September 15, 2009 FAITH IN THE RIGHT PERSON by Cornelius R. Stam Printer Friendly Version Abraham's faith in God was strong. When God called him to forsake his family, friends and country, he obeyed and "went forth, not knowing whither he went." When God promised to multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, he believed it, though childless. When, in his old age, God promised that he would still have a son by ninety-year-old Sarah, he believed it even though he had waited so long, seemingly in vain. When God promised to give his seed the land in which he had sojourned, he believed it, though all reason argued against it. When God asked him to offer in sacrifice the son born so late in life, the son upon whom all the promises depended, he obeyed, concluding that it must be God's plan to raise him from the dead! Such was Abraham's faith in God! Three times this is emphasized in Romans 4 alone: He was "not weak in faith" (Ver. 19); he "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief," but was "strong in faith" (Ver. 20). But it was not the strength of Abraham's faith that saved him; it was the fact that the object of his faith was God (See again Gen. 15:6). He had placed his faith in the right Person. His faith became "strong" only because he had heard and believed God in the first place. "For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness," and thus "to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:3,5). The simplest, humblest believer, who ever so feebly commits himself to God and His Word, is "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24). To the Reader: Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface: "It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles." We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.