| |||
Readings: Genesis 12:1-20; 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:8-10; Luke 1:54-55, 68, 72-75
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Abram believed God and God charged it to his account as justification. (Gen. 15:6) Which means God legally credited Abram with justification or legally declared guilty-as-sin Abram not guilty. God wrote it down in His heavenly ledger, in the Lamb’s book of life: Abram is righteous. Not because he was by his own works. After all, remember Abram’s history...
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Abram believed God and God charged it to his account as justification. (Gen. 15:6) Which means God legally credited Abram with justification or legally declared guilty-as-sin Abram not guilty. God wrote it down in His heavenly ledger, in the Lamb’s book of life: Abram is righteous. Not because he was by his own works. After all, remember Abram’s history...
He came from a city called Ur in the same area where Nimrod the mighty hunter built Babel. (Gen. 10:8-12) Ur is well known, from excavations of it, for worshiping a moon god. And like the inhabitants of that city we know from the Bible that Abram was worshiper of false gods. (Josh. 24:2) Yet, God calls this pagan man to follow Him; to leave his house and home; to believe in Him. And he does. Not by his own reason or strength does he believe. Not by some strange choice of his own or an act of his own will. (John 1:12-13) But by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:14; 12:3; Eph. 2:8-9) By the Spirit alone. For you and I do not have the power to believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. (1 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 8:7-8; 1 Cor. 12:3; Eph. 2:1, 8-9; Luther’s Small Catechism: Explanation to the Third Article) Nor did Abram. But God called him. God promised to make him a great nation; to make his name great; to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. (Gen. 12:2-3) In short, God promised to be his shield in this world. (Gen 15:1) After all, God’s ultimate promise was to bless all the families of the earth through him, so how will the Lord not preserve him in order to accomplish His saving of you?!
These promises were the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For these promises pledged God’s saving of humanity through Abram’s offspring. The Holy Spirit used these promises to call Abram to faith. Through God’s gifts the Holy Spirit enlightened Abram with saving faith so that by faith he left house, home, and family to become a wondering Aramean, (Deut. 26:5) dwelling in tents with no place to lay his head (Matt. 8:19-20), journeying to the land promised him and his descendants by God. (Heb. 11:8-10)
But the evidence that this is all God’s work and not Abram’s is in Abram’s actions. The Holy Spirit calls him to faith so he leaves his family in Haran and goes where God leads. But he gets there and a crisis hits. A famine. He goes down to Egypt. The land where his own descendants would become slaves. And Abram acts not from faith but from his own reason. For the logic is hard to argue with: “My wife is beautiful,” he says to himself. “These foreigners have no reason to be kind to me. They’re as likely as not to take my wife and murder me so she can belong to their king.” He doubts God’s promise to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. (Gen 12:3) But the Lord is true to His word. For the Lord is faithful even when we are faithless. (2 Tim. 2:13) He acts according to His nature, according to His promises. He does not give you what you deserve, but what He has said He will do for you. And He has said that He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Exod. 34:6) He gives His grace and mercy to thousands of generations of those who love Him! (Exod. 20:6)
These promises were the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For these promises pledged God’s saving of humanity through Abram’s offspring. The Holy Spirit used these promises to call Abram to faith. Through God’s gifts the Holy Spirit enlightened Abram with saving faith so that by faith he left house, home, and family to become a wondering Aramean, (Deut. 26:5) dwelling in tents with no place to lay his head (Matt. 8:19-20), journeying to the land promised him and his descendants by God. (Heb. 11:8-10)
But the evidence that this is all God’s work and not Abram’s is in Abram’s actions. The Holy Spirit calls him to faith so he leaves his family in Haran and goes where God leads. But he gets there and a crisis hits. A famine. He goes down to Egypt. The land where his own descendants would become slaves. And Abram acts not from faith but from his own reason. For the logic is hard to argue with: “My wife is beautiful,” he says to himself. “These foreigners have no reason to be kind to me. They’re as likely as not to take my wife and murder me so she can belong to their king.” He doubts God’s promise to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. (Gen 12:3) But the Lord is true to His word. For the Lord is faithful even when we are faithless. (2 Tim. 2:13) He acts according to His nature, according to His promises. He does not give you what you deserve, but what He has said He will do for you. And He has said that He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Exod. 34:6) He gives His grace and mercy to thousands of generations of those who love Him! (Exod. 20:6)
And so, true to His promise, He brings plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt. (Gen. 12:17) This Pharoah wises up. He gives Abram’s wife back. He sends away with the riches he’d already given him. Which is so funny how this prefigures what would happen to Abram’s descendants hundreds of years later, when God again acts on His promises to bless those who bless Abram and curse those who curse him: bringing plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt till they let His people go; sending them away with the wealth of Egypt. (Exod. 12:35-36; Ps. 105:37-38)
For God works to do His promises whether you are faithful to Him or not. Whether you believe or not yet He works according to His promises for you. Abram acted in unbelief and yet God blessed him. Not for Abram’s sake. For God’s own sake. For God is true to Himself. True to His promise. And God’s desire is to save mankind from their sin. (1 Tim. 2:4) So He acts. He gives. He takes away. (Job 1:21) Through it all He saves. And so by Holy Spirit given faith we believe the promises of God. We believe He acts to bring people to salvation through Jesus.
