| Christian Life and Doctrine | January 1963 |
Faith Made Strong by Trials
“Being fully persuaded that, what God had promised, he was able also to perform.” —Romans 4:21
FAITH is the ability to believe what God says. In II Thessalonians 3:2 Paul asks the brethren to pray that he “may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all have not [Greek, the] faith.” People of this type do not believe the Bible statements that righteousness will eventually be rewarded and evil-doers punished. They simply do not believe what God says. Abraham, on the other hand, did have faith. He was able to believe what God said. As our text shows, he was “fully persuaded that, what God had promised, he was able also to perform.”
Many of God’s promises and statements have to do with future things which seem most improbable at the present time. For instance, the statement that tells us “they shall not hurt nor destroy.” (Isa. 11:9) It seems now that this could never come to pass. When you look out over the world, it seems very hard to believe that the time could ever come when none would hurt nor destroy.
Then again, there is that statement which says, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” (Isa. 11:9) To all appearances now, this can never be true. And because it seems unlikely that such a thing could ever be true, those who have not faith cannot believe it.
The few that can believe what God says have great advantages. They have, first of all, the favor of God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6) So those who do have faith are pleasing to God. Then again, they have great promise of reward. Hold fast “your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.” (Heb. 10:35) Third, they have the great advantage of enjoying peace of mind. They are able to believe in the wonderful promises of God, and can look beyond the present evil world.
The time will come when those who have not the faith required now will receive blessings. The time will come when these things God promises, which seem so unlikely now, will become realities. None will hurt; the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. With most people, “seeing is believing.” If these, then, learn heart obedience they will receive rich blessings.
Those who can believe at the present time, when these things seem unlikely or even impossible, have special blessings. They are the ones to be used by the Lord in giving life and other good things to the world of mankind. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) So those who will be used to give those future blessings have a greater share than those who receive them in the Millennial Age.
But their faith is to be tested. They are to have experiences this side of the veil that will make it very difficult at times to believe what God says. If they are able to hold on to that faith, able to hold fast to their confidence right up to the end, they will receive these special blessings. The important thing for us is to hold fast, and to pass successfully through the trials of faith we are having this side of the veil, while we are carrying out our covenant by sacrifice with the Lord.—Ps. 50:5
The Bible indicates that Abraham was an example of faith, and we can derive some wonderful lessons from his experiences. We can gain much help in the narrow way from seeing how Abraham reacted to his experiences, and what God did for him.
The first experience of Abraham we will consider is recorded in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, the 8th to the 10th verses. Here we find that Abraham was promised land for an inheritance. Other scriptures show that he was to become a very great nation. These were wonderful promises from God, but conditional upon Abraham’s going out to a land that he knew not. God had made a promise to him, but Abraham would have to do his part by going out into a land about which he knew nothing.
In those days there were no road maps or travel information. Nor was it possible to obtain travel information and find out conditions about any place to which one may desire to go. But this was not true in Abraham’s day. He went out into a land unknown to him. There was uncertainty involved in starting that journey. He had the promise of God—there was no question about that. But how the details would work out—that was something he had to leave in God’s hands. The point is that Abraham started out, trusting in the promises of God. He knew that God would take care of him, and show him the way, but just how he did not know. The Scriptures simply tell us that he obeyed.
Obedience is the acid test of the genuineness of faith. If we believe what God says, we will act in harmony with that faith. If we do not believe it, we will find some excuse, some way out. We will not obey.
The Lord’s people now have similar experiences. We are not promised land; we are not promised any earthly blessing. We are promised spiritual blessings. We will have to launch out depending on God’s promises, the promise of the “glory to follow”—the divine nature. (Luke 24;26; I Pet. 1:11; II Pet. 1:4) But we have to make our election sure.—II Pet. 1:10
Some of the Lord’s people have had to leave home because required to choose between home and the Lord. Others have had to leave various organizations and simply launch out on the Lord’s promises. They had to leave these organizations, not knowing where to go. We have to do as Abraham did. We have to launch out on the promises of God, and trust him for the details.
This is true in many ways. When we tell people about God’s plan, we do not know how they will react. We do not know whether we will say the right things. We simply start to tell them, knowing that God has promised to give “the increase.” If there is someone to be reached with the truth, he will be reached—we can be assured of that.
Romans 8:28 is one of the great promises. Are we able to launch out on that promise? It is so easy to trust material things. When disaster comes, or when something unexpected happens, it is so easy to say, “Well, I have so much money in the bank, and that will take care of me.” That is trusting in material things. The proper way for the Christian is to say, God has promised to take care of all my needs, and, if I have need of anything, I will receive it.
