The Promise, Faith & Works

TORAH

Gen. 18:1-22:24

HAFTORAH

2 Kings 4:1-37

B’RIT HADASHAH

Luke 17:26-37; Rom. 9:6-9
Gal. 4:21-31; Heb. 6:13-20; 11:13-19
James 2:14-24

Our commentary for today is based on Gen. 22:1-19; Gal. 4:21-31; Heb. 11:13-19; James 2:14-24.

 

The twofold theme of this commentary is the “promise” as the thread that connects our passages together and the outcome of this promise, which is the relationship between faith and works.

 

First, what does the promise consist of? There are three main aspects, namely that

1.       From Abraham a great nation will arise (the Hebrews, of which Abraham was the progenitor).

2.      This nation is established in the land of Canaan (i.e. the gate of his enemies).

3.      And because of the children of the promise (not the flesh) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed with spiritual blessings. It is from the Israel of this promise (that is Sarah, the free woman) and not from Hagar the slave woman who symbolically is the mother of the flesh or the sinful nature, that Christ was given to us (John 4:22).

The first step in God’s plan of redemption was the creation of a people. It was necessary to create a people because from these people the Messiah would come. God created the human nature of the Messiah from the available “gene pool”, in a manner of speaking. “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7a). This breath of life (Heb. Neshamah) does not partake of the “spiritual.” It refers rather to the self-awareness or the consciousness of man shared to one degree or another by many, if not all, animal species. However, the people would not be of the flesh only, otherwise Yeshua could not be born as the Messiah, instead of just another human being. (In order to forgive sin and pay the penalty for it that God required the Christ had to be fully human and fully divine, simultaneously but independently.) Hence, the promise made to Abraham and the prototypical birth of Isaac (who is a type of God the Son, even as Abraham is a type of God the Father). The children of the Sinai covenant were born under the yoke of slavery—that is to say, (as we wrote in our commentary on the parsha from last Sabbath), their personal willingness to be governed by external rules and regulations for obtaining justification or righteousness instead of growing in sanctification.

But there had to be many generations (children of the flesh as well as children of the promise—see the parable of the wheat and the tares, Matt. 13:24ff) which would form the cultural as well as the cultic basis for the development of the necessary religious system for the birth of the Messiah. Make no mistake; the Christ was the intended outcome, the offspring, of His culture and the religious system that developed in Canaan by the Hebrew nation. This Canaan-based religious system was the only one possible to act as the matrix for the advent of Messiah.  This was not an “accidental” occurrence. God did not just use the circumstances of the Exodus into Canaan—He purposefully brought all these things to pass so that in the fullness of time from this matrix alone the Saviour would be born.

In God’s own hidden but sovereign will, He purposed that this to be the way He would bring His Messiah into the world. But why couldn’t God have made it all happen in a moment, all at once, with no uncertainty? Well, He could have. But then there would have been no need—therefore opportunity—for His people to experience the graces of faith and hope. When things happen slowly and in unforeseen ways, it requires a degree of faith and biblical hope (not to mention patience and forbearance). These are gifts given by God, true, but equally true, they must also be developed and strengthened. This is what we call sanctification. “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12b-13).

Finally, the promise was necessary in order for there to be the possibility—I should say the certainty—of final spiritual liberation. Without the promise, the harm done by the fall of Adam could not be reversed or undone—that is, redeemed. This was part of the divine plan of redemption. Admittedly, in Adam there is a spiritual dimension, but that dimension was so corrupted by the fall that those living under its conditions can never escape and experience the gospel which is nothing more than the proclamation that the Kingdom of God has now been made freely available to all—the promise fulfilled—for all who in faith and hope desire it above anything else (Matt. 6:33).

The people that contributed to the birth of God’s Anointed One were not holistically cohesive however. In the passage from Galatians, Paul is rhetorically asking gentile believers if they really want to adopt all the provisions of the OT. He warns them that only the sons of the promise (the promise given to Abraham) will inherit the blessings that come with that promise. The danger for them is confusing the acceptance of the Mosaic covenant (given written expression in the Torah) including all its ceremonial aspects such as circumcision, with the faith that only comes with the promise, and which Christ alone completes. The promise is for Jew and Gentile alike. (Abraham was declared righteous, that is, justified, before he was circumcised. He was born as a Gentile but created as a Jew. His circumcision was a double sign: first and most importantly, like baptism it was a sign and a seal of his righteousness in the presence of God and of his corresponding commitment to God. Additionally, it was a sign of belonging to God’s covenant people. Over the course of time, Israel confused these aspects and now many believe that belonging to the covenant community means that one is justified by the law governing that community.)

While we may understand that the promise was necessary to bring the Messiah, we, like our brothers and sisters of the Mosaic covenant don’t always see the relationship between faith and works. Most people (Jews and Gentiles alike) are confused about the essential relationship, but it is really just the difference between justification and sanctification. Many people think that James and Paul were preaching different gospels—one of works of the law and another of faith without the law. However, what Paul really preached against was trying to be justified by the law or the Torah. According to God’s Word itself, justification is and has always been a matter of faith (Gen. 15:6; Hab. 2:4; Rom. 4:9; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23).

As his Master and brother in the flesh had already taught (John 15:5, 8), what James was getting at in his letter to the dispersed Jews was that the justified life is a fruitful life and that the actions and attitudes and the moral profile of the justified will automatically manifest as works or actions for good within the world. The best example of this is Abraham (Abraham was a Gentile who became a Jew by God’s providential will). He was willing to fulfill the ultimate work by sacrificing his own son in obedience to God. His actions were the outcome of his belief. Even his words "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son" should be understood not as a blind trust that God would provide a substitute sacrifice so he wouldn’t have to kill his son. Rather, we should understand that even if God permitted Abraham to kill his son, God would not break his promise. “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

AMEN