Abram was faithless. But God is faithful. And what does God do? He reassures Abram of His faithfulness. He appears to him again in a vision, reassuring him that He will do what He promised. (Gen. 15:1, 4-5)
For God works to do His promises whether you are faithful to Him or not. Whether you believe or not yet He works according to His promises for you. Abram acted in unbelief and yet God blessed him. Not for Abram’s sake. For God’s own sake. For God is true to Himself. True to His promise. And God’s desire is to save mankind from their sin. (1 Tim. 2:4) So He acts. He gives. He takes away. (Job 1:21) Through it all He saves. And so by Holy Spirit given faith we believe the promises of God. We believe He acts to bring people to salvation through Jesus.
Abram was faithless. But God is faithful. And what does God do? He reassures Abram of His faithfulness. He appears to him again in a vision, reassuring him that He will do what He promised. (Gen. 15:1, 4-5)
But Abram’s reason is logical. “How Lord? I’m in my seventies and childless? I have no son. My name Abram means “exalted father”, yet the only “son” I have is my dead brother’s son, Lot, who came with me from our family home in Haran. (Gen. 11:27-31) He seemed to have faith when came (Gen 12:4), but he has gone off to live amongst the tents of the wicked down in Sodom. (Gen. 13) And if nothing changes my oldest slave who manages my affairs, Eliezer, will inherit everything I have.” (Gen. 15:2-3) That’s logical. That’s reasonable. It’s rock solid. Who can argue against that? Only the God whose word breaks the rocks into pieces. (Jer. 23:29) But faith does not flow from reason but from God’s promises. For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4; Deut. 8:3) For His Word created all things (Heb. 1:2), it redeems all things, sustains all things (Heb. 1:3), and gives faith there is none. (Rom 10:17)
So what does the Lord do? He repeats His promises. He clarifies His promises. “No. Not this man. Your own son. Your flesh and blood will inherit all you have. Haven’t I promised to make you a great nation? Go out and look at the stars. How many are there? Can you count them all? No. Well, your descendants will be as numerous as that.” (Gen 15:3-5) Abram believed. Not by His own reason. The Holy Spirit called him to faith by the Gospel.
So what does the Lord do? He repeats His promises. He clarifies His promises. “No. Not this man. Your own son. Your flesh and blood will inherit all you have. Haven’t I promised to make you a great nation? Go out and look at the stars. How many are there? Can you count them all? No. Well, your descendants will be as numerous as that.” (Gen 15:3-5) Abram believed. Not by His own reason. The Holy Spirit called him to faith by the Gospel.
And what did God give him by this faith? What did God work by this faith? The Lord declared him righteous. (Gen 15:6) Not guilty. All his sins covered by Jesus’ blood. Paid for. For the Lord will bless him, protect him, and see him through unto eternal life. Just as He will for you and me and all who are children of Abram by faith. (Gal. 3:7-9) For not only have millions of souls been born from Abram—the genetic offspring from own body—but billions of souls have believed in this offspring of Abram’s who has blessed all the families of earth. And by faith we have been grafted into the family tree. (Rom. 11:17-18) We have been adopted into Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:15; Eph. 1:5) so that by Jesus we are delivered from the hands of our enemies. What can harm us? Can sin or Satan or world take our salvation in Jesus Christ away? Can war, bloodshed, or economic collapse take away God’s declaration of you as righteous? (Rom 8:38-39) Should this congregation cease to exist will your salvation cease to exist? No! It is already accomplished in Jesus Christ. It is already declared by God your Father. It is granted to you by the faith the Holy Spirit has worked in you through the Gospel promise and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of Baptism and Supper.
That means we are free to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life! For the Lord God remembers His mercy promised to Abram and his offspring and He has made good on His promises in the flesh of His Son, saving you from your yesterdays, redeeming today, and securing your forever. (Luke 1:72-75)
In +Jesus’ name, Amen.
—Pastor David Haberstock
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Thunder Bay, ON
That means we are free to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life! For the Lord God remembers His mercy promised to Abram and his offspring and He has made good on His promises in the flesh of His Son, saving you from your yesterdays, redeeming today, and securing your forever. (Luke 1:72-75)
In +Jesus’ name, Amen.
—Pastor David Haberstock
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Thunder Bay, ON
RSS Feed