However, the things that are seen are only temporary, and will soon pass away. We must launch out on the promises of God. He has promised that he will supply all of our needs. Launch out on that promise. Trust it, try it, and believe it, and you will have the blessings you need.
Furthermore, we read that Abraham continued to believe. Hebrews 11:15 tells us that if he had been mindful of that country from whence he came, he might have had opportunity to return to it. But he did not want to go back. He had launched out on the promises of God and, while no doubt he had moments of trial and doubt, he wanted to continue. His attitude was not like that of the nation of Israel in later years. They went out from Egypt with a very great joy and determination to please the Lord, but as we read in Acts 7:39, in their hearts they turned back into Egypt. God does not want that. He does not take pleasure in anyone who turns back. So we must continue to believe.—Heb. 10:39
In Hebrews 11:10 we read that Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In this we believe we have the secret of Abraham’s continuance. It was the fact that he looked for the kingdom of God. In the Bible a “city” means a kingdom. The “holy city coming down from God out of heaven” in Revelation 21:2 is the kingdom of God. By faith Abraham looked for the coming kingdom. And as long as he looked for the kingdom, he was able to continue faithful.
So it is with us. We know that God has promised a glorious kingdom. Let us look toward that “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” This is the secret of success in holding a steadfast faith.
Abraham had another trial of faith in connection with the birth of his son Isaac. In Hebrews 11:18 we read, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” God had promised Abraham that he would have a seed. That was a wonderful promise. But years passed. Abraham grew older and older. As time went on it seemed very unlikely that he would ever have a son.
But the account tells us that Abraham continued to believe. Romans 4:18 speaks of him as the one “who against hope believed in hope,” no matter how impossible it seemed. God had promised Abraham that he would have a son; that was enough for him. Abraham did not know how it would be accomplished. It appeared more and more unlikely as time went on, but he continued to believe.
The Diaglott translation of Romans 4:19,20 gives a little better thought of these verses than the Common Version. It says, “Not having grown weak in faith, … he did not dispute against the promise of God, by unbelief, but was made strong in the faith, giving glory to God.” Naturally one would think that in all these years of waiting Abraham’s faith would diminish. But instead, his faith increased. He was made strong in the faith. “He did not dispute against the promise of God by unbelief.” He did not allow the arguments of the fallen mind to have any weight with him.
Unbelief would surely say, Why, that is ridiculous, having a son at a hundred years of age. That just could not be! But Abraham did not allow any such thoughts to sway him. We have every reason to believe that this took a mental struggle. But he did continue to believe, no matter how unlikely and how impossible it seemed.
It was by that continuance of belief that Abraham was made strong. If he had begun to doubt, instead of being made strong he would have been made weak in the faith, and finally would have lost his faith altogether. By refusing to listen to seductive arguments, either of himself or of others, he was fully trusting, and was thereby “made strong in the faith.”
The Lord’s people now do not have trials exactly like Abraham’s, but they do have trials of waiting; trials of patient endurance. It is a trial to wait for our glorification, especially when we get older and become weaker. We find that we cannot do what we would like to do. But we have to wait on the Lord. If we keep on trusting in him and his promises, we will learn valuable lessons. We will be “made strong in the faith.”
Others have trials of waiting in that they would like to learn the truth faster. We would like to learn more about the plan of God, learn it all, at once. But that is not the Lord’s way. “Here a little, and there a little” is the Lord’s way. (Isa. 28:10) So we have to wait on him; we have to trust him, and he will give us what we need.
It is a trial to wait for the full establishment of the kingdom. When we see all the troublous circumstances in the world, the uncertainty and the unsettled conditions, it is natural to want the kingdom to set things straight right away. We want it to be done now. But a part of our trials is to wait for the Lord’s time. By waiting, by refusing to permit any seductive arguments of unbelief to sway us, we are actually being “made strong in the faith.” We are able to believe more and more fully. As time goes on our faith should become stronger.
Another Test
ABRAHAM had another trial of faith, perhaps the most crucial of his whole career. It is recorded in Genesis 22:1-12. Here God came to Abraham and said, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” “Abraham rose up early in the morning” and went a three-days’ journey to Moriah. He did not tell anyone about the real purpose of his journey—not even Isaac. He bore his trial alone. We can well imagine what was going through his mind during those three long days.
