Genesis 15:1-6
Abram's Righteousness

We see in this account, according to Paul, the way in which we ourselves are saved.

  1. The Lord’s Assurance to Abram
    1. Do Not Fear
      1. Ordinarily we associate this command with the angels appearing to the shepherds
        1. The angel appears and the shepherds are very afraid
        2. And the angel says "Do not fear, for behold I bring you good news of great joy.
        3. And in that Christmas story an angel had earlier appeared to
          1. Zechariah, telling him he would bear John the Baptist
          2. Mary, telling her she would bear Christ
      2. And we will see later that this is a definite pre-echo of those events, particularly of the one in which the angel appears to Mary and tells her she will bear a Son
      3. It is a terrifying thing when God makes himself known among sinful men
        1. Abram himself will later in this chapter be overtaken by terror in the presence of God (12)
        2. So if, against all intuition, God comes to miserable sinners in peace, he must speak these words, "Fear not" or his voice will not be heard above the knocking of the knees and the chattering of the teeth.
      4. However, this is not the main reason God says, "Do not fear" to Abram in this instance
      5. Rather, he comes because Abram is already fearful
        1. He has thrown away what in the eyes of the world seems like a very good deal
        2. The King of Sodom came in 14.21 and offered to divide the spoil with him
          1. The deal would have made Abram quite rich indeed
          2. And it would have gained him a powerful ally among the kings of the earth.
          3. Whoever attacked Abram would have to deal with the King of Sodom as well
          4. And Abram threw it all away, stating that he wouldn’t take a dime from the King of Sodom lest that King boast that it was he who had made Abram rich
          5. Indeed, Abram is poorer at the end of chapter 14 than when he started
          6. For, rather than taking from the King of Sodom, he gave a tenth of his goods to the representative of God Most High, King of Righteousness, King of Peace.
        3. From the world’s perspective this deal makes no sense; Abram has forfeited that which will profit him here and clung by faith to God’s promise of a greater reward.
        4. Thus he has, by giving to Melchizedek, laid up his treasure in heaven.
        5. But now Abram’s faith needs strengthening
        6. He has been promised that his offspring will inherit the land …
          1. so where is the offspring?
          2. He’s over 75 years old, his wife over 65
          3. She’s been barren for their entire marriage
          4. In such a situation, the devil comes to torment Abram, whispering in his ear that he threw away the world for nothing. He is too old and his wife is barren; how can he possibly produce an heir to inherit God’s promise?
        7. Abram needs to be assured that God will follow through on his promise and that he has not made a fool’s bargain.
        8. God, knowing and caring for Abram’s weakness, comes to grant that assurance
      6. So he tells him "Do not fear"
      7. How often and how sweetly God would come to his people with those words over the years
        1. To Isaac Abram’s son and Jacob Abram’s grandson he will come. They are heirs of the same promise living as strangers in the promised land. And at Beer-Sheba he will come and speak to them those words: "I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake." (26.24)
        2. To Moses he will come as well, when Moses is leading the Israelites to conquer the perimiters of the promised land: "Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, along with his people and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon." (Deut 3.2)
        3. To Joshua, leading the people into the promised land, he will appear 3 times saying "Do not fear" for he will give the land to Israel
        4. 100s of years later, when Judah, the faithful remnant of God’s people is surrounded by the forces of Assyria who boast that they will crush the people of God, Isaiah will speak the word of the Lord "Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 I myself will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land." And so it happened.
        5. Through Isaiah and Jeremiah he will constantly tell his people not to fear, saying I will help you, I have redeemed you, you are mine, I am with you, I will deliver you, I will save you.
      8. How sweetly Jesus will continue this message in the New Testament
        1. To his disciples, about to be shaken to their foundations by seeing their Lord crucified, he says "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Isn’t this exactly what Abram has done by shunning Sodom and embracing Melchizedek?)
        2. To Jairus who weeps before his daughter’s lifeless form, how tenderly Jesus will say, "Do not fear; only believe."
        3. And that is God’s message to Abram and to us.
        4. How hard for Abram to believe that he would have a son!
        5. How hard for Jairus to believe his daughter would be brought back to life!
        6. How hard for the disciples to believe that their crucified Lord would be raised and crowned with glory!
        7. How hard for us to believe that we will not be saved by our own strength, that money doesn’t matter, that the world which hates us will not triumph, that death will not get the victory over us or our loved ones in Christ. The testimony of our eyes tells us just the opposite and we must be told constantly, do not fear, only believe
