CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 15:1. The word of the Lord came to Abram.] Heb. There was a word of Jehovah to Abram. The force of the expression is, that the word efficaciously was; was made to be. This is the first instance in which the phrase, “word of the Lord “is applied to a Divine communication. Vision. Chal. In a prophecy. Prophets from the earliest times were called “seers.” (1 Samuel 9:9., 2 Samuel 24:11.) I am thy shield. The personal pronoun is emphatic. Thy exceeding great reward. The LXX renders, Thy reward shall be exceeding great, a translation favoured by the Heb. accents.
2. Lord God.] Heb. Jehovah Lord. The name Adonai is here used for the first time. It denotes one who has authority; and, therefore, when applied to God, the supreme Lord. Seeing I go childless. Heb. I am going childless, i.e., “I am going out of the world in this condition.” The steward of mine house. Heb. The son of possession of my house, i.e., heir, into whose hands Abram’s possessions must descend in consequence of his childless condition. This Eliezer of Damascus. “Though he is said to have been in Abram’s house (Genesis 15:4), yet his parentage was of this Gentile city; and Abram refers to it as conveying a reflection on his forlorn and desolate case. This is commonly supposed to have been the same servant as in ch. Genesis 24:2” (Jacobus).—
Genesis 15:3. One born in mine house.] This is not to be taken literally; but has the deeper meaning of one attached to, or a dependent of his house—an expression designating the most esteemed servant who was on the way to become his heir.
Genesis 15:6. Believed in the Lord] Heb. Jehovah. “The Heb. term aman, from which we have our word amen, meaning to be sure, and then to be assured, or confide in.” (Jacobus). Counted. Heb. word signifies to think, devise, and then to reckon or impute, i.e., to set to one’s account. Applied also to reckoning iniquity at law (Leviticus 7:18, 2 Samuel 19:19, 2 Kings 12:15). Righteousness, or justification.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 15:1-6
THE RATIONALE OF FAITH IN GOD
The central thought here is the faith which Abram had in God, and by which he attained to righteousness. That faith was not the spontaneous product of his soul, but rather the blessed result of God’s gracious dealings with him. Faith is not a special creation; it has an ancestry. It is a living thing, and derives its life from other lives. The history of Abram shows that our act of faith implies certain previous advances towards us on the part of God.
I. Faith in God supposes a Divine revelation. Abram here appears as a prophet, for he was visited by “the word of the Lord.” The Lord revealed to the patriarch certain relations in which He stood to him, and His power and willingness to bless him. We can have no religious faith without a Divine revelation, for faith must have some sufficient object in which to repose. The beginning—the first generating principle of all spiritual religion—is “the Word of the Lord.” “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The voice of God, man’s hearkening to that voice, and his belief thence arising—these are the links in the golden chain of human salvation. God speaks, man listens, and the heart believes. From the nature of the Divine utterance to Abram we learn the character of that revelation which is able to win the confidence of man’s heart, and therefore to produce true faith.
1. We must have a Revelation of a Personal God. A “word” must come to us embodying a thought of the Supreme Mind. It is not enough that we feel the impressions of some mysterious Power pervading all things. We can have no true faith—in the sense of loving trust and confidence—in an universal Principle of Nature, or in a Force, or in Law. These abstractions are too remote, severe, and relentless for the heart of man. Our souls “cry out for the Living God.”
2. That revelation must exhibit God in loving relations to man. If God had no merciful designs towards man, no willingness to protect him from evil, or to bestow good, His revealed word could only have the effect of increasing man’s sense of helplessness and his misery. That Being who is to win the loving trust and confidence of the human heart must in Himself be lovable. Goodness is the very essence of the Divine nature—the reason of the Divine name. Good and God are only different forms of the same word. The “word” which came to Abram brought him such a message of God as would encourage him to exercise the strongest faith. Not only was God’s kindness revealed to the patriarch, but also His sufficiency. Unless there is power to perform, the mere disposition to do good must leave many evils untouched; but kindness allied with might is an effective power of blessing. It was not only as good, but also as all-sufficient, that God revealed Himself to this father of believers.
