The Obedience of Faith

Genesis 12:4-9

When we studied Paul’s letter to the Romans a few years ago, I pointed out that Paul bookends his letter, and his ministry with the same phrase, “the obedience of faith.” In Romans 1:5-6 Paul writes, “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.” Then at the end of Romans he writes (Rom. 16:25-27), “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” “Obedience to the faith” is more literally, “the obedience of faith.”

What is “the obedience of faith”?

First, it is biblically correct to speak of faith as obedience. After all, God commands us to repent and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15; Acts 16:31; 17:30). Faith is obedience to the gospel command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Whenever anyone believes in Jesus, he is obeying Him. Saving faith is an act of obedience. Joyful obedience is the faithful response to the gospel and the right response to God’s call to salvation.

Second, if we love Christ, we joyfully obey Him (John 14:15). The Christian’s obedience of Christ is to be a believing obedience. All we do we are to do in faith (Rom. 14:23; Heb. 11:6). This is what distinguishes gospel obedience from legal obedience. Legal obedience is fueled by a desire to earn merit with God. It is born of fear, not love. In contrast, gospel obedience is fueled by love and gratitude. It wants to please the Savior. It sees obedience to God’s commands not as a duteous chore, but as a true delight (Psa. 119:24, 35, 47, 70, 97; John 14:15).

Abraham, our father in the faith (Rom. 4:16), is an example of the obedience of faith. Hebrews 11:8 comments on Abraham’s obedient faith, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” This seems to be the beginning of Abraham’s faith which will be shown to be saving faith in Genesis 15:6 where we read, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

Last time we saw God’s call to Abram to leave his country, his family, and his father’s house to go to a land God would show him (Gen. 12:1). God’s call included not only this command but also great promises. God told Abram, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great” (Gen. 12:2). God’s blessing carried an obligation, “And you shall be a blessing,” because God’s purpose was that in Abram “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).

Today we see the obedience of Abram’s faith in Genesis 12:4-9. Let me read Genesis 12:1-9,

¹ Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. ² I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴ So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. ⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸ And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. ⁹ So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

Today I want to point out a few facets of Abram’s obedient faith that should also characterize our faith.

1. Obedient faith hears God’s word.

In Genesis 12:1 we read, “Now the LORD had said to Abram”; in Genesis 12:4 we read, “So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him.” Obedient faith hears God’s word. Before you can respond in faith to the Lord you have to hear what He is saying. In other words, faith is not some vague leap in the dark. It is an obedient response to God’s Word.

As I pointed out last time, Moses doesn’t record how God spoke to Abram (was it an audible voice, a visitation, or a dream or vision?). Before the Bible was written God often spoke to people in these ways. God certainly could speak to people even today in an audible voice, or to appear to them, it is extremely rare. I have never had such an experience. In fact, I am a little wary of people who are always claiming, “The Lord told me ….” They may be living by faith in their feelings, not in the Lord.

God speaks to us through His word. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” Jesus is God’s word to us (John 1:1). How do we learn of Christ? Jesus said that the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39; Luke 24:27). The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself.

The point is that Abram heard God’s word and responded to it. That is faith.

2. Obedient faith acts on God’s word.

Genesis 12:4-5 says,

The action verbs in these verses tell the story of obedient faith. Abram “departed” (Gen. 12:4), Abram “took” (Gen. 12:5), and they “came” (Gen. 12:5). This was no small thing. Abram didn’t just pack a few things in a cart and travel with his little family, Sarai and nephew Lot. It was a big deal for him to depart Haran. Abram obviously had a successful business life in Haran because we read, they took “all their possessions that they had gathered.” Later we will read this includes Abram’s vast flocks and herds of livestock. And Abram took with him not only substantial possessions, but also “the people whom they had acquired in Haran.” These were probably men who worked for Abram and possibly their families also. In Genesis 14:14 we find that Abram had 318 trained men, born into his household. These also may have been proselytes whom Abram had won to his God. Abram was leading a larger migration than just his tiny family. It was a whole host of people who departed Haran and came to Canaan.

3. Obedient faith lives as a pilgrim.

Genesis 12:6 says, “Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.” Abram did not settle in the land to build a city. He “passed through” as a stranger in a foreign land. In Genesis 12:8 again we find “And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.” Abram is on the move, living in a tent, not a permanent dwelling. He is a man on a pilgrimage. Again in Genesis 12:9 we read, “So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.” Abram kept on his journey. He traveled the land of Canaan from the North to the South, surveying the promised land that God would give to his descendants, symbolically he has taken possession of it.

We also read, “And the Canaanites were then in the land.” This is an important statement given the promise that God had given to him. God promised to give him this land. Genesis 12:7 says, “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’” But there was a problem: the Canaanites were there. These are the people whom Noah cursed due to the sin of Ham (Gen. 9). They are the wicked people that the Israelites, for whom Moses wrote Genesis, will have to drive out of the land.

Hebrews 11:13 says about Abraham and his family that they, “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” A pilgrim is a person on a journey. He is not a settled resident. He’s just passing through, on his way to a better place. God did not promise to give the land to Abram, but to his descendants. Abraham would not live to see his descendants possess the land of Canaan. Rather, as the writer of Hebrews says, “But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country” (Heb. 11:16).

As Christians, we also are pilgrims on a journey to a better land. Peter calls us “sojourners and pilgrims” on this earth (1 Pet. 2:11). As such we are to “… abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Pet. 2:11-12).

From this time on, Abram lived as a nomad in a tent, not in a house. He never owned a single piece of Canaan, except for the burial plot he bought for his wife. The only thing of permanence he left behind were some altars.

That brings us to our last point:

4. Obedient faith worships.

Genesis 12:7-8 reads, “…And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸ And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.” The tent shows Abram to be a pilgrim; the altar shows him to be a worshiper. The first place Abram builds an altar is “the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh” (Gen. 12:4). Shechem becomes an important site later in Israel’s history. It was in the geographic center of the land of Canaan. There the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.”

Abram’s response was to build an altar to the Lord. The great tree of Moreh was likely a place where the Canaanites assembled to hear oracles from their soothsayers (the word Moreh means “teacher, oracle giver”). We know that the Canaanites often performed their pagan rituals on the hills under large trees. Abram built his second altar near Bethel. Bethel also was home to an important Canaanite shrine to their god El. But Abram builds an alter to the Lord, to Yahweh. There he “called on the name of the LORD.” Abram publicly proclaimed his faith. He preached the name of Yahweh, the Lord. The Lord had promised to make Abram’s name great and Abram responded by proclaiming the name of the Lord. Faithful Abraham worshiped wherever he went.

Conclusion

Obedient faith hears God’s word and acts on it. Obedient faith continues by living in this world as pilgrims and worshipers. It proclaims to a wicked world that the Lord is God.

The obedience of faith: Have you obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ? God sent His only begotten Son into this world to die for your sins upon the cross. He raised Jesus from the dead as Lord of life. Now He commands all people to repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you heard the word of God and obeyed God’s call to salvation?

And for those who have: How does your life and my life measure up? Is our faith a truly biblical and saving faith, that is, a faith that loves and pursues obedience? Is our obedience to Christ fueled with thankfulness and love? Have you been obedient to live as a sojourner and pilgrim in this world? Have you heard the word of God calling you to worship and witness?