Genesis 15:1-6 | “Righteousness for Those Who Believe”

Sunday morning sermon audio from Preston Highlands Baptist Church.

Justice Rolled Down This Week

On Friday morning the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, arguing that the right to an abortion is not a constitutional right and returning the issue to the people and their elected representatives.  On Friday morning, “justice rolled down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” from the highest court in our land (Amos 5:24).

Sixty-three million lives were taken under the oppressive rule of Roe v. Wade.  This is the greatest human rights issue of our time.  The overruling of Roe and Casey is a time for unqualified rejoicing, a time to thank the Lord of life for his mercy, not a time to strut or gloat.  As Gavin Ortlund put it, this is a time to feel relief and hope.  Relief because something deeply crooked has been made straight.  Hope because progress can be made, which should encourage us to keep pushing forward for justice.  Psalm 10:17-18 says, “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”

This isn’t the end of the pro-life movement, but it is the dawning of new era for the movement.  There is still so much work to be done.  We must continue to pray and work for the complete end of abortion in our country.  We must seek to skillfully, logically, and compassionately persuade people to see the inherent value of every human life and the inconsistencies in the pro-choice position.  We must serve mothers in crises with compassion and truth.  There will likely be even more women who need love, care, support, resources, and the good news of the gospel and likely more opportunities to step into adoption and foster care.  We must pray against violence and vandalism of pregnancy centers and support their work in any way we can.  Today is a great day to donate to your local crisis pregnancy center.

“Was it Good or Was it Evil?”

This weekend there has been a celebration of righteousness in a country that is abandoning any notion of right and wrong.  It’s a mercy from God to our country that people bent on not doing what’s right before God still do what’s right sometimes.  Our country, and ourselves, are a mixture of right and wrong, good and evil.

I love how John Steinbeck talks about this in his novel East of Eden.  He says:

“A child may ask, ‘What is the world’s story about?’  And a grown man or woman may wonder, ‘What way will the world go?  How does it end and, while we’re at it, what’s the story about?’

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us…Humans are caught – in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too – in a net of good and evil.  I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence…There is no other story.  A man, after he has brushed off the dust…of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil?  Have I done well – or ill?”[1]

Steinbeck is saying that we come to the end of our lives and the only thing that matters is whether we lived righteous or evil lives.

I think he’s right in the sense that we all want to know if our lives meant something or stood for something.  He’s right that we’re all caught in a “net of good and evil,” that our lives are tangled up with good and evil, that our lives are a mixture of things we’re proud of and things we’re not proud of.

But while his analysis is true on this point, it may lead us to think that our opinion of ourselves is what matters in the end.  If we can decide if our life was good or evil, and if our decision is the decisive one for how we spend eternity after we die, then we’re going to convince ourselves that our life was good.  We’re going to be self-righteous and justify our evil actions any way we can.

Self-righteousness plagues our culture, and our churches.  One pastor said that Satan’s true masterpiece is the Pharisee, not the prostitute.  Those who think they’re right in themselves will never see their need to be made right by someone else.  But those who know they have no righteousness in themselves are in a prime position to receive the gift of righteousness from God.

The Enshrining of the Promises

As we move into Genesis 15, we’re going to come to one of the most important verses in the Bible, a verse that answers the most urgent question that we all face: How can I be in a right relationship with God?  Think about that question for a moment and answer it for yourself in your head.  What do you have to do to be accepted by God?

As we continue to move into the narrative of Abraham’s life, we need to keep the storyline of Genesis in perspective.  God created a perfect world, Adam and Eve disobeyed God bringing sin and death into the world, Noah comes on the scene as a new Adam but evil still reigned in his heart.  After him, the tower of Babel shows us that humanity was still forsaking God and still deserving of his judgment.  The world is spiraling into more and more evil and yet, in mercy, God calls a man named Abram to be his instrument of blessing in a world suffocating under the curse of sin.

Despite great victories and the blessing of Melchizedek in chapter 14, by chapter 15 Abram is again struggling to believe the promises of God.  God meets him in his struggles and fears and doubts and does something in chapter 15 to solidify his promises to him.  God makes his promises official by enshrining them in a covenant with Abraham.

The establishment of the covenant with Abraham is the main point of chapter 15.  But along the way we’re going to come across a verse that tells us how people in any generation can be made right with God, can be brought into a covenant relationship with God.  Here’s the main idea of this chapter and this weeks and next week’s sermon: People who believe the promises of God are made right with God and brought into a covenant relationship with God.

