And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” [Genesis 22.18]
Abraham obeyed God. In particular, this obedience was noted in reference to Abraham's willingness to offer his only son, Isaac, on the altar as a sacrifice to God.
It is important for us to understand however that what God called obedience, New Testament writers called faith.
That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. [Romans 4.17]
It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. [Hebrews 11.17-19]
Faith and obedience - obedience and faith - are inseparable in God's eyes. Either way, to have obedience without faith or faith without obedience is baseless. We should stop here and let this statement soak in...
Faith and obedience can be likened to the two separate cords that make an electric light work. If either cord is disconnected the light will not work.
In the comparison above, "light" can represent power. Any person who obeys without faith or believes without obedience is in a state of "disconnect" and therefore powerless. This gives us every reason to think seriously then about what Jesus said:
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” [Mark 11.22-25]
The implications of what is revealed here are simply too deep to address exhaustively here, but suffice it to say, there will be no mountains moved by faith by the person who disobeys (in this case, refuses to forgive another).
The combined forces of faith and obedience - obedience and faith - are where the power is. We need to be where the power is today - we need that blessing!
Father, help me to remain mindful that faith and obedience work in power together, but are powerless apart.
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