Genesis 15:6 Commentary and Bible Study

Here are more firsts: the first reference to righteousness; the first use of language like ‘counted it to him’. This is the language of imputation, the language of justification by faith. ‘He believed in the Lord.’ What did he believe? Now when we read the passage casually, we think, ‘Oh, he believed in God's promise: that he would have countless issue, countless children, and because he believed in God's word he was justified.’ But that is not right. Nobody, not even Abram, was ever justified, made acceptable to God, because he believed God's word that he would have numerous children. That is not a saving truth. If God – not that he would in these days; the days of prophecy past – were to communicate to you that you were going to have five children or ten children by some means and you believed it, that would not be something that could save your soul. But if God communicates to Abram, that he is going to have a seed, and Abram understands that in that seed, and through that seed, Christ will come, through whom the lost will be saved; if Abram believes that promise, he will be justified and made acceptable to God. He did not know exactly how but that great descendant would achieve it, but he believed that he would come. Abram said, ‘I believe the word of God that