“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the
Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am
the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou
perfect. And I will make my covenant between me
and thee, and will multiply thee
exceedingly.”-Genesis 17:1-2.
We commenced our exposition of the life of Abram with
his calling, when he was brought out of Ur of the
Chaldees, and separated unto the Lord in Canaan. We
then passed on to his justification, when he believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; and
now you will bear with us if we continue to the same
subject to a further stage, and attempt to describe the
fuller development of Abram’s vital godliness in the
open and clear revelation of his consecration to God.
In the chapter before us we see his sanctification unto
the Lord, his ordination to service, and purification
as a vessel fitted for the Master’s use. All the called
are justified, and all the justified are by a work of
the Holy Ghost sanctified, and made meet to be
afterwards glorified with Christ Jesus.
Let me remind you of the order in which these blessings
come. If we should speak of sanctification or
consecration, it is not as a first thing, but as an
elevation to be reached only by preceding stepping-
stones. In vain do men pretend to be consecrated to God
before they are called of God’s Spirit; such have yet
to be taught that no strength of nature can suffice to
serve the Lord aright. They must learn what this
meaneth, “Ye must be born again,” for assuredly until
men are brought into spiritual life by effectual
calling of the Holy Spirit, all their talk about
serving God may be answered in the words of Joshua, “Ye
cannot serve the Lord.” I speak of consecration, but it
is not as a first thing, nor even as a second thing,
for a man must be justified by faith which is in Christ
Jesus, or he will not possess the grace which is the
root of all true sanctity; for sanctification grows out
of faith in Jesus Christ. Remember holiness is a
flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that
saves, but salvation that sanctifies. A man is not
saved by his holiness, but he becomes holy because he
is already saved. Being justified by faith, and having
peace with God, he walks no longer after the flesh, but
after the Spirit, and in the power of the blessing
which he has received by grace he dedicates himself to
the service of his gracious God. Not then the due order
of heavenly benefits, consecration to God follows
calling and justification.
Recalling your minds to Abram’s history, let me remind
you that thirteen years had elapsed after the time in
which God had said that Abram’s faith was counted to
him for righteousness, and those thirteen years, so far
as we can gather from Scripture, were not at all so
full of brave faith and noble deeds as we might have
expected them to have been. How sure is that truth that
the best of men are but men at the best, for that very
man who had accepted God’s promise and had not
staggered at it through unbelief, within a few months
afterwards, or perhaps a few days, was taken with a fit
of unbelief, and at the instigation of his wife,
adopted means which were not justifiable, in order that
he might obtain the promised heir. He used means which
may not be so vicious to him, as they would be in men
of modern times, but which were suggested by an
unbelieving policy, and were fraught with evil. He
takes Hagar to wife. He could not leave it to God to
give him the promised seed; he could not leave it with
God to fulfil his promise in his own time, but
justifies himself in turning aside from the narrow path
of faith to accomplish by doubtful methods the end
which God himself had promised and undertaken to
accomplish.
How shorn of splendour is Abram seen when we read of
him, “and Abram hearkened unto the voice of Sarai!”
That business of Hagar is to the patriacrch’s deep
discredit, and reflects no honour at all upon either
him or his faith. Look at the consequences of his
unbelieving procedure! Misery soon followed. Hagar
despises her mistress; Sarai throws all the blame on
her husband; the poor bond-woman is so hardly dealt
with that she flees from the household. How much of
real cruelty may be meant by the term “dealing hardly,”
I cannot tell, but one marvels that such a man as Abram
allowed one who had been brought into such a
relationship with him, to be heedlessly chased from his
house while in a condition requiring care and kindness.
We admire the truthfulness of the Holy Ghost that he
has been pleased to record the faults of the saints
without extenuating them. Biographies of good men in
Scripture are written with unflinching integrity, their
evil recorded as well as their good. These faults are
not written that we may say, “Abraham did so-and-so,
therefore we may do it.” No, brethren, the lives of
these good men are warnings to us as well as examples,
and we are to judge them as we should judge ourselves,
by the laws of right and wrong. Abram did wrong both in
taking Hagar to wife and in allowing her to be badly
used.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
