By So what is the point of all this talk about “believing” and “obeying”? There is a particularly powerful OT passage about Abraham, so much that it is quoted three separate times in the NT (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; Jas. 2:23):
“And [Abraham] believed in Jehovah, and [Jehovah] counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
There are some who would hastily conclude that the point is that one must simply “believe in” God (i.e., their own version of such) and that He will “count” such as “good enough” (i.e., will save them because of it). But, as we have seen of late, there is much more to “believing” than mental conviction. Let us consider briefly Abraham’s circumstances and to what, exactly, Gen. 15:6 is referring.
So how was it that Abraham “believed in Jehovah”? He obeyed Jehovah. How, then, do I “believe in” Jehovah? By obeying Jehovah…
In short, from the moment we meet Abraham in Gen. 12, his attitude toward God’s word had been the same: ready obedience. When God said to leave Ur/Haran (Acts 7:2,3; Gen. 12:1-3), he left Ur/Haran (Acts 7:4; Gen. 12:4); when God said to get a heifer and sacrifice it (Gen. 15:9), he got a heifer and sacrificed it (10); when God said to offer up his only son (Gen. 22:1,2), he offered up his only son (22:3-10; cp. Heb. 11:17-19); etc.
So how was it that Abraham “believed in Jehovah”? He obeyed Jehovah. How, then, do I “believe in” Jehovah? By obeying Jehovah—for, according to God’s own word, “BELIEVE“ = OBEY.
Questions? seth@hwycoc.com.
