Genesis 15
Believing the promises of God.
When Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90, God promised them a son. Abraham believed God, and God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. The word righteousness means "having a right relationship with God." The words "it was credited to him" show us the foundation of salvation throughout the Bible. Many people believe that the Jews were saved by keeping the law. No one can keep the law; we all fall short of God's standard. To make it into God's heaven, you have to be perfect because there is no sin in heaven. The bad news is that just one sin will cause you to see a NO VACANCY SIGN when you get there. The Bible makes it clear that we are not saved by being "Good People" we are saved by believing a "Good God." The words, "it was credited to him" were not written for him alone, but also for us. When we believe the promises of God, he also credits us with righteousness. Faith simply believes the promises of God.
The nature of God's promise is revealed in this chapter. His promise is unconditional. His promise is based totally on his faithfulness, not on ours. God obligates Himself in grace to bring about what He has promised. The word "covenant" means "to cut." When a covenant was cut, it was literally cut. Animals were cut in half and placed in a line, and then the parties making a covenant would walk between them. When they did this they were saying, "If I don't keep this covenant let me become like these hunks of meat." Maybe this was the origin of the phrase, "I'm dead meat" no, that is a joke. The critical observation is this, who passed through the pieces? Only God did, so the land and the heir promise are unilateral covenants.
Here is the issue for us as we start out this New Year. Are you living by the "promises" or are you living on human "power?" The best way to take an inventory is to examine your prayer life. If you didn't take time today to pray or if your prayer life consists of desperate cries for parking spaces, it is most likely you are living on human power.
Today would be a great day to switch from trusting your power to trusting God's promises.
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