      9. And so How often and how sweetly he still comes
        1. Your God does not change; His message to Abram is his message to you
        2. Do not fear; only believe the promises
        3. You are weak but I am strong
        4. You can do nothing, but I shall accomplish it all
        5. Hear this, then, as the gospel to Abram and to you, for that is what it truly is.
    2. I Myself Am Your Shield
      1. The Psalms in two places speak of the princes or the kings of the earth as "shields"
        1. They are protectors
        2. But God affirms that he will be Abram’s protector.
      2. Abram has declined the protection of the king of Sodom
      3. Has he exposed himself needlessly to the swords and arrows of the world?
      4. Who will protect him when he recklessly tosses away the protection that was offered?
      5. God himself
      6. The statement is emphatic: It is I who will be your shield or I Myself will be your shield
      7. What lesser shield does Abram need if the greates of all will protect him?
        1. Ps 47.9 — The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted.
        2. Even when Israel has a king, they confess that their king belongs to God
        3. Ps 89.18 — For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.
      8. God is saying Put no confidence in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no hope
      9. Rather, believe that I myself will protect you; and who can stop me?
      10. It is like Paul saying in Romans "Who will bring a charge against God’s elect (against God’s people)? It is God who justifies"
    3. Your Reward Is Great
      1. NKJV and NIV translate this as "I am your exceedingly great reward"
        1. That’s certainly possible as a translation
        2. And it’s even a Biblical concept
        3. Our reward in heaven will not be like money which is useless except to exchange for something of value
        4. Our reward in heaven will be intimacy with God himself, displayed fully to us in the face of Jesus Christ.
        5. At most though, there is a hint of this concept here, a concept that will be fully developed in ch. 17 when God pledges himself irrevocably to Abram, saying I will be your God
        6. So have patience. The promise of God will get that glorious before he’s done making it
      2. But right now, the context makes it clear that God is saying to Abram "Your reward will be great."
      3. He says "I am your shield" meaning, you didn’t lose any protection by not relying on the King of Sodom
      4. So now he says, "Your reward will be great," meaning, you didn’t lose anything of value when you declined to divide the booty with the king of Sodom
        1. And Abram knows what that means
        2. His reward is the promised land of Canaan and the surrounding area
        3. This will be given to his descendants which shall be as the dust of the earth in number
      5. This raises a question that Abram must then ask.
  2. Abram’s Question and the Lord’s Response
    1. Abram: How Can This Be, Seeing I Am Powerless?
      1. How can this happen since I’m childless?
      2. Eliezer is not his son, merely a child born within his household who will inherit Abram’s wealth if Abram dies childless
      3. But Eliezer is not Abram’s seed, not his offspring, not the one through whom the promise may be fulfilled
      4. Even Eliezer’s name becomes a rebuke to Abram for his name means "My God is a help."
        1. But where is Abram’s help?
        2. Why will God give him no offspring?
      5. Indeed, Abram places the responsibility squarely on God’s shoulder’s
        1. You have not given me the offspring, the seed
        2. You are the one who promised and you must fulfil
      6. Abram is not being rebellious or disrespectful here
        1. He is simply confessing his temptation to doubt and pleading with God to preach the gospel to him, to preach faith into him so that he may believe
        2. He is crying out "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!"
      7. He is confessing his own utter inability to bring about what God has promised.
      8. He has not been fooled by his great conquest of Chedorlaomer and the other kings in ch. 14
        1. He is not boasting in the arm of his strength
        2. Melchizedek said it was God who delivered Abram’s enemies into his hand and Abram confessed that Melchizedek was right when he gave him a tenth of all he had.
        3. But what is such a victory to Abram if he has no son to whom to leave the inheritance
        4. Riches are nothing. Power in the eyes of men is nothing.
        5. Only what God has promised — that his descendants, as numerous as the sand of the sea should inherit this land — that is everything
        6. For this land, remember, is a picture of that Paradise which Adam and Eve lost, a picture of heaven, a symbol of restoration to fellowship with God to enjoy him forever.
        7. And that … THAT … is what Abram cannot by any effort secure
        8. All around him people are having babies and raising them to health. 2, 4, half a dozen, a dozen
        9. They are born in his own household; they crawl about his feet and mock his impotence to produce the one thing that must be produced — the seed to whom the promise should come, the seed who would inherit the land, the seed who would be the ancestor of Christ whom Paul says is the true, single seed of Abraham. He alone, our savior, is the Seed who will do what God promised, crushing Satan’s head and restoring paradise.
        10. And … Abram … is … helpless … to … produce … him
      9. This is far from an arrogant attack on God
      10. This is Abram’s humbling himself to the uttermost
      11. It is a form of repentance
        1. We don’t usually think of it this way
        2. But this is the repentance that precedes faith, a repentance that renounces any trust in our own abilities and cries out that God alone can save.
        3. Abram has no works to offer God
        4. If Abram must by his own power produce this seed in order to receive his reward, he acknowledges he will fail utterly
        5. He cannot do a single thing to earn the favor of God
      12. This is what we are called to as well
        1. We do not boast in anything we can do, for we are helpless to do a single thing to bring about our own salvation
        2. We hear the promise of God that we shall be saved and we cry out "How can this be, seeing that I cannot produce the one thing you require — a righteous mediator who will be my advocate before you?"
