Truth Magazine

By Don R. Hastings

There were many times in the life of Abraham when his faith was put to the test. However, these trials were relatively easy when compared with the severity and difficulty of this supreme test of Abraham’s great faith. I am amazed .and astonished at the degree of faith which Abraham possessed in God. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves at how easily our faith falters under our light afflictions.

What would you have done had you been in Abraham’s place? Would your faith cause you to act in complete accord with God’s will? As Christians, we are “Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). Let us act like his children by following his example of complete obedience. It is easy to understand why God thought so highly of Abraham. What does he think of us?

God’s Command To Abraham (vv. 1, 2)

The King .lames Version says, “God did tempt Abraham.” God did not try to induce Abraham to sin (James 1:13); Satan is the tempter (Matthew 4:1, 3). We sin when we permit Satan to entice us to do evil (James 1:14, 15). God was proving, or testing, Abraham’s faith (American Standard Version).

God required Abraham to sacrifice that which was very dear to him. Isaac was his only begotten son by Sarah (Gen. 21:3). Ishmael was his son by his handmaid Hagar and they had been driven out (Gen. 21:10-14). Today, God requires us to sacrifice that which is very dear to us – our own selves (Rom. 12:1, 2; Matt. 16:24).

The best we can offer God is ourselves and that involves our: (1) Love, affection, and devotion (Matt. 22:37); (2) Time. He wants the best years of our life, but many want to give Satan the best years of their life and then give God a worn out body and mind; (3) Energy. How much work are you doing for the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58)? (4) Material goods. Many want to give to God what is left over after they have spent money to satisfy their own pleasures. Abraham understood God’s command, and so can we!

Abraham’s Response To God’s Command (vv. 3-6)

He “rose early in the morning.” His first order of business was to do what God had commanded. We would have thought up excuses for delaying. Look how we delay in doing work for the Lord. Look how many arrive tardy out of~habit at the worship services.

He did not seek the advice of others. What others might say about such drastic action did not hinder his obedience. Sometimes, others have trouble understanding us when we put God first. The coach of the all-star team did not understand it at all when I pulled my son out of the important game because it was time to assemble with the saints. In my high school days, my classmates did not understand it at all when I refused to participate in dancing during physical education class.

Abraham did not let the distance to travel interfere with his obedience. Many, today feel as though it is a great burden and expense to get in their cars and travel a few miles to worship0 God. My`, what= sacrifices we make! Abraham did not fuss about the weather, either.

Abraham’s Response To Isaac’s Question (vv. 7, 8)

“God will provide” – what great faith! Isaac said, “Behold, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?” The daddy answered his boy, “God will provide . . . .” Right here is where I would have broken down if that was my command to obey, and my boy Ted had asked me such a question. What great faith Abraham possessed! Do we believe that the Lord will provide (Matt. 6:25-34).

Manifested Complete Trust

Abraham manifested his complete trust in God by obeying this command which cost him dearly and made no sense to the human mind. It was through Isaac that the promises God made to Abraham were to be fulfilled (text; Gen. 17:21; 21:12). How could God keep His promise if Isaac was killed? Had not God said that it was wrong to kill (Gen. 9:6)?

The only answer to this problem that Abraham could see was that God would resurrect Isaac (text). What great faith! There is no record of God having resurrected anyone at this time.

“All Things Work Together For Good” When We Obey God (Romans 8:28)

The angel stopped Abraham from slaying his son (vv. 9-12). God provided a ram (vv. 13, 14). Through an angel, God renewed His promises to Abraham (vv. 15-19). If all people would only have the faith to do God’s will in everything, what a wonderful place this world would be to live in, and how much happier we would be!

Abraham proved his faith by works (James 2:21-23). Do you have the faith of Abraham? If you do, you will prove it by your complete obedience to God’s commandments (James 2:26). You will be a faithful Christian.

Abraham would have offered his son, but God stopped him. However, the Father did not stop Himself for offering His only begotten Son for our sins! Will you show your love for His sacrifice by being baptized into His death so His blood can wash away your sins?

Truth Magazine XXIV: 16, p. 258
April 17, 1980

By N. B. Hardeman

Why preach again first principles of the gospel of Christ? I look out over the audience and see silver haired sires along with other brethren that have been knowing the truth for numbers of years, and I wonder if you do not think: “Is he to preach again on faith, repentance, confession, and baptism for the remission of sins? Why, Brother Hardeman, we understand that.” Doubtless a large part of you do; but mark it: There are people attending this meeting now and shall hereafter, who know no more about the gospel today than some of you preachers did twenty-five or thirty years ago. It is just as necessary to show this present generation the distinctive plea of the gospel of Christ as it was for our ears to have been greeted by it in the years gone by. Second, there are people accountable to God today that were not accountable last year, and for that reason let us tell it over and over again. In the third place, there are people interested now who were not, at the last meeting in Nashville. Well, how do 1 know that? By general observation. I know there are experiences and things that come to pass in our lives that make us feel more keenly that we are rushing on down to an open tomb, that make us more conscious of the fact that we are beating funeral marches to the confines of the dead. Some spell of sickness, the burial of some loved one, some tragedy has come so close as to make people recognize the danger, thus prompting them to resolve within themselves: “I expect to become obedient unto the gospel of Christ.” Therefore, preach the first principles. Why? People attending that never have before; some accountable now that were not when the last meeting was held; some by virtue of varied and sundry circumstances interested now who have not hitherto so been (Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons Vol. IV, p. 14-15).

Truth Magazine XXIV: 16, p. 257
April 17, 1980

By Leslie Diestelkamp

Paul was a great advocate of salvation by grace and almost all of his writing is saturated with expressions of gratitude for and confidence in God’s grace. Yet Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to write a warning to all of us to remember that grace does not give license to sinfulness. He said, “that as sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto enternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” and then he added, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” (Rom. 5:21-6:2).

