A popular application question from the story of Abraham offering Isaac is whether or not you would have enough faith to offer your child, if God told you to. But I think this question is somewhat flawed. Because Abraham’s test was not merely the hardest test God could think of to determine how much faith Abraham had. It did not test the quantity of Abraham’s faith, but rather the basis of it. The task wasn’t designed to see whether or not Abraham would do something outrageous simply because God told him to. The task corresponded with God’s specific promises regarding Isaac and his decendants.

From Genesis chapter 12 up to this test found in chapter 22 God makes multiple promises to Abraham regarding his descendants. Abraham’s very name, which God gave him, means “father of many nations.” God confirmed his promises by covenant and He narrowed the channel through which He would fulfill His promise to only one son, Issac, the child of promise, a child by miracle born to Sarah in her old age. This promise, through which the whole world would be blessed, was not a vague promise open to interpretation but a repeated, refined, and specific promise to be fulfilled only through Isaac. The first version of God’s promise was less specific – and after years of waiting, Abram and Sarai came up with a plan to help God by providing themselves with a child through Hagar. But God does not need our help to fulfill His promises. and this resulting child of the flesh had was to have no part in fulfilling the promise. God has His own ways to fulfill His promises, and He accomplishes them by His own hand.

So when God told Abraham to offer Issac, the very one, the only one, through whom the promise would be filled, what was being tested was not so much Abraham’s willingness to do something outrageous, but rather Abraham’s faith in the truthfulness of God’s promises. It was God’s faithfulness to uphold His own promises by His own means – including raising the dead if needs be – that were in view in Abraham’s test.

So as Abraham walked on with Issac toward the mountain, he walked on in faith that God’s promises would be fulfilled, through Issac, even as he built an alter to sacrifice him. When Issac asked about the lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham responded “God will provide for Himself the lamb.” God’s promises fortified his faith – he knew God would uphold His promises, and this is what he clung to in faith. His faith anticipated a provision, though he did not know what, or how God would provide it. And during that perplexing period between promise and provision, Abraham walked on in faith.

And God did provide. He provided a ram stuck in a thicket in place of Isaac, and much more – He provided Christ, the Lamb of God in our place as a substitute sacrifice for our sins.

Abraham did not know how God would provide, but his faith anticipated it as it rested on God’s faithfulness to His own promises. But for us, we know how God’s promises are fulfilled, for they have been entirely established and fulfilled in the cross. The blessings promised to Abraham through Isaac and his descendants are fulfilled in Christ. Abraham’s faith rested on promises yet to be provided. Our faith rests on God’s promises completely fulfilled.

Yet, though Christ has been sacrificed and has fulfilled every promise, the final delivery, the consummation of kingdom in the eternal city of God, has been delayed. And so we like Abraham. must walk on, as Abraham did, in faith. Abraham walked on between promise and anticipated provision – anticipated yet mysterious and veiled. We walk on in faith between promise fulfilled and provision made, but delivery delayed. We have the best foundation of all – Christ and Him crucified – Christ and Him risen from the dead – mediator of our new covenant with God, through which all His promises are given to us in abundance. The mystery has been revealed, the provision provided therefore our faith is based on a much better promises because for us the promises have been filled already in Christ – yet we too must wait patiently in hope until we inherit the consummation of His promises.

Perhaps a better application question in response to the story of Abraham would be, “What outrageous acts of faith may we pursue as we bank on the firmness of all God’s promises fulfilled to us in Christ?” For our faith, like Abraham’s, is not mustered from within, but rather rests on the firm foundation of the promises of God in Christ. If Abraham believed God’s promises – yet to be provided – how much more should I trust Christ and bank on the promises made to me in Him? For He has already been sacrificed and His promises are already established. They are waiting for me – kept until the day.

O Lord, as I walk on, during my days of faith, let me set my hope fully on the grace to be given in Christ. Enable me to act with boldness in proportion to the certainty I have that all your promises are complete and finished in Christ, in the name of Jesus – my strong anchor – Amen.

