The Life of Abraham: Justification by Faith

Genesis 15 Justification by faith Introduction: So far Abram has been tested chiefly in the realm of security, through stresses of anxiety and ambition. The pressure now builds up around a new center, the promise of a son, and possession of the Land; a hope to be deferred through six more chapters and some twenty-five years. Even then the birth will bring a crisis of its own in chapter 21, and the supreme test of all in 22, where Abram will be called to put his whole God-given identity on the altar. Here in Genesis 15 Abram seems to be concerned because although God has promised him descendants as the sand of the sea, Abram remains childless. He is confused about how God is going to fulfill this promise. - God tells Abram that he will give him an heir from his own body. Abram is also concerned about the Land. At this time Abram has no physical claim on the Land. How does Abram no that he will possess the land? in verses 13-21 God reveals to Abram his long term plans for Abram's possession of the land. The New Testament finds this a momentous chapter for two reasons: first in it is found the declaration that Abram was justified by faith; a phrase that is at the heart of Paul’s gospel in Romans 4 and Galatians 3; and secondly the record of the Abrahamic Covenant- it is this Covenant and not the Sinai or Mosaic Covenant that is the fundamental covenant, and this Covenant speaks of Grace and not Law. 1. Justification by Faith not by Works a. Justification means to be declared righteous, or to have a right or righteous standing before God. b. Though many have managed to miss this, justification by faith is the teaching of the scripture from beginning to end. i. Recently I asked a man who claimed to be a christian, “what it meant to be a Christian?” he responded it means that you obey that book, pointing to my Bible. I responded that this book actually said the opposite, That it claimed that no one is saved or justified by keeping what the Bible says, I quoted to him Galatians 2:16, “By the works of the Law no one will be justified.” c. The Old Testament can be broken down into three sections: The Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets. This is the whole witness of the Old Covenant or Old testament. d. If we look at the testimony of these three sections of the Old Testament each points to Justification by Faith. i. We find it here in the Law. Genesis 15:6 “And he (Abram) believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” ii. We find it in the Psalms. Psalm 32:1-2 says, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. iii. We find it in the Prophets. Habakkuk 2:4 “the righteous shall live by his faith.” iv. We also find it all over the New testament - Romans 4 Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2. e. For some reason most people you talk to both inside the church and outside the church, think the same; that being a christian means that you do x,y and z. The emphasis is on what you do and don’t do. i. Unfortunately many so-called christians operate under what has been called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” - which is: “God blesses and takes to heaven those who try to live good and decent lives - The central goal of life is not to sacrifice, or to deny oneself but to be happy and feel good about yourself - Though God exist and created the world, he does not need to be particularly involved in our lives except when there is a problem”. 1. Two Conservative protestant youth were interviewed and asked what being a christian meant. a. The first replied, “If you just do the right thing and don’t do anything bad, I mean nothing really bad, you know you’ll go to heaven. If you don’t, you’re screwed, that’s about it.” b. The second said, “ Being a Christian, um, don’t do many sins, read the Bible, go to church, living godly, that’s about it. It’s basically not committing sin, basically.” 2. What is Justification by Faith? a. Justification by Faith is made plain for us by the teaching of the Apostle Paul. In Romans 4:5 he says, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” b. Justification by faith is the opposite of justification by works, it means that we are not justified by the good works that we do but we are actually justified in spite of the bad works that we have done. c. How can God justify the ungodly; isn’t that unjust? i. Paul covers that in the preceding chapter. He says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” ii. Justification by faith means that Jesus did all the work for us, and we simply trust in the perfect work that Jesus did. 1. He was born unlike any other person - he had no earthly father but was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Which means Jesus was without sin. 2. He lived a life continually without sin. Although he lived an ordinary life and was tempted as we are; he was without sin. Jesus never sinned. a. In all that he said, thought, or ever did he never once strayed from that perfect righteousness of God. 3. He gave his perfect life as a ransom, a payment, a sacrifice, and an appeasement of God’s wrath on sin, taking our rightful place on the cross. He took the full punishment for sin. a. Justification by faith means that Jesus paid it all, and for us to have right standing before God all we have to do is trust, to believe, to have faith in the work that he did. 3. Living by faith not works a. Many of us might be very familiar with this Biblical doctrine. Some of us probably are even familiar with Martin Luther the Reformer who rediscovered for the Church the doctrine of justification by faith. Some of you might even know the latin term for this doctrine “Sola Fide”. But are you and I operating under justification by faith or by works? i. If you are trusting in anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified for your sins and raised for your justification than you are operating under salvation by works. ii. If you go to God with a request or a pressing need and start to doubt the LORD blessing you because of your recent track record, or something in your past... You are operating under works not grace. iii. We are saved by grace through faith and we continue to be saved by grace through faith, it never transitions to works... Never. 4. Preaching and demonstrating faith not works. a. I recently had a conversation with a Muslim and he kept insisting that we have much in common meaning Islam and Christianity. He went on to tell me that we share among other things, good works, and morality. i. I was so happy to tell him that the greatest difference is how we go about good works; that they did them for justification/salvation and we do them as a result of justification/salvation. I told him that we were so very different because our message was one of grace through faith in Jesus and their’s of their own works. b. We must be careful to not preach morality - what must I do to be saved... Glad you asked..... And out comes the list. c. Sometimes we look at nonbelievers and we think some of them need salvation less because they are respectable citizen’s and they vote pro-life, or believe in heterosexual marriage only, or because they don’t have a known drug problem. d. We forget the Jesus came not only to save us from our sin and wickedness but also our pride and self righteousness. i. But when we make these judgments we are actually operating under “justification” by works and not justification by grace through faith. ii. Do any of you work with those type of christians that try to get their co-workers to stop swearing? iii. Like not swearing is going to save their souls??? 1. Men and Women do not need their sin managed or tidied up. They need it removed, washed clean! This only comes by faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ! iv. Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say, if people aren’t asking, “Shall we sin that grace may abound?” then we haven’t truly preached the Gospel of grace. v. We are so prone to give people a list of todo’s or things that need to go, rather than pointing them to the cross pointing them to what Jesus has done. vi. Numbers 21:4-9 “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” 1. Jesus would later say, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” - John 3:14-15 Conclusion: 1. Are you operating by justification by grace alone through faith or by justification by works? Put another way, are you basing your relationship with God on what you have done or what Jesus has done for you? 2. Although you believe that you are saved by faith alone, do you practice this in your day to day relationship with God? How? 3. Are you someone who believes in justification by faith yet preaches/ demonstrates justification by works to unbelievers? a. Justification by grace alone through faith alone is the most distinct christian doctrine. No other religion on the world has this kind of message. b. Let us, as a church, guard this doctrine, by holding fast to it in our confession (what we believe), demonstration (what we practice) and proclamation (what we preach)! c.