Jesus Is the Bridge Ministries

1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Imagine for a moment having a debt of $100,000,000; how it was incurred is irrelevant, but it was there at our birth, and grew with each passing year. Imagine as well trying to pay off that debt at the rate of $10,000 per year. That's how impossible it is, only much more so, for someone to try to pay off their sin debt by "working it off". The payment for sin is righteousness, and we have just seen in the previous chapters that this is a quality none of us possess. The only way we can obtain it is through faith in Jesus Christ; he has already paid our debt, but it is in a numbered account in our name; it has not yet been applied to the debt. Once we accept the payment, once we accept and acknowledge Christ as Savior, the debt is marked "paid in full", and that includes any future debts we incur as well. From that point on, any works we do in God's service, always through faith, because they don't count otherwise, are to our profit and credit. That account will be redeemed at the judgment seat of Christ. Paul was writing to Christians who lived in the legal, administrative, and economic capital of the empire, and they understood this kind of imagery. In this age of credit, we should have no problem grasping the picture either.

The image of our sins being "covered" comes from the old Jewish sacrificial system. The blood of the sacrifice was sometimes sprinkled over the congregation, but usually over the altar, where the sins of the people were symbolically laid. God could no longer see the sins because the blood lay between him and the altar that held the sins. The blood of Christ covers our sins in that same way, but only if we position ourselves under the blood through faith in him. When God looks at us afterward, he doesn't see the stain of our sins, because the blood covers them.

9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

Just as baptism symbolizes our relationship with God now, having our sins washed away and our bodies dying to be raised anew, so circumcision symbolized the covenant relationship between God and Israel. The Judaizers in the church insisted that Gentile Christians could not be saved unless they were circumcised, much as some churches now insist that salvation comes only when someone is baptized. Abraham was counted righteous in God's eyes by faith long before he went through the ritual of circumcision; it symbolized an agreement, a covenant, that had already been made. Similarly, when a Christian is baptized, the act of salvation has already taken place. The act of baptism symbolizes the cleansing of our sins by the blood of Christ, and our status as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) in him. As important as it is in our lives as Christians, it's still a work, not an act of grace, and not essential for our salvation.

What is the promise of Abraham? What are we heirs to, through the heritage of faith passed on to us in Christ? The first promise was in Genesis 12, when Abraham was called to leave his home: "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:2-3). Through this promise, the blessings on Abraham were extended to the world, and, by extension, the promise that those who bless God's people will themselves be blessed, and those who curse his people will be cursed.

Genesis 13:15-16: "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." This promise gave to Abraham's descendents the land of promise, the earthly land of Canaan, and promised that they would be without number. Finally, just before Abraham was circumcised to seal the covenant, God have him this promise: "And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." (Genesis 18:6-8).

So, in these two passages, God promised Abraham's seed a permanent possession, an inheritance, and, even more important, promised to be their God. The promise was based on relationship, not on performance. What does that have to do with us? As indicated in this passage, and in numerous other ones in the New Testament, we are the adopted heirs of Abraham, his seed or descendents, when we acknowledge Christ as our Savior, by faith. The place that is now Israel, once Canaan, will be the same location where, in the new earth God promises us, the heavenly Jerusalem will descend, and will, quite literally, be our eternal home. When we exhibit faith in God, we are Abraham's seed.

17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

We are all dead in Adam; all of those who are in Christ live, being raised from the dead spiritually through salvation, and physically in the resurrection to come. Faith says that if God tells us something is so, like our being raised to eternal life, it is so, even though we can't see it with our eyes. Abraham believed God's promises concerning his descendents, and the land in which he walked, though he never saw the fulfillment with his eyes. Isaac was a down payment on the promise, to be sure, and was himself the fulfillment of a promise that seemed impossible when it was offered. Had Abraham, and Sarah his wife, not believed God's promise of a son in their old age, then Isaac would never have been born, and nothing that happened afterward in the story of scripture would have happened, at least not in that way. Such faith may seem a rare commodity, yet as Abraham's heirs, we are also heirs to his faith.

God promises that if we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, with confession and repentance of our sins, we will be saved. He promises that the reward of that acceptance is the hope of eternal life. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," Jesus said (Hebrews 13:5), and that, too, is a promise. The Bible is literally full of promises, thousands of them, and faith says that every one of them is true. Scripture assures us we have power to overcome the enemy, and it is so. It asserts that perfect, or complete, love casts out fear, and that is truth. This passage says that Jesus was delivered up to death for our sins, and raised again for our justification, or pardon from sins. Either that great promise is true, or none of the others are. If it is true, and it is, then everything else God tells us is true. Whether we can see it with our eyes or hear it with our ears means absolutely nothing; if we don't believe the truth, but remain in our sins, it still remains the truth. Faith provides our sight, and our hearing, and the strength that lets us keep walking. Love is our motivation; faith gives hands and feet to that love.