(1) As able to protect him from all evil. Man in this world is exposed to many dangers which threaten his comfort and peace of mind—dangers from the malice of the wicked, from natural evils which hurt the body, and most of all from those spiritual evils, which hurt the soul. While he stands in dread of these he cannot perform that loving and cheerful service which should be rendered to God. Fear—in the sense of the dread of some hostile power—paralyses. If man is to serve God in the willing obedience of love he must be assured of protection from all evil. Hence the Divine message to Abram was prefaced with the assuring words, “Fear not.” Therefore Abram could hear with a calm confidence the promise, “I am thy shield.” God is a defence; and from the comfort of this truth the believer takes courage to perform his duty. This protection is one of the first gifts of God’s salvation, and clears the ground for His service. When we are “delivered out of the hand of our enemies,” we can “serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (St. Luke 1:74-75).
(2) As a sufficient portion. Abram was not referred to many sources from which he might expect deliverance and blessing. He was only pointed to one all-sufficient source. All the good which his soul could feel and know was summed up in that one promise, “I am thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1). He who believes in God is saved from the distressing perplexity of making up the fund of his soul’s blessedness out of portions collected from different quarters. There is one fountain of good, for there is one God. When God is “the portion of our inheritance,” we can want nothing. Thus the unity of the Divine Nature is the simplification of duty. And it saves the mind and soul from distraction when we have only to look to one Divine source and be blest. He who possesses God has a satisfying reward, and can neither desire nor want more.
II. The act of faith rests upon a Divine promise. To Abram the promise was that he should have an heir, and that his seed should be as the number of the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:4-5). This promise really contained the germ of all human salvation; but in this simple and undeveloped form Abram believed it, and that act is declared by an inspired authority to be an act of faith. At a great crisis in his life Abram cast himself entirely upon God and trusted His word of promise; and though he could not know what immense blessings were hidden in that word, yet his receiving it and acting upon it was genuine faith. The Divine promise is necessary to each act of faith. For—
1. Faith is the present realisation of some good which we hope for. We rest that hope upon the promise of God; but this is more than hope to us, it is a present reality. Faith substantiates the promises of God—makes them the solid and fixed possessions of the soul.
2. Without a Divine promise, faith becomes mere adventure. We may have a general belief that God is good, but vaguely to trust in that goodness is, in particular instances, of the nature of an experiment, and lacks that joyful confidence which belongs to an act of faith. When we desire some special blessing, unless God pledges His word to give it to us, our prospect of obtaining it is but a mere perhaps, and lacks the solidities of faith. The believing soul feels the sureness of the word of God and trusts it without anxiety as to the result. When God binds Himself by a promise, He comes down to the capacity of His creature, man, and makes faith possible.
III. There are difficulties of faith which God is ready to meet. The promise which God made to Abram became a source of severe trial to his mind. Time was rapidly passing with him—he had well-nigh reached the confines of his mortal day, and the promise was not only yet unfulfilled, but more and more seemed to wear the look of an impossibility. He is afraid that the promise—at least in the shape in which he looked for it—is only too likely to fail. The shadow of doubt seems to have touched his soul. He is bold enough to utter his fears to God. “And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless?” (Genesis 15:2.) The one gift which was necessary to make the promise good had been denied. Abram’s reason and experience were all against his faith; and for awhile he appeared as one who wished to hold his ground, but did not know how the struggle would end. There are difficulties of faith which may cause doubt, even in those who have believed and whose hearts are, at bottom, true to duty and to God.
1. Such difficulties are part of our trial in this present state. Faith would not be the vigorous thing it is unless it was tried with sufficient severity. Hardships and endurance only serve to make it more robust. If all was fully known, plain and clear, present and in actual possession, then, what religious men understand by faith would be impossible. Faith must seek its object through darkness and disappointment. It is God’s will that we should pass a portion of our existence in acting upon certain spiritual convictions where we cannot possibly have knowledge; and it is part of our trial to be obliged to trust even when appearances are against us.
