February 21 Sermon: Credited as Righteousness
Consider these questions as you listen to this message from Genesis 15:1-18:
1. How does the story of God's covenant with Abram in Genesis 15 point to the work of Jesus Christ for our salvation? How does faith play a crucial role in this narrative, and how does it relate to the concept of righteousness by faith?
2. What significance does the covenantal ritual of cutting animals and passing between them have in the context of God's covenant with Abram? How does it foreshadow the work of Christ on the cross, and what does it reveal about God's role in fulfilling the covenant?
3. In what ways does the story of Abram's faith and God's covenant of grace resonate with the message of salvation in the New Testament, as highlighted by the Apostle Paul in his writings, particularly in Romans? How does understanding God's covenantal work impact our response as believers?
Transcript:
What makes the Christian faith so unique is the way in which God comes to us. Instead of our ascending to God by our own effort God comes down to his creation. In his grace and mercy God does the work to set his people free and he keeps his promises to them. In our Old Testament lesson this morning we see how God came near to Abraham and made a covenant with him and how that covenant points us to the work of Jesus Christ for us.
As we dig into our Old Testament lesson this morning we are beginning to see details on Abram and his relationship with God. With the story of Abram the story line of the book of Genesis begins to settle in a bit. We are only 12 chapters into the book of Genesis when we meet Abram, but there is a whole lot of history that takes place in those first 11 chapters. We have the creation account, the fall, the story of Cain murdering Able, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. That is a lot of history to pack into 11 chapters but then we need to figure in the fact that nearly two complete chapters of those 11 are genealogies. So basically we have 9 chapters covering those big stories and then we get to Abram in Genesis 12 and the rest of the story of this central character of the faith is told to us in the next 13 chapters. In Genesis, the story of God and his people has been hurtling at a breakneck pace and then suddenly we hit the brakes here with Abram and there is a very significant reason for this. Abram is the man of faith who believes the promise of God to bless all the nations through his seed. Through the book of Genesis, we are following the promise of the one who will crush the head of the serpent. In Genesis 3:15, immediately after the fall of humanity, God made that promise and through the narrative of Genesis we have seen the line of the promise come to Abram…….but he is childless. God informs Abram the promise continuing the line to the messiah is going to go through him but he is old and his wife is too. Well past child bearing age. She was always barren and unable to give Abram a child but at 80 years old she is more than barren. Her womb is dead, yet God is promising that the snake crusher, the promised Messiah, is going to come from the seed of Abram.
As we now jump into our lesson for this morning it has been at least ten years since the LORD came to Abram with the promise and there is still no child. In verse one we see the LORD come to Abram. He tells Abram that he is his shield and his very great reward. Abram seems a bit confused by this statement. Sure, the LORD is his reward, but Abram doesn't see how this is of much benefit to him. Basically he says, that's great LORD. You know everything, but what good is it to me. You have made a promise to bless the entire world through me, but I remain childless. In fact, Abram is looking to the future and tells the LORD that his current plan is that Eliezer of Damascus is going to be his heir. This was the custom in this period. If you did not have an heir of your own, one of your servants would receive the inheritance when you died. Abram has everything planned out. His last will and testament is ready to go but God reminds Abram that he has other plans. He informs Abram that Eliezer would not be his heir but that a child of his very own would be the one who would receive the inheritance. Then God gives Abram a visual representation of the result of that promise. He takes him out and shows him the night sky. He informs Abram that just as the stars are in the heavens so will his offspring be. Take a moment to put yourself in Abram's sandals here. You are childless. You are old. Your wife has been barren your whole life and now at her advanced age her womb is dead. Yet, God shows you the stars in the heavens and informs you that your offspring will be just as the numbers of stars in the heavens. I would like to think that I would believe the promise of God, but it would be hard. Despite the circumstances the Bible tells us that Abram believed God. He trusted the promises of God despite what everything around him would seem to confirm. Genesis tells us that Abram believed the LORD and he credited to him as righteousness. This is the important phrase in this story. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abram saw the promise, even though it was far off, and he believed and had faith that God would do what he promised to do. By that faith, God credited righteousness to Abram.
In the book of Romans, Paul goes back to this story and this very sentence to point to our salvation in Christ. Abram is the man of faith and he was saved by God's grace because of that faith. Not by any works that he had done, but God made him righteous because he saw the promise from afar and believed. This points us to the good news of the gospel. In our trespasses and sins each and every one of us is born dead. Like the womb of Sarai we are barren and hopeless but God comes to us and in Christ gives us the faith to believe in the same promise that Abram believed in. The promise of a savior who would bear the wrath that we deserve for our sin. A savior who would bless not just one family group, but all nations of the earth. By faith we believe God and it is credited to us as righteousness. In Christ we are no longer dead in our trespasses in sins but alive and declared righteous.
But there is another sign of God's promise in our lesson this morning that amplifies for us the grace and mercy of God. Abram asks God how he will know that the promise will come to pass. This is the point in the story that for us in the 21st century it starts to get a little bit strange. The LORD has Abram take a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a pigeon. Abram cuts the larger animals in half and spreads them apart. He has to fight off scavengers but eventually he falls into a deep sleep. The LORD tells Abram about his future family, their slavery, and their going in to the Promised Land. Then we see a smoking firepot and a torch pass through the halves of the animals. For us this is kind of a strange ritual but in that time this was a treaty or covenantal ritual. When a greater king would make a treaty with a lesser king they would cut the animals in half and walk through the halves together. The idea was that if either of us fails to keep the conditions of the treaty, may what happens to the animals here, happen to us. Usually there was a far greater burden on the lesser king because he did not possess the power of the other king to enforce the treaty. As we see here as this covenant was made Abram is asleep. He isn't doing anything. The smoking firepot and torch are showing us that God is passing between the halves of the animals alone. Even though God is the greater party in the covenant he is putting the burden solely on himself to keep the promises. What we see here in Genesis 15 is pointing us forward to the work of Christ for our salvation. Just as God put the burden of the covenant on himself by walking that bloody path, Christ took the entire burden of his covenant with us on his bloody cross. It is a covenant of grace. God saves us while we are dead in our sins and keeps the promise of the covenant himself. He does all the work. We believe by faith and trust that the God of the promise has born the curse of our sin for us.
As we reflect on these images that point us to the work of Christ for us, it is important to remember that God did all these things for us. Like Abram we rise up and live our lives in light of the promises. Even though we were asleep when God saved us we rise up. Knowing that all has been done for us we respond by loving God and loving our neighbor. Our great God of grace bore the bloody path for us and our right response is to serve him knowing that his promise of salvation is sure because of the work of Christ on our behalf. And now to this great and merciful covenant keeping God, be all glory, honor, and praise. Amen.
