Abram was an idol-worshiper graciously chosen by God to receive the wonderful promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. There was nothing special about Abraham. God just chose him. But that choice, which gave birth to faith, became a faith that obeyed, a faith that endured and a faith that anticipates God’s greater reward. We see this in Hebrews 11:8-10.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
So first, we see a faith that obeys. Genuine faith always expresses itself in obedience. So the person who has believed will yearn to obey. Because we retain the vestiges of sinful flesh, that obedience will be imperfect (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 3:10), but the desire to do the will of God will be ever present in true believers.
Obedience is the inevitable manifestation of true faith. Paul reminded us of this when he wrote to Titus that “to the defiled and unbelieving. . . . profess to know God, but they deny him by their works” (Titus 1:15-16). To Paul, their perpetual disobedience proved their disbelief.
“By faith Abraham obeyed…and went out…” Faith is the manner in which Abraham obeyed. It was the impetus of Abraham’s obedience. It made obedience possible. The word translated “obeyed” was often used to speak of a doorkeeper, who would listen for the right signal and open the door to those awaiting entrance. Obedience thus comes from hearing, just like faith comes from hearing God’s Word.
Faith and obedience are inseparable. Abraham would never have obeyed God’s call if he had not truly taken God at his word. Abraham’s obedience was thus an outward evidence of his inward faith. Genuine faith always obeys God. We are saved by faith alone, but the kind of faith that saves is never alone. By its very nature, it results in obedience.
F. F. Bruce says, “If the patriarchal narrative says in one place that Abraham was justified because he believed God, in another place God confirms to Isaac the promise made to Abraham because ‘Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge…’ (Gen. 26:5). He would not have obeyed the divine call had he not taken God at his word; his obedience was the outward evidence of his inward faith” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 291)
Abraham demonstrated faith in three phases: when God called him to leave Mesopotamia (v. 8), when he reached the Promised Land but still had to live in it as a foreigner (vv. 9-10), and when God called him to sacrifice Isaac (vv. 17-19).
Note that Abraham’s faith-walk began “when he was called” (Heb 11:8). His faith wasn’t founded on a subjective feeling about God’s will, a billowy cloud formation pointing like an arrow, or a vague message from a fortune-teller staring into a crystal ball. The Bible says “the Lord had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:4), and “the Lord appeared to Abram” (Gen. 12:7). This is where true faith rests—on the clear revelation of God (Rom. 10:17). God’s calling to Abram was audible, objective, and specific. He responded with faithful obedience. (Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary – Hebrews)
This word suggests that immediately upon hearing God’s Word, Abram obeyed. One Greek scholar puts it: It’s almost as if Abram left while the sound was still ringing in his ears. There is no lag time, no hesitation, but rather an immediate responsiveness to the Word of God. God appears and speaks, and as a result Abram begins to pack his bags.
Now, remember, Abram first went as far as Haran with his father Terah and his family. That doesn’t seem like immediate obedience. But the author of Hebrews is focusing on the fact that Abram did leave for another land.
Apparently, Abraham obeyed God by leaving Ur, but he settled in Haran for a few years until his father died. Then God issued the call of Genesis 12, and Abraham again obeyed by moving on to Canaan.
This was not Abram’s dream, it was God’s calling.
What did this mean to Abram?
First of all, Abram lived in a culture where nothing purposely changed. Life offered few choices; everyone believed that their fate was determined and you could do nothing to change it. There was no impetus to leave, to better one’s life.
Plus, people in those days didn’t travel to, let’s say, Washington D. C. for vacation. In fact, most people in those days never traveled more than a few miles from their birthplace their whole lives, unless they made a living from trading.
Also, this would mean leaving behind people he knew and loved—his family and friends. A man’s “household” in those days was his safety net.
It also meant leaving a comfortable homestead. Whether or not it was an affluent homestead, it was his.
In addition, it meant leaving the only culture he knew—the music he listened to, the foods that he ate, the business associates that he worked with. All that would change.
Finally, there would be no turning back. There was a sense of finality in the command to “leave.” This was no summer cruise, no short vacation from the routine. This was final.
Thus, this was no easy choice! We might not think of it as that difficult, but it would not have been easy to obey this calling from God for Abram.
You discover in Genesis 12 that Abram was 75 years old when God’s call came to him. Abram was likely a prosperous, middle-aged man, successful by any human standard.
One ancient commentator says it like this: “Abraham departed the moment he was bidden. Taking no thought for anything, either for his fellow clansmen or wardsmen or schoolmates or blood relations on father’s or mother’s side; or country or ancestral customs or community of nurture or homelike—all of them ties possessing a power to allure and attract, which is hard to throw off. He followed a free and unfettered impulse and departed with all speed from Chaldea, a land at that time blessed by fortune and at the height of its financial prosperity. He heard the call of God, he obeyed, he went. No lag time, no hesitation, no pondering; that’s what faith does in response to the Word of God” (Philo, De Abrahamo, p. 66f).
By the way, it might be encouraging to us to notice that although Abram’s faith was immediate, it was not complete. He didn’t leave every member of his family behind. He took his father and nephew, Lot. He didn’t go all the way to the Promised Land right away. He stopped in Haran and it took the death of his father Terah, to move Abram from the halfway house all the way to the Promised Land.
My point is this: Abram’s faith was not perfect. We will see that all throughout his life. But, he was responsive to the Voice. And when he failed, he got back up and continued forward. Our faith, our obedience, does not have to be perfect. But it must respond.