Chapter 15 has two parts that correspond to the two main aspects of God’s promises with Abram.  Verses 1-6 are about the promise of descendants.  Verses 7-21 are about the promise of land.

15:1-6 is our text for today.  We’ll see God comfort Abram (v. 1), Abram complain to God (vv. 2-3), and then God confirm his promises to Abram (vv. 4-6).

God Comforts Abram

In verse 1, God comforts Abram.  God comes to Abram and tells him to not be afraid and then gives him two reasons why.  He says he’ll protect him and reward him.  This command and these promises relate back to chapter 14.  Abram was likely wondering, “Will the four bad guys from the east come back for revenge next year?”  The fear of reprisal and retaliation was real for Abram.  So God says, “I’ll be your shield,” meaning, “I’ll protect you from any assault from your enemies.”

But he also says that his “reward shall be very great.”  Remember in chapter 14 that Abram didn’t take any of the spoils of war that were his by right (vv. 22-24).  He wanted his wealth to come from the Lord, not from the king of Sodom.  So the Lord comes to him and says that he will compensate him for not taking the spoil.  As the immediate context shows us, the reward the Lord has in mind is offspring.  The psalmist calls children a “reward,” further suggesting that God’s reward for Abram will be children (Ps. 127:3).

Abram Complains to God

How does Abram respond to these comforting words from the Lord?  Verses 2-3 tell us that he responds by complaining.  Abram’s response is cynical in verse 2.  He questions the Lord’s power to deliver on his promises because he’s still childless.  He brings up his current heir, Eliezer of Damascus, because he’s convinced that God’s promises will go to the grave with him.

We should note that having Eliezer as an heir wasn’t necessarily a faithless act by Abram.  This would’ve been a customary act in the Ancient Near East for someone without children.  And since we know that Sarai was barren from the outset of the narrative (11:30), Abram may’ve made arrangements with Eliezer before God called him.

Nonetheless, Abram is cynical.  He’s saying, “You talk of rewarding me, but my reward right now is childlessness!”  Then in verse 3, Abram becomes accusatory.  The English word “Behold” could also be translated, “Now look!”  Not the way we should ever start a sentence when talking to God!

Abram blames the Lord for his problem.  He, like all Ancient Near Eastern peoples, believed that God opened or closed the womb (a belief we would do well to recover).  He says, “Because you haven’t provided me with an heir, I’m having to rely on another solution.”

Abram is exasperated.  The Lord made great promises about a great nation, but Abram doesn’t even have one child.  He’s disillusioned.  He’s in his 80’s with no children.  The phrase in verse 2, “I continue childless” is literally, “I am one who is walking stripped.”  It’s the idea of being laid bare, of being destitute and full of despair.  Abram was coming off a victory, but he felt defeated.

Waiting on the Lord

Have you ever been on edge even though things are going pretty well?  Ever felt uncertain about the future even though the immediate past is full of evidences of God’s care for you?

Think of who Moses was originally writing to.  After being in the wilderness for forty years, the Israelites finally came to the brink of the Promised Land.  Like Abram, they were waiting on the promises of God to materialize.  They, like Abram, had some victories, but there was still no visible evidence of the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Israel’s predicament was like that of their first father, and like that of every generation of God’s people since.  And God’s call on their lives and ours was that we “wait on the Lord” (Isa. 40:31).  Abram had to wait in faith.  Israel had to wait in faith.  We have to wait in faith.

Doesn’t most of our life feel like waiting?  Doesn’t it seem like we’re always waiting to see what’s around the corner?  Seldom do we know exactly how things are going to go.

This sense of always waiting is normal, not unusual.  Our lives are more like a garden than a five-step program.  The garden of our lives doesn’t bear fruit as fast as we’d like it to.  It has rocks and boulders in it, but God tells us that if we stay with him, trust him, and obey him, he’ll cultivate this garden.  He never says it’ll be a fast process.  It will be slow.  But he tells us that fruit can come from this garden.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.  He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mk. 4:26-27).  In other words, the most important stuff in our Christian lives and ministry is the under-the-radar-screen stuff.

Abram had to wait.  Israel had to wait.  We have to wait.  Our waiting on the Lord shouldn’t lead to stagnation, but to strengthening.  “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).  Those who wait on the Lord in faith find renewal and surprising strength.

Waiting on the Lord is normal and healthy and good for our souls.  Trying to get ahead of him leads to all kinds of problems.

