Title: Faith/Genesis 15:5-7
Contents
Lecture 3 Abraham3, Faith (Genesis 15:5-7)
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Today's text reads, "Abraham believed the LORD, and the LORD credited him to him for righteousness." Faith is more than an answer to a problem, more than knowing, knowing what you know, liking it, loving it, clinging to it, and getting to the point where you want to completely entrust yourself to it.
When Abraham knew nothing of God, God called him. In that sense, looking at the Bible that records his beginning as ‘Abraham by faith’, we should examine this faith with close attention.
At this point in time today, why did God give Abraham righteousness based on his faith? In Abraham's life, it is said that he believed God for the first time here. So, the opposite interpretation is given depending on which one is chosen: “Is this faith itself from Abraham or from God?” We have learned over the past two hours that Abraham did not start his faith by leaving Ur of the Chaldeans by faith, nor did he begin his faith in the level of knowing God. Rather, he explained that he came to realize that ‘God is God’ as he was pushed away.
A typical example of this is the case of going down to Egypt. Based on that, he developed an awareness of God and broke up with his nephew Lot, and in chapter 14, it is said that he went to war with the Allied Forces and fought to save his nephew. In chapter 15, the dialogue with God begins by saying that his heir will be Eliezer of Damascus. In this way, Abraham's faith was growing from ignorance. God blessed Abraham, not Eliezer, but saying, “Your offspring will be like the stars in the sky and like the sand of the earth.” Abraham believed this. What we are going to think about here is to ask whether the faith came from Abraham or from God.
God called Abraham from his father's house, his relatives, and called him in a vision from a place where foreign gods were worshiped. As a result of His work in the event, claiming, guiding, and persuading His life, the Abraham we are today. This is the most important point we will get from Chapter 15.
“To those who work, their wages are not counted as grace, but as debts; but to those who do not work, but believe in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:4).
Wage is not a favor. Because that's the price. To explain that the belief that ‘salvation is obtained through faith’ is wrong, we start by explaining that it is not a wage. Salvation is the total grace of God. Let's look at another word about salvation.
“Where, then, is there room to boast? In what way, or by works, but not by the law of faith, then we acknowledge that a person is justified not by works of the law, but by faith (Romans 3: 27-28)”
There are two things we need to think about to understand that we are saved by faith. One is whether it is wages and the other is whether it is boasting. When the Bible speaks of faith, it always stresses that it should not go with bragging and not with wages. Faith is grace and gift because God gave results without looking for conditions in the object to which he is trying to save.
Then, can man as a natural man have the condition to believe in God and be saved? none. Genesis 11-15 proves it. Salvation is nothing but the act of God regenerating and persuading us to believe in Him.
Humans have a habit of tracking and confirming all effects from causes. When confirming a certain result, the result is confirmed by confirming the cause, not by confirming the reality. They want to convince themselves of their results by saying ‘believe’.
Sinners refer to blind people, sleeping people, and dead bodies who do not know who God is and do not know the necessity of salvation. Repentance does not happen to anyone except one who is saved and whose soul is regenerated and who knows who God is. Salvation is not obtained through our faith, but through God's exclusive and independent act of grace. There is only one criterion in the Bible that separates sin from those who have been saved. Because this person is sleeping in the sleep of death, he has no interest in or knowledge of God, but only hatred. However, the other side is interested in God, has awareness, and thinks in connection with Him and everything.
It is wrong to say that Abraham was saved on the spot when he came to chapter 15 and said that he was “approved as righteousness” before God. Rather than being saved, he was finally recognized that much there, and he knew God enough to know someone. His salvation had already been given to Abraham by God's grace long before he knew God.