Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Our Part in Salvation
[Please contact me at kerry.n.haynes@gmail.com for sermon outline in Word.]
Sometimes I talk with people about what heaven will be like. Many are looking forward to it. They know it is their true home. They feel more like a foreigner in this world, just passing through. And sometimes a person will say, “I sure hope I make it there.” I always ask them about that: “You hope? What do you think it takes to get there?” And they almost always reply with, “Well, I just hope I’ve been good enough.” And my reply is, “How good is good enough?” You see, if heaven is a perfect place—and it is; and if each of us can admit that we’re not perfect—and we’re not, we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; then, we’ve got a real problem, right? None of us are good enough to make it to heaven! Muslims believe you get there if you have more good than harm in your life, if your good works add up to 51 percent or more. Yet, that is a Muslim belief; it is not what the Bible says.
So the question becomes, “What is our part in our salvation?” What must one do to be saved? And the answer, believe it or not, is in the very first book of the Bible. Yes, way back in the Genesis passage I read earlier spells out our part and God’s part in our salvation.
We meet this guy Abram. His name means “father of a nation.” God will later rename him Abraham, which means “father of many nations.” Scholars call today’s reading the great Abrahamic covenant. Earlier, God had promised Abram more descendants than the sand on the seashore. That’s a lot. The problem? Abram and Sarah are getting old, and they have no kids. Abram presents the problem succinctly in verse 2: “But Abram said, ‘Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless.’” Abram says, “All I have is a servant who will inherit my stuff.” And God replies, “No he won’t.” Look at verse 5: “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”
Verse 6 is our key verse today: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” In this little verse, you see humanity’s part in salvation and God’s part in salvation. Very simply on your outline:
1. Our part: believe
“Abram believed the Lord...” (v. 6a).
2. God’s part: save
“...and he credited it to him as righteousness” (v. 6b).
Let me break down both of those ideas: Abram “believed” the Lord. That word for “believe” conveys a lot more than holding an intellectual belief in something. The more accurate translation includes an attitude of faith. I place my faith or my trust in something completely, or in this case, someone. Abram placed his absolute trust in the Lord.
Think about flying on an airplane. It’s one thing to say you believe that big heavy metal tube with two little wings can somehow defy the law of gravity and stay up in the sky. It’s another thing to actually step foot on that airplane and take your seat. Now you are placing your faith in it, your trust in it and the pilot who flies it.
All of you sat down in one of the pews today in the chapel. You probably didn’t even wonder if it would hold you up. It has in the past, so you figured it would today. You just plopped down, thankful to be able to sit. Becky and I were at a child’s school event several years back, and a parent plopped down onto a folding chair, and it collapsed under her weight. Most of the student body started laughing; we felt awful for her. How embarrassing! She probably wasn’t so trusting in the next chair she sat in.
It’s one thing to say we trust in God; it’s another thing entirely to rely on him completely. Abram faltered at times. He and his wife tried to help out God by having him sleep with a servant girl, the local custom back then, to produce an heir. That created all sorts of problems! And twice, Abram endangered his wife to protect his own life. Yet, even with Abram’s weaknesses, Hebrews 11 includes him in the “hall of faith.” Hebrews 11:12 says about him, “And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.”
So if our role is simply to believe, to trust, what is God’s role in our salvation? EVERYTHING ELSE! God actually does the saving, not us. The rest of verse 6 says, “...and [God] credited it to him as righteousness.” The word “credited” is a bookkeeping term. God took out the ledger book of Abraham’s life, erased his sin in the negative column, and added in the positive column, “righteousness.” And that’s exactly what God does for you and me when we believe.