A Vivid Illustration of the Promise

After Abram offers his complaints to the Lord, the Lord responds by confirming his promise to him in verses 4-6.  God responds to Abram’s despair sympathetically yet without compromising the truth of his promises.  He renews his promise of an innumerable posterity for Abram.  Then he makes the promise vivid by having Abram leave his tent and look at the stars.  The innumerable stars symbolize Abram’s innumerable offspring.  This illustration compliments 13:6, telling Abram yet again that his offspring will fill the land from corner to corner.

But this promise repeated with more visual aids only increases the paradox for Abram.  It’s a grand promise with great illustrations.  But it remains a promise.  These blessings still haven’t materialized.  Abram is still old and childless.  How will he respond?

Counted Righteous By Faith

Verse 6 says that Abram responded with faith in the Lord.  This isn’t the first time Abram has demonstrated faith in God.  He did so by obeying the Lord’s call in 12:4 and by letting Lot choose what part of the land he wanted (13:8-9).  And it won’t be the last, as he’ll offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice in faith that God would raise him up (ch. 22).

The verb for “believed” could be translated “was believing,” meaning that this was an ongoing faith being repeated here yet again.  As one scholar says, “Genesis 15:6 reports that Abram is…still strapped into the roller coaster and hanging on to his ride of faith.”[2]

The Lord’s response to Abram’s response of faith was to “count it (i.e.. his faith) to him as righteousness” (v. 6).  Abram’s trust in God’s promises despite facing naturally impossible odds earns him the reward of righteousness because trusting God and not himself is the essence of righteousness.

Abram’s righteousness is a result of his trust in God, not his work for God.  Abram, a former pagan idol worshipper, was called by God and then justified by God because he had faith in the promises of God.  The foundation for his right standing with God was his faith, not his behavior.  He didn’t earn justification.  He received it.

Abram’s Gift Can Be Ours Too

The writers of the New Testament quote this verse several times to make the argument that we, like Abram, are made right with God through faith in Christ.  Paul makes this explicit in Romans 4:23-25, “But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.  It 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.”

Like Abram, the only way any of us can be made right with God is by trusting in the promises of God.  These promises are summarized in the gospel.  The promise is that everyone who turns away from their sin and puts their trust in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins and declared righteous in Christ.

Abram’s gift can be ours too.  The Bible says, “Those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal. 3:9), and “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (v. 29).  I love this line in Rich Mullin’s song “Sometimes By Step” where he says, “Sometimes I think of Abraham, how one star he saw had been lit for me.”

Does one of the stars have your name on it?  Are you right with God?  Do you have peace with God?

Remember Steinbeck’s words: “A man, after he has brushed off the dust…of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil?”  Maybe your life has been decently good, but what will you tell God about the evil in your life?  Do you think you have enough righteousness to live in God’s presence?  Or are you looking outside yourself and hoping in the righteousness of someone else?

Lord’s Supper

The righteousness of God is free to us, but it cost God his only Son.  This is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  And in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 he says that Jesus is our righteousness so that the one who boasts will boast in the Lord.

As we’ll see in the second part of Genesis 15, God’s covenant with Abram was sealed with blood, foreshadowing how the new covenant would be initiated as well.  The night before he died, Jesus took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk. 22:20).  Jesus’ blood inaugurated the new covenant that God made with his people.

This new covenant is remembered and celebrated through a meal.  The Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal, with the bread and wine representing God’s gracious and undeserved provision for his people.  In the Lord’s Supper, we remember the covenant, celebrate it, affirm it, and renew our commitment to live by it again.

This means that the Lord’s Supper is only for those who’re in the new covenant people of God.

The Lord’s Supper is for repenting sinners, for those who have union with Christ and his church.  Practically this means that the Supper is for those who’ve trusted in Christ, been baptized, and who belong to a local church.

If you’re not yet a baptized follower of Jesus who’s a member of a local church, we’re glad you’re here, but we’d encourage you to refrain from taking the Supper.  If you’re a visitor and you’ve been baptized as a believer and you’re a member in good standing at another gospel-preaching church, you’re welcome to observe the Supper with us.

Moment of silence, pray, ushers come forward, pass out elements.

1 Corinthians 11:23-24, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’”

1 Corinthians 11:25, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Let’s stand and sing “The Solid Rock”

[1]John Steinbeck, East of Eden (New York: Penguin Books, 1992), 413.

[2]Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 286.