Abraham is a frequent model of faith in the Scriptures. Besides the verse above from James, the epistles of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews all highlight the fact that Abraham believed God. The Old Testament reference quoted here comes from Genesis 15, when God promised Abraham that his descendants would one day be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Even though Abraham did not have even one child at the time, he believed that God would keep His word. This is always what faith does: it rests upon the declared word of God simply because God is the one who declared it.

But James is referring to a later event in Abraham’s life when quoting this verse. As James 2:21 says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?” Abraham knew that the promises of God rested in Isaac, yet he was willing to offer Isaac up to God—fully expecting that God would raise him back to life, as we learn in Hebrews 11:19. The unique expression here in James 2 shows that the act of offering Isaac was actually a fulfillment of Abraham’s earlier faith. In a sense, Abraham’s faith in God was not fully developed until it was put to the test.

In Genesis 15, Abraham believed God; in Genesis 22, Abraham offered his son. Spanning those two events was a period of twenty years or more. Certainly Abraham must have exercised faith on other occasions during that time; but his singular act of obedience at the altar gave proof that his faith, declared long before, was indeed genuine. And what of us? Perhaps we have believed God for all these long years—but has that faith been fulfilled? When our faith of years ago will be put to the test today, what will our works reveal?