Commentaries:
Abraham was fully persuaded. He allowed the evidence God gave him to convince him to trust God. He added up the evidence and acted accordingly. This does not mean that Abraham never had doubts. The Bible makes it clear that he had doubts. The book of Genesis shows that he turned aside from the path now and again. In the case of producing a son, he tried to fulfill God's promise through Hagar, and God had to show him that his faith had broken down. Ishmael was not the promised seed.
He had doubts creep into his mind at times, so he did not do things exactly right all the time. One thing we can learn from him—a significant reason God chose him as the father of the faithful—is that his overall trust in God never wavered. Like us, he erroneously processed the information, the evidence, he had from time to time, making him choose to go the wrong way. His emotions probably got in the way, as they do for us.
But God patiently worked with him and turned him back to the right way. When Abraham went down to Egypt, everything turned out wrong. He should have never gone there. Nothing in God's Word, nor God Himself, instructed him to go there. Abraham chose to go on his own, and he almost lost his wife over it. God pulled him out of the fire and led him back to the right path. In the patriarch's experience, God is showing us to steer clear of Egypt, not descend into it as Abraham did.
Even though we may have doubts occasionally, we can still trust God to return us to the right path because He will patiently work with us. When a doubt arises, sometimes it clarifies things because doubt implies that we are asking questions about whether our course of action is right. We should not think that we should never doubt because doubts will surface just because of the experiences we have had in the world. If we are patient and continue to trust God, resolving the doubt through godly thinking and experience will clarify matters. But a warning: Sometimes reaching the clarifying understanding will be painful because God may take us through an experience to help us realize we need to straighten out certain parts of our lives.
We do not have God speaking to us directly as these men did on occasion, but we still have God's Word and calling. We can conclude that faith—godly faith—comes from the combination of God's Spirit working in our minds plus studying God's Word ("the excellency of the knowledge of Christ") plus related experience from the world. It is further strengthened by putting it to work as we move forward.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Faith (Part Three)
There was nothing vague about God to Abraham. His relationship with God was of such intimacy that he thoroughly understood His character and purpose. He knew that he could trust God to act and react within clear parameters. Abraham added up what he knew about God and about His promise that Isaac was the promised seed, reached a conclusion, and acted. He knew God would have either to resurrect Isaac or to provide a substitute. He chose to trust the One he knew has the power and is faithful.
What if, like most Americans, Abraham had just guessed, based upon vague remembrances of a Sunday school class, movies, fiction works, and paranormal inspirations? We can assume that he would have worshipped the idols of his father Terah. A right concept of God is a Christian necessity because a wrong notion of Him is the very foundation, the starting point, for idolatry. In brief, the essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.
God makes this clear at Mount Sinai after making the covenant with Israel and giving them His law. In Exodus 32, Aaron, confronted by the sinful pressure of his peers, became carried away and made a stupid Golden Calf to rescue them from their perceived dilemma. Aaron and the Israelites revealed that their false concepts of God remained. God had the idol immediately destroyed. Israel sinned in attempting to determine the nature of God based on their own reasoning, and many died in a punishing demonstration of the true God's wrath at this egregious sin.
The Israelites of today are still at it; modern Israelites are fantasizing about God. The idolater simply imagines a conception of God and then acts as though his conceptions are true. He is deceived and certainly does not know the true God as Abraham did.
God seeks out those with whom He desires to make the covenant. At that time, all they understand about Him is in broad terms. They are then to seek Him out to know Him more precisely. Those who make the New Covenant with God are required to seek out intimate details regarding His nature, purpose, and character.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Seeking God (Part One): Our Biggest Problem
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Romans 4:21:
Matthew 17:17-21
Luke 17:5
