The Faith of Abraham
Read Genesis 15:1–21 and Romans 4:3, 4, 9, 22. How does Abram
reveal what it means to live by faith? What is the meaning of the
sacrifice that God had Abram perform?
God’s first response to Abram’s concern about an heir (Gen. 15:1–3)
is that he will have a son from his “own body” (Gen. 15:4, NKJV).
The same language is used by the prophet Nathan to refer to the seed
of the future Messianic King (2 Sam. 7:12). Abram was reassured and
“believed in the Lord” (Gen. 15:6), because he understood that the
fulfillment of God’s promise depended not on his own righteousness
but on God’s (Gen. 15:6; compare with Rom. 4:5, 6).
This notion is extraordinary, especially in that culture. In the religion
of the ancient Egyptians, for instance, judgment was made on the basis
of counting one’s human works of righteousness against the righteous-
ness of the goddess Maat, who represented divine righteousness. In
short, you had to earn “salvation.”
God then sets up a sacrificial ceremony for Abram to perform.
Basically, the sacrifice points to Christ’s death for our sins. Humans are
saved by grace, the gift of God’s righteousness, symbolized by these
sacrifices. But this particular ceremony conveys specific messages for
Abram. The preying of the vultures on the sacrificial animals (Gen.
15:9–11) means that Abram’s descendants will suffer slavery for a period
of “ ‘four hundred years’ ” (Gen. 15:13), or four generations (Gen.
15:16). Then in the fourth generation, Abram’s descendants “ ‘shall
return here’ ” (Gen. 15:16, NKJV).
The last scene of the sacrificial ceremony is dramatic: “a burning
torch that passed between those pieces” (Gen. 15:17, NKJV). This
extraordinary wonder signifies God’s commitment to fulfill His cove­
nant promise of giving land to Abram’s descendants (Gen. 15:18).
The boundaries of this Promised Land, “ ‘from the river of Egypt to
the great river, the River Euphrates’ ” (Gen. 15:18, NKJV) remind us of
the boundaries of the Garden of Eden (compare with Gen. 2:13, 14). This
prophecy has, therefore, more in view than just the Exodus and a home-
land for Israel. On the distant horizon of this prophecy, in Abraham’s
descendants taking the country of Canaan, looms the idea of the end-time
salvation of God’s people, who will return to the Garden of Eden.
How can we learn to keep focused on Christ and His righteous-
ness as our only hope of salvation? What happens if we try to
start counting up our good works?