Unwavering

Romans 4:19-20 Unwavering Faith

The Struggle for Faith 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered . . . He did not regard the fact that his body was now dead, as any obstacle to the fulfillment of the promise. He did let that fact influence him, or to produce any doubt about the fulfillment. Faith looks to the strength of God, not to second causes, or to difficulties that may appear formidable to man. (Barnes) This verse states the circumstances which rendered the accomplishment of the promise an apparent impossibility, viz. his own advanced age, and the age and barrenness of his wife. These circumstances he did not consider, that is, he did not allow them to have weight, he did not fix his mind on the difficulties of the case. Had he been weak in faith and allowed himself to dwell on the obstacles to the fulfillment of the divine promise, he would have staggered. This does not imply that there was no inward conflict with doubt in Abraham's mind. It only says, that his faith triumphed over all difficulties (Hodge)

The Staggering in Faith 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God

Staggering Defined Gk Diakrino Compound word dia meaning two and Krino meaning to separate, put asunder, to pick out, select, choose, to judge by or to pronounce an opinion concerning right and wrong. (Strong) ) it means to separate, to distinguish between, to decide between, to desert, to dispute, to be divided in one‘s own mind. (Matt 21:22; Mk 11:23; Rom 14:23; James 1:6). “He was not divided in his mind by unbelief” (Robertson) It is vacillating in doubt. "to stagger, or waver,” or vacillate. — to judge between two things. to flip-flop back and forth unable to make an opinion, solidify an option (MacArthur) It is to make use of our own judgment and reason in discerning of things, of what sort they are. To stagger, then, at the promise, is to take into consideration the promise itself, and with all the difficulties that lie in the way for the accomplishment of it, as to a man’s own abilities, and then so to dispute it in his thoughts, as not fully to cast it off, nor fully to be settled with it. For instance, the soul considers the promise of free grace in the blood of Jesus, — looks upon it, — weighs as . . . the truth of God, who makes the promise, with those other considerations which might lead the heart to rest firmly upon it; but takes into his thoughts his own unworthiness, sinfulness, unbelief, hypocrisy, and the like, — which, powerfully staves off the efficacy of the promise from him. Thus, he knows not what to conclude. If he adds a grain of faith, the scale turns on the side of the promise; the like quantity of unbelief makes it turn upon him; and he doesn’t knows what to do; let go the promise he cannot, take fast hold he dares not; but here he staggers and wavers to and fro ( Phil 1:23) A poor creature looking upon the promise sees, as he supposes, in a steadfast settling with the promise, that there lies presumption; on the other hand, certain destruction if he doesn’t believe. And now he staggers, arguments arise on both sides, he doesn’t know how to determine them; and so, hanging in suspense, he staggers. Like a man travelling a journey, and coming on two paths that are promising, and he doesn’t know which is the right way; he guesses, and guesses, and at length cries, Well, I don’t know which of these ways I should go; but this is certain, if I mistake, I am undone: I’ll go on neither, but here I’ll sit down, and not move one step, until someone comes that can give me direction. The soul very frequently sits down in this hesitation, and refuses to step one step forward, till God comes mightily and leads out the spirit to the promise, or the devil turns it aside to unbelief. It is as a thing of small weight in the air: the weight that it has carries it downwards; and the air, with some breath of wind, bears it up again, so