        3. And so we humble ourselves, begging God to tell us again that he has done it all, that none of it depends on us, that he is our shield, that he will give us our reward not according to our merits but according to his grace
      13. And so God responds to Abram
    2. God: Nevertheless, I Shall Keep My Promise
      1. God affirms Abram’s belief that his plan is more glorious than giving Abram’s inheritence to an adopted heir
        1. Eliezer will not be your heir
        2. You will have a son who will come from your own body
      2. In the face of Abram’s faltering and his humble acknowledgement that he can do nothing, God triumphantly states that he will do it all.
      3. Abram cannot produce an heir, though it is from his own body that the heir must come.
      4. But God can grant this and swears to Abram that he will.
      5. And so he takes Abram outside and preaches the gospel to him
        1. Look at the stars
        2. So shall your descendants be
        3. Just as he had done with the dust before (the gospel has not changed)
      6. And so God comes to us when we again and again falter in our faith and are brought to the place of despairing of our own strength
        1. We lose possessions, jobs, friends, family, children, husbands, wives
        2. Or we give them up for the gospel
        3. And humbed, we realize how much we trusted in those things that could not save
        4. And God again brings us to that place where we realize that few things are necessary and really only one
        5. And we cry out preach the word of Christ to me! Feed me Christ!
        6. Tell me again that my salvation is complete in him and that I will be brought into the true inheritance, into heaven itself at last
        7. Assure me that my eyes deceive me that I may walk by faith according to what God has promised and not according to what seems important.
  3. Abram’s Justification
    1. Abram Believed the Lord
      1. God has spread out the entire starry sky as the text of his gospel message to Abram.
      2. Abram has repented of any reliance on himself.
      3. And so he believes God: what Abram cannot do because his flesh is weak, God can and will do
      4. Against all intuition and logic. Against everything his eyes tell him and his very flesh feels, he believes that God can and will do exactly as he says.
      5. You can see very clearly that this faith is not a work which Abram offers to God
        1. This faith does not merit the great reward of which God preaches
        2. Then, as Paul says, the reward would be a debt, something God owes to Abram
        3. This faith is the opposite of a work
        4. It is a confession that he has no works.
        5. It is Abram confessing that he can merit nothing from God nor can he provide anything on his own.
        6. It is meekly saying "Amen" to what God has promised, acknowledging that God must do it all.
      6. This is what it means to believe in Christ
        1. It is not that God likes faith so much that he’s willing to trade salvation for it.
        2. Abram’s very faith is worked in him by God through the preaching of the gospel when Abram is miserable and helpless
        3. So our faith is worked in us, a gift from God, grace not debt
        4. And by faith we believe that God is able and will keep his promises
        5. By faith we believe that though the Church of Christ is persecuted, yet Christ is reigning
        6. By faith we believe that, though we still feel so sinful and even enslaved to sin, yet sin is not our master for we have died to it in baptism.
        7. By faith we believe that, though we have no power in ourselves to do good works, yet in baptism we have also been raised with Christ to a new life and that Christ has given us the power of that life to walk in those good works.
        8. By faith we believe that this world which seems so solid, is passing away
        9. By faith we believe that the coming world, which we cannot see, is our true eternal home and we shall dwell there in glory in the presence of Christ forever.
        10. By faith we believe that even though we and all our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ die, yet we shall live.
          1. Death itself does not cause us to mourn hopelessly.
          2. Though we weep now, we shall be made to rejoice.
          3. we say with Job: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the last day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh will I see God. My eyes will see him and not another."
    2. The Lord Counted It to him as Righteousness
      1. What an amazing statement!
      2. This is what we have been yearning for, ever since Adam took the fruit and forfeited our righteousness and made us guilty sinners
      3. For how can we return to the presence of God without righteousness?
      4. And how can we who are sinners be righteous before him?
      5. Yet suddenly Abram is justified, counted as righteous in the sight of God
        1. Because of his own works?
        2. The Holy Spirit has taken great pains to show us that this is not the case
        3. Abram is helpless
      6. By faith Abram denies that he can do anything
      7. By faith Abram entrusts himself to God as the one who must do everything
      8. And so his faith points to God and says, If I must be righteous to receive this inheritance which is a picture of heaven and fellowship with God, then God himself must be my righteousness
      9. So it was that Jeremiah, looking forward to Christ, called him "The Lord, our righteousness."
      10. So it is that we deny any merit in ourselves and look entirely to Christ for our salvation
        1. You see, it is not that faith is so wonderful in itself
        2. Faith is wonderful because it points to Christ and He is wonderful
        3. Faith looks inside us and sees no good thing
        4. Faith looks to Christ and sees perfect righteousness, everything we need
        5. This is the faith that Abram had
        6. This is the faith that you are being called to
        7. Indeed, this is the faith that is being preached into you now, for faith comes by hearing the word of Christ
        8. Believe it! Believe the whole miraculous impossible promise
      11. What are you in yourself? A filthy, rotten sinner
      12. But your faith points to Christ and he is righteous
        1. so God sees you that way
        2. You come up before God by faith in heaven this day
        3. You have come boldly before the throne of grace
        4. And he does not reach out in anger to destroy you as a sinner in his presence
        5. But he embraces you because … you are righteous, clothed with the righteous robe of Christ.

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