For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Romans 4:3
The great patriarch Abraham was having an interesting chat one day with God. At the time, Abraham was living in the plain of Mamre, and God had richly blessed him with cattle and flocks. Just a short time before, Abraham had rescued his nephew Lot who had been taken captive by an army of kings who had warred against Sodom, where Lot lived. After the rescue, Abraham met the great priest-king Melchisedek and received his blessing.. Now, Abraham is conversing with God, who declares that He is Abraham’s shield and great reward. Abraham responds by reminding God that he has been given no seed to inherit all the blessings that God is promising. He wonders if his heir is to be a child born of one of his employees. But no, God tells him his heir is to be his own son. Then God directs Abraham’s eyes to heaven and asks if he can count the stars. God declared that just as the stars are countless, so would be Abraham’s seed. At that point, we find a wonderful declaration: And he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to Him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Paul picks up this wonderful statement to reinforce his arguments in the book of Romans.
Our text refers back to Abraham’s simple, uncluttered faith. God had made a statement, and that was good enough for Abraham. Mind you, it was a pretty big promise God had given. But Abraham was not looking at the size of the promise that was made by God; he was looking at the size of the God Who made the promise. So, if God declared Abraham righteous for believing the promise, would He have declared Abraham unrighteous for not believing the promise? Of course, we will never no, as far as Abraham is concerned. But what about ourselves? Has God given us promises that we have accepted at full value and have based our lives and activities on? If so, such belief is righteousness. Has God given us promises that we have ignored, or been sceptical about, or rejected as impossible or unlikely? If so, such doubt is unrighteousness.
Believing or not believing God affects every facet of our life. It was believing God that brought us into the good of salvation, and it is believing God that has given us every step along our Christian pathway. It is not believing God that has caused us all of our doubts and disappointments. It is when we question God’s ability or sincerity to keep His promises to us that we stumble and falter, and lose our spiritual direction.
Righteousness is as simple as believing what God says so completely that we live according to what God says. -Jim MacIntosh