Scripture Reading: Acts 7:2; Gen. 12:1-3, 7-8; 15:5-6; Heb. 11:8-10; Gal. 3:6-9; Rom. 4:12
Ⅰ
Faith is the unique way to carry out God's New Testament economy— 1 Tim. 1:4:
A
The believers in Christ are justified by faith and have life and live by faith—Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38.
B
Through faith in Christ Jesus we are brought into an organic union with Christ—Gal. 2:16:
１
Faith creates a life union in which we and Christ are one—1 Cor. 6:17.
２
Faith in Christ Jesus is related to our experience of Christ as the most precious One, who is infused into us and who becomes in us the faith by which we believe into Him—Gal. 2:20.
C
In the Body "God has apportioned to each a measure of faith"—Rom. 12:3:
１
God first allotted faith to us in quality (2 Pet. 1:1), and then He apportioned it in quantity; how much faith we have depends upon God's apportioning.
２
We should esteem ourselves according to the faith that God has apportioned to us, that is, according to the measure of God's element that has been infused into us.
Ⅱ
As believers in Christ, we are repeating the history of Abraham; the Christian life is the life that Abraham lived—Gal. 3:6-9; Rom. 4:12:
A
For Abraham to live and walk by faith means that he had to reject himself, to set himself aside, to forget himself, and to live by Someone else—Gal. 2:20.
B
Abraham's life of faith is presently being repeated among us; the church life today is the harvest of the life and history of Abraham—Rom. 4:12.
C
An Abraham is a person who has been called out, who no longer lives and walks by himself, and who forsakes and forgets everything he has by nature—Gen. 12:1-3.
D
The way God worked on Abraham is the way He works on all the believers in Christ—Rom. 4:12.
E
The God of Abraham is the God of human friendship; God conversed with Abraham as a human friend—2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23; Gen. 18:17.
F
The experience of Abraham signifies the experience of God the Father in His calling us, justifying us, and equipping us to live by faith and to live in fellowship with Him.
Ⅲ
Abraham obeyed God's calling by faith—Heb. 11:8; Rom. 4:1, 12; Gal. 3:7:
A
God called Abraham by appearing to Him as the God of glory—Acts 7:2.
B
God appeared to Abraham to call him out of his fallen condition and to bring him back to Himself as the tree of life—Acts 7:2; Gen. 12:1-3.
C
When Abraham was called by God, he went out by faith, not knowing where he was going—Heb. 11:8.
D
Abraham's faith did not originate with himself; rather, his believing in God was a reaction to the transfusion of God's element into his being—Acts 7:2.
Ⅳ
Abraham was justified by faith—Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:2-3:
A
Abraham's believing was the springing up within him of the element that God had transfused into him—v. 3.
B
God's reaction to Abraham's believing was to justify him, that is, to account him as righteous—Gen. 15:6.
C
For God to justify Abraham meant that God was happy with Abraham and that Abraham was in harmony with God.
D
The believers in Christ, having been called by God out of the fallen race, put no trust in their own effort; instead, they trust in God's work of grace.
Ⅴ
Abraham lived by faith, living the life of the altar and the tent—Heb. 11:9; Gen. 12:7-8:
A
In order to live by faith, we must first build an altar, signifying that our life on earth is for God, and then pitch a tent, indicating that we do not belong to the world.
B
By living the life of the altar and the tent, Abraham testified that he was sojourning by faith, as in a foreign land, longing after a better country—the new heaven and new earth—and eagerly awaiting for the city whose Architect and Builder is God—the New Jerusalem—Heb. 11:9-10, 16:
１
The excellent and lovely New Jerusalem is the dear expectation of God's elect and the destination, the goal, of the heavenly pilgrims—vv. 13-16.
２
Today we are sojourners, journeying on a rugged road toward our eternal goal—the New Jerusalem—1 Pet. 1:1, 17; 2:11.
３
The New Jerusalem will be a tabernacle for the remembrance of how the overcomers, before the consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age, lived in tents as they were journeying toward the New Jerusalem—the eternal Mount Zion—Rev. 21:2-3.