That’s what’s illustrated by the weird ceremony you heard in today’s passage. Back in Abram’s day, when two parties were going to make a solemn covenant with each other, they would split the animals in half and walk down the middle together, as if to say, “May I be split in half if I don’t keep up my end of the bargain.” Today, you might think of the marriage covenant, “‘til death do us part,” or the mountain of paperwork you have to sign to buy a house. But back to Abram’s covenant with God, who walked down the middle? Only God, symbolized by that smoking firepot and flaming torch. Where was Abram? Fast asleep. The point? This is a one-way covenant. God will do the saving without any help from Abram, thank you very much.
So here’s the application for us: God does the saving without our help. There is nothing you can do to make yourself more worth saving, to earn more of God’s love; you’ve already got all of his love just as you are now. There is a word that describes this love and forgiveness God bestows when we don’t deserve it. It is the word “grace.” Grace is getting much more than you deserve. Somebody came up with the acronym (on your outline): “God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.” The Bible says one little sin earns us death, yet through the substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross, God holds back the gates of hell and delivers us—through our faith in him—to eternal life instead.
Now eternal life is not just for when we die. We celebrated yesterday the life of ______ and the fact that she is now safely in heaven. Yet, our salvation doesn’t begin the day we die; it begins the day we trust, the day we believe. Eternal life begins the moment you put your trust in Christ as your Lord, your Rescuer, your Savior. You’ve heard me say before: Stop trying harder; start trusting more!
The Apostle Paul was absolutely captivated with Abraham and today’s passage as an early evidence of the gospel, the good news of salvation through faith alone. Paul wrote about it in several of his letters. Listen to a couple of verses from Romans 4, printed on your outline:
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law [that means, the Jews] but also to those who have the faith of Abraham [that’s us!]. He is the father of us all... Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Romans 4:16, 18
What situation are you in when you feel you have no hope? Is it depression? Loneliness? Long-lasting anger? Chronic pain? A temptation that won’t go away? I urge you to be like Abraham and, “against all hope, in hope believe!” Put your complete trust in God. Let him show you a way forward.
Then Paul writes to the Galatians, quoting today’s passage: “So also Abraham ‘believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Galatians 3:6-9
Are you relying on faith in your daily life? Every day is a day of salvation, not just when you die and go to glory. Every day we believe, every day we trust, we enjoy eternal life, right here on earth, as God blesses us through our faith. Lastly, Ephesians 2:8-9, a famous scripture worth memorizing:
“For it is by grace you have been saved [that’s God’s part], through faith [that’s our part]—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Even our ability to have faith comes from God! If you could boast about being saved, who would want to be around you? Heaven would be full of prideful people. Sounds more like hell to me! No, heaven is going to be full of people who know they don’t deserve to be there. And that’s what our Christian lives should reflect right now: amazing thankfulness at God’s grace, God’s love for us even when we least deserve it. Our part: believe. God’s part: to save. Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, what can we say but thank you? With all of our heart, we want to express our gratitude to you for doing what we cannot do on our own, to save us from our sin and ourselves. You know, even in our best moments, we can be full of pride. Sometimes we so easily give into temptation, whether a slip of the tongue or an evil thought we entertain. Yet, you so graciously forgive us and give us life eternal, beginning the moment we put our trust in you, through Jesus your son. Help us to live fully in your grace each day, thankful and quick to forgive others as you have forgiven us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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St. Patrick’s Day is in honor of the man who brought Christianity to Ireland, as well as driving out the snakes of Ireland. The Irish are famous for their drinking, but also for their sense of humor, willing to poke fun at themselves. In that spirit, I share this story:
Gallagher is in Boston and he is waiting patiently, also, he is watching the traffic cop on a busy street crossing. ?The cop stops the flow of traffic and shouts, 'Okay pedestrians'. Then he allows the traffic to pass. He did this several times, and Gallagher is still standing on the sidewalk. ?After the cop has shouted 'Pedestrians' for the tenth time, Gallagher approaches him and says, 'Is it not about time ye let the Catholics across?'
Traditional Celtic blessing for closing:
May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine down upon your face.
And the rain fall soft upon your fields
Until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Genesis 15:1-12
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
...
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—