2. Such difficulties need not overtask our faith. God’s dealings with Abram show that the trial of our faith, though it may be severe, is not too great for us, “He knoweth our frame—He remembereth that we are dust” (Psalms 103:14) Our Heavenly Father meets his believing children in their difficulty and relieves them. He does this—
(1). By not chiding them for their doubts. God did not blame Abram because he was weary of waiting for the promise, and his faith had begun to waver. He who “upbraideth not” dealt tenderly with his servant. Doubt, when bold and wilful, is a sin; but when forced upon us by the difficulties of our situation is an infirmity of our poor human nature which God will readily pardon.
(2). By giving clearer revelations of His will concerning us. The promise made to Abram that he should have a numerous seed did not seem likely to be fulfilled in the way which he had hoped. He had begun already to think of some other accomplishment of that promise which yet fell below what would be his natural expectation. “Lo! one born in mine house is mine heir” (Genesis 15:3). But God in mercy revealed His will more clearly, and encouraged His servant by a more definite promise: “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” (Genesis 15:4). Thus God supports our failing faith by casting a cheering and revealing light upon His own word.
(3) By giving confirmation of our faith. Abram had been summoned to look at the dust of the earth and the sand of the sea that he might gain an idea of his innumerable seed (Genesis 15:5). Now he is bidden to look at the starry hosts of heaven, that he might have a new impression of his vast posterity. A new direction given to our thoughts often freshens the powers of the soul and relieves us. Our light grows clearer and we become more confirmed in our convictions of the truth. The firmament would henceforth have a new meaning for Abram—the bright expression of the covenant promise. God will confirm the faith of those who are sincere so that it shall rise above all difficulties. Both His works and His word will have an ever-increasing interest and significance for us.
IV. Faith in God is man’s only righteousness. Abram’s faith, under this encouragement, rose into heroic vigour. “He believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.” To believe in the Lord signifies much more, and makes larger demands from us, than merely to believe Him. We may believe the truth of God’s existence and nature, and of the revelation which He has given us, yet this may be nothing more than the assent of the understanding. When we say we believe a man, we assent unto the truth of his statements; but when we say that we believe in him, we rise to a loving trust and confidence. We have a delight in his person, we have reliance and trust in his character. So it is with our faith in God. We are assured of His word, and we lovingly confide in it. We are not saved by an operation of the intellect alone; it is the heart which believes. This is the essential characteristic of true faith whatever be the degree of light we have. Abram and the patriarchs had not that clear knowledge of Christ and His salvation which we possess, but they trusted their all upon God’s word at some great crisis of their lives, and were thus accounted righteous before Him. Faith is ever the same though knowledge varies. Abram trusted in God with the belief of the heart, and this was his righteousness. From his case, we learn—
1. That man has no righteousness of and from himself. St. Paul takes Abram as a typical instance of the justification of believers, and is careful to show that he had no native righteousness which could procure his acceptance with God. “For if Abram were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory—but not before God” (Romans 4:2). Sin has made man altogether helpless in the matter of his salvation.
2. Man cannot attain righteousness by obedience to the works of the law. This would require that our obedience should be perfect both in kind and degree, and this it is impossible for fallen man to render. If we regard our obedience as the ground of a claim upon God, we shall find that His justice can look at nothing but what is perfect and entire. In the Gospel plan of salvation, God regards the perfect righteousness of Christ and accepts those who believe in Him. Salvation is not the wages of work, but the gift of God.
3. Man can only possess righteousness by the gracious act of God. By nature he has it not, nor can he win it. Therefore he can only have it by Divine favour. Even faith is not the meritorious cause of justification, having no more efficacy in itself for this end than any other act of the soul. The very nature of faith is to look beyond itself. Faith is but the instrument which grasps the promises of God, and even that instrument is of Divine workmanship. God must have all the glory in the salvation of man.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 15:1. The Lord manifested Himself to His servant Abram—as He has to the human race—by speech. The Bible contains the formed thoughts of the Divine mind.