It was a very hard trial to think of losing his son. It was not merely his own loss, but the promises of God for the whole world were also involved. Here was this son, Isaac, in whom the promises centered. Here was the one for whom Abraham had waited all those years. Finally Isaac was born; he had grown to manhood, and now God told Abraham to offer him up as a sacrifice.
Was God changing his plan? Just imagine Abraham’s perplexity. Here was the very one through whom the Seed should come, and now he was told to offer him up in sacrifice. Thus he had a “double trial,” a trial of his love and devotion to his son, and also a trial of believing in the promises of God.
Hebrews 11:19 tells us how he overcame this particular trial. He accounted “that God was able to raise him [Isaac] up, even from the dead.” Abraham realized that with God nothing was impossible. If he had to offer up his son Isaac, God could raise him from the dead. What a wonderful way that was of overcoming! He trusted God no matter how impossible it seemed! God had made this promise to him, and he believed it no matter what was involved.
Then, at the proper moment, God intervened. Abraham turned and saw a ram caught in the thicket, and he offered this ram in the stead of his son. God said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”
Think of God saying this! In the first place, it indicated that God did not use his powers of foreknowledge. No one would question that God could know before time what Abraham would do, but the way this is stated seems to indicate that God did not use that foreknowledge. He just waited to see what Abraham would do about it. And then God made that wonderful statement. How glad we would be to hear the Lord say to us, “Now I know that you will always be loyal to me; you have proved your loyalty right up to the end.” God will say just that to us if we are faithful even unto death.—Rev. 2:10
In James 2:21 the Diaglott gives an excellent translation. Here it says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had brought up Isaac his son to the altar?” Now Abraham had gone all the way; he had brought his son right up to the altar for sacrifice. That was enough. It was not necessary for him to go through with the actual sacrificing. In his own heart he had completed that sacrifice. He was willing. There is no doubt that he would have carried it out. It was a very great test.
And surely no one can deny that Abraham’s faith was made stronger by that very experience. His faith began to get stronger from the time the Lord told him to offer Isaac in sacrifice. Many disturbing thoughts would go through his mind—a very great trial of faith indeed. Yet by his continual effort to trust in the promises of God, trusting him even to the point of reasoning that God could raise Isaac from the dead, his faith rose to the occasion.
We also have trials. We are not called upon to sacrifice our children. That is not the Lord’s arrangement for Christians. In Abraham’s case it became a beautiful type or picture of God giving his own Son. But we have trials of a different kind. We are called to sacrifice our own humanity. We are called to use up ourselves in the service of the Lord. We are called to do God’s will in helping others—to use up our time, our energy, our material resources, and everything that we have; yes, life itself.
Probably the greatest thing we give up is our will, our liberty of choice. Everyone prefers to do his own bidding. And within limits, that is a human being’s privilege. But the Christian gives that up when he comes to the Lord in the covenant of sacrifice. That covenant of sacrifice is very hard to keep. Some things are easy to give up; other things are hard. But, like Abraham, as we do this we are strengthened in our faith.
We are to be ministers of reconciliation, to let the light shine. There are times when we would rather do something else than just that particular thing. When we are thus tempted we must say, “No, that is the Lord’s will. I have covenanted to sacrifice the things of this earth—my strength and everything I possess.” When we do that our faith is made stronger because we obey the Lord’s will. It is natural to do just the opposite. It is natural to keep what we possess, and try to obtain more. That is the world’s policy today, and it is quite natural. But the Lord’s people are not to do this.
Let us remember that just as it was with Abraham concerning his son, when we give our all—even our life—God is able to raise us up also from the dead. And this he will do. That is his promise. Jesus said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it.” (Matt. 16:25) If we contrive in some way or other to avoid our sacrifice, we will lose the great prize.
On the other hand, as Jesus said, if we lose our life in the service of the Lord, if we sacrifice our all, we shall find it in that glorious “first resurrection.” Yes, God can and will raise us up from the dead. That is part of his plan. But it is not easy to give up the only tangible things we have, the things which are right within our grasp; to give up those things for that which, from the natural standpoint, appears so remote. Hence it does require faith.
After Paul had said that Abraham was “fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform,” he continues, “Therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:22) Abraham was one of the Ancient Worthies. God knew that after passing through these tests of faithfulness Abraham would be righteous always. If he was so obedient to the Lord with all his imperfections and all the evil surroundings, surely he would be loyal when he would receive a perfect human body and when conditions would be favorable. So, knowing that, God counted it to him for righteousness. God knew that without question, in the next age, Abraham actually will be righteous.
