THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 4: 1-12
I am absolutely sure that there are two things that you love.
The first thing that you love is “Good News”. That of course can cover a whole lot of things that you want to hear about.
The next thing is about getting a gift.
A gift is something that you don’t work for. It is free. And there is nothing better than free especially if the gift is something that is very good for you and will make you enter into a beautiful place where there are all kind of lovely things to do.
Well God loves you so much that He has given you these two things that I know you love. He has looked on the troubles that we have on earth and He has sent the Good news that He has put in place a plan to clear up all the mess. His Son Jesus Christ has come to earth and has taken away all the burdens that we have as long as we believe in Him as our Saviour. It is through Him that all the promises that God has made to us will be fulfilled or met. All God the Father requires is that we have faith in Jesus Christ.
In order to give us an example we should follow we are told about a man that God spoke to and to whom God made some pretty great promises. The man’s name was Abram. God told Abram to leave where he lived and go away to a faraway land called Canaan. God promised that He would give him that land so that his children would live there in peace and have all the good things of life that they wanted.
The problem was that Abram was very old and his wife was very old. They both were well past child bearing age. It would be a great miracle for them to have children. God made them that promise that they would have many many children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many descendants, but Abram and his wife seemed to be too old to have children. In addition God promised this couple that because of them all the people on earth would be blessed. Abram would be a blessing because of what he would do.
Note if you are 90 years old you would have some difficulty believing what God had promised. But Abram had no such problem. He and his wife Sarah believed God and God considered Abram’s and Sarah’s faith in God and His promises so important that God considered them to be righteous people. This was an amazing thing for only God the Father Himself or Jesus could give people that kind of righteousness. But it was given to Abram and Sarah because of Abraham’s faith in God. He completely trusted God and would never do anything that would break that trust that he had in God.
But Abram was declared righteous before anything else happened and before the promise that God made was fulfilled. As a sign of this covenant God made with Abram, Abram and his sons were circumcised. This marked out Abram and his children as being different from people in other nations who did not worship God.
But the important thing is that if you want to be with God and get blessings from God you have to be declared righteous. That means that you have to have faith in God. That’s faith comes first and once it comes you have a special relationship with God and God will begin to pour out all His blessings on you, will keep you and protect you, and make sure that you have eternal life.
You must see therefore that it is not what you do that will make you receive these promises from God. You do not have to work for it. It is a free gift. You are saved by what Jesus Christ has done.
So it is good to do what God has commanded such as loving your neighbour and helping others. But remember that you cannot be saved and come into the presence of God by doing these good things. You first have to have faith in Jesus Christ and then His righteousness will be given to you. Then and only then the good things that you do will be acceptable to God and God will reward you for what you have done.
We therefore learn from Abraham’s life and what he did is that faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ comes first. It is the basis of your relationship with God. Without that there is no relationship with God.
The faith of Abraham then is something that we should all have. When we have that faith we will be able to walk with God and God will regard you as His children.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can do those things you think will please God and get salvation from Him as a reward. Your works cannot save you. You must have the faith of Abraham. When Abram had faith God changed his name from Abram to Abraham for that new name meant “father of many nations”. When you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that will make a dramatic change in your life and the life of others around you.