First Sunday after Trinity - Gen 15:1-6

 

Trinity 1

                                                                                      Gen 15:1-6

                                                                                       6/2/24

 

          Abraham’s life had gone in directions he did not expect.  He had moved with his father from Ur in what is today southern Iraq.  Their intended destination was the land of Canaan, but for some reason they had stopped and settled in Haran, in what is today southwest Turkey on the border with Syria.  Like his father, Abraham did not know God and worshipped false gods.

          However, Yahweh had called Abraham.  He told him to leave the land he knew and his family, and to go to a land that he would show him.  God promised Abraham, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” He told Abraham that he would be the instrument by which God would bring blessing to all people as he said: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

          Abraham believed the Lord.  He trusted in his promise.  He did so in spite of the fact that his wife Sarah was sixty five years old and had never been able to have children.  He took his wife, and his nephew Lot and went to the land of Canaan.  There God promised Abraham that he would give that land to him and his offspring. And he said: “I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.”

          Time passed and events occurred that reminded Abraham of how fragile life was.  Our text refers to this by saying “after these things.”  Because of the size of their flocks, Abraham and Lot had separated to live in different areas. Lot had settled in the city of Sodom.  Sodom had been attacked by enemies, and Lot and his family had been taken captive. Abraham took over three hundred of the men in his camp and fought to rescue Lot and his family.

          We learn in our text that after these events the word of the LORD came to Abraham in a vision as he said: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  God told Abraham not to fear because God was his shield – his protection.  He had just kept him safe, and would continue to do so.  His reward – the blessing that God would give to Abraham who believed God’s promise – would be very great.

          But Abraham countered as he said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” He added, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”  Nothing had changed. Sarah had remained childless. God had not given an heir to Abraham, and when he died a member of his household would inherit Abraham’s possessions and not his own son.

          In response to this Yahweh declared to Abraham: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”  God reasserted his promise to give Abraham a son.  And then he added more on top of this.  Yahweh brought Abraham outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.”  He pointed Abraham to the innumerable stars of the night sky. Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

          Then our text says, “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”  God stated his promise to Abraham once again.  We learn that Abraham believed the Lord. He trusted in what God had said, and believed that God would provide the fulfillment. And so God counted it to him as righteousness.  God considered Abraham to have a righteous standing before him because he believed in God’s promise.

          In our Old Testament lesson this morning we learn about how God worked to provide salvation to all people.  We also learn about how that salvation is received by each individual. And we see in Abraham an example of faith that we follow.

          God created man in his own image.  He created man as male and female, and gave his very good creation to them.  But Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s word and brought sin and death into the world.  They brought the same sin and death that continues to afflict our lives.  Because of sin we are no longer righteous.  On our own we do not have the status of having a right standing before God – of having lived according to his will.  Instead, we violate that will in thought, word, and deed and so deserve God’s eternal judgment.

          Yet in his mercy, God acted to save us.  We see the beginning of this saving work in our Old Testament lesson.  God called Abraham out of paganism. He promised that he would work through this one man’s lineage to bring a blessing to all people.  He fulfilled his promise to Abraham by giving him Isaac.  He gave Jacob to Isaac, and from Jacob he brought forth the nation of Israel.

          God worked through Israel to bring salvation to all people.  He identified David as the one through whom he would bring forth the Messiah.  In the fullness of time he sent forth his Son as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Joseph, the descendant of David, took Jesus to be his own and made him part of the line of David.

          The Old Testament described the Messiah as the one who would bring victory and God’s end time salvation.  Jesus came to do this. But he did so in way that did not only fulfill passages about the Messiah.  He came as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament.  The sacrifices of Israel pointed forward to the sacrifice that he would be.  The suffering Servant of Isaiah’s prophecy described how he would bear the sins of all.

          Jesus Christ was the sinless Son of God.  Yet in order to carry out the Father’s saving will he offered himself as the sacrifice for sin.  He took our sin as his own. St Paul says about God’s work in Christ, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  The holy God judges and punishes sin. He did this on Good Friday as Jesus died on the cross.  Jesus received the wrath of God that we deserve in order to free us from sin.

          Christ suffered death to carry out God’s saving will.  But death was not the end of God’s work in Christ. Jesus passed through death in order to defeat it. On the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.  Adam brought death.  But Christ brought life – resurrection life.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we know that we will be as well.

          God has redeemed us from sin and death in Christ.  It was his action in which we had no part.  And now God gives this salvation as a gift.  He gives it by his grace.  He gives it as a gift that is received by faith.

          This faith is not something we create. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  And this faith is not a matter of doing.  In fact, Paul defines it as the opposite of doing.  He told the Romans, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

          God gives forgiveness and salvation on the basis of his promise. He gives it by his grace.  You can’t do anything to make a promise happen.  If I promise to give you a million dollars, there is nothing you can do to bring that about.  One can only believe a promise.  One can only have faith in a promise.  Paul said, “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring--not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations.’”

          When you believe God’s promise of what he has done for you in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you are justified.  It is counted to you by God as righteousness.  God considers you to have a righteous standing before him, even though in yourself you don’t deserve this. He considers you to have this because of what Jesus Christ has done for you, and that will be the verdict of the Last Day.  Paul tells us about our text, “But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

          Paul uses Abraham in order to teach us about how faith justifies.  Abraham is also an example to us about how faith lives. God promised to give Abraham a son by Sarah.  He made the promise when Abraham was seventy five years old.  He didn’t fulfil the promise until Abraham was one hundred years old.  Abraham had to wait twenty five years, as each year the promise seemed more and more impossible.  Yet Abraham continued in faith, trusting in God.

          We are called to trust and believe in God with patience.  When we face challenges and difficulties that just seem to go on, we continue to trust in God’s love and care day by day.  We can do so because we have already seen what God has done in Jesus Christ.  God has revealed his love and salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The resurrection of Christ gives us the living hope that helps us to go on. God’s Spirit created faith and the Holy Spirit continues to sustain faith as we receive the Means of Grace.

          God promised Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed.  He promised that he would make his offspring numerous like stars of the sky.  God kept his promise as he provided Jesus Christ through Abraham.  He kept his promise, because you and all other Christians who have ever lived are his children as you walk by faith just as Abraham did.  Through faith in God’s promise of what he has done in Christ it is counted to you as righteousness.  You are justified.  We walk each day by faith in God knowing that the way of faith leads to resurrection and eternal life.