Lights of the World: Abraham

Part 2: Justified By Faith

Abraham was a believer in the one true God long before he entered the land of Canaan. As we saw in a previous lesson, though born and reared in a city of idolaters and reared by a man who “served other gods” (Josh 24:2), he chose to serve Jehovah; and he living in that idolatrous land. We are certain of this because when God first called him saying: “LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU” (Acts 7:3) he was still living in the land of his birth -- Mesopotamia.

When Abram left Mesopotamia in order to enter the land of Canaan, he went as far as Haran and dwelt there for a time. After his father died, God once more called the patriarch saying:

(Gen 12:1-3) … Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Once again Abram believed God and went forth as He had spoken; even as it is written…

Hebrews 1:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

When Abram entered the land and set up camp in Shechem – at the oak of Moreh we are told that the Lord appeared to him and promised that He would give this land to his descendants (Gen 12:7a) In response Abram “built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him.” (vs 7b) From there Abram traveled “to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the man of the Lord.” (vs. 8)

After an excursion into Egypt Abram returned to the altar between Bethel and Ai and there he “called on the name of the Lord.” (Gen 13:13:4). When Lot separated from Abram and took his family and goods to the well watered plains of the Jordan near Sodom, God said to Abram …

(Gen 13:14-18) … Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.

While dwelling by the oaks of Mamre his nephew Lot, along with his family were taken captive certain kings who had made war against the cities of the plain. After rescuing Lot, as well as the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Melchizedek king of Salem and “a priest of God Most High” came out to meet Abraham and …

(Gen 14:19-20) … blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” He (Abram) gave him a tenth of all.

It was after these events that God appears to the patriarch again, promising him a son.

(Gen 15:1-6) … “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great." Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

L.A. Mott has points out: “At least two important points about the nature of Abraham’s faith emerge from an examination of the context … God had just made a promise to Abraham. He promised him descendants so numerous as to compare with the stars of heaven. But Genesis 15:6 does not say Abraham believed God’s promise. It says, ‘he believed in Jehovah’—or as Paul [and James, KM] records it, ‘Abraham believed God.’

“I am not saying Abraham did not believe God’s promise. Of course he did. But the point is, Abraham’s faith in God’s promise was grounded upon a fundamental confidence in God himself. He believed what God said because of a fundamental confidence in the one who said it.

“That is an important point. Faith is more than just agreeing with God. Even unbelievers agree with God occasionally. They may agree with what God says about marriage or family responsibilities, for example. Many of them will not get drunk because they have too much sense. They agree with God on several subjects, but they have no faith in God.

“Faith is more than agreeing with God. It is a fundamental confidence in the character of God. When one has this basis trust in God, he will accept all that God says, for his faith is not just a matter of agreeing with God here and there; it is a matter of dependence upon the complete trustworthiness of God. He believes what God says because he believes God.”

But there is something else that we need to notice. When we take the larger context in Genesis into consideration we discover that “Genesis 15:6 is not referring to the initial justification of an alien sinner. (Faith in the Book of Romans [Gainsville, FL: Mott Books], 19-20) This may seem obvious, but it is a point that is often overlooked or at least minimized by our Calvinist friends who teach that justification is a once and for all event that takes places the moment one first believes.

As we have seen Abraham believed in God long before the events of Genesis 15. Hence, if justification is by faith (and it is), Abraham’s initial justification happened when he was back in Ur. And so what we have in Gen 15:6 is not the justification that takes place at the beginning of faith – when one initially becomes a child of God. Instead, this verse speaks of “the faith that one must have at any point in his life in order to stand justified in the presence of God.” (Mott, 20)

Yes, there is a point in time when one is first justified through faith. This happened to Abraham many years before the events described in Genesis 15. But when does it happen to us – to those of us who live this side of the cross?

To be justified is to be free from the guilt of sin. If a man never sinned, he would never be guilty of sin and would be justified on the basis of his works – his perfect works. No man shall be justified in this manner. For the scriptures declare that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The only other way that a man may be righteously justified is through the forgiveness of sins. This is the justification. David spoke of this in the Psalms and Paul refers to it in his argument in Romans.

(Romans 4:6-8) just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: {7} "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. {8} "BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT."

In reality, God declares a believer to be righteous by forgiving him of his sins. But at what point is a believer declared righteous – at what point under the new testament does God forgiven him of his sins? We learn the answer from both Peter (on the day of Pentecost) and Paul in the book of Romans.

(Acts 2:36-38) "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified." {37} Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" {38} Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

(Romans 6:2-7, 17-18) May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? {3} Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? {4} Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. {5} For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, {6} knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; {7} for he who has died is freed from sin. … But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, {18} and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

When is the believer first justified? When he, turns from his sins in repentance and is baptized in water. It is at this point his sins are forgiven, it is at this moment in time that he is “freed from sin.”

More to come