It’s only my dullness that keeps my heart from shouting out for joy over the gift of righteousness given to me in Christ. Christ’s very own righteousness – for me – as a free gift? What could I give for it, how could I prepare my heart to make it worthy for this gift? I can’t give anything – I can’t do anything. The imputation of Christ’s righteousness is an inestimable gift that comes only by grace through God given faith.

The Lord loves those who pursue righteousness. But how can I pursue something that has already been completely delivered to me by grace? Clearly there is a call to pursue righteousness. There is a sense in which those who have been given righteousness as a gift are still yet to become the righteousness of God.

There is a profound danger in the pursuit of righteousness. Nevertheless all those who are called by God and given the gift of Christ’s righteousness must pursue also it. Paul testifies to the danger of pursuing righteousness the wrong way in Philippians 3:9.

…and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

Paul was keenly aware of the difference between pursuing righteousness as from the law, a self-attained righteousness – from pursuing righteousness which comes from God, that is, Christ’s righteousness. In Romans Paul repeatedly contrasts the pursuit of righteousness by means of the law with the receiving of righteousness through faith.

In my human pride I am always engaged in the tension between walking in the righteousness of Christ by faith and walking in a supposed righteousness of my own human effort. I must therefore wrestle with my own motives and labor to walk according to faith, putting to death the tendency to walk according to boasting. Yet from God’s perspective there is no fine line between types of righteousness. There is only one righteousness; His righteousness. And Christ’s righteousness is our only righteousness. All other “kinds” of righteousness are, in fact, no-righteousness. They are a sham, they are a disgrace, and they are, as Paul puts it, “as dung.”

The procession of Christ’s righteousness for my righteousness is all that matters. Yet the procession of Christ’s righteousness does not conclude my pursuit of righteousness, it begins it!

All pursuit of “righteousness” that preceded receiving Christ’s righteousness was actually the pursuit of no-righteousness. All pursuit of righteousness after receiving Christ’s righteousness, but which is not pursed by faith in Christ, is the arrogant pursuit of no-righteousness. All pursuit of righteousness after receiving Christ’s righteousness that is pursued by faith – is the pursuit of righteousness that God loves!

What qualities correspond with pursuing righteousness by faith?

Humility – all such righteousness is the result of God’s gracious work, they cannot be credited to me.

Peace – “The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace,” James 3:18.

Patience – the precious produce of the soil – the harvest of righteousness comes in God’s perfect timing.

Quiet confidence – for God is the giver – he will also be the completer, “…even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21

Lord, please increase my heart’s capacity to be deeply affected by the glorious truth that Christ’s righteousness is my righteousness. Please grant me a humble faith that is able to pursue righteousness in a way that does not disgrace the glory of Christ but rather produces the fragrant aroma of pure righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. In your precious name. Amen.

James 1:4

Oh how impatient I am. I am the result of a fast-food, microwave, “fast-acting pain relief”, drive-thru, FedEx, instant internet access, email, culture. I have been trained to demand the things I want and expect them to be delivered immediately. How naturally I bring such expectations into my spiritual life with Christ. I want the results of Christian discipline without the discipline. I want the fruit of spiritual apprehension without taking the time to apprehend. I want promised answers to prayer without importunity in prayer. I want spiritual appetites without hunger.

God wants me to be holy, He wants me to bear spiritual fruit, He wants to glorify Himself through answered prayer, He wants to bless me, and by His grace He will fashion me into a proper receptacle for His grace. But He will accomplish this through testing, refining, and trial. These are the tools of my God. He uses a hammer and an anvil to go to work on my hard heart. He places me in the coals to soften the material of my stubborn soul then pounds me into the shape He desires, making me fit into His glorious purpose.

When tried, I must endure. It is not just the trial, but endurance that produces the intended result. Endurance has little meaning in the absence of struggle or pain. We don’t use the word “endure” in reference to our pleasures and comforts, only to our pains.