It would be impossible for us to attain to any knowledge of God, sufficiently full and clear, unless He reveals Himself. No being can know any other being by study alone. Observation and reflection will give us some information concerning another, but we know very little of him until he declares himself. Our knowledge of our fellow-creatures would be scanty and uncertain without the aid of some revelation of man to man. How much more necessary it is that God should declare Himself!
There are four ways in which we may have knowledge of God.
1. By observation.
2. By reflection.
3. By Revelation
4. By faith. It is only by the last two that we can obtain that sure knowledge of God upon which the soul can rest.
The “word of the Lord” came to Abram with a view that it might afterwards be embodied in a life. Such communication had reference to the promised seed in which God, who once spake to our fathers by prophets, should speak by a Son.
If God had never spoken to man the fact would be so strange and contrary to rational expectation that it ought to be accounted for.
Abram had reason to fear.
1. His enemies, though subdued for a time, might recover their strength and seek to be revenged upon him.
2. He was still a stranger in a foreign land, and the people might combine against him as an intruder.
3. He probably felt that despondency which follows upon the excitement of great enterprises.
4. The promise seemed further from accomplishment than ever, at least in that form in which he expected it.
God’s children are first invited to cast their burden upon Him, and thus they are set free for His service.
This first prophecy, beginning to unfold the peculiar history of the Old Testament Church, may be regarded as in some sort parallel to that last Revelation of John the Divine. It is not, therefore, altogether a fanciful analogy which would connect the day here spent by Abram with that on which John records that he was in the spirit.
1. In either case the interview begins with the same gracious words of encouragement addressed personally to the prophet. “Fear not,” says “One like unto the Son of Man” to the Apostle (Revelation 1:17).
2. We may suppose that Abram, like John, “heard behind him a great voice as of a trumpet,” and turning saw a glorious person, and, seeing him, “fell at his feet as dead” (Revelation 1:10-17). The Lord found it necessary to say to him, as to John, “Fear not.”
3. The argument suggested for the removal of this fear is the same in both instances, being simply the gracious manner in which the person speaking discovers himself, and makes himself known. “It is I”—“thy shield and exceeding great reward.” “It is I, the first and the last, the Living One.”
4. In both cases there is an appeal to the past. “I am thy shield.” There is surely here a reference to the battle and victory. Dost thou not know me, Abram? It was I who shielded thee in the battle, and rewarded thee in the victory. Didst thou not forego all other recompense for me? And have not I been thy reward? Even so the risen Saviour reminds His servant John of a deadlier fight and a more illustrious triumph (Revelation 1:18).—(Candlish).
Nothing less than a Living, Personal God can satisfy our souls, or allay our fears, as we look out upon the dread realities around us.
I am thy shield. See a like promise to all believers (Psalms 115:9-11). The shield is betwixt the body and the thrust; so is God betwixt His and harm. He beareth them as on eagle’s wings” (Deuteronomy 32:11). The eagle fleeth with her young on her back; there is no shooting them but through her body. No evil can befall the saints but through God.—(Trapp.)
When God is ours we have all that is sufficient for defence and reward. This promise involves eternal life; for men who are brought into such personal relations with God can never die.
1. I, JEHOVAH, the self-existent, the Author of existence, the Performer of promise, the Manifester of Myself to man, and not any creature however exalted. This was something beyond a seed, or a land, or any temporal thing. The Creator infinitely transcends the creature. The mind of Abram is here lifted up to the spiritual and eternal.
(1) Thy shield.
(2) Thy exceeding great reward. Abram has two fears, the presence of evil and the absence of good. Experience and conscience had begun to teach him that both of these were justly his doom. But Jehovah has chosen him, and here engages Himself to stand between him and all harm, and Himself to be to him all good. With such a shield from all evil, and such a source of all good, he need not be afraid. The Lord, we see, begins, as usual, with the immediate and the tangible; but He propounds a principle that reaches to the eternal and the spiritual. We have here the opening germ of “the Lord our righteousness,” redeeming us on the one hand from the sentence of death, and on the other to a title to eternal life.—(Murphy).
Genesis 15:2. It is allowable to saints to speak their perplexities to God, and to consult Him regarding their future.
