romans Paul wrote, -"by
the works of the Law no flesh will be
justified" but also, -"it is
not the hearers of the Law who are just
before God, but the doers of the Law
will be justified." To
bring these two verses into harmony, all
we must do is understand the role of the
Law - it cannot justify the sinner, yet
a sinner cannot be justified without
repenting from breaking it.
To continue in sin is an act of
rebellion against the sovereignty of God
and would be doing the very thing Peter
warned against, -"It
would be better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than
having known it, to turn away from the
holy Commandment handed to them." Clearly,
living the way of righteousness includes
obeying God’s Commandments. Jesus said
those who love Him will keep the
Commandments. (Jo.14)
Abraham was not motivated by the promise
of a land flowing with milk and honey,
but was looking ahead to his citizenship
in the New Jerusalem, -"For
he was looking for a city which has
foundations, whose Architect and Builder
is God." Abraham
is the father of the faithful, that is,
the Church of God.
The children of Israel rarely walked in
faith and the Apostles warned the Church
against following in their mistakes, -"With
most of them God was not well-pleased;.
. .we should not crave evil things as
they also craved. . .nor let us act
immorally as some of them did. . .nor
let us try the Lord. . .these things
were written for our instruction. .
.Therefore let him who thinks he stands
take heed that he does not fall." (1
Cor.10)
When facing off with some corrupt Jewish
leaders Jesus said, -"If
you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds
of Abraham." (Jo.8) The
deeds of Abraham were produced by his
faith. James wrote that faith without
works is a dead faith. James said that
Abraham demonstrated his faith in the
work of being willing to offer his son
Isaac, -"faith
was working with his works, and as a
result of the works, faith was
perfected." (Ja.2) Where
there is faith, there also are the deeds
of Abraham.