Living in Tents, Looking for a City with Foundations
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“By faith [Abraham] went to live in the land of
promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with
him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has
foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:15-16).
Grace
and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
I enjoy camping, but I prefer staying in a cabin or
lodge. Two or three days in a tent… that’s about enough “roughing it” for me
before my sense of adventure is satisfied. The threshold for my wife is much
lower. But Abraham lived in a tent for 100 years, from the age of 75 when God
called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to the day he died at the age of 175 in
the land of Canaan. Though God promised Abraham and his descendants an
inheritance that would stretch from the Nile River to the Euphrates, Abraham lived
as a pilgrim and stranger in Canaan. He died with the only plot of ground in
his name being the cave of Machpelah, in which he had buried his wife, Sarah,
and in which his mortal remains would also be placed.
What would enable Abraham to live like that? To
leave his father’s land to travel to some unknown destination at God’s Word? To
live in the land of promise as a foreigner and alien? To live as a nomad in
tents rather than settle down in a house made of stone foundations and wood? One
word…faith! A total, complete surrender to a promise from God!
In our society today, the concept of faith as a
total surrender to a promise from God seems outlandish. Indeed, a life today seems
to be made up of many choices that cater to free will. Marketing specialists
package their companies’ products and services to appeal to the idea of
individual choice. Streaming services offer almost unlimited choices of
entertainment. Social media uses its algorithm to adjust your feed according to
your personal interests and tastes.
Now, it is certainly true that we have many choices
in certain areas of our life, but we’ve also taken personal preferences into
areas of morality and ethics, matters where God has revealed His will, or at
least given us guidelines. Consider, for an example, how many people today have
the idea that having children is simply a matter of choice: whether or not to
have children, when to have children, how many children to have, all such
questions are addressed with little regard for the will and Word of God, but based
upon the “choice” of the prospective parents.
This view of life being made up of free will and choices
is only amplified by the way we raise our children. We are told that to build
their self-esteem, we should focus them on making “good choices” or “bad
choices” rather than teaching them “right” and “wrong.” It’s no wonder we have
so many young people who have such a high opinion of themselves, but little
regard for authority or the needs of others. We’re teaching our little ones to
follow their sinful inclination to selfishness, instead of training them in
self-discipline and consideration of others.
That’s bad enough, but there’s an even more
insidious way in which this illusion of choices inserts itself into our
spiritual lives. A life based on choices and free will often conveys to people
that their spiritual welfare also rests on their decision for the Lord, a
prevalent view found within a significant portion of modern American
Christianity. Michael Horton correctly observes:
When our churches
assume the gospel, reduce it to slogans, or confuse it with moralism and hype,
it is not surprising that the type of spirituality we fall back on is
“moralistic, therapeutic deism.” In a therapeutic worldview, the self is always
sovereign. The great questions of life do not concern what an external
authority has determined to be good, true, and beautiful, but one’s own sense
of well-being and fulfillment. God is there to be used as needed, but does not
surprise, contradict, judge, or disrupt our lust to control our own lives and
destinies. Accommodating this false religion is not love—either of God or
neighbor—but sloth, depriving God of the glory that is His due. The self must
be dethroned. That’s the only way out.[i]
Such faith is freeing, not restraining. If only
people knew that a total reliance upon God rather than self removes much
anxiety and worry about life! When the Gospel speaks clearly, then fear and
worry are replaced by comfort and peace.
But such faith doesn’t happen overnight. It didn’t
for Abraham. Though you couldn’t tell it simply from today’s Old Testament lesson
and Epistle, Abraham stumbled more than a time or two. He put his lovely wife’s
honor (not to mention the Messianic line!) at risk on a couple of occasions to
save his own neck. He accepted Sarah’s plan to use Hagar as a surrogate mother
when it didn’t appear that God was coming through on His promise quickly
enough. But God’s Word had its way with Abraham, and the patriarch grew in
faith.
Time and again, we see Abraham trusting God,
taking Him at His Word and following His direction even when there was nothing
to see and even when what could be seen pointed only to the seemingly
impossible. Not knowing the direction, trusting God’s directive, he left his
homeland. With no map in hand but with God’s call in his heart, Abraham went
out into the unknown.
How
could Abraham do it? The author of Hebrews has a two-word answer: “By faith.”
By faith, Abraham saw the invisible. He looked beyond this mortal life to the
resurrection. He even looked beyond the earthly Canaan to the eternal city in
heaven. In this city, Abraham saw his real home. This was “the city with
foundations.” Tents have only pegs, which are pulled up and moved. Earthly
cities have walls that stand longer and yet crumble. But this city stands
forever. “The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” is how the author
describes it in 12:22, so that we cannot misunderstand. To this heavenly home
Abraham “was looking forward,” ever living and finally dying in expectation of
it.
What
is also admirable about Abraham’s faith is that he passed it on to his
descendants. Our Epistle emphasizes some of the common qualities found not only
in Abraham’s faith, but also in the faith of the other patriarchs. All of them
died without receiving the things promised. Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and
Joseph, never saw God’s promises fulfilled. Though Abraham lived to see Isaac’s
birth, he never saw the great nation that was to come from him. Though Jacob
and Joseph saw this nation begin to grow, they never saw the Messiah who was to
come from it. Yet they believed! Like Moses on Mount Nebo, viewing the Promised
Land from a distance, they saw God’s promises from afar and believed them.