Faith may be sorely tried, still the soul may hold its ground if it does not despair of God.
The pious complaint of human weakness before God, must be distinguished from the impious murmurs against God (Exodus 5:22; Exodus 33:12-15; Numbers 11:11; Numbers 11:21; Joshua 7:7).
There is a freedom from exaggeration in the pictures of God’s saints which we have in the Bible. Abram shows himself to be thoroughly human in these words of complaint. He was no fanatic or enthusiast. His faith was no easy virtue, but one to which he attained with difficulty.
Sacred history shows us that God’s saints, in all ages, have experienced many difficulties in accepting and relying upon His truth. Thus they were not credulous, and this fact tends to strengthen our belief in the truth of Divine revelation.
Thus Abram opens his whole heart to God. He has no reserve, and no guile; he does not keep silence when his sorrow is stirred—painfully or sullenly musing when the fire burns (Psalms 39). He does not dissemble or disguise his anxious doubts and fears. He may be obliged to restrain himself in the presence of the weak or the wicked among his fellow-men, who might have no sympathy with his infirmity; but before his God he may lay bare his inmost soul, and make all his thoughts and feelings known. And even if they be thoughts of unbelief, and feelings bordering upon sin—the suggestions of sense and sight contending against faith—the groanings of the flesh lusting against the spirit; better far that they be spread fairly out in the gracious eye of the blessed Lord, than that they be nursed and pent up in his own bosom, under the cover of a cold formality, or in the trembling obsequiousness of superstitious bondage.—(Candlish.)
Genesis 15:3-4. I have no seed, no fruit; as yet my only heir is this steward born in my house, “this Eliezer of Damascus.” Shall he, this spirit of bondage, be the seed? Can this be the promised blessing. Surely there must be something better? So argues faith, even in its depression; and the Lord at once answers that this steward, this spirit of bondage, is not the promised seed: “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels, he shall be thine heir.” Precious words, but no less a trial to the spirit of faith, which against hope believes in hope.—(Jukes: “Types of Genesis.”)
In the time of the greatest depression of our soul we are often nearest to the attainment of the promises, as the darkest hour of the night is that which precedes the dawn.
God was straight at hand to help Abram’s infirmity, and to raise up his faith that began to flag and hang the wing, as the best faith will, if long put to it.—(Trapp.)
God speaks to the very point of our fears, and makes known His will more clearly to all who patiently wait for Him.
We can safely leave to God the manner in which He shall fulfil His word. If we only have faith in Him the event will prove to us that His promise fails not.
Genesis 15:5. The worship of the stars, which was one of the earliest forms of idolatry, is here virtually forbidden. God Himself points them out as His works, and is therefore distinct from them as He is from all nature. They may confirm and illustrate God’s word, but they are not Himself.
The stars teach us much concerning God.
1. His wisdom and skill.
2. His power.
3. His constancy and faithfulness.
4. His righteousness—by the order and accuracy of their movements.
5. The deep peace in which He dwells, and which He gives to all believing souls.
6. The glory which surrounds God, and which shall distinguish the eternal reward of His people (Psalms 19; Daniel 12:3).
The promises of God, like the heavens, contain one depth after another, and issue in such glorious things as pass man’s knowledge.
As God had commanded him to view the land, and see in its dust the emblem of the multitude that would spring from him; so now, with a sublime simplicity of practical illustration, He brings him forth to contemplate the stars, and challenges him to tell their number, if he can, adding, So shall thy seed be. He that made all these out of nothing by the word of His power, is able to fulfil His promises, and multiply the seed of Abram and Sarah. Here we perceive the vision does not interfere with the notice of the sensible world, so far as is necessary (Daniel 10:7; John 12:29). (Murphy.)
The large terms of this promise point to something more than the natural seed, even to the innumerable hosts of those who are of faith, and are therefore “blessed with faithful Abram.” In the numberless stars we have a picture of the triumphs of redemption.
