Little Faith, pt.4 - what is Mustard Seed Faith?

I looked up faith in a thesaurus and found 4 definitions:

1. A system of religious belief
2. Absolute certainty in the trustworthiness of another
3. Mental acceptance of the truth or actuality of something
4. Those who accept and practice a particular religious belief

In the "role call of faith" in Hebrews 11, two of Abraham's acts are listed. The first was his willingness to leave his home and go to a land, which God would show him, not knowing where he was going. It demonstrated faith that was "credited to Him as righteousness." The other was his response to God's telling him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

Did he do either of these things, especially the latter, on the basis of a system of religious belief? Would mental acceptance of the truth suffice? Was it just because he was a Hebrew?

I go into more detail in my book, but let's take a quick look at Abraham's life after his first life-changing encounter with God. He's 75 years old in Genesis 12, and God tells Abraham to leave Ur and go, and when he got to the land God was going to give him, God would let him know he was there. In addition, God would make of him a great nation and bless him. Shortly thereafter, they left the land God showed them, went to Egypt, where fearing the Egyptians would kill him to get his wife, he passed her off as his sister. God intervened to protect her purity. (Odds are, this is when they got Sarah's handmaiden, Hagar - which set them up for another failure.

In Genesis 15:6, eleven years have passed - no child - and they assume that one of his slaves will be his heir. But God now promises him a son from his own body, and descendants that would out-number the stars. This is when it's told, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." Shortly thereafter, he yields to Sarah's pressure and has a child by Hagar. He's 86 years old.

Gen.17 - 99 years old. God says within a year Sarah will be the mother of the promised son. In the 3 months that follow, he again fears someone will kill him to get Sarah, so Abraham again passes her off as his sister. Again God intervenes to protect her.

Are these the acts of a man of faith - fear & lying, doubt (no child, must be my slave), parenting a child through his wife's handmaid in order to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise? And most of this was after "he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." Sounds a lot like little faith. I submit Abraham had mustard seed faith. His faith did not prevent his failures. But his faith was not negated by his failures, either. The testimony of the Romans 4 is that "he did not waiver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able to perform."

Mustard seed faith may start small, and it may give way to some failures and poor choices along the way, but it grows strong, gives glory to God, and eventually becomes fully assured that He who promised is trustworthy and able to perform.

If Abraham "really" believed God, he probably would not have worried about the famine and gone to Egypt. Even if he had, he would not have feared for his life, because God had promised to make a great nation from him and bless the nations of the world. That hadn't happened yet, so until it did, Abraham was safe. You can understand his wondering if one of his slaves might wind up being his heir, but then God promises a son from his own body. Again, until that happens, he's invulnerable. Nothing can happen to him, at least until he has a son. He lived in a different culture and time, before the written law of scripture. So, it might be understandable that he would have a child by Hagar, since Sarah was "too old" to have a child (although from our perspective with the advantage of hindsight and the Biblical record we can see that it was a bad choice). Then he turns around and lies about Sarah, riskings her purity, because he fears for his life.

A few years after the birth of Isaac, God told him to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering. He headed off to do just that. Abraham finally got it. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.... He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead...."  Only absolute certainty in the trustworthiness of God could bring Abraham to the point of laying his promised son on an altar and taking his life. His faith had grown to the level of knowing that since God had promised that through Isaac God would give Abraham more descendants than the sand on the seashore or stars in the sky, if Isaac died (even if God said "Kill Isaac") God would raise Isaac from the dead and still fulfill His promise to Abraham!!

The Christian faith is not a group of people who believe in Christ. It is not a system of religious beliefs, practices or rituals. It is not mental acceptance of the fact that Jesus lived, or that the Bible is God's word or any other fact or set of facts.

When Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, the emphasis was on the fact that it grows, from a small seed to a tree in which birds can make their nests. That is "mustard seed faith." That's how it differs from "little faith." No fear, no doubt, no anxiety, no lack of understanding, no challenge too big! Mustard seed faith may start small, but it's for real, and it grows until it finally really becomes absolute certainty in the trustworthiness of God.