Genesis 15:2 ¶ And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 4 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. 5 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. 6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Abram poses the impertinent question of what can God give him of value since he has been denied a child. God’s plan is greater than Abram, in his complaint, can imagine. He will not only give Abram what Abram desires; an heir, but God intends to give him a great heritage, more than he can imagine.
God challenges Abram to count (tell as in a bank teller) the stars if he can, as the number of his descendants shall be like the number of stars.
Up until the invention of the telescope mankind was able to count only a few thousand stars. However, God will liken their number to the number of particles of sand on the sea shore. This is not an exact numerical comparison but an equivalence, meaning the numbers are similar, an amount too great for a man to number.
Genesis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Hebrews 11:12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
However, it is not so with God. He can count them and has names for each one. This is one of those amazing facts about how great the God who created the universe and who orders all matter, energy, space, and time is.
Psalm 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Abram believed God. Do you?
6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
This was the foundation of Abram’s salvation. In the great argument that Paul puts forward in the letter to the Romans in chapter 4 he explains that faith, belief, rather than works is the foundation of salvation. It is our belief in God and in what He has said that is the method by which we are saved. See here, Romans 4 through the first verse of 5.
Romans 4:1 ¶ 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.
[Paul then uses circumcision as the example for works. Circumcision is the physical sign that began the Jewish people which they received in their body. They thought that identification saved them but Paul makes it clear that it did not. It is the Jewish Christian’s belief, their faith in Christ that saved them, thereby knocking down their sense of superiority to Gentiles.]
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,
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.
5:1 ¶ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
In fact, Jesus Himself said that the essence of salvation was believing what He said about Himself.
John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
We see by the construction of this sentence in John 3 that the colon after life shows that what comes after it defines what came before it. To believe on Christ is to believe what He said about Himself. What was that? Here are two examples;
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Just as Paul tells the Philippian jailer with the Holy Spirit giving us the same sentence structure as in John 3:36.
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Do you see how in verse 6 in Genesis 15 here that believing in means believing what God has said? This is not about just believing there is a God. That doesn’t save you from an eternity of agony.
James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
The foundation of our faith is believing in what Christ, as God in the flesh, said about Himself. Abram’s belief was counted for righteousness. It was imputed or credited to him by way of his faith.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
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