Standing on Justified Ground

    “Abraham believed God.” What a tremendous declaration that is. Though faith has nothing to do with the accomplishment of justification, we cannot have justification without faith. Yet, this faith which is exemplified in Abraham is a thing no man can perform. It is not the result of man’s will, decision, or moral and mental determination. Faith is the gift of God. No man can or will believe, except it be by the gift and operation of God in him. We believe according to the working of his mighty power. So, when the Scriptures assert that “Abraham believed God,” the Holy Spirit is saying, -- Here is a miracle of grace. Here is a sinner doing what no sinner can do, doing what we must do, doing what only the grace of God can enable him to do

    In this 15^th chapter of Genesis, when the Holy Spirit declares that Abraham believed in the Lord, at least five things are evident.

    1. He believed the Gospel as the very word of God, as a word directly from God himself.

    Paul tells us that the word God spoke to him was the gospel of Christ preached to him. God had said, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Upon the heels of this revelation, Abram asked the Lord to give him a son in whom all his promised mercy might be fulfilled. “And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”

    Like Saul of Tarsus, Abraham was a man who could declare, “I certify you, that the gospel I believe is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The gospel came to him, not as the word of man, but the word of God. His faith stood not in the words of man’s wisdom, but in the power of God.

    If ever a sinner believes God, he will believe because the gospel has come to him in the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit with much assurance, being assured by God himself that it is the very word of God (1 Thess. 1:5). That faith which stands in the wisdom of man is but the faith of a man. That faith which stands in the power of God is the faith of God’s elect.

    2. Abraham believed the word of God concerning his Son, the Seed in whom and by whom redemption would be accomplished.

    The promise he heard from God, he recognized to be the very same as that made to mother Eve in the Garden. Abraham understood that God’s promise here declared went far beyond the promise of a son. It was the promise of God concerning his Son (Gal. 3:6-16).

    True faith is fixed on Christ alone. It is not the faith of this sect or that, but faith in Christ. It is not the faith of this creed or that. It is not the faith of emotion and fear. True faith looks to Christ, embracing him, his person and his work, as the God-man our Mediator.

    3. Abraham believed that God could and would do that which was humanly impossible.

    Abraham believed God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which are not as though they were (Rom. 4:18-25). Faith believes that Christ is able to save. He can cause dry bones to live. He can raise up the dead. He can give life to the corpse, cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, the dead to hear, and the cursed to be blessed.

    4. Abraham believed the promise made to him by God in the gospel, though vast and sublime beyond calculation, to be a matter of absolute certainty, because God had spoken it.

    He believed God would do all that he said he would do for him and in him by Christ Jesus (Rom. 4:8; Eph. 1:3-6)

    5. Abraham believed the gospel as the word of God to him.

    He believed God to be his Shield, his exceeding great Reward, and his Savior. He heard God speak the gospel to him as the word of his salvation (Eph. 1:13-14). Believing God, Abraham was justified. By faith he received the blessedness of sins forgiven, righteousness imputed, and immutable, perfect acceptance with God himself, through the blood and righteousness of Christ. That is what verse 6 declares. – “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

    Beginning at verse 7 and going through to the end of the chapter, we see a believing sinner standing on justified ground. Oh, what a blessed place to stand! Once a man or woman believes God, he sees what he could not see before, understands things which mystified and dumbfounded before, and rejoices in things which either bored him to death or stirred his hatred of God to the boiling point before. Standing on justified ground, the most uneducated, illiterate believer sees with perfect clarity what the most brilliant and most educated unbeliever cannot even imagine, because faith understands all things (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; Heb. 11:1-3; 1 John 2:20).

    Genesis 15:7 "And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it."

    Standing justified before God, as a sinner accepted in Christ the beloved, faith sees the value of God’s call and prizes it. Abraham saw that the Lord God had called him distinctively and that it was God’s call which distinguished him from all others (1 Cor. 4:7). Abraham recognized that all the blessedness he now enjoyed and would enjoy forever was his because the Lord had separated him from Adam’s fallen race and called him to life and faith in Christ. This man, once he believed God, understood perfectly that his faith was the result, not the cause, of God’s grace and the call of it. Once a sinner is made to stand before God on justified ground, he prizes the call of God, by which he has been made to believe God.

    Genesis 15:8-11 "And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away."

    Standing on justified ground, faith sees the glory of God in blood atonement. Every believing sinner sees clearly that the only grounds upon which God can bless and save a sinner is blood atonement. -- “The precious blood of Christ.” Believers understand, and rejoice in the fact, that God cannot be our Justifier except he be just. He cannot be our Savior, except he be “a just God and a Savior.”

    Abraham took those very sacrifices later instituted by law as types of Christ, and seems to say, “All the sacrifices point to one sacrifice.” He recognized that Christ alone, that promised One whom he believed, could take away sin by the shedding of his own blood. Thus, he exemplifies faith. Faith drives away every unclean foul of the air which would take away or turn it from the sacrifice. And faith sees itself involved in the sacrifice. As Abraham stood in the midst of the slain animals, so the believer realizes that when Christ died he died. Faith understands that Christ’s death is the death of his people. His satisfaction is their satisfaction.

    Genesis 15:12 "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him."

    Genesis 15:17-18 "And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:"

    Standing on justified ground, faith sees God in covenant grace, a covenant ratified by blood. Believing sinners see the connection between God’s purpose, God’s covenant promises and their fulfillment, and blood atonement. The blood of Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb. 13:20), the blood by which the covenant has been ratified, the blood by which all the promises of the covenant are secured to us (Heb. 9:15-17).

    Abraham seems to have seen what few see today. He saw that this covenant and the promises of it involved the very glory of God. The God of glory staked, as it were, the very glory of his being, the honor of his name, and the reputation of his very throne on the fulfillment of his promises (Heb. 6:6-20). He saw himself involved in the covenant, in the sacrifice, and the very glory of God!

    Genesis 15:13 "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years."

    Standing on justified ground, faith sees that every trial, every trouble, every affliction, and every sorrow we experience in this world of woe is ordained of God in covenant mercy and comes to pass according to the purpose of God’s grace in the covenant. Immediately, the Lord God caused Abraham to know that while he lived in this world, and while his seed lived in this world, faith must be tried and that the trial of our faith would, itself, prove to be a matter of great blessedness. Our trials are as much a part of our blessedness as our justification. The Holy Spirit tells us this plainly in Romans 5:1-5.

    Genesis 15:14-16 "And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."

    Standing on justified ground, faith sees and is assured of the fact that our ultimate salvation and triumph in Christ is sure. The Lord God gave his servant, Abraham, assurance concerning all that he promised. He assured him that he would both judge those who oppressed him and bless him as the result of their oppression. And he assured him that he would die in peace. What a blessed word of grace this is. How can a sinner be assured that he will leave this world and go into eternity to stand before the holy Lord God in peace? There is only one way. -- “Being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ!’