20250518 Genesis 15 Righteousness by Faith and Assurance by Covenant
The NT loves Genesis 15, particularly Gen 15:6. Paul quotes Gen 15:6 in Gal 3:6. James quotes Gen 15:6 in James 2:23. Genesis 15:6 gets the most attention in Romans 4. In Romans 4, Paul uses Genesis 15:6 to explain Christian salvation. Paul uses Genesis 15:6 to teach on the forgiveness of sins on account of faith outside of works of the law. According to Paul, Genesis 15:6 teaches Christian salvation.
I want to do what Paul does with Genesis 15:6, with all of
Genesis 15. There are two key, soul-feeding truths in this text. They minister
to us and we can use them to care for one another. These truths are
righteousness by faith in God, and assurance by God’s Covenant.
The following may describe us or people we know. The truths
in our passage can help us.
This is a first scenario. We may accept the doctrine of righteousness on account of faith, but still live as if God’s love depends on us and our performance. This is a burden we carry around. We may compare ourselves to others. We feel guilty for not doing more for God. Our lack of performance may lead us to doubt God’s love. The Christianity we present does not reflect the rest that Christ came to bring. If this is us, we need the good news of righteousness by faith and assurance by covenant.
This is a second scenario. We look to our emotions to teach
us what is most true. We connect the quality of our relationship with God to
how we feel about it. When we feel good, we feel God’s love, but when we feel
bad, we doubt our relationship with God. It could be that we remember a “spiritual
high” we had as young Christians. We may fear that since we have not been able
to re-attain the level of zeal, we may not be truly Christians. In this case,
we need to be reminded of our righteousness by faith and assurance by covenant.
A third scenario is when we are haunted by our past sins. We
may intellectually believe that God forgives, but Satan’s accusing voice is
ever present. We feel shame. We do not feel worthy of God’s love. Again, we
need to be reminded of righteousness by faith and assurance by covenant. If
these three examples do not describe you, remember they describe someone around
you. We need these two truths for ourselves and to care for one another.
We will explore righteousness by faith and assurance by
covenant. My goal is to show that what was true of Abram is still true for
Christians. We believe and our faith is counted to us as righteousness. God
makes a covenant with us, so that we would know for certain that he keeps his
promises.
Now, briefly before we get to our two main points, in the
big picture of the Abraham narrative, we have seen that the life of Abram
revisits the cycles of Genesis 1-11,
Genesis 14 had echoes to the flood and the tower of Babel. Now,
Genesis 15 returns to Genesis 2. Eliezer means God is my helper. Like Genesis
2, in Genesis 15, there’s a helper, there is deep sleep, cutting, the theme of
fruitfulness, and a promised land that echoes Eden.
First, we look at Righteousness by Faith in
Genesis 15:1-6.
Gen 15:1-6
At this point in Abram’s life, God promised him land, offspring,
and blessing. In Genesis 15, Abram worries these promises will mean nothing
without a descendant. If Abram has no descendants, no one will enjoy the
promises God has made him. At this point, Abram is around 80 years old (75 to
85).
Gen 15:1
In Gen 15:1, the Lord tells him, “I am your shield, and your
reward shall be very great.” The concept of reward was present in the preceding
chapters. In Genesis 12, Abram received a reward in Egypt after lying about
Sarai. He received slaves, money, and cattle. In Genesis 13, this reward led to
his separation from Lot, his nephew. This separation led to Abram’s involvement
in a war in Genesis 14. In Genesis 14, the King of Sodom offered Abram a great
reward, but Abram refused. Abram changed his posture towards rewards. He was
learning to rely more on God. In Gen 15:1, when God says, “I am your shield,”
it could have been translated “I am your benefactor, or “the one giving the
reward.”[i]
Gen 15:2-5
In Gen 15:2, Abram suggests that Eliezer of Damascus, his
servant, could be his heir. But God insists that Abram would have his very own son
and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. God promises
something that is unbelievable and beyond all normal hope. Abram will become a father
after trying for decades.
Gen 15:6
Gen 15:6 is the famous verse, “[Abram] believed the LORD,
and he counted it to him as righteousness.” The two key words are “believed”
and “righteousness.” I want to look at both of these.
First we have Belief, Faith, or Trust in
God.
What is Faith?
Believing God is taking him at his word. More than mentally agreeing
with truth statements, believing is trusting. It is deeply relational. Belief
includes treasuring God, rejoicing in his claims, and committing to base our
lives on what we believe.
This concept is not new in Genesis. This is the kind of relationship
God always wants. The accounts of Adam and Eve in the garden, Abel, Enoch, and
Noah, teach us that God wants a relationship with humans. This relationship is
often called walking with him. Way more than a cerebral activity, trust is
relational language. When we have this kind of relationship, God's promises
shape our lives. Believing God means believing his words. Believing cannot be
separated from obeying.
