Faith Alone

 

From the Pastor:

Genesis 15:6

And he (Abram) believed in the LORD, and He (God) accounted it to him for righteousness.

In the reading plan last week, we came across one of the most crucial verses in the Holy Scriptures. Now, that may sound a little hyperbolic to some of you, but if we look ahead in the Bible and see how this verse is later quoted by the Apostle Paul (Romans 4:3,22; Galatians 3:6) we will quickly understand its significance. This verse, recorded at the very beginning of the Judeo/Christian epoch, makes clear that for a person to be declared righteous before God he or she must have faith in the promises of God as the grounds of that inherited righteousness. In other words, without faith in God no one will be saved. Faith is the means by which we receive the promises of God made by His Word. Faith is our response to the truth claims of Scripture. Again, “without faith,” the writer of Hebrews states, “it is impossible to please God.”  (Hebrews 11:6)

Let us now take a closer look at Abram’s faith. What exactly was Abram placing his faith in? First of all, he was placing his faith in the fact that God had told him he would have a son. Chapter 12 of Genesis tells us of Abram’s first encounter with God. In that encounter God calls Abram out of the land of Haran to the land of Canaan, so that he may grant to him and his descendants a place for them to grow into a great nation dedicated to serving the Lord and being a blessing to all the people of the earth. Abram was already 75 years old at the time and had yet to father any children with his wife Sarai, so the idea of him becoming the father of a great nation seemed a little farfetched. However, God continue to intervene and communion with Abram to constantly remind him of what He had promised. Years had passed and Abram had yet to have a child with Sarai and the prospects of this occurring only seemed to be growing darker. Yet again, the Lord appeared to Abram to reassure him that he would indeed have a child with Sarai just as God had promised, and that his offspring would as numerous as the stars in the sky. That is when Moses tells us in Genesis that Abram believed God.

Abram believed God even though he had no child with Sarai. He believed God even though he did not have any land of his own. He believed God even though it seemed impossible for God to fulfill what had been promised. And because he believed Abram was declared righteous before God. He was declared righteous even when the very next chapter tells us that he would try and usurp God’s plan and have a child with Hagar instead of Sarai. He was declared righteous even before he had been circumcised as a seal of the covenant promises of God. He was declared righteous even before he would be tested with sacrificing Isaac back to God. You see God’s work of granting faith and declaring a person righteous are all based on the work and promises of God and his ability alone to work true salvation in the soul of an individual. This is what makes this verse so very important. The revelation that God’s plan of salvation would be a plan received not by works or deeds, but by faith alone in the promises of God. That is why when we come to Christ today through saving faith, we too are considered children of Abraham the Father of the Faithful.