David Smith,
I want to address your point about Abraham losing faith:
Greetings Barry,
You wrote: “Abraham heard from God that 'You are
righteous'”. I don’t know of any passage that says that
but I could be wrong. You also wrote: “Abraham was
righteous and KNEW he was righteous.” If that was true
it was a momentary knowledge because shortly after this
Abraham lost faith that God would carry through on His
promise and took things into his own hands and went into
unto Hagar to product his own heir.
Yes, you are correct that Abraham did leave off from
faith when he went to Hagar to have Ishmael. But this we
are told by Paul was part of God's plan to instruct us
in faith vs. works of the Law because Paul says this act
on Abraham's part is meant to be as an allegory.
Galatians 4:
21. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law,
do ye not hear the law?
22. For it is written, that Abraham had two
sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born
after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24. Which things are an allegory: for these
are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
25. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia,
and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in
bondage with her children.
26. But Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all.
27. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren
that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that
travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children
than she which hath an husband.
28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise.
29. But as then he that was born after the
flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now.
30. Nevertheless what saith the scripture?
Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the
freewoman.
31. So then, brethren, we are not children
of the bondwoman, but of the free.
We learn from this that if we are under the Law we are
still in bondage and can not free our self. But if we
receive God's promise and allow it place in our life
then we are of the miracle of Isaac who was not born by
a fleshly means of Abraham's doing with the bond woman
but was the result of Abraham believing God's promise to
give him a son from his own wife Sarah in spite of her
barrenness and his old age.
The meaning is that in the natural what God is offering
is impossible, for us to be righteous but with God all
things are possible and because of what Jesus did we can
now be declared righteous.
David, if your issue is that you
work with drug/alcohol abuse victims who have
become Christians and you are afraid to allow them
any excuse to slip back into temptations of their
addictions that is understandable. But to fight in
the flesh a spiritual battle is not productive.
Galatians 3