Gen 15:6 is important to Christians because we learn from
the context that what Abram believed is what Christians believe. I want to
argue that Abram believed in the coming of the savior of the world and in life
from death. I am arguing Abram has Christian faith. Or more accurately,
Christians have the faith of Abraham.
First, Abram believed in the coming savior of the world. In
Gen 3:15, God connected the salvation of the world with the birth of an
offspring. God promised Abram offspring and blessing to the world. We can
conclude that the savior from Gen 3:15 will be an offspring of Abram. Therefore,
when Abram believes God’s promise of a son in Gen 15:6, he is believing in God’s
promise of a savior.
The sin in Genesis 3 brought death, alienation, hostility,
fear, and shame. The savior has to bring the forgiveness of sins, peace, the
renewed creation, and the regeneration of sinners. Like Christians, Abram
believed in this kind of savior and salvation.
Second, Abram believed in God’s ability to provide life from
death. Abram and Sarai are so old and beyond being able to have a child. Believing
Sarai could have a child is believing that God can bring life from the dead. Paul
writes in Rom 4:19, “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own
body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or
when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.” Abram like Christians
believed God brings life from death.
Taken together Abram believes in God’s future salvation and
that God brings life from death. Abram looked forward. Christians now look back
to Jesus, Abram’s offspring, who fulfilled these promises. Abram's faith is
Christian faith.
Righteousness
We are studying Gen 15:6, we saw that Abram’s faith is
Christian faith. Now we turn to the concept of righteousness.
What is righteousness?
Gen 15:6 reads, “Abram believed, and God reckoned it to him
as righteousness.”
I am going to argue that righteousness means forgiveness of
sins.
Being declared righteous means we are treated as if we were
innocent.
Often in the Bible, the word “righteous” is contrasted with
the word “wicked”. The righteous are those acquitted by judges (Deut 25:1). They
are innocent. Spiritually, the righteous are those acquitted by God. The rest
of the story reveals that Abram is still a sinner. We also see that Abram's
faith will lead to righteous behavior.
In the NT, Rom 4:5-8 equates Abraham's righteousness with
the forgiveness of sins. Romans 4:5-7 reads, “his faith is counted as righteousness…
just as David also speaks … ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered.’”
Now, I want to show that we have enough clues in Genesis to
conclude that “righteousness” includes the forgiveness of sins.
Following the first sin in Genesis 3, we are alienated from
God, from each other, and experience fear and shame within. Gen 6:5 and Gen
8:21 teach that our human hearts are wicked from our youth.
Then, in Genesis 12, God promised Abram offspring, land, and
a blessing. These three promises match and anticipate the reversal of the
Genesis 3 consequences. So in some way, Abram is part of God’s solution to sin
in the world. He has a role in reversing our alienation with God, with each
other, and our shame within. In our world where the problem is sin, the
solution must be the forgiveness of sins. When God declares Abram righteous, he
declares him forgiven.
Through Abram God will bring a blessing to the whole world. This
blessing is the forgiveness of sins by faith. It is a blessing that Abram
already enjoys in his lifetime.
Abram and Christians
Abram enjoyed eternal life by believing in God’s promise and
looking forward to the coming savior. Christians enjoy eternal life by believing
God’s promises and looking back to the coming of the savior, Jesus. Abram and
Christians believe in the same promises and blessings, and savior. We enjoy the
same blessing, the declaration of righteousness, which is the forgiveness of
sins.
Throughout the Old Testament, belief is connected with
salvation from Judgment and unbelief with judgment.
This same word "believe" occurs in other important
places in the Bible. Following the crossing of the Red Sea and God's salvation,
Exod 14:31 reads, "the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the
Lord and in his servant Moses." Num 14:11 gives the reason the people of
Israel face God's judgment for 40 years in the wilderness. They did not believe
in God. 2 Kings 17:14 gives the reason why God allowed the Assyrians to invade
Israel. Israel did not believe in the Lord their God. The prophet Jonah
announced God's judgment to the people of Nineveh. Jonah 3:5 reads "the
people of Nineveh believed God." God saw that they turned from evil, and
he relented from his judgment.
These texts confirm that believing in God changes our lives.
God declares us righteous. We escape God's judgment. Lack of belief in God
leads to judgment.
Application
First, we need to thank God for righteousness by faith. Salvation
by faith is not intuitive to me. When you ask almost anyone what they
instinctively believe you need to be right with God, it will be – be a good
person. I don’t think that is a bad instinct, since God loves righteous deeds,
love, mercy, humility, and despises violence, deceit, and pride. The problem is
that if we are judged based on our good works, then we all fail. There is no hope
for anyone. No one would qualify to be right with God. Salvation through believing
in God is good news, it makes a way for all sinners to receive salvation from
God, even the worst sinners.
