Trinity 1 2019

Genesis 15:1-6

June 23, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

“And Abraham believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.”  This is our text.  Genesis chapter 15 is one of the most important chapters in the book of Genesis and it should be heard with great meditation over its meaning and importance.  Abraham had just rescued Lot who had been captured by an invading army.  After this, the Lord fulfilled His earlier promise to Abraham to bless him, doing so through the ministry of Melchizedek, king of Salem.  And now, the word of the Lord comes to him in a vision and says, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  Abraham questions what the Lord could give to him since he still remained childless with Sarah his wife.  This was what God had promised.  And so God brings him outside to number the stars, and reassures His promise to Abraham from Genesis 12 that He would make Abraham a great nation.  And Abraham believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.

Now, when Moses adds that Abraham believed God, this is the first passage of Scripture which we have had until now about faith. In this passage no mention is made of any preparation for grace, of any faith formed through works, or of any preceding disposition. This, however, is mentioned: that at that time Abraham was in the midst of sins, doubts, and fears about his future and the future of his family, he is declared to be righteous.  How? In this way: God speaks, and Abraham believes what God is saying. Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, bears a trustworthy witness and declares that this very believing or this very faith is righteousness or is imputed by God Himself as righteousness and is regarded by Him as such.

No one has treated this passage better, more richly, more clearly, and more powerfully than St. Paul in the third to the twelfth chapters of Romans. Moreover, Paul treats it in such a way as to show that this promise concerning Abraham’s descendants should not be interpreted to apply solely to the legitimate biological offspring, but to the spiritual and eternal heritage, those who are children of Abraham by faith in promises of God.  For righteousness is given to Abraham not because he performs works but because he believes. It is the same for us: righteousness is given because of God’s thought, which faith lays hold of.  So Paul writes in Romans 4:24-25, “[Righteousness] will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

The chief and most important part of Genesis 15 is the promise; for faith lays hold of it. Moreover, the confident laying hold of the promise is called faith; and it justifies, not as our own work but as the work of God. For the promise is a gift, a thought of God by which He offers us something. It is not some work of ours, when we do something for God or give Him something. No, we receive something from Him, and that solely through His mercy. Therefore he who believes God when He promises, he who is convinced that God is truthful and will carry out whatever He has promised, is righteous or is counted as righteous in God’s sight.

Learn, therefore, not to attribute righteousness to your love or to your works and merits; for they are always unclean, imperfect, and polluted. Consequently, they call for a confession of our unworthiness and for humbling ourselves with a prayer for forgiveness. But attribute your righteousness to mercy alone, to the promise concerning Christ alone, the promise which faith receives and by means of which it protects and defends itself against conscience when God sits in judgment.

Accordingly, our righteousness does not depend on the Law and works, it depends on the promise, which is sure and unalterable. Therefore this promise is surely carried out and fulfilled when faith takes hold of it; and it follows with infallible logic that faith alone justifies, inasmuch as faith alone accepts the promises of God.

We know indeed that faith is never alone but brings with it love and other gifts. For the Law of God is still good and wise, and God not only promises, but He also commands. And not only does He command, but He equips. It is the concern of the Law that you conform your will to it and obey God’s commands. It is the concern of the Gospel that faith in the promise of God is the source from which all good works flow.  For whoever believes in God and is sure that God is graciously inclined toward sinners, since He gave His Son and with His Son the hope of eternal life, how could he not love God in return and love his neighbor?  So we hear in the Epistle today, “we love because God first loved us.”  If faith is not there first, you would look in vain for those virtues. If faith has not embraced the promises concerning Christ, no real love and no other true virtues can be present.  This is the difference between the rich man and Lazarus: the difference was not the earthly riches, but in faith in the promises of God.   

Therefore the promise must be distinguished from the Law. The promise requires faith; the Law, works. The Law and works do not justify; yet Law and works must be taught and performed, in order that we may become aware of our sinfulness and accept grace all the more eagerly. Both the Law and the promises are the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit uses to draw us closer to Him in God’s righteousness obtained by faith and in righteous living.

And this is the promise of God-Jesus the Christ who was crucified for you, of whom Moses and the Prophets prophecy, and who was raised for your justification. Every promise of God includes Christ. Therefore, the only difference between Abraham’s faith and ours is this: Abraham believed in the Christ who was promised, while we believe in the promised Christ who has come and who promises to come again; and by that faith in Christ we are all saved.^[1]