Faith Alone: Old Testament Faith

 Genesis 3:15

"And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

Sermon for the First Wednesday in Advent                                      12/04/24

Faith Alone: Old Testament Faith

Reformation Advent Truths

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

People often make the mistake of thinking that the Reformation was only about Lutheranism – or Protestantism, if those people came from a non-Lutheran background.  The tendency is to connect the truths of the Reformation with the sixteenth century and after.  The truth is, however, that the Reformation truths which were championed by Martin Luther and his followers were simply the Christian faith . . . all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Viewed from the perspective of the great Reformation principles, the entire Scriptures unfold the same fundamental truths that Luther laid out in his theology.  This advent, I hope to focus on those truths and show you that these are things that God's people have always and everywhere believed, when they are faithful.  Although these sermons will begin with a Scripture, they are going to be more topical than textual.  For example, our sermon tonight is about the principle of faith alone, as illustrated by the Old Testament faith.  Our "text" from Genesis is simply one example of that faith.  So, our theme of the season is "Reformation Advent Truths", and tonight our theme is "Faith Alone: Old Testament Faith".

The passage from Genesis 3 illustrates the principle of faith in the Old Testament.  In it, God promises to Adam and Eve the Gospel promise: the promise of a Savior from sin and death.  We know that they understood this promise and believed it, even though they misidentified the Messiah, because Eve named her first Son Cain, meaning, "I have gotten a man, the Lord".  The thing is, God did not give them any proof of this promise, just the promise itself.  It called for faith, and they believed.  There was no statement about "If you believe," just the promise.  The promise was their comfort and their hope.  And they believed.

It was the same sort of thing with Noah.  God told him to build the ark because there was going to be a flood.  I don't know how God communicated with Noah.  I am sure He has ways of making one clear that it is God talking, and that He means business, but having no experience with direct conversation, except for my part in prayer, I cannot imagine what it was like for Noah.  But Noah believed.  He believed so strongly that he built the boat.  It was actually built by faith alone.

Noah may well have had very little more than we do, when we hear God speak to us.  He "heard", whatever that process involved, but once God had spoken, Noah had to take God at His Word and trust in Him to do what He said He was going to do, as unheard of as it was.  Remember, it never rained in the pre-flood world in the manner in which it does today.  Noah was trusting God to do something totally unique in the absence of any evidence that such a thing could happen, let alone ever had.  He had to walk by faith - alone.  Fortunately, he did.

Abraham was facing the same dilemma.  God spoke, and made promises, and Abraham had to walk by faith.  The Bible tells us "Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."  A man who had not fathered a child by his seventy-fifth year was asked to believe he would have a child, and a great and uncountable nation of people would flow from him and his progeny.  He was promised a piece of land he would never personally own.  He was told that through him all of the world would be blessed.  Then God told him to leave home and family and just trust God to bless him and make him prosperous and a father of nations.  And Abraham believed.  He believed so strongly that though while he had been a childless man his name, Abram, meant "exalted father," at the Word of God he accepted the new name which meant "the father of nations".

Moses returned to Egypt trusting God and led a nation of slaves out from the most powerful nation on earth at that time.  Joshua led the attack on Jericho by marching with the men of war around the city once a day for six days, and on the seventh day marching around it seven times, then blowing the horns, and then shouting.  That was what God promised would take down the walls of this well-fortified city.  It sounds silly and highly unlikely to have any chance of working – but Joshua believed, and obeyed, and as a consequence, the walls of the city fell flat.  It was by faith alone.

And a shepherd boy became a great king – by faith.  And prophets did wonderful things through faith, trusting God to do what He promised He would.  Elijah battled the prophets of Baal with sacrifices and proclaimed the start of a drought and the end of it three years later by faith.  Elisha cured leprosy, provided for the widow of Zarephath, and even raised a dead boy back to life through faith.  The nation Israel waited, often in unfaithfulness but always with some who remained faithful, for God to accomplish the sending of the Savior.  Under Zechariah, the people of Israel returned from their captivity in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem by faith.  All of these great things happened by faith alone.  The people who participated in them had to take God at His Word, and trust Him to do what He had promised.

Even the birth narratives of the New Testament are examples of the Old Testament faith.  When Zachariah faced Gabriel, it was before Christ was born.  There was no New Testament faith to be had.  His Old Testament faith taught him to walk by faith alone, and when he spoke the prophetic words of the Benedictus, following the birth of John, he could only speak those words by faith.  Even Mary was believing the ancient promises of a Messiah when she humbly accepted the visitation of the Lord as spoken by Gabriel to her.  It was the Old Testament faith, grounded firmly in faith alone, and not in human behavior or particularly auspicious conditions surrounding her, that caused her to believe that what the angel spoke could possibly be true – and to face the obvious risks in the culture in which she lived and in her own personal situation.  It was faith alone.

God has always dealt with His people in the light of faith.  Adam and Eve had a problem taking God at His Word and trusting Him.  Their sin was fundamentally unbelief.  From that moment on, God has dealt with His people with promises and has looked for faith, and counted faith – and not personal conduct primarily – for righteousness.  The circumstances changed repeatedly throughout history, but the fundamental truth of Faith Alone has remained unaltered.

It was unaltered, but largely forgotten by the time Luther came along.  He brought back into the light the principle of salvation by faith alone.  Your sins are forgiven through faith, when you hear of Christ's death and resurrection on your behalf, and believe it is true and trust God that it applies to you personally, and actually expect God to do all that He has promised to do.  We stand with the same equipment that the men and women of God have possessed all through history – God's Word and promise, and faith which trusts such Word of God.

Typically, the first Wednesday in Advent carries the theme, "He was promised".  Our theme was different, but the faith of the Old Testament people was in that promise of God.  They looked for the Savior for somewhere near four thousand years, learning more about what God was going to do with each prophecy.  We look back our two thousand years to see what God did, and to hear his clear promise of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through Jesus Christ – all of which we take hold of by faith alone or not at all.  Although our time and place in history is different, and unique in its own ways, it is still the same as the Old Testament faith, grounded in what we now call a Reformation principle or a Reformation truth – Faith Alone.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)