Second application is that the requirement of faith also
teaches us the kind of God we worship. He does not want cold, disinterested law
following. He wants a relationship built on trust in his faithfulness and
promises. He want this relational trust to transform us. We enjoy intimacy with
God through prayer and the scriptures. We develop a humble posture of
dependence on God. We learn to love to walk in his ways and make his plans, our
plans.
Third, faith is visible. Abram so believed God’s promises
that when he did finally receive his son, he was willing to offer him up as a
sacrifice. He knew that if his son died before having children, God would have
to raise him up to keep his promises. Faith leads to action. If we believe God's
promises, we live for a different kind of future than what this world offers. A
Christian life cannot be entirely marked by working long hours to get rich so
you can enjoy luxury vacations. A faith-driven life is generous, humble,
serving, hospitable, and people-focused. It strives to make God’s name great.
Gen 15:7-21 Assurance by Covenant
Gen 15:7
Gen 15:1-6 addressed the promise of offspring, Gen 15:7
shifts to the promise of land. The promises of land, offspring, and blessing
are connected. In the closest context, the covenant secures the land promise. It
also secures the rest of God's promises to Abram. These are offspring,
blessing, and righteousness by faith.
Gen 15:8-16
Following God's promise of Land,
Abram responds: “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” To give
Abram assurance of the promise of land the Lord enters into a covenant with
Abram.
In Gen 15:9, Abram brings five animals, cuts them in half
(except the two birds), lays each half opposite each other. While Abram is
sleeping, God speaks to him. God answers Abram's question, "How am I to
know?" with the words, "know for certain." In Gen 15:13-16, the
Lord describes the way his descendants will possess the land. It will take hundreds
of years. His descendants will be slaves in Egypt, and then they will return to
possess the land.
Gen 15:17-21
In Gen 15:17, “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed
between these pieces [of the animals cut in half].” A covenant is a formal
relationship or partnership where different parties have responsibilities.
Jeremiah 34:18-20 explains the covenant ceremony and its
implications. To enter into a covenant, people would cut animals. The covenant
parties walked through the animal halves. This communicated, “If I do not keep
my end of the deal, may what was done to the animals be done to me.”
Abram does not walk through the animals. Only God does. God
takes upon Himself the curse for covenant failure. God binds himself to keeping
his promises even if Abram is unfaithful.
This ultimately plays out in the Son of God, taking the
covenant curse on behalf of his people. Gal 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who
is hanged on a tree." God guarantees his promises to Abram by bearing the
responsibility for both parties. He binds himself so that his promises rest on
his faithfulness alone. In this way, God’s covenant guarantees his pomises to
Abraham.
Application
In the same way Abram's faith and righteousness are the same
essence as Christian faith and righteousness, so it is with our assurance. God
gave Abram a covenant so that he would "know for certain" God's
promises. The covenant depends entirely on God, because only he went through
the animals.
Christians are in the New Covenant. Christ guarantees the
covenant promises by taking the covenant curse on himself. It is now impossible
for God not to keep his promises to Christians. We are secure in his hands. If
we trust in Christ, believe God, our sins are forgiven. We can know for certain
that our sins are forgiven because Christ has died for sin. The New Covenant
assures us of the forgiveness of sins because it is the work of God and not our
work.
We take the gift of Christian assurance very seriously. It
is part of the good news and part of our worship service every Sunday. We want
to assure Christians of God's promises with the New Covenant. The announcement
of the gospel assures Christians of what Christ did. It reminds us that we are
a forgiven people. The baptism and the Lord's Supper are New Covenant signs and
seals. They display the covenant promises, and the Spirit seals those truths on
our hearts. The broken body and shed blood of Christ is the guarantee that God
forgives the sins of his people.
Conclusion
Genesis 15 is a Christian message of faith in God and being
counted righteous. It is also about the assurance of those who are in God's
covenant.
To the anxious Christian who still finds some identity in
performance, remember salvation is by believing God. God loves you because he
loves you. If you compare yourself to others, remember God loves you because he
loves you.
If you connect your spiritual health with how you feel,
remember that it is trust in a God who does not change that determines your
status. He declares those who trust in him righteous and forgiven. Our feelings
cannot change God’s love for us. He guarantees his love for us by the New
Covenant and Christ’s completed work on the cross for the forgiveness of our
sins.
If we are haunted by horrible things we have done, remember God’s
grace is greater than our sins. Our righteousness comes from faith apart from
works and unhindered by our former sins.
A text like Genesis 15 encourages us to take our eyes off of
ourselves. Righteousness is declared by a gracious God on account of faith. God
guarantees our righteousness by binding himself to us in a covenant. God wants
Christians to enjoy peace with God, joy in the forgiveness of sins, and assurance
on account of the work of Christ. Let us be a people that cares for one another
by reminding each other of these two truths.
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