Righteousness Imparted



Genesis 15:1-6
1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
2But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3And Abram said, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
4And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
5And He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.

I’ve got a good friend who truly wants God to speak to him audibly, just like He did for the people in the Old Testament. In truth, if that ever happened, I think this guy would be completely undone – but that’s another story. In our reading for today we have recorded another conversation between Abram and God. This appears to be a fairly regular occurrence in the life of Abraham. Earlier, God promised Abram that he would be the father of a great nation. At this point, Abram is not a young man. He’s looking at God and saying, “Hey, no kids have happened in my marriage to Sarai. Your promise isn’t going to hold up!” (That’s my translation – you see now why I haven’t been hired to create the CBT – Carolyn’s Bible Translation.) At that time when a man died without heirs all of his property went to the head of his household staff. In this case, it’s a man named Eliezer. Abram’s having a hard time with the concept that his “heir” would be this servant. God has to come along and remind Abram of His original promise and reiterate that it was still going to happen. Abram becomes aware of the fact that however God works this out will be truly miraculous.

The last verse of the passage is where the meat lies. “And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” This verse shines a light on what is going on inside of Abram’s heart. His faith is growing. He is learning how to trust God’s promises. Learning to trust in those promises is at the center of what it means to have faith. Because of his trust, God calls Abram righteous. Has Abram done anything to earn that description? Absolutely nothing. He has only believed what appears to be an impossible thing – children in his old age. God is One who declares Abram righteous. It is only God who has the power and holiness to do that. This principle follows us right up to today. Did we do anything to earn the righteousness bought for us with the blood of Jesus? Absolutely nothing. Belief in that saving work causes God to declare us righteous as well. It is always and only God who can do that.

I love the fact that Abram’s story is long. We get to watch his faith develop along the way. God doesn’t pluck him out of the desert with a fully formed and mature faith. It grows and deepens along the way. None of us has fully arrived yet on this side of death. We will continue to be a work in progress until we die. We are just at the beginning of Abram’s story and there is still much to come. For now, he trusts the promises that have been made to him and God calls it faith. For now, we trust that Jesus died because of our sins, granting us forgiveness as only He is able to do. And God calls us righteous.

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