The
patriarchs admitted “that they were strangers and exiles on earth.” This was
Abraham’s confession in Genesis 23:4 when buying the burial plot for Sarah, but
it was characteristic of all the heroes of the faith. They were “exiles,”
people of foreign descent and culture living in another land. They were
“strangers,” people residing temporarily somewhere other than their real home.
More than the land of Canaan was meant with this confession. The author rightly
concludes, they were looking for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
Toward the heavenly Canaan, the new Jerusalem, prepared for them by God, they looked
to with earnest longing all their days. No wonder God was not ashamed to be
called their God!
Abraham
believed the Lord, and He counted it to Abraham as righteousness. Abraham
accepted that God could and would intervene and make the impossible possible.
Our faith, too, should be open to that suggestion. Even in extreme cases where
medical reports describe little hope, there may still be confidence in divine
intervention. God can make things possible. There is hope and there is trust.
And trust is strong because it is God who provides.
Abraham’s
faith is not a small matter. It’s saving faith because the Lord reckons it to
him as righteousness. However, we should not assume that Abraham’s faith comes
by his own actions or decision. God changes Abraham to become someone who,
though he initially wavers in the midst of doubt and uncertainty, accepts God’s
promises as true and real. For what seems impossible for Abraham to accomplish
on his own will be accomplished by God Himself.
In
order to understand what this means not only for Abraham, but also for all who
believe, we need to approach this from the objective fact of Christ’s death on
the cross. There, the righteousness of God has been won through Christ’s active
and passive obedience. As the Confessions say: “out of pure grace, because of
the sole merit, complete obedience, bitter suffering, death, and resurrection
of our Lord Christ alone. His obedience is credited to us for righteousness”
(FC SD III 9).
Since
our salvation is all Christ’s doing, we cannot assume that there is anything we
can contribute on our part. It is only through faith that we receive God’s
righteousness, but it’s important that faith is described as a gift from God
that apprehends the righteousness from God through the forgiveness of sins.
Such a faith worships Christ’s merits on the cross and surrenders itself
totally to Him.
As
Luther says in his explanation of the Third Article, “I believe that I cannot
by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him,
but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts,
sanctified and kept me in the faith.” Faith is not something a person chooses
or decides by his own strength, but a gift. Through the Word, the Holy Spirit
provides us with it, and we are able to entrust ourselves to the promises of
God.
Thus,
the fact that we come to faith and receive, as Abraham did, the righteousness
of God is attributed to all God’s doing in Christ, and all honor and glory are
given to Christ. God steps into this world and does the incredible and
impossible through His Son Jesus Christ. He establishes a righteousness for us
in His Son that is a gift handed to us, and through faith it becomes ours.
The
promises of God are certain for Jesus’ sake. The Son of God journeyed far from
home, taking on the flesh of a man when He was born of the virgin Mary.
Although this world is His creation, He was a stranger in it, for His own
received Him not, and He was stricken and afflicted by men. He came as a
pilgrim with a destination from the start—the cross, to die for the sins of the
world.
At
the cross, Jesus appeared no more the King than Abraham appeared the possessor
of his kingdom. And His resurrection appeared no more possible than Sarah
giving birth. But eyes deceive while faith believes. At the cross, Jesus dies
for your sin. Three days later, He rises from the dead just as He promised.
One
might liken the promises of God to a trust fund. Imagine a little girl who
receives a sizeable inheritance. The last will and testament of the deceased
declares that the money is hers, and that she can begin to collect it when she
turns 21 years old. Legally, the money is hers even now—the documents say so,
but she will not enjoy all the benefits, or even see the funds, until later
on. In the meantime, however, she has
confidence and security for the future. Her trust is not based upon empty hope
or speculation, but upon the word that has been given.
This
is you, strangers and pilgrims—the Word has been given, and the treasures of
heaven are yours. In the words of the Gospel lesson, have no fear, little
flock, for the Father is pleased to give you His kingdom—and His kingdom is
yours even now. Christ has died for you to win forgiveness for your sins. That
forgiveness is yours even now. That faith is yours even now. His presence in
His Word and Sacraments are yours even now. His kingdom and all of His benefits
and gifts for you are yours even now—even though they often remain unseen.
All
these are yours for the sake of Jesus, who has died to cleanse you from your
sin. For His sake, God is not ashamed to be called your God, having adopted you
as His own heir through the water and Word of Holy Baptism. Though you live
here now as a pilgrim and stranger, He provides you His Supper, His very body
and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine, to strengthen and preserve
you in the faith unto life everlasting.
You live
like Abraham, trusting God’s Word to be true despite all appearances. Looking
for a heavenly city designed by God and built upon the firmest of foundations, Christ
Jesus Himself, even as you live in this mortal tent now. But while these things are unseen, they are
certain and sure, for the words and promises of God declare: Christ has died,
He is risen; for His sake, you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[i] “Are Churches
Secularizing America?” Modern Reformation
17:2 [March-April 2008]: 42-47. www.modernreformation.org
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