We often speak about Abraham, the father of the faithful. According to Galatians 3:6, 7, if we as Christians possess faith, we are actually children of Abraham. We must possess faith in order to be overcomers. 1 John 5:4.

But what characterizes this genuine faith that Abraham had? What made it so special? “The only vital faith is that faith which receives and assimilates the truth till it is a part of the being and the motive power of the life and action.”1

The faith of Abraham is not that type of belief mentioned in James 2:19—the kind of belief that even the devils possess.

“You may believe all the truth; yet if its principles are not carried out in your lives, your profession will not save you. Satan believes and trembles. He works. He knows his time is short, and he has come down in great power to do his evil works according to his faith. But God’s professed people do not support their faith by their works. They believe in the shortness of time, yet grasp just as eagerly after this world’s goods as though the world were to stand a thousand years as it now is.”2

The Lord’s messenger was shown “a very large company professing the name of Christ, but God did not recognize them as His. He had no pleasure in them. Satan seemed to assume a religious character and was very willing that the people should think they were Christians. He was even anxious that they should believe in Jesus, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. Satan and his angels fully believe all this themselves, and tremble. But if this faith does not provoke to good works, and lead those who profess it to imitate the self-denying life of Christ, Satan is not disturbed; for they merely assume the Christian name, while their hearts are still carnal, and he can use them in his service even better than if they made no profession. Hiding their deformity under the name of Christian, they pass along with their unsanctified natures, and their evil passions unsubdued. This gives occasion for the unbeliever to reproach Christ with their imperfections, and causes those who do possess pure and undefiled religion to be brought into disrepute.”3

In contrast, the type of Abrahamic faith not only believes but also trusts the word of God. “Faith is the only condition upon which justification can be obtained, and faith includes not only belief but trust.”4

Faith = Belief + Trust

This formula shows the type of faith Abraham experienced. If we want to obtain victory in this world, we must possess a faith like Abraham’s.

In Genesis 12:1 God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. Why did He call him out of such a pleasant and congenial land? The patriarch needed to comply with the principle found in 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

“In order that God might qualify him for his great work as the keeper of the sacred oracles, Abraham must be separated from the associations of his early life. The influence of kindred and friends would interfere with the training which the Lord purposed to give His servant.”5

What promise was given to Abraham if he would fulfill the condition of coming out? The Lord assured him, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2, 3).

What does the utterance: “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” mean? “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8).

It is the gospel. And what is the gospel? The apostle Paul explains that “it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

Along with the promised power to overcome sin through faith in the gospel came another promise—and these two promises must go hand in hand: “And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him” (Genesis 12:7).

To whom was the promise of the land made? The Lord explained to Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:7, 8, emphasis added). The promise was given to both Abraham AND his seed.

Did God intend to fulfill that promise to Abraham in his lifetime? After telling him in Genesis 15:5–7 that his seed would be numberless as the stars, He later told him in a dream that this would not take place for another 400 years (verses 12–18). Why not? Because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (verse 16). So Abraham was to die before that promise could be fulfilled (verse 15).

Referring back to the book of Galatians, it becomes evident that the inheritance of land belongs to Christ and those who accept Him (3:16, 29). How much land was included in this promise? We read that “the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13, emphasis supplied).

As foretold to him in Genesis 15:15, Abraham died before the 400 years were up, yet “the plan of redemption was . . . opened to him, in the death of Christ, the great sacrifice, and His coming in glory. Abraham saw also the earth restored to its Eden beauty, to be given him for an everlasting possession, as the final and complete fulfillment of the promise.”6

Faithful Abraham never thought of a possession without Jesus. “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9, 10).

“The heritage that God has promised to His people is not in this world. Abraham had no possession in the earth, ‘no, not so much as to set his foot on’ (Acts 7:5). He possessed great substance, and he used it to the glory of God and the good of his fellow men; but he did not look upon this world as his home. The Lord had called him to leave his idolatrous countrymen, with the promise of the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession; yet neither he nor his son nor his son’s son received it. When Abraham desired a burial place for his dead, he had to buy it of the Canaanites. His sole possession in the Land of Promise was that rock-hewn tomb in the cave of Machpelah.

“But the word of God had not failed; neither did it meet its final accomplishment in the occupation of Canaan by the Jewish people. ‘To Abraham and his seed were the promises made’ (Galatians 3:16). Abraham himself was to share the inheritance. The fulfillment of God’s promise may seem to be long delayed—for ‘one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’ (2 Peter 3:8); it may appear to tarry; but at the appointed time ‘it will surely come, it will not tarry’ (Habakkuk 2:3). The gift to Abraham and his seed included not merely the land of Canaan, but the whole earth. So says the apostle, ‘The promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith’ (Romans 4:13). And the Bible plainly teaches that the promises made to Abraham are to be fulfilled through Christ. All that are Christ’s are ‘Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise’—heirs to ‘an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away’—the earth freed from the curse of sin (Galatians 3:29; 1 Peter 1:4). . . .