that it waves to and fro: sometimes it seems as though it would fall; and sometimes again, as though it would mount quite out of sight; but poised between both, it tosses up and down, without any great gaining either way. The promise draws the soul upward, and the weight of its unbelief sinks it downward. Sometimes the promise attracts so powerfully, you would think the heart quite drawn up into it; and sometimes again unbelief presses down, that you would think it was gone forever; — but neither prevails utterly, the poor creature swags between both. This is to stagger. A poor soul, that has been long perplexed in trouble and anxiety of mind, finds a sweet promise, — Christ in a promise suited to all his wants, coming with mercy to pardon him, with love to embrace him, with blood to purge him, — and is raised up to roll himself in some measure upon this promise. When all of the sudden, terrors arise, temptations grow strong, new corruptions break out, — Christ in the promise dies to him, Christ in the promise is slain, is in the grave as to him; so that he can only sigh, and say, I trusted for deliverance by Christ, but now all is gone again; I have little or no hope, — Christ in the promise is slain to me. What then? shall he give over? never more inquire after this buried Christ, but sit down in darkness and sorrow, No, he cannot do so: some new arguments of Christ comed again upon him; Christ is not forever lost to him. What does he, then? Steadfastly believe he cannot, — totally give over he will not; he staggers, — he is full of self-consultations, and is sad. This it is to stagger at the promise of God. It is like Peter venturing upon the waves at the command of Christ, Matt 14:28-32 seeing “the wind to grow boisterous,” (30), he also has a storm within, and cries out, “Lord, save me!” What was now the cause of Peter’s fear and crying out? Why, the wind and sea grew boisterous, and he was ready to sink; — no such thing, but merely unbelief, want of faith, (31). “O you of little faith,” says our Savior, “why do you doubt?” It was not the great wind, but your little faith that made you stagger (Matt. 6:30, 8:26.) Ultimately staggering is unbelief (Owen) Abraham considered, but staggered not - He was not moved, or agitated; he steadily and firmly believed the promise. (Barnes)

Staggering’s Deception When a man doubts, hesitates, and disputes, anything in himself, his reasonings must have risen, either from something within himself, or from something in the things concerning which he staggers; — either “the assurance of his mind,” or the “certainty of the thing itself,” is lacking. So, when men stagger at the promises, this must arise either from within themselves, or some occasion must be administered from the promise. If from within themselves, that can be nothing but unbelief; — an inbred obstacle to settling with and resting on the promise, — that is unbelief. If, then, we demonstrate that there is nothing in the promise, either as to its matter or manner, . . . that should occasion any such staggering, we lay the burden and blame on the right shoulders, — the sin of staggering on unbelief. All the stability of a promise depends upon the qualifications of the promiser to the ends and purposes of the promise. If a man makes me a promise to do such and such things for me, and I question whether ever it will be so or not, it must be from a doubt of the want of one of these things in him that makes the promise; — either (1.) of truth of the promise; Can it be done? or (2.) of trustworthiness, the ability to make good his word- Will it be able to be done? Now, if there is reason of any of these in the one whose promised , there is then certainly no ground of our staggering, but only from our own unbelief. (Owen) So the deception of staggering is that there is something wrong with the promise or the one making the promise. It is distrust or disbelieve rather than faith in the promise and the promise giver. Is there truth in these promises? If there be the least occasion in the world to suspect the truth of the promises or the veracity of the promiser, then may our staggering at them arise from this, and not from our own unbelief. On this ground it is that all human faith, that is founded merely on the testimony of man, is at best but a probable opinion; for men are liars, and possibly may lie in that very thing he is engaged to us in. But now, the author of the promises is truth itself, — the God of truth, who has taken this as his special attribute, to distinguish him from all others. He is the very God of truth; and holds out this very attribute in a special manner in this very thing, in making of his promise. His word is said not only to be true, but “truth,” John 17:17, — truth itself. So, there can be no occasion of staggering, this God of truth, whose word is truth, has, in his infinite wisdom, . . . used all possible means to cause us to apprehend the truth of his promises. But not only must it be a true promise, but there must be an ability in the promiser to accomplish the thing promised. As if a physician should promise a sick man recovery from his disease, though he could rely upon the truth and sincerity ot the doctor, yet he cannot but question his ability as to this, knowing that to cure him is not absolutely in his power; but when he promised is able to perform, then all doubting in this kind is removed. . . . When God comes to Abraham to engage himself in that covenant of grace from which flow all the promises . . . , he lays this down as the foundation of all; “I am,” says he, “God Almighty,” (Gen. 17:1); or “God all-sufficient,” very well able to go through with whatever I promise. When difficulties, temptations, and troubles arise, remember who it is that has promised; — not only he that is true and faithful (Rev 19:11-13), but he that is God Almighty, before whom nothing can stand, when he will accomplish his word (Job 42:2, Jer 32:17,). When men come to settle with the promise, to make a life upon it, they are very ready to question and inquire whether it is possible that ever the word of it should be made good to them (Gen 18:11-14). He that sees a little boat at sea, observes no great difficulty in it, looks upon it without any concern of mind at all, —how it tosses up and down, without any fears of its sinking. But now, let this man commit his own life to sea in the boat, what inquiries will he make! What a search into the vessel! Is it possible, he says, this little thing should safeguard my life in the ocean? —so it is with us, in our view of the promises: will we consider them at large, as they lie in the word, alas! they are all true, — all yes and amen, — and shall be all accomplished; but when we go to venture our souls upon a promise, in an ocean of wrath and temptations, then every blast we think will overturn it; it will not bear us above all these waves. Now, here we are apt to deceive ourselves, and mistake the whole thing in question; which the source of many corrupted reasonings and perplexed thoughts. We inquire whether it can be so to us as the word holds out; when the truth is, the question is not about the nature of the promise, but about the power of God. Place the doubt aright, and it is this: Is God able to accomplish what he has spoken — can he stop me or my friends’ backslidings? Can he pardon my sins? Can he save my soul or that of a friend? Now, that there may be no occasion of staggering upon this point, you see God reveals himself as an all-sufficient God, as one that is able to go through with all his promises. If you will stagger, you may so do. This is certain, you have no cause to do so from this, — there is not any promise that God made but he is able to perform it. (Josh 21:45, 23:14) (Owens) Unbelief attacks along two lines seeking to make is waver or stagger: First to look at the difficulties. Second, to look at the impossibility of the promise being fulfilled. Both of these are tools the devil uses to foster unbelief. He comes and says your difficulties are insurmountable and the promise is unreasonable, so God can’t do what he said, the “waves” are “boisterous”. He gets us to look at the problems and look away from the promise, we are deceived and stagger in unbelief.