One might wonder if Abram had any resistance to the Voice. Could he, like Simon Peter, have initially responded, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man?” Could Abram have doubted his own mind? Could he have agreed with Lily Tomlin, who said, “Why is it that when we talk to God we’re said to be praying, but when God talks to us we’re schizophrenic?” “Am I going crazy?
Well, the first step in any kind of life-change is responding obediently to God’s calling. It often involves leaving something or someone behind to pursue something else. For change to last in our lives we have to leave something behind. We have to “put off the old man,” for example.
Consider marriage, for example. In order to experience the depth of change a man must “leave his father and mother…” (Genesis 2:24).
In discipleship Jesus said we have to “deny ourselves,” we have to leave our own desires behind, so that we can follow Him (Luke 9:23). Jesus calls his disciples to rise up, forsake all and daily take up the cross (Matt. 4:18ff; 9:9; 10:38f; 19:27ff).
What is God calling you to leave behind, to let go of? What baggage is there that you need to jettison from your life?
All of this from Abram is quite amazing in itself, but then we find out “he did not know where he was going.”
You might have heard a conversation like this between Abram and his lifelong neighbors.
“Abram, are you moving?”
“Yes.”
“Why? We’ve been neighbors for so long. Are you looking for better quality of life, more acreage, better schools for your kids?”
“No. I’ve heard a Voice.”
“Okay…where are you going?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Now Abram, think, is that really the responsible thing to do, the rational thing? You sound like a radical. How will we get in touch with you?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
“I’ve heard a Voice and it promised me a place somewhere. All I can tell you is that the Word of the living God has spoken to me. Now all my ambitions which consumed me before have been replaced by one over-arching passion. It is my desire to follow that Voice.”
Living by faith means stepping out for God and leaving the results to him. It won’t always be clear what the end result might be. It’s no guarantee of a long life and good success. It is obedience “no matter what.”
Leaving is an act of obedience, but “not knowing where you are going” is an act of trust.
Martin Luther, in his commentary on Hebrews, says: “And this is the glory of faith, namely, not to know where you are going, what you are doing, what you are suffering, and, after taking everything captive—perception and understanding, strength and will—to follow the bare voice of God and to be led and driven rather than to drive.”
This is the kind of faith that is produced by grace. It is the working of God; it obeys. There is no greater miracle in the heart of a genuine disciple of Christ than simple obedience to the Word of Christ. Abram heard the call “and went.” Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, you will obey my command.” James 2:26 says, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
Obedient faith is the product of God’s grace. The Christian loves to obey and finds his or her greatest happiness in obedience, because that obedience is in keeping with his transformed heart. Like nothing else obedience brings him pleasure. Like Eric Liddell said, “When I run; I feel his pleasure.” A genuine disciple says, “When I obey; I feel his pleasure.”
If there is no desire or drive for obedience in a person’s life it betrays that there has not really been an experience of the sovereign grace of God regardless of how many aisles have been walked down.
Jesus very ominously warned us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Jesus never knew these people, despite all their fantastic works. Be careful never to invert the order: The experience of grace is not the consequence of faith; the experience of faith is the consequence of God’s grace.
In Philippians 1:29 Paul says, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” That word “granted” could be translated “gifted.” In other words, both suffering and believing are gifts from God. Most people are surprised that suffering could be considered a gift from God, but the greater surprise is that faith is also a gift from God.
Paul is saying the same thing in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” The gift is the whole experience of salvation by grace through faith.
Peter concurs in 2 Peter 1:1 when he says, “Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:” You obtain something that has been given to you. You receive it. Here Peter says that we have received faith.
Likewise, in Acts 13:48 Luke records: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” They believed because they had been appointed by grace to believe.
I don’t believe and then get grace; God chooses to give me grace, which then enables me to believe and I actively put my trust in Him.
Again, Martin Luther expresses the depth of Abram’s obedient faith when he writes: “It was hard to leave his native land, which it is natural for us to love. Indeed, love for the fatherland is numbered among the greatest virtues of the heathen. Furthermore, it is hard to leave friends and their companionship, but most of all to leave relatives. . . . And then it is clear that with his obedience of faith Abraham gave a supreme example of an evangelical life, because he left everything and followed the Lord. Preferring the Word of God to everything and loving it above everything” (Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., Luther’s Works , vol. 29 (Saint Louis: Concordia, 1987), p. 238).
Faith in God’s promises is why Abraham risked his entire future. Faith in God’s promises is always how to deal with the uncertainties of life. Abram didn’t know where he was going, he didn’t know what the future held, and into that vacuum of uncertainties can rush all kinds of fears and anxieties UNLESS one holds on to the promises of God.
And that is what Abram did. He is a strong example of faith because he marched off the map, going forward with God even though he had no strong indicators of where he was in reaching his destination.
The call which Abram received was not only a command that called him to obey; it was also a promise for him to believe, the promise of an inheritance on which he should fix his hope. He did not know, when he departed, where that inheritance could be, but he believed God who said that he had an inheritance.
Here again, we have a striking illustration of “the assurance of things hoped for” combined with “the conviction of things not seen,” the two components of faith defined in the opening verse of this chapter. “Abraham set out in faith, his destination unrevealed, but he also set out in hope, firmly grasping the promise of an inheritance. The bare word of God was sufficient warrant for his going” (Philip Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 467).
Grace Still Amazes 