What is God Like? – How can we know for Sure? – Part 4
By Richard Allen – March 3, 2025
It’s been a few months since I’ve written an installment for this Blog series: “What is God like?” As I mentioned in the first three parts of this series, mankind through the fall quickly lost all knowledge of the one true God, and became puffed up in our imaginations, inventing idolatrous images to explain our ignorance of the “Holy One.” Romans Chapter one painfully describes man’s descent from the highest place in all creation, having dominion over all animal life – even naming every creature brought before him” (Genesis 2:19) – to displaying “every kind of evil imaginable” (Genesis 6:5). After centuries of willful sin and debauchery, God finally had enough and destroyed the whole world including every living thing with a great flood. Sadly, even after seeing the devastation of the world-wide deluge, the eight survivors do not appear to have acknowledged their condition, nor repented of their idolatry. If man was ever to be brought back into a right relationship, it would have to be by God seeking man. Man’s ignorance of God was profound and complete. However, God did not leave Himself without witnesses. He Sovereignly choose a few men with whom he would communicate.
Since men were totally separate and alienated in their relationship to God, it was up to a Sovereign God to initiate contact and redeem fallen man. In the first eleven chapters of Genesis only four of Adam’s posterity had contact with God: Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abram (later to be renamed Abraham). Some writers point out there were other descendants of Adam who were also a part of the “semitic lineage” through Adam’s son, Seth. But as we study “Faith’s Hall of Fame” in Hebrews Chapter 11, it’s clear that “only the four men above had faith!” And as important as these four men were, the writer to the Hebrews covers the first three quickly in just seven verses, Hebrews 11:1-7. Then he spends the next 12 verses talking about Abraham. Who exactly was he? What was so special about him? Did God choose Abraham because he was a really good man who exhibited exemplary righteous behavior? As we’ll see from Scripture, the story is different.
In previous blogs we have discussed: Abel, Enoch and Noah. And they were no doubt exceptional men whom the writer to the Hebrews singled out. But what was it about Abraham that made him so special? Remember, Abraham was the one to whom God would reveal Himself and set in motion the “Plan of Salvation” by Abraham’s Seed? It’s obvious from both the Old and New Testaments that Abraham was a special man, and his calling was a “watershed moment” in human history. But we’d be mistaken if we put Father Abraham on a pedestal or enshrine him as someone living a holy life above reproach. Father Abraham is referred to as “the Father of all who Believe” in Romans 4:11. Paul makes some amazing assertions about Abraham and his relationship to both Jews and Gentile:
“Is this blessing (being declared righteous) credited to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised also? For we say, ‘Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.’ How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised” (Romans 4:9-12).
Paul enters into this lengthy dialogue, just to show that Father Abraham had righteousness credited to him “while he was still uncircumcised” to show that righteousness comes – Not from being a Jew or obeying the Law – but rather By Faith. So, Abraham’s example shows that both Jews and Gentiles are restored to a right relationship with God By Faith Alone, nothing else! Abraham’s life proves that God justifies Gentiles and Jews the same way, By Faith! Let me state that Abraham is the father of all who believe for some other reasons as well – not just because he had been a Gentile (uncircumcised) before becoming a Jew (circumcised)! As Paul points out above: Abraham was declared righteous, before he was circumcised! Abraham’s circumcision was performed afterward as a “seal of the faith he had while he was still a Gentile!” I have long believed that Abraham’s amazing life was what “real faith looks like!” A study of Abraham’s life in Genesis shows that his life was Not one of unparalleled obedience and faithfulness, free from multiple mistakes and failures. First, God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, one of the ethnic peoples who populated and held sway in ancient Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon from the Book of Daniel, was a Chaldean. What we do know from Scripture is, that Abraham and his father, Terah, were idolaters:
“Joshua said to all the people, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods’ ” (Joshua 24:2).
The Midrashic (a book of Rabbinical Bible Interpretations), records that Abraham’s father, Terah, was an official in the court of Nimrod, king of Babylon. Possibly Terah was the head of Nimrod’s army. Other sources believe that Terah was an idol maker for Nimrod. It’s ironic to think that Abraham descended from a family of Gentile idolaters. And Scripture tells us in reverse order that Terah took Abraham and left Ur of the Chaldees in Genesis Chapter 11:
“Now Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they departed together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Harran and settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years; and Terah died in Harran” (Genesis 11:31-32).
For whatever reason, the verses above teach that it was Terah the father – who brought his son Abram along on this pilgrimage to the promised land – after God had specifically talked to, and given instructions to Abram:
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ ” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Right at the start, Abram’s obedience was partial. By faith he obeyed God, leaving his country – but brought his Father and Father’s house along in disobedience! Notice that Abram’s partial obedience put him into a holding pattern. He left Ur of the Chaldees at God’s prompting – but didn’t go to the promised land or hear from God again until after his father, Terah, died in Harran. As Abram leaves Harran, heading for the promised land in obedience, God appears to him again:
“Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ So, he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him ” (Genesis 12:6-7).
These were acts of faith – even if they were halting or partial – by Abraham, the father of all those who believe. Hopefully this will give us a sense of what “real faith looks like.” For God to recover His fallen creation, especially after almost 2,000 years of rebellion, God chose to work out His plan using imperfect people, with a propensity to doubt, fear and disobedience. For whatever reason, God wasn’t going to bring Terah, one of Nimrod’s men into the promised land with Abram. No, he would bring Abram along, guiding his faith and obedience to a crescendo of faith that itself foreshadowed the death and resurrection of Abraham’s seed (Galatians 3:16), Jesus Christ. As we look at the life of Father Abraham, my hope is we’ll be encouraged to see real faith in action, realizing that God does “all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). And God will ultimately accomplish all His purposes in Jesus Christ! The God who for generations was “veiled in thick darkness," has told us that He would finally recover fallen men and women by fully revealing Himself by His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:2). By beholding this revelation of Jesus – we are transformed into His likeness. Here’s how Paul explains this full revelation to the Corinthian Church:
“Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts; but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:12-18).
The Life of Abraham, the Father of all those who Believe, represents a huge step forward in God’s Redemptive-Progressive History. The History of Redemption from Genesis 12 on, is the story of Abraham and his Seed – the one in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In our next blog, we’ll consider two distinct events of faith that happened in Abraham’s life. One happening early in Abraham’s pilgrimage, and the other happening much later. In each of these passages, two different New Testament writers both proclaim: “And he believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness!” (Romans 4:9; James 2:23). These two events in Abraham’s Life really epitomize Fanny Crosby’s song: Trust and Obey!
Soli Deo Gloria!
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