The Old testament saint understood covenant much differently that we do; their religion was intrinsically attached to their culture. Their relationship with God was not ever secondary. When God spoke to Abraham, it was not received with doubt. When God said to Abraham that He would be a God to Abraham’s children, Abraham did not immediately think, ‘based on the doctrine of election, God must only mean *some* of my children’. Thats not what God said. What is the responsibility of covenant parent towards their children? We are to be faithful to what God has said. We rear them accordingly. Anything less than faithfulness is sinful and needs to be repented of.
When God told Abraham:
” 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”
Do you think Abraham thought to himself, ‘My child is at enmity with God-he is unregenerate-he is God’s enemy-separated due to no mediation of Christ.’
Thinking like this is preposterous and anti-covenantal.
If your faith has doubt, can it be considered actual faith?
Rom. 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.*
Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of ethings not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by fthe word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of gthings that are visible.
Heb. 11:4 By faith hAbel offered to God ia more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And jthrough his faith, though he died, he kstill speaks. 5 By faith lEnoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God mmust believe that he exists and mthat he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith nNoah, being warned by God concerning oevents as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of pthe righteousness that comes by faith.
Heb. 11:8 By faith qAbraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place rthat he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in sthe land of promise, as in a foreign land, tliving in tents uwith Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to vthe city that has wfoundations, xwhose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith ySarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered zhim faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and ahim as good as dead, were born descendants bas many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Heb. 11:13 These all died in faith, cnot having received the things promised, but dhaving seen them and greeted them from afar, and ehaving acknowledged that they were fstrangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, gthey would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed hto be called their God, for ihe has prepared for them a city.
Heb. 11:17 By faith jAbraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, k“Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 lHe considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith mIsaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith nJacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, obowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith pJoseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
Heb. 11:23 By faith qMoses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of rthe king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, srefused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 tchoosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy uthe fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 vHe considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to wthe reward. 27 By faith he xleft Egypt, ynot being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured zas seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith ahe kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
Heb. 11:29 By faith bthe people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith cthe walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith dRahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she ehad given a friendly welcome to the spies.
Heb. 11:32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of fGideon, gBarak, hSamson, iJephthah, of jDavid and kSamuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, lstopped the mouths of lions, 34 mquenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, nbecame mighty in war, nput foreign armies to flight. 35 oWomen received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even pchains and imprisonment. 37 qThey were stoned, they were sawn in two,* rthey were killed with the sword. sThey went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—twandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Heb. 11:39 And all these, uthough commended through their faith, udid not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, vthat apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Heb. 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and wsin which clings so closely, and xlet us run ywith endurance the race that is zset before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, awho for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising bthe shame, and cis seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Owen on doubt:
” The spiritually minded person will say, ‘Truly there is a reward for the righteous; truly there is a God who judges in the earth.’ This will follow thoughts of the immensity of God’s nature, of his eternal power, of his infinite wisdom, and of his absolute sovereignty. These thoughts will hold the souls of believers firm and steadfast in the most destructive storms of temptation that may fall upon them. But there are two troubles which weaker believers may encounter. Satan, knowing the weakness of our minds, will inject blasphemous thoughts into them when we try and think of infinite and incomprehensible things. he will tempt us to atheism by raising doubts, ‘Is there really a God? How do you know that there is a God?’ Satan did this in his first temptation. ‘Has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ This was how he tempted Christ. ‘If you be the Son of God. Is there a God? What if there is no God?’ So Paul tells us to take the shield of faith, by which you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked’ (Eph 6:16). Faith will quickly reject such diabolical suggestions. Christ said, ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ If a man has a petrol bomb thrown at him, he does not ask whether he will be burned but immediately does everything in his power to put out the fire. So in the same way, we must deal with the devil’s fiery darts. If blasphemous thoughts persist after every effort to cast them out, return at once, without further argument, to your own experience. When the devil has asked you the question, if you answer him, he has got you. But if you ask yourself the question, and then answer it by your own experience, you will frustrate all the devil’s designs on you. We are not to argue with the devil. We are to take the shield of faith to quench those fiery darts. If Satan succeeds in diverting us into long arguments for the existence of God, he has succeeded in drawing us away from the duty of meditating on God. Soon, every time we think of God we will begin to wonder if he really exists. The believer, therefore, is to retreat at once into his own experience. This will pour shame and contempt on the suggestions of Satan. Every believer who knows something of himself and of God’s dealing with him, and has time to exercise the wisdom of faith concerning the ways God has dealt with him in the past and is dealing with him now, has the witness in himself of God’s existence and eternal power. He also has the witness of all the other perfections of the divine nature which God is pleased to reveal and glorify in and by Jesus Christ. So, on this suggestion of Satan that there is no God, the believer will be able to say, ‘The devil might do better to tell me that I am not alive and not breathing, that I do not eat food or keep myself warm by wearing clothes, that I do not know myself or anything else, for I have personal assurance and experience of God’s existence.”