Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you and enjoy this journey through God’s Word together with you? Today we have a very exciting verse to look at in the Bible! What, only one verse? Well, it’s one of the most powerful, most important verses in the entire Old Testament… so come on, let’s dig in together.
Yesterday we looked at a magnificent discussion between God and Abram in Genesis 15:1-5. God was reaffirming His covenant promise that many descendants would come from Abram, yet at age 85 Abram remained childless! God even promised Abram that his descendants would be more numerous than the visible stars in the night sky!! In that experience, as Abram was staring up at the stars, he became overwhelmed by the majesty, the magnitude of God and God’s Sovereignty, and a belief, a confidence, a certainty welled up in Abram that is almost unexplainable. The record says: “Abram believed the LORD and God credited it to him (Abram) as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6) Abram had moved from “respectful frustration” with God, to overwhelming FAITH that God would do what He had promised!
The author to Hebrews says this about life saving faith: “Now FAITH is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…and without FAITH it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek God.” (Hebrews 11:1,6) Do you see those two big statements: “BEING SURE of what we hope for” and “CERTAIN of what we do not see”? Now how does your FAITH measure up to those statements?
The Hebrews author uses Hebrews 11 to give us a long list of Old Testament heroes who lived and died in that type of faith. About Abraham Hebrews says: “By FAITH Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Heb. 11:8) We looked at that the other day in Genesis 12. Abram left home, family, familiar and obeying God headed off to an unknown destination. God had said leave and follow Me and I will tell you when we arrive! And Abram did, and that brought him from Ur to Haran to Canaan, modern day Israel.
Next the record says in Hebrews 11:9 “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country…for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” It means Abram didn’t move from one part of the world to another simply on a whim, or an adventure. He understood he was part of something new which God was doing on planet earth. God was launching a new nation of God’s people and God was giving them a piece of geography which He had created and designated to be their homeland forever! So Abram’s faithful obedience in following God to this new place, was the foundational step to a future people group having a God given homeland. Now remember Abram started this journey at age 75 (Gen. 12:4). Moving at any age is traumatic, but at that age…can you imagine? But moving to a new land was only one part of the God given promise, the other part was perhaps even more unbelievable, and that was God’s promise that Abram would have descendants in his old age!
Next the record says “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarai [his wife] was barren, was enabled to become a father because he considered God faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as stars in the sky and as countless as sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:11,12) As we will soon see in our ongoing travels with Abram in his journey with God, yes Abraham did become father in his old age to two sons, one a miracle son, who also had descendants, and today, about 4000 years later, it would be almost impossible to calculate all the people who can trace their heritage back to old Abraham!
The Hebrews author concludes with this statement: “All these people were still living by faith when they died.” (Heb. 11:13) That means Abraham and others who trusted in God with his same type of life saving trust, were still holding on to that faith when they died! Now let’s look at one other great part of the New Testament which explains this remarkable truth, Romans 4. Paul writes: “Against all hope Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations…without weakening in his faith, Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about 100 years old – and that Sarai womb’s was also dead. Yet Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised. This is why it was ‘credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for Abraham alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:18-25)
Do you see this remarkable, foundational truth my friends? People around the world TODAY are saved by God from their sin condemnation by fully TRUSTING in Jesus Christ’s death to be fully accepted by Holy God, as payment in full for their sin! Did you get that? Our full trusting FAITH is exactly the same full trusting FAITH which Abram had when God promised him descendants more than stars in the sky, even though he was an old man and his wife was barren! Therefore my friends, and watch this now… Abraham is in heaven because God credited to him the same righteousness of Jesus, that God credits to us when we trust, with the same faith, in God’s promise to save us if we trust in Jesus! This is how people in the ages PRIOR to the death of Jesus on the cross were ‘saved’ from their sin by God’s work of declaring them forgiven, according to their full FAITH in God! Do you understand this my friends? That’s why it’s called “Saving Faith”. It’s full trust in God to do what God promises He will do!!
Now perhaps you are thinking…‘but wait a minute. Abram wasn’t trusting God to save him from his sins, there’s no mention of sin in Genesis 15:1-6‘?? You are right, my friends. But the amount of faith God was asking Abram to live, as he trusted in God for the miraculous provision of a son, and then descendants as many as the stars, is the same type of faith and amount of faith you and I need to have to believe the God-man Jesus, whom we never saw, died on a cross, even though we weren’t there, to pay the sin price for our sins, to a Holy God we can’t see! And then we must fully believe that this Holy God will accept Jesus’ death payment and declare us forgiven of our sin… ONLY because we fully TRUSTED that God will do what He has promised He will do when we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus! FAITH… unwavering, ‘all in’, no doubt, fully confident FAITH is what God honors!!
That’s what Hebrews 11 is all about… a roll call of FAITH! Noah believed God enough to build an ark. Abram believed God enough to leave home, follow God to a new land, and trust God to provide a miracle son, many years after He promised that son! And Hebrews 11 goes on to name others of great faith like Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and so many more. So I have two questions to end our time today:
First… how big is your FAITH in God? Big enough that God will count it as similar to Abram and Noah and Moses and thus God will ‘credit to you righteousness’ as He did with Abram, and declare your sins forgiven because of your full faith in Jesus?
Second… how are you DEMONSTRATING your faith? In what practical ways do those who know you SEE your living by faith in God, everyday? Is great faith an important part of your legacy that your descendants honor by living in similar faith in God?
So as you reflect on that… here is a great faith song to consider what you really believe and how much do you really believe it?
Today’s Scripture is Genesis 15:6.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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