“Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” (Romans 4:16-21).
It was contrary to all human expectation that Abraham and Sarah could have a child. There were no grounds for which they should expect a child by natural order.
Abraham was faced with a decision he didn’t ask for. He had to choose between two conflicting facts – the deadness of their bodies versus God’s plain, truthful promise. As one has said, Abraham “had to decide whether to believe God against nature, or believe nature against God.”
This defines for us the nature of pleasing faith. We do not believe God because it passes our test of reasonableness, because we like it, because it is logical to us, because it is convenient for us, or because it fits with our view. We believe God because He said it. Look in Hebrews 11. How many of those great witnesses believed God against human reasoning?
The belief Abraham had was a complete confidence and trust in what God promised, and he walked, he lived, that way too. With such strong faith, he could have hope, expectation, in what was contrary to the natural order.
When we step outside human basis and into the realm and the reality of divine precept and promise, there is no shame in hope believing. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith and hope are tightly bound together.
We therefore in hope believe in that which we have not seen. And so the Christian believes in things that are unacceptable to the modernist. He believes that God created the earth in six literal days. He believes that Jesus was the Son of God and died for our sins, was buried and arose the third day to live forevermore. He believes in one way to be saved ad in one true church. He believes and hopes in an eternal home for the righteous called heaven, and he believes in an eternal punishment for the wicked called hell.
Every one of these is contrary to the natural order of things that we are able to observe or to what is generally accepted. But contrary to hope, in hope we believe. This is a blessed way to live.
-Larry Jones