Saved By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone (Genesis 15)
On a number of occasions, I can remember being offended by things my wife said to me, not because she actually was saying anything about me but because I made the whole thing about me. And I’m sure that you’ve been in this same situation before. You’re chatting with someone and suddenly you think they’re saying something about you.
Well, what happened?
More than likely what happened was that you are so selfish that you made the whole thing about you. You are so selfish that you, for that moment, thought that the world revolved around you and a comment not meant to be about you at all really made you angry.
To a certain extent we are all that way as well.
We tend to make things about us on a somewhat consistent basis. Your neighbor didn’t wave at you, so you think maybe they’re made at you about something. Someone didn’t say hello to you in the store, so you got offended, even though they didn’t see you. You didn’t get chosen to do a certain thing or people aren’t doing it your way, so you took it personally. You made it personal, when it was not personal at all.
Augustine said that we are “incurvatus in se”, it means “curved in upon ourselves”. He said that because of the Fall we are now curved in upon ourselves. Our sinfulness causes us to be selfish and prideful. As people who are curved in upon ourselves, we attempt to make everything about us. We seek out pleasure and goods for our own ends. Even when we do good things, we do it for the praise of others. One example of this is the many people who feed or do other good things for homeless people on camera so that the world can see it. The Fall has bent us in a way that we will attempt to make the good things we do about ourselves. And this corruption moves through us all the way to our view of salvation.
We can think that God is pleased with us because of our willingness to go to church on Sunday or our giving. We can think that God loves us because of something that we did.
Ask a person on the street why they think they will enter Heaven. Ask them why they will be able to be with God for eternity and what will their answer be. Most often it will be because they are better than someone they’ve heard of. They have lived a better life than Hitler or some guy who kills baby dolphins, so they believe themselves fit to stand before God on Judgment Day.
We are curved in upon ourselves, so we believe we are good enough on our own merits.
But that is not what we see in our text today. What we will see in our text today is that we have fellowship with God by the grace of God only through faith.
It is not about our effort or work. It’s not about our level of achievement. Our fellowship with God, eternal life, is not based upon our goodness or effort. It is based upon God’s grace alone and we respond to this by faith.
We believe God’s promise and by faith are counted as righteous.
We Are Counted Righteous By Faith In God’s Promise (Genesis 15:1-6)
Abram just lived through an extraordinary experience that is so exciting it could be a made into an action packed movie. After this was all over the Lord came to speak with him. God’s words to Abram were “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” (Genesis 15:1 ESV)
It should seem obvious to all of us that God was with Abram. And it really should have been obvious to Abram. I do believe that it was. He had conquered this seemingly monstrous tyrannical figure with a small fighting force. And then Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, told him that God gave Abram the victory (Genesis 14:18-20). Abram knew that God was with him, but there was still a problem.
All of God’s promises depended on God doing something that had not yet happened. God had provided for Abram and his family. God had even rescued Sarai when Abram had acted foolishly in Egypt. And now God had given to Abram this victory and recovery of Lot. But these things are not a child. And in order for the promises that God had given Abram to be fulfilled he needed a child. As Abram put it,
“O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” (Genesis 15:2-3 ESV)
Abram was old and he wasn’t getting any younger. His wife was old and she was not getting any younger either. And God had still not provided a child.
God assured Abram that he would do all that was promised. God would provide an heir, Eliezer would not be it (Genesis 15:4). And then, to give Abram further assurance, God took him outside to look at the night sky. In this moment God told Abram that his offspring would have as many offspring as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). This is similar to the promise God would give later in Genesis 22:17, when He stated that the number of Abram’s descendants would be greater than the sand on the seashore.
This is a lot of descendants. Using a whole lot of assumptions, it has been estimated that there are 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the sky. That is a seven with 22 0’s following it. That is a lot of descendants. That is a number that is impossible to count, a number that God only knows. But it is a lot. And God restated that promise for Abram here.
Something happened in that moment. Abram “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6 ESV). He believed God’s promises to him and God reckoned it to his account as righteousness.
This is an accounting term. Based on Abram’s faith, He was counted righteous. Or, righteousness was reckoned to his account. Abram was declared righteous, or “justified”. Notice what Paul says about this in Romans 4.
“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”” (Romans 4:2-8 ESV)
Why did God declare Abram to be righteous? Abram believed.
How does this apply to us today?
Well, we understand that we are people who have been tainted by sin. We are fallen creatures in a fallen world that have earned for ourselves God’s wrath and justice. God’s Son came to Earth and took on human flesh. He was and is now completely God and completely man. His name is Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life and accomplished all righteousness on behalf of sinners. Jesus also died on the cross and paid the full punishment for our rebellion. And three days later Jesus rose from the grave having accomplished our right standing with God.
