By Bob Wilkini
And he [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness (Gen 15:6).
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt (Rom 4:3-4).
Therefore, He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Gal 3:5-6).
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).
By faith he [Abraham] dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:9-10).
My parents had given up hope. Though their first child, a daughter, came after just a few years of trying, the second child, another daughter, did not come until nearly eight years later. Seven years after that, when my Mom was thirty-nine and well past hope, they found out they were expecting. When I was born, they learned they finally had a boy. I imagine that is what Abraham felt when Isaac was born. But unlike my parents, Abraham had a promise from God Almighty that he and Sarah would indeed have a son. That promise from God came long after it was reasonable for them to have a child.
ABRAHAM BEING ACCOUNTED AS RIGHTEOUS REFERS TO JUSTIFICATION BEFORE GOD (ROMANS 4; GALATIANS 3)
Paul quotes Gen 15:6 in Rom 4:3 and Gal 3:6. In those contexts, Paul is clearly defending justification before God by faith in Christ, apart from works (see Rom 4:1-8; Gal 3:6-14, esp. verses 8, 11). Genesis 15:6 tells us that God declared Abraham righteous because he had faith in the Lord. But was Paul stretching things to suggest that Abraham is an example of one who believed in the Messiah for his justification before God?
ABRAHAM BELIEVED IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR EVERLASTING LIFE (JOHN 8:56; HEBREWS 11:10)
If all we had was the Book of Genesis, we would have to do some guesswork about what Moses meant when he said, “And he believed in the Lord.” Without other Old Testament and New Testament books, we would not know that he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life.
But it is clear from Gen 15:1-6 that Abraham believed the Lord was going to provide an heir who would be from him and Sarah. Considering Gen 12:1-3, we know that Abraham believed this coming heir would be the source of worldwide blessing. As Ross puts it, the promises given in Genesis 12 were primarily for the benefit of Abraham but would “ultimately benefit all the families of the world.”ii In light of the land promises of the Lord to Abraham, we also know that Abraham believed this coming heir would rule in the Promised Land, and Abraham believed that he himself would be resurrected and would gain the land which was promised to him.
If we go outside Genesis, we know that the Lord in whom Abraham believed is the Messiah, the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Himself said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day” (John 8:56). That is, Abraham was happy to realize that the Lord Jesus was coming to establish His kingdom in the Promised Land. Compare Heb 11:10, which says that Abraham was looking for the New Jerusalem.
In both Romans 4 and Galatians 3, Paul uses Gen 15:6 to prove that justification is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Moo maintains that Paul sees a “Christological focus” in Gen 15:6 and that this focus is both “fair and appropriate.”iii If Gen 15:6 is not about justification by faith in Christ, then Paul has deceived us. But that is impossible, for God’s Word is true.
ABRAHAM ACTUALLY MET THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND SPOKE WITH HIM ON MANY OCCASIONS (GENESIS 12-18, 21-22)
We tend to think of Abraham as someone who knew little or nothing about the Lord Jesus. But that is not true. He met the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ on many occasions. Face to face. See especially the dialogue Abraham had with the Lord Jesus in Genesis 18 as Abraham comically tried to negotiate for the saving of Sodom (50…45…40…30…20…10). You and I have never seen Him. But Abraham met with Him often. Neyrey takes this position. While God the Father is invisible, Christ is the visible God that appeared to Abraham.iv
Remember that the Lord Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” He saw, that is, anticipated, Jesus’ day, His coming kingdom, while he was meeting with Him. Now, we do not know if Abraham knew that His name is Jesus. He probably did not know that. But He knew that He was the Lord. And He believed that by faith in Him he would spend eternity in His coming kingdom in the Promised Land.
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Bob Wilkin is Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society. He and Sharon live in Highland Village, TX. He has racewalked twelve marathons.
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i This article is a slightly edited version of Chapter 1 of Faith Alone in 100 Verses (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2020), pp. 11-13.
ii Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1996), p. 262.
iii Douglas Moo, Romans 1–8, The Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1991), p. 265.
iv Jerome Neyrey, The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), pp. 442-43.
