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Abraham's Faith (Faith Accounted for Righteousness)
Every person who truly believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is interested in having what we might term "saving faith." TheBible could not be any clearer than it is on our need for such faith.Paul tells the Ephesian Christians, "By grace you have been savedthrough faith." (Eph. 2:8 NKJV) To the Christians at Rome he speaks of them "having been justified by faith" (Rom. 5:1 NKJV) and then there isperhaps the best known passage in all of scripture, John 3:16, "For Godso loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoeverbelieves in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (NKJV)The only question then to be resolved is the nature of the faith thatsaves. We know its object (Christ) but need to know thecharacteristics of saving faith. In Rom. 4 Paul says Abraham "is thefather of us all" with the reference to all who believe. (Rom. 4:16) Hesays in Galatians, "only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham."(Gal. 3:7 NKJV) And, then finally, "So then those who are of faith areblessed with believing Abraham." (Gal. 3:9 NKJV) If we can learn thenature of Abraham's faith and then copy it in our own lives we too canand will be blessed.In Romans 4:3 Paul talks about Abraham's faith quoting a scripturefound in Gen. 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted tohim for righteousness." (NKJV) The context in Gen. 15 is God's promiseto Abraham that "one who will come from your own body shall be yourheir" (Gen. 15:4 NKJV) and that his descendants would be as the starsof heaven, impossible to count them for their number (Gen. 15:5).Abraham believed that and it was "accounted to him forrighteousness." (Gen. 15:6 NKJV)It is easy here to be led astray by carelessness as a student of theBible and come to the false conclusion that up to that point in timeAbraham was a lost sinner and this is the first time God accounted tohim his faith for righteousness. This was not a conversion experiencefor Abraham.The truth is Abraham believed God, walked with God, and was inobedience to God long before this event. Stephen in Acts 7 said, "TheGod of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was inMesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I willshow you.'" (Acts 7:2-3 NKJV)Note that God had chosen Abraham for he could have just as well haveappeared to anyone of hundreds or thousands of other men but he
 
chose Abraham telling him, "I will make you a great nation; I will blessyou and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing…in you allthe families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen. 12:2-3 NKJV)Note that God actually "appeared" to Abraham at that early stage of his historical record. He was 75 when he departed Haran for Canaan(Gen. 12:4). When he arrived in Canaan the Lord appeared to himagain, promised to give the land to Abraham's descendants, andAbraham built an altar to the Lord there (Gen. 12:7). From there hemoved to Bethel where it is said, "he built an altar to the Lord andcalled on the name of the Lord." (Gen. 12:8 NKJV)Thereafter Abraham went to Egypt for a time then returned to Canaanto the place of his first altar to the Lord and it is said at that time that"Abram called on the name of the Lord." (Gen 13:4 NKJV) After Lot hadseparated from Abraham the Lord God again spoke to Abraham andsaid, "All the land which you see I give to you and your descendantsforever." (Gen. 13:15 NKJV)We next read of Abraham building another altar after having moved toHebron (Gen. 13:18) and then read of Lot's captivity and rescue byAbraham and later of his meeting with Melchizedek king of Salem("priest of God Most High" – Gen. 14:18).Finally, we come to chapter 15 where "the word of the Lord came toAbram in a vision, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield,your exceedingly great reward." (Gen. 15:1 NKJV) Note that this isstated in Gen. 15:1 and is before Gen. 15:6. This will be the visionwhere God tells Abraham that he shall have a son from his own bodywho will be his heir, that his descendants will be as the stars inmultitude being impossible to count (Gen. 15:4-5), and where it is said,"And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him forrighteousness." (Gen. 15:6 NKJV)What has been the point in following through all of thischronologically? It is to point out that Abraham had long been a manof faith and had been so for years before it was ever said in Gen. 15:6that Abraham's faith was accounted to him for righteousness. Abrahamhad been walking with God by faith and God had been communingwith him talking with him and making promises to him for years. Iwant to emphasize that and then ask a question. Do you believe,based on your reading of Gen. 12, 13, and 14 and the first verse of Gen. 15 that Abraham was a lost sinner condemned in God's eyesbefore Gen. 15:6?
 
As the writer of the book of Hebrews said it was "by faith Abrahamobeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he wouldafterward receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowingwhere he was going. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as ina foreign country." (Heb. 11:8-9 NKJV) By the time Isaac was bornAbraham was 100 years old (Gen. 21:5). He had left Haran at the ageof 75.When God said to him, "I am your shield, your exceedingly greatreward" (Gen. 15:1 NKJV) that was before it was said of Abraham thatGod counted his faith for righteousness.The point Paul was making was not that this was a conversion eventfor Abraham in Gen. 15:6 but rather that Abraham was saved as allmen are by faith that God counts for righteousness. That is true for aman at any and all points of time in a man's life if he is a saved man.It was just as true of Abel, Enoch, and Noah (men before Abraham'stime) as it was for Abraham even though scripture never specificallysays that any of these men's faith was counted for righteousness. Allthree of these men are listed along with Abraham in what we often callthe Bible's hall of fame for faith chapter – Hebrews 11.Does this mean that the promise of a son and Abraham's faith in thatpromise was of no particular importance? Not at all! Quite thecontrary!Abraham's faith was so strong that he believed God was able to dowhat appeared to man to be impossible. The original promise toAbraham of a son (in Gen. 15) was made quite a number of yearsbefore Isaac, the son of promise, was born. In the time between thepromise and the birth of Isaac Ishmael had been born and was at least13 years old by the time of Isaac's birth. Read Gen. 17.God appeared to Abraham when he was 100 years old and againpromised him a son (Gen. 17:15-21) and then appeared to him againonly this time Sarah was within hearing distance and overheard thepromise of a son also (Gen. 18). She was 90. (Gen. 17:17)By man's way of measuring the possible it was an impossibility forAbraham to have a son but believe he did as did Sarah. "By faithSarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore achild when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful whohad promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead,were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude--innumerable asthe sand which is by the seashore." (NKJV) Rom. 4:19 tells us Abraham"did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a
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