Staggering’s Defeat No one indeed comes forth a conqueror from this staggering, but he who borrows weapons and strength from the word of God. From what he adds, giving glory to God, it must be observed, that no greater honor can be given to God, than by faith to seal his truth; as, on the other hand, no greater dishonor can be done to him, than to refuse his offered favor, or to discredit his word. It is hence the chief thing in honoring God, obediently to embrace his promises: and true religion begins with faith (Calvin) He looked at the facts as they were, at their very worst, and yet , though he did that, he was not at all weakened in his faith. Why? Abraham looked at the facts and the difficulties and the obstacles, but he did not stop there. But, he did not just look there. He looked at them but having looked at them he looks at something else. He looked at Someone else. The trouble with unbelief is that it only looks at the difficulties. Like Peter walking on the water, As long as he looks at the Lord Jesus he could walk in the waves, but when he began to look at the waves, and “saw them boisterous”, he began to sink. Because he was looking at the difficulties only, he “considered” them only and nothing else. That is unbelief. Faith does not turn its back upon problems, it surmounts them. It looks at them, straight in the face, and then rises above them. There are some people who think that, because they are assailed by doubts, they have no faith. That is a complete fallacy. To be entirely free from doubts does not always signify faith, it may mean presumption. There is a sense in which we can define faith as that which enables a man to overcome his doubts and to answer them. Many saints of old struggled with doubts, but they were not weakened, they did not give in; they mastered their doubts, they conquered them, they overcame them. Faith considers the difficulties but if overcomes them by believing the promise (Jones).

Strengthened in Faith 20 but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God

Abraham might have hesitated or doubted, though he did not stagger. Abraham was not staggered by the difficulties or seeming impossibilities that stood in the way, but believed the promise of God, and trusted that it would be fulfilled. He would not listen to the suggestions of carnal reasonings; they were all set aside; he rested entirely on the fidelity of the promise. And all are bound to imitate this, that we, after his example, may be encouraged to believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Giving glory to God. — How did he give glory to God? By believing that He would do what He promised, although nothing less than almighty power could affect what was promised. This is an important thought, that we glorify God by ascribing to Him His attributes, and believing that He will act according to them, notwithstanding many present appearances to the contrary. But how often is the opposite of this exemplified among many who profess to have the faith of Abraham, who, when unable to trace Divine wisdom, are apt to hesitate in yielding submission to Divine authority. Nothing, however, to countenance this is found in Scripture. On the contrary, no human action is more applauded than that of Abraham offering up Isaac in obedience to the command of God, in which he certainly could not then discover either the reason or the wisdom from which it proceeded. Without disregarding it for a moment, he yielded to the Divine authority. (Haldane)