Purify Your Bride

18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

So what can we say about Abraham’s faith? For one thing it seems in a different league from my own faith. If I was 100 years old and God told me I was to have a son how strongly would I believe it? Paul says Abraham “did not waver through unbelief”. He says he was “fully persuaded”. So when we talk about Sola Fide it should be clear we are talking about a very, very strong faith. Something that is rock solid even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Not being 99% convinced or even 99.99% convinced. We need to be 100% convinced.

Sola Fide is often talked about as making salvation simpler. I think if you take this level of faith as you requirement for salvation it is harder than working out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now protestants never go there. But how can they not? Remember Romans 4 is the only place they can find their concept of salvation or righteousness by faith described. How can they justify ignoring the intensity of faith described in that very chapter?

The other thing you notice is Abraham’s belief led to a becoming. He became the father of many nations. So rather than say works are irrelevant Paul reminds us that Abraham’s faith did lead to works. That he allowed God to change him. That he cooperated with God’s grace over many years and several false steps.

The other thing that is often preached but not mentioned in the actual text is the idea of being forgiven for future sins. The idea that if you are made righteous can you become unrighteous by committing a future sin? Protestants make a big deal about this but it is absent from Paul’s words. When you scratch them on it they will go to Rom 8, “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” But that is off point. Rom 8 lists a number of things but none of the things listed are sins. All of them are forms of suffering. The kind of blank check that Sola Fide describes is highly counter intuitive. You would think that if it was really the truth of the gospel of Christ it would be spelt out clearly and emphatically somewhere. Romans 4 would be a good spot.

What you find is quite the opposite. We are warned that certain sins mean we are not in the Kingdom of God, Gal 5:19-21 comes to mind. The final judgement is talked about again and again as being based on what we have done. It is never talked about as a judgment of people’s faith. There are many warnings about works that look good but are not because they are done from bad motives. But where are the examples of works that look gravely immoral and the person is declared to be saved anyway based on an act of faith occurring prior to the sin? This only happens in the mind of protestants.