03-10-2021 Three Things God is Looking for from a Man

Title: Three Things God is Looking for from a Man

God was looking for 3 things from Adam: Faith, Obedience and Deed (Action). If Adam had these 3 things, the providence of God’s creation will move and fulfil step by step according to His plan and now we would be living in the world of unending joy.

Gen 1:28 is before the Fall. There, God blessed Adam to be fruitful and multiply. It shows that God wanted Adam to take from the tree of life and for his godly descendants, unfallen people, to be multiplied and fill the earth.

In Gen 2:16-17, God allowed Adam to eat from any tree freely, but commanded him not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If Adam had faith, he would have obeyed. If Adam were to obey, he would have transfigured like Enoch or Elijah and live forever in the kingdom of God. However, Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it means he didn’t have faith. So, there was no faith, no obedience and no deed.

The History of Redemption started from the time of Creation. However, the actual saving part did not start from the time of Adam because he failed to run the race. So, the baton is given to Noah. This time, God changed His tactic and looked for righteousness. It is because through Adam’s sin, all men are condemned. And through the act of righteousness, people can be justified (Rom 5:18).

Adam became the gate for sin and death. Noah became the ancestor of the righteous and recovered the condition before the Fall. That’s why Noah was given the same blessing that Adam had before the Fall received (Gen 9:1). However, sin came into the new world that began with Noah. This time, through Ham, sin entered (Gen 9:22).

If we look at Lev 18:7, it says “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father because the nakedness of father is the nakedness of your mother.” This gives us a clue that it wasn’t just about seeing his father’s nakedness but perhaps Ham uncovered it intentionally. Gen 9:23 tells us that Shem and Japheth walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. So, we can clearly see that Ham became the gate of sin once again and the righteousness Noah restored was broken.

Now, the baton was passed to Abraham. This time, God changed back His tactic and looked for 3 elements: faith, obedience and deed. However, God was looking for each element from each person. Abraham (faith), Isaac (obedience), Jacob (deed). One thing we should notice is Abraham did not have righteousness like Noah but when God found faith, He calculated it as righteousness. So, the righteousness that Noah lost also was recovered (Gen 15:6-7).

Therefore, the History of Redemption began with Abraham and Abraham became the father of faith. Adam became an ancestor of mankind, Noah became an ancestor of righteousness. However, as both failed, they are not the ancestor of life. But through Abraham’s 3 generations, God found faith, obedience and deed, Abraham became the ancestor of life.

Luk 13:28 tells us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are in the kingdom of God. Not only being in the kingdom of God as Rom 4:16 describes Abraham’s bosom as the heaven. It means, we have to come to Abraham in order to enter the kingdom of God. Luk 16:20-22 described to become the descendant of Abraham is to become the saved.

Abraham is significant in the Bible and in the History of Redemption. Jesus explained in Luk 20:37-38, Abraham is not the dead but the living. The scripture tells us that Moses believed in the God of Abraham who is dead but will resurrect. Therefore, all the Jews who follows the way of Moses also believe they will be saved after death.

However, Jesus said, God is not the God of the dead but the living. Abraham is not the dead but the living.  

In Jhn 8:52, the Jews said that Abraham also died. They believed that they are the descendants of Abraham but they only believed to come to life after the death. It is because that’s how Moses believed and taught the Jews. However, Jesus was telling them that Abraham is not the representative of the dead but the living.

If we are the descendants of Abraham, we also should aim to become the living rather than the dead. Jesus said Abraham saw and met Jesus (Jhn 8:56-58). This is the key for Abraham to become the living.

Jesus Himself taught us today, Abraham is the living. Gal 3:29 says that if we belong to the Christ, then we are Abraham’s offspring. It means we too also become the living.

As a conclusion, will you take Adam as your ancestor?

No, because he became the gate of sin and death.

Will you take Noah as your ancestor?

No, because through Ham, His rest got broken again.

Whom should we take as our ancestor?

Whom should we take as our spiritual father?

That is Abraham. Abraham is the father of faith and the father of the living.

We pray that may we follow the way that Abraham walked, receive the faith that Abraham had. So, you and I may be found in father Abraham’s bosom and recognized as the living who will not see death. Amen!