Credited as Righteousness

Recently I saw Abraham’s life and faith differently.

In studying faith, and specifically saving faith, I saw a truth in his life that is hard : just because someone believes in God, does acts for God and is a good person, doesn’t mean that they have been saved.  By “saved” I mean being  justified.  By “justified” I mean being credited (by God, the only one who can do this) as righteous.

I had never really thought about Abraham’s life in terms of when he came to saving faith- the faith that turns a person’s eternal life around.  There are all kinds of faith, but this faith in God (saving faith) is the one that puts a person’s name in The Book of Life and leads to sanctifying faith (faith that molds us more and more into a person who resembles Christ).

Abraham is listed in the “Roll Call of Faith” in Hebrews 11.  He is a pretty important guy in the Old Testament.  His life story is known by many, even non-Christians.  Church goers know the story of Abraham and Isaac.

The interesting thing, the truth that leaped off the  paper page at me while I was sitting in church a few weeks ago, was that Abraham was not credited as righteous the first moment he did what God said to do.

Here are all the things that Abram/Abraham did BEFORE God “credited it to him as righteousness”:

He heard from God

He left his home country as God instructed

He built an altar to the LORD

He built another altar to the LORD

He lied about Sarai being his sister

He became wealthy

He called on the name of the LORD

He proposed a dividing of the land with his nephew Lot and gave Lot his choice of land

He heard from God again

He moved and built another altar to the LORD

He recovered his nephew Lot from capitivity

He was blessed by a king and recognized as someone who follows the LORD

He heard from the LORD again

All of these things were done before, it seems according to Scripture, Abraham was truly a child of God.  Before he was “saved”.  Before he was credited as righteous.

In Chapter 15, verse 6, God tells Abraham about his future and then it says, “And Abraham believed God, and he credited it to him as righteousness”.

Abraham was then counted as righteous.   He was no longer lost, but was found: eternally.

It’s a hard truth seen in Scripture all over: those who look like Believers may not be.  Just because a person does good things.  Just because a person goes to church.  Just because a person donates money, gives time and speaks of God.  Just because others see a person as righteous.

None of this makes a person righteous.  None of that is “credited as righteousness”.

Only God can make a person righteous.  Only He knows when a person’s heart is truly submitted.  When a person finally, ultimately, and fully believes Him.

Abraham had done a lot, most of it good, before his heart finally settled into belief.  That moment, his life changed eternally.

Have you had that moment?

Do you believe God?

Seriously?  He says “that all have fallen short” (Romans 3:23) and that “no one comes to the Father, except through me” (John 14:6) and “whoever says, ‘I know him [God/Christ]“, but does not do what he commands, is a liar” (I John 2:4).

Or are you deceiving yourself?

I’m grateful that God opened my eyes to the lie I had believed when I was seventeen and “walked an aisle” (that mysimply acknowledging that there is a God saved me).  I’m grateful that God showed me that lip service and outward behavior are not good enough (that works do not save me).  I’m grateful that God showed me that faith in faith or in trying really hard fall still short of His glory (that believing anything other than Christ’s teaching alone is not saving faith).

I’m grateful and forever humbled to believe God.