Seest thou these hosts of heaven? Canst thou reckon them? No. But He who speaks unto thee, can. He can count them. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names, and to thee He saith, “So shall thy seed be.” Here is the perfection of science—the highest sublimity of the most sublime of all the sciences—the most glorious lesson in astronomy the world ever learned. In the still and solemn silence of earth’s unbroken slumber—under the deep azure arch of heaven—not a breath stirring—not a cloud passing—then and there, to stand alone with God, to stand with open eye and behold His works, to stand with open ear and hear His word—His word to thee! These stars, canst thou number them? Look now towards heaven and tell them; these all, I ordained, and even such a seed have I ordained to Abram. Such a lesson might Chaldean sage or simple peasant learn of old; and such far more may be the lesson now, as science reveals her myriads of new worlds, and threads among them her lofty and mysterious way, till the aching sight begins to fail, and the imagination itself to reel.—(Candlish).
Abram had good reason ever afterwards to remember God, when he looked upon the starry heavens. It is well for our comfort and the strengthening of our faith, when the sight of God’s works brings home some of His promises to us. The works of God have for us those lessons of spiritual truth which we bring to them. The more dealings we have with God, the more do they speak to us of Him.
It is a conjecture besides the scope of the Scripture, though harmless, that by the dust should be signified Abram’s natural seed, which are earthy, and by the stars, his spiritual seed, which are heavenly: for the scope of both signals is to answer Abram’s doubts about his solitariness, that he had no child, and this God doth by the promise of a numberless seed unto him—as the dust, or as the stars.—(Hughes.)
Genesis 15:6. Never till this time had Abram exercised that true and simple faith which rests solely upon the promise of God, and staggers not though there be no present performance, and sense can discover no way out of the natural difficulties which seem to make the accomplishment of the promise impossible. Abram had sufficient religious principle to obey God’s command in going to the land which He would show him; and the promise that God would make of him a great nation had awakened a certain expectation in his breast; but some new experience of difficulties, and of God’s dealings with him, were necessary to ripen this into faith. When everything like expectation must have been dead, then faith sprang up within his soul—the principle of a new life.
Faith in God is the soul’s victory over the difficulties—1 Of absence. The things believed in are far removed from sight.
2. Of the non-fulfilment of promises. They are still future—beyond and above us.
3. Of seeming impossibilities. Sense declares against the reality of the objects of our faith.
There can be no true faith unless the soul is reduced to that simplicity in which it looks only to the promise of God. The believer cannot stand upright unless his eye is fixed in one direction. He is like a man on a great height who must look up, and not down, for that would bring giddiness, which would be his destruction.
From first to last Abram believed in the Lord, and through his faith alone, the righteousness in which he believed being imputed to him, he was accepted as righteous. But, generally, he was called simultaneously to believe and to act; his faith and his obedience were, as it were, combined and mixed up together, and, even to himself, the warrant of his peace and hope might not always be quite clear. It was fitting, therefore, that once, at least, he should be brought into a position in which all ambiguity must necessarily be cleared away, and the simple and glorious truth be made plain and palpable to his soul. Such an era such a crisis, was this precious night on which he stood alone with God under the azure sky—with no possible condition to fulfil, and no work at all to do. God speaks—Abram believes—and all is settled, and all is sure.—(Candlish).
The time when faith flames high is the time when we are shut up to the necessity of taking God simply at His word.
The soul can only find rest when we trust in God’s promise, not asking how it may be accomplished, or perplexing ourselves with the difficulty of reconciling sense and faith.
The Lord brought the same promises before Abram, though in an expanded form. Thus faith has been kept alive in the Church through all ages, not by turning it into sight by means of accomplishment but by the re-assertion of old truths. In the progress of revelation we have but added light upon God’s merciful will towards mankind.
And He counted it him for righteousness.
1. From this we learn, implicitly, that Abram had no righteousness. And if he had not, no man had. We have seen enough of Abram to know this on other grounds. And here the universal fact of man’s depravity comes out into incidental notice, as a thing usually taken for granted in the words of God.
2. Righteousness is here imputed to Abram. Hence mercy and grace are extended to him; mercy taking effect in the pardon of his sin, and grace in bestowing the rewards of righteousness.