If we have come into Christ through an obedient faith we are freed from past sins and given a precious relationship to God, in Christ, but we are then obligated to continue in righteousness. And we must not assume that because we are in Christ, God will “look the other way” when we sin. There is nothing in the New Testament to suggest that God will overlook any transgression or that He will decline to charge a person with guilt just because that person is a child of God.

Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life for three purposes: (1) To “do the will” of the Father (Jn. 4:34); (2) To set a perfect example for us to follow (1 Cor. 11:1); (3) To provide the only adequate sacrifice for the sins of others (Heb. 4:15; 7:26). But the perfect life of Jesus (which he lived on earth) is not imputed to us – that is, that is not attributed to us or counted for our account. Two verses of scripture need consideration here:

1. In Romans 4:8, Paul wrote, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Paul was not saying that God would overlook some sins in certain people, but he was teaching that some people’s sins are forgiven and, therefore, will not be held against them (see Rom. 4:7). And, in context, these verses were all teaching that righteousness today is not in keeping the old law but in and through faith in Christ, and that this righteousness is possible for both Jew and Gentile. Either (Jew or Gentile) if he sins is counted a sinner and if he is forgiven he is counted righteous.

2. In Romans 5:10, Paul wrote, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Paul is not saying that the sinless life of Jesus will save the Christian today, but he is saying that the Christian is saved today because Jesus is alive – He is now at God’s throne, interceding for us. Because we have a living Savior, we can have security as we “walk in the light” (1 Jn. 1:7) and as we “walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1).

God’s grace is an expression of His love for sinful man, but God’s very nature is incompatible with sin itself. Therefore, God cannot be reconciled to a sinner, but a sinner can be reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus which was and is a sufficient price, paid in full, to enable God to justify the ungodly when they turn from ungodliness in faith.

Saved By Grace

Every Bible believer must acknowledge that we are saved, if saved at all, by God’s grace. However, there is much confusion as to the process by which we become beneficiaries of that saving race. Actually God’s grace comes to us in a three-fold manner. Perhaps we could simplify by saying that salvation for the alien sinner is accomplished only as a result of three separate, yet related circumstances, as follows:

1. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16). Indeed, God has “set forth” Jesus Christ to be “a propitiation through faith in his blood . . . . for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Rom. 6:25). That is salvation (provided) by grace.

2. “Or despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Ram. 2:4). A true believer will be moved by the love of God, his supreme sacrifice and the love of Christ, and will respond with sincere submission in repentance and baptism (“They that gladly received the Word were baptized . . . ” — Acts 2:41). This is salvation (motivated) by grace.

3. But when the sinner had obeyed the gospel, he had earned nothing at all. God is not obligated to him even yet. However, under this circumstance and at this point God does pardon the sinner’s guilt. “. . . ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom. 6:17, 18). This is salvation (received) by grace.

Conditional Salvation

Thus we see that everything which man cannot accomplish by merit, and that is necessary to our salvation, God has fully supplied by His generous grace. And He has made it sufficient for “whosoever Will” (Rev. 22:17). He is “no respector of persons” (Rom. 2:11).

Yet this abundance of grace does not save all because: (1) Some never know of this grace. “How shall they call on him of whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” (Ram. 10:14). (2) Some who hear will not believe and (3) some who believe will not obey.

Peter said, “Save yourselves . . . .” (Acts 2:40). Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of the Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). Again Jesus said, “He that believeth and.is baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:16).

As far as God’s part in our salvation is concerned, it is altogether, totally, of grace! But as far as man’s part is concerned, salvation is altogether, totally conditional. Salvation for the sinner is obtained by grace and by an obedient faith, and that is not at all contradictory! And the next essay in this series will be regarding “Continuous (Constant) Grace.”

Truth Magazine XXIV: 15, pp. 250-251
April 10, 1980

By Earl Robertson

Some who have accepted the idea that one saved in Christ can never be lost have used this passage (Heb. 7:25) to support such a contention. The verse says, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them:” The fact that Christ continueth ever as a priest, He is able to cave completely and make intercession. The running contrast` in the Hebrew letter of the inability of the sacrificed animals to save with the ability of Christ to save completely is the climaxes at this point. Christ is truly able to save all the same way – those who come to God by Him. One denominational preacher commenting on this verse wrote, “In short, Christ crucified paid for our salvation; Christ risen will surely collect what He paid for.”

Jesus Christ did “taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9), but is this fact cause to make us conclude that all will be saved? A sinner has the power of choice to reject the blood of Christ, and Christians are warned against counting “the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing” (Heb. 10:29). The fact that Jesus died to save all does not teach universal salvation. The Bible plainly says “many” will be lost (Matt. 7:13, 14). Well, if Christ died for all, but many of the all will be lost; universalism is not true. So, what does the preacher mean “Christ risen will surely collect what He paid for”? It is an abortive attempt to make the word of God teach that once one is saved he can never be lost.

Though Christ died to save all, He imposes that His gospel be preached unto all (Mk. 16:15., 16) because all have sinned (Rom. 3:23). This gospel he sealed through His death and by it we are sanctified (Heb. 10:10). This gospel is God’s power to save the ones who believe it (Rom. 1:16, 17). Those who believe and obey this gospel (Rom. 1:16; 2 Thess. 1:7-9) are saved and the Lord adds them to His church (Acts 2:38-47). Jesus called this the new birth and entrance into the kingdom, saying, “Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). But Jesus said some in the kingdom would be gathered out of the kingdom and cast into fire (Matt. 13:41, 42). Only the born again are in the kingdom, but some will be gathered out and burned!

Truth Magazine XXIV: 15, p. 250
April 10, 1980