Then Paul continues in the 23rd and 24th verses, “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” This tells us that God looks at our heart’s intentions; what we are trying to do, what we want to do.
It is necessary for us, who live after Jesus was born, to believe also on Jesus. So we have that wonderful imputed righteousness of Christ. God looks at our heart’s intentions, and if they are genuine we will prove our faith by what we do. And that is a clear statement of fact. A person always acts in harmony with what he really believes. In II Corinthians 4:13 we read: “I believed, and therefore have I spoken.” Because Paul believed fully he spoke boldly, even though it brought violent opposition upon him.
Faith is the ability to believe what God says, not what some one tells us God says. This distinction is very important because of the many false teachings that are in the world. In the Dark Ages especially, millions of people believed that it was God’s will to rule the world through the church in the flesh. People believed that, and because they believed it, all kinds of atrocities were committed in the name of God and of Christ. Persecution, tortures of all kinds, were inflicted because they believed that the apostate church, allied with worldly governments, was God’s kingdom. If people did not obey that kingdom, they had to be punished. This shows that what we believe always affects our actions.
At the present time, millions believe it is God’s will to convert the world now; that unless we save a person before he dies, he is eternally tormented. Therefore, because millions believe this, they have lowered the standard of discipleship. They try to make it easy for one to he saved. The standard of discipleship is really very high; but because they think people must be saved now or never, they have lowered the standard. Thus we see that what we believe affects what we do. Therefore it is very important to know what God says before we try to believe it.
Jude 3 tells us that we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. “The faith” here referred to consists of the doctrines, the teachings, which God gave his church through our Lord and his twelve inspired apostles. The teachings of God’s Word are very important, and it is also important that we are able to believe them. If we are not able to believe those things, they will not profit us.
Abraham believed in God’s power so thoroughly that he was fully persuaded. We also can believe in God’s power. We can believe that anything God has promised will be done, no matter how unlikely or how impossible it may seem. That is why we are on trial. That is why we are having trying experiences. Sometimes uncertainties crop up in our lives. Then we must turn to the exceeding great and precious promises. We must be like Abraham.
We trust in our ultimate deliverance, and believe that God directs in the steps leading to that deliverance. We do not know whether we will have dry bread or cake tomorrow, or what kind of trials we will have. We do know that experiences of uncertainty properly received make us strong in the faith. So we trust in our ultimate deliverance, and leave the intermediate experiences to God’s providence.
In I Peter 1:7-9 we have a wonderful statement, “That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, we love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of souls.”
Here we are told that the trial of our faith is precious. Faith itself is precious, but the trial of faith is also precious in the Lord’s sight. When the Lord permits a difficult experience to come, the tried one may flounder a little, and have to fight the fight of faith. But when finally, like Abraham, he comes off conqueror, that trial of faith proved to be very valuable. Without such a trial our faith would not be made strong.
Trials many times may come because conditions arise in which there is an element of doubt or uncertainty. That is when it is difficult to believe in the Lord. That is when we have to “fight,” when we have to lay hold of the promises, when we have to say, “I do not understand the meaning of this trial, but I do know we have the promise that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.”—See Romans 8:28
We read concerning the Lord, “Whom having not seen, ye love; … yet believing.” (I Pet. 1:8) We have not seen the Lord, yet we believe in him. We believe in him because of the great and precious promises. Yes, we must continue to believe in things we have not seen, that we cannot see now, but which will be a reality in the age to come.
Peter speaks of “receiving the end of the faith.” The “end” or object of our faith is the salvation of souls. The Common Version puts the word “your” in italics, showing it is not in the original text. The original says, “Receiving the end of the faith, even the salvation of souls.” We mention this because it is the purpose of the Christian’s faith that others may be saved in the Millennial Age. The church is to be the “seed” used by God in blessing all the families of the earth; in extending tie opportunity of salvation to the whole world of mankind.
The object of the church’s faith is not merely for their own salvation, as many think, but it is to save the souls of the world of mankind, as many as shall be willing and obedient in the next age. O yes, we will be saved ourselves; our souls will be saved, saved to a greater salvation than the world is to have. But the object of our salvation, the object of our faith, is the salvation of others. That is the great privilege of the Christian. He is not to be selfish. We know that “he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” (Prov. 11:25) So while we will have the privilege of being used to save others in the next age, we ourselves if faithful, will be saved before then.