(1). It is not of the nature of righteousness. If it were actual righteousness, it could not be counted as such. But believing God, who promises blessings to the undeserving, is essentially different from obeying God, who guarantees blessings to the deserving. Hence it has a negative fitness to be counted for what it is not.
(2). It is to trust in Him who engages to bless in a holy and lawful way. Hence it is that in the sinner which brings him into conformity with the law through another who undertakes to satisfy its demands, and secure its rewards for him. Thus it is the only thing in the sinner which, while it is not righteousness, has yet a claim to be counted for such, because it brings him into union with one who is just and having salvation. (Murphy.)
Here first, the full importance of faith comes into view. Here also, first, the reckoning of righteousness corresponding therewith. From this point onward, both fundamental thoughts run through the Holy Scripture. (Romans 4; James 2) The future of the Evengelical Church was prepared on that night. It was the one peculiar blooming hour of all salvation by faith. But we must not, therefore, so weaken and lower the idea of righteousness, that we should explain it as equivalent with integrity, or in similar ways. Righteousness is the guiltless position or standing in the forum of right, of justice. The forum in which Abram stands here, is the forum of the inward life before God. In this he was, on the ground of his faith, declared righteous, through the word and the Spirit of God. Hence, we read here, also, first of his peace (Genesis 15:15).—(Lange.)
Here we learn the high antiquity of Evangelical faith, for the principle of faith is the same, whatever be the objects which God promises—land, a numerous seed, or any other blessing. God’s promise will enlarge its meaning. Every other good will flow from it as the believer advances in the capacity to receive and enjoy. In the light of an advanced revelation, we find that a land involves a better land, a seed a nobler seed, a temporal an eternal good. Thus God is ever leading His people on to greater and better things which He has prepared for them that love Him.
So ends the trial through the word, while out of the trial faith reaps fresh blessing, even righteousness. Faith takes God to be God, and thus honours Him far more than by many works. And therefore God honours faith, “counting it for righteousness,” more precious to Him than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Surely in a world where nearly all doubt God, the sight of a poor barren creature in utter helplessness resting on God’s promise must be a spectacle even to heavenly hosts. Even the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth seeking it, and where He finds it He makes Himself strong in behalf of it.—(Jukes: “Types of Genesis.”)
Though Abram believed God when He left Ur of the Chaldees, yet his faith in that instance is not mentioned in connection with his justification. Nor does St. Paul argue that doctrine from it, or hold it up as an example of justifying faith. The instance of his faith which was selected by the Holy Spirit as the model for believing unto justification was that only in which there was an immediate respect had to the person of the Messiah. The examples of faith referred to in Romans and Galatians are taken from his believing the promises relative to his seed; in which seed, as the Apostle observes, Christ was included (Romans 4:11; Galatians 3:16). Though Christians may believe in God with respect to the common concerns of this life, and such faith may show that they are in a justified state; yet this is not, strictly speaking, the faith by which they are justified, which invariably has respect to the person and work of Christ. It is through faith in His blood that they obtain remission of sins. He is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.—(Fuller.)
Faith is not—
1. The moving cause of justification, which is the Divine love, mercy, or grace; and hence we are said to be justified by grace (Romans 3:24; Titus 3:4-7).
2. Nor the meritorious cause, which is the redemption of Christ (Romans 3:24-25; Isaiah 53:11; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Hence we are said to be justified by Christ (Galatians 2:17).
3. Nor the efficient cause. This is the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:7).
4. Nor the instrumental cause on the part of God. This is His Word, His declarations and promises respecting our pardon (John 15:3).
5. But it is the instrumental cause on our part. This is faith in Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour—able and willing to save (John 3:16-18; Galatians 2:16). This implies—
(1). That we come to Him (John 6:37; John 7:37; Matthew 11:28).
(2.) That we trust in Him, as delivered for our offences (Romans 4:25)—trust in His blood (Romans 3:25).
(3.) That we receive Him (John 1:12).
(4.) That we trust in God’s mercy and promises through Christ (Romans 4:17-23). Thus, in different senses, we are justified—by grace, by Christ, by the Spirit, by the Word, by faith.