The Nature of Faith

6/16/25 Bible Thought (Romans 4)

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The foundation of the Christian life is faith.

It takes faith to believe that, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1; see also Heb. 11:3). It takes faith to believe that Jesus Christ died for sins and was raised to life on the third day.

Truly, faith is the opposite of sight. If we figure out everything there is to know about God and His work, it wouldn’t require any faith.

The author to the Hebrews defines faith by writing,

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

That sort of faith follows in the footsteps of Abraham (Rom. 4:12).

Abraham is not only the father of the Jews but is the father of all who believe (see Gal. 4:7). As the whole Christian concept of justification by faith isn’t brand new, it began with Abraham!

As the Scriptures declare,

“And he [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he [God] counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6; see also Rom. 4:9; Gal. 4:6).

Abraham was justified because he believed in the promises of God, even when he couldn’t see them. Abraham, on multiple occasions, was given promises from God.

In essence they can be summed up as:

1. A multitude/nation of descendants

2. The land of Canaan as a promised land for his descendants

3. Through him (his offspring) all nations of the earth would be blessed

The problem for Abraham was that he received these wonderful promises that all involved offspring, and yet he was old in age and had no children at all. None of these promises could’ve been fulfilled apart from children, and yet, despite what seemed biologically tenable, he believed God. He put his faith in the Promiser, even if the promise seemed an utter impossibility!

Thus it is written concerning Abraham,

“He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.²⁰ No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Rom. 4:19-21).

Faith in the promise-making and promise-keeping God set him apart, and it was counted to him as righteousness—in New Testament terms, he was justified!

This justification, a free gift of grace to be received by faith (Eph. 2:8-9), is something that we can’t boast about accomplishing. God issues promises and humans merely are the recipients of His gracious promises.

The receiver of the gift, therefore, has no occasion for boasting, save only in the gift that they were given.

Such it is for the Christian. We might not be able to see God; we might not always be able to understand God. We might still have questions regarding faith, the Bible, or the work of Christ—this is where faith steps in.

If it all always made sense 100 percent of the time, we wouldn’t need faith.

None of it made sense to Abraham, that is, until you involve a supernatural God who created the universe and everything in it. From the spider who makes its web to the grandest stars and galaxies it all originates and flows out from Him. Suddenly, impossible doesn’t exist anymore.

This God, who is all-powerful and all-loving, makes the nonsensical make sense. An old man with a barren wife is no challenge for him. As the Lord said to Sarah concerning the birth of Isaac, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14).

No. Nothing is too hard for Him.

It wasn’t hard then. It’s not hard now. It won’t be hard in the future. He is the God of the impossible. To raise the Messiah from the dead might be unnatural, but it’s not impossible. To raise us with Him someday to an everlasting resurrection-life might be unnatural, but it’s not impossible.

The only question is: Do we believe it?