“Of the posterity of Abraham it is written, ‘These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth’ (Hebrews 11:13). We must dwell as pilgrims and strangers here if we would gain ‘a better country, that is, an heavenly’ (verse 16). Those who are children of Abraham will be seeking the city which he looked for, ‘whose builder and maker is God.’”7

The children of faith are not looking for an earthly inheritance in old Jerusalem. Some believe that it is necessary to go to old Jerusalem before Jesus comes, but is that what these texts are saying? No! It is rather a great error in belief.

The Lord’s messenger “was pointed to some who are in the great error, that the saints are yet to go to Old Jerusalem, etc., before the Lord comes. Such a view is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of God, under the message of the third angel; for if we are to go to Jerusalem, then our minds will naturally be there and our means will be withheld from other uses, to get the saints to Jerusalem. I saw that the reason why they were left to go into this great error is because they have not confessed and forsaken their errors, that they have been in for a number of years past.”8

“The city of Jerusalem is no longer a sacred place. The curse of God is upon it because of the rejection and crucifixion of Christ. A dark blot of guilt rests upon it, and never again will it be a sacred place until it has been cleansed by the purifying fires of heaven. At the time when this sin-cursed earth is purified from every stain of sin, Christ will again stand upon the Mount of Olives. As His feet rest upon it, it will part asunder, and become a great plain, prepared for the city of God.”9

“[The erroneous view that there is a particularly distinct work to do in Old Jerusalem before the Lord comes] is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of the Lord, under the message of the third angel; for those who think that they are yet to go to Jerusalem will have their minds there, and their means will be withheld from the cause of present truth to get themselves and others there. I saw that such a mission would accomplish no real good, that it would take a long while to make a very few of the Jews believe even in the first advent of Christ, much more to believe in His second advent. I saw that Satan had greatly deceived some in this thing and that souls all around them in this land could be helped by them and led to keep the commandments of God, but they were leaving them to perish.”10

“Old Jerusalem will never be a sacred place until it is cleansed by the refining fire from heaven. The darkest blot of guilt rests upon the city that refused the light of Christ. Do we want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus? We need not seek out the paths in Nazareth, Bethany, and Jerusalem. We shall find the footprints of Jesus by the sick-bed, by the side of suffering humanity, in the hovels of the poverty-stricken and distressed. We may walk in these footsteps, comforting the suffering, speaking words of hope and comfort to the despondent. Doing as Jesus did when He was upon earth, we shall walk in His blessed steps. Jesus said, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me’ (Matthew 16:24). When the sin-cursed earth is purified from every stain of sin; when the Mount of Olives is rent asunder and becomes an immense plain; when the holy city of God descends upon it—the land that is now called the Holy Land will indeed become holy. But God’s cause and work will not be advanced by making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. The curse of God is upon Jerusalem for the rejection and crucifixion of His only begotten Son. But God will cleanse away the vile blot. . . . [Revelation 21:1–5 RV, quoted.]”11

“We can know far more of Christ by following Him step by step in the work of redemption, seeking the lost and perishing, than by journeying to old Jerusalem. Christ has taken His people into His church. He has swept away every ceremony of the ancient type. He has given no liberty to restore these rites, or to substitute anything that will recall the old literal sacrifices. . . . The Lord has obliterated those things which men would worship in and about Jerusalem, yet many hold in reverence literal objects in Palestine, while they neglect to behold Jesus as their advocate in the heaven of heavens.”12

The fulfillment of the promises to Abraham was to take place in the time of Moses. In Exodus 6:2–5, God reveals that He remembered the covenant—not only to deliver His people out of Egypt but also to bring them to the land promised to Abraham (verse 8).

But the people could not enter into the promised land because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). So, rather than trying to restore old Jerusalem to its ancient sacredness, what are we to do? We are to be “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Where is Christ? He is in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 3:1; 8:1, 2).

“We should earnestly inquire, not in regard to old Jerusalem and concerning the fables that are repeated for truth, but we should turn our eyes to the loving Saviour, who ever liveth to make intercession for us. We should prostrate the soul before the incarnate God.”13

Why couldn’t Abraham possess that land immediately? Genesis 15:16.

Why couldn’t Israel possess that land in their day? Hebrews 3:19.

Will God dispossess one people because of their iniquity and merely replace them with another people full of iniquity?

What kind of people will possess the new heaven and earth? “Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified” (Isaiah 60:21).

What kind of a church is Christ waiting to take with Him when He comes to prepare them to possess this earth for eternity? “Christ . . . loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25–27). He “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14).

May the Lord help us fulfill the mission—to be the people of His heritage through the power of His sacrifice!