But in endurance is great hope; hope that is the foundation for the joy we are told to have when facing trials. The promise is that endurance has a result. It produces a perfect result and we are exhorted here in James to let endurance have its perfect result. The result mentioned here is that we would be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. This promise is beyond my understanding, but I rejoice that endurance does produce a true result. Thank God that His blows are not without lasting effect. Each strike on the iron of my heart bears its perfect impression. Jesus never uses too many, or too few blows. His aim and skill as a “soul smith” is perfect. His craftsmanship is impeccable. I am so glad that when Jesus goes to work and accomplishes His purposes through trials, that the results have their perfect effect, and my heart is truly changed by His skilled hands.

Lord, thank you so much for past trials and testing. Thank you for granting me grace to endure. Lord please let endurance have its perfect result in my life. Thank you that in the many trials yet to come, for I have not endured to the end, you will do your work perfectly. Let me trust in the day of trouble and look forward your perfect results. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

This Psalm was troubling to read. The complaint of the Psalmist continues throughout the entire Psalm and is not answered. His cry, it seems, goes unheard. Unlike many of David’s Psalms, which contain equally impassioned cries for help, this Psalm does not end with a positive declaration of the Psalmist’s plea having been answered. David cried but ultimately said things like “Why are you in despair O my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 42:11). But this Psalmist does not testify to any answer from God, he remains in his distress. Nor does he give any hope from his past experience, he does not ask for a restoring to a previous better condition because he seems to have always been in distress, “I was afflicted in about to die from my youth on.” The experience of this Psalmist seems inconsistent with God’s promises to provide help and fill us with joy and gladness. Why would God seemingly pass this praying man over, and include his hopeless plea in his Word?

Conjecture:

1. This kind of experience is atypical. God normally displays his faithfulness through abundance not through sparseness. The experience of David is far more normal, we can expect God to answer our cries for help with abundant grace.

2. God does, at times, withhold blessing. He is sovereign over the bestowing of help, joy, and peace. He can delay our blessing for his good purposes (and our ultimate good) for as long as he sees fit.

3. Such delays are normally not very long. The Lord will come quickly to save his Holy ones. The Lord knows how much we can bear; he knows exactly what He’s doing when He delays, like when Jesus delayed in visiting His sick friend Lazarus.

4. There are many circumstances and experience where the delay is long. This Psalmist’s delay was perhaps lifelong. Others, like David, experience long seasons of struggle, some saints have been imprisoned and suffered for years on end.

5. Whether God answers quickly, or in his wisdom delays, He is perfect in His timing and always acts for the glory of His name and for the maximum joy of His saints and their enjoyment of His glory.

6. Struggle and suffering, in Christ, is always rewarded. “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

7. If little affliction results in a greater weight of glory, how much more glory is in store for those who are afflicted much? Perhaps such saints will receive an even greater external weight of glory, more than others, precisely because they suffered so much, and for so long. What if God withheld earthly rescue from this Psalmist holding out instead for a much better eternal rescue? Would not this Psalmist consider it worth it all once he arrived in glory? Would not his complaint then be turned to resounding praise?

8. God preserves his saints in affliction. He knows what we can bear and is able to preserve us in our trouble. However much this man languished under despair, he did ultimately persevere in prayer. He did not give up crying out to God. He continued to lift up his hands to the Lord. He did not stop asking for help from the Lord. He did not give up. God’s sovereign preserving, keeping power was made manifest in this man’s life. God’s grace was provided. It kept him faithful to the end. It kept him crying out. It kept him praying. If he had truly lost hope he would have ceased praying and looked elsewhere for help or at least relief. He would have left God and sought comfort in the things of the world and would have been ultimately and finally abandoned. Yet God kept him. The Psalmist kept his eyes on the Lord and prayed. He did not give up, even though the Lord delayed perhaps until his death. This is a testimony of God’s faithfulness and an encouragement for me to keep praying no matter how long God may delay in answering my prayer.

O Lord, please help me to persevere in prayer, especially when I don’t receive what I ask, or your answer is delayed. Thank you Lord, that I can depend on your grace to keep me praying at such times. Please do not let my momentary afflictions cause me to cease praying, rather let afflictions strengthen my resolve and intensify my cry. You are so good. In Jesus’ name I ask. Amen.