What is our response to this message?
Well, it is to believe.
God has accomplished, in Christ, our right standing with Him. And all those who believe God’s promise will be saved. The response is to believe God’s promise that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The promise is eternal life. The promise is that God will adopt you into His family and into the promises given to Abram. The promises are fulfilled in Christ, they find there yes and amen in Him (1 Corinthians 1:20). And all those who trust the promise of God, receive the redemption found only in Christ.
Our response to this message is not to work harder, but to entrust ourselves to Christ who has already done the work for us.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 ESV)
Believe that promise and have eternal life. Entrust yourself to the Lord and be part of God’s Kingdom, part of His adopted family, and inheritor of the great and glorious promises of God.
God Will Accomplish What He Promises (Genesis 15:7-21)
At this point, God begins to make a covenant with Abram. If you are familiar with the giving of the Ten Commandments, then this text seems awfully familiar. There we read,
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2 ESV)
Here, God said to Abram,
“”I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”” (Genesis 15:7 ESV)
This is already covenant language. It is the announcement of the relationship between the parties within the covenant. God brought Abram out of Ur. And God brought Abram to this point.
But as we begin, Abram asks a question. “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (Genesis 15:8 ESV) Abram is asking for a sign of some sort from the Lord. And the Lord is about to give it to him.
God told him to bring back a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon (Genesis 15:9). That seems odd. But Abram knew what they were for, and so he cut all but the birds in half (Genesis 15:10-11).
The reason Abram knew what to do is that this was a common ritual for making covenants. The cutting of animals was part of a covenant making ceremony that was commonplace in this place and in this time. Both parties would state what they were pledging to do and then walk through the animal parts as if to say, “May it be done to me if I break this covenant with you.” Or, “May I be cut into pieces if I fail to keep my word.”
But this was not a normal covenant. What we read next is shocking to consider. A supernatural sleep overtook Abram and God told Abram what He was going to do. So, God put Abram to sleep and then made a unilateral pledge to Abram.
“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”” (Genesis 15:12-16 ESV)
God told Abram what He would do in greater detail. He told Abram what would happen with his offspring, with himself personally, and why it would be a while before the land was inherited.
God promised that Abram’s offspring would be foreigners for a while and even be enslaved. They would go to a land that was not their own and be afflicted there as servants “for four hundred years”. This was not an exact number it is given in nice round numbers like prophecies often were, later we will find that they will be in this land for four generations. Four generations are going to be in captivity. And the exact number was 430 years (Exodus 12:40). In this day, when people lived longer, a generation was considered 100 years. Abram would not have to live through the hardships himself. He would live to old age and prosper.
But God would not leave Abram’s lineage in captivity. He would bring them out of captivity. God would judge the nation that enslaved them. And they would leave with a lot of wealth. Anyone familiar with what happened in Egypt with the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea knows that God fulfilled this promise. And God would bring them back to the land God promised Abram.
Then God gave the reason for waiting four generations. Four generations was the time when “the iniquity of the Amorites” would rise to the level of judgment. In other words, the giving of the land would also be part of the judgment upon the people of the land.
Through all of this Abram was unable to say a word. Abram was not able to pledge to do anything because God put him into a deep sleep.
And then, while Abram was asleep, God walked through the pieces.
“When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”” (Genesis 15:17-21 ESV)
While Abram was in his deep sleep, he saw a fire pot and flaming torch pass between the halved animals. A fire pot was an ancient stove. The smoke must have rolled out of it as it passed through the pieces along with the flaming torch. Later, in the Exodus account a pillar of cloud and fire would lead Israel out of captivity. Today they passed through the animal pieces. In other words, while Abram was struck with this deep sleep God walked through the halved animals and made a unilateral covenant with Abram to do everything that He had promised.
Abram made no promise. And Abram made no covenant agreement. God made a gracious covenant with Abram.
We try and make things about ourselves. We think that if we do the right thing in some area of our lives, God will be happy with us.
We do not earn God’s favor. That was a unilateral work. God alone accomplished our right standing with Him. It is for us to believe. We believe God’s promises and it is God who has accomplished our salvation completely through Jesus Christ.
I rebelled against God and broke His law. Jesus lived a perfect life and fulfilled all righteousness on my behalf.
I earned for myself God’s punishment. Jesus took that punishment in my place.
I die because I am a sinner. Christ rose so that I will rise.
And what do I do? I trust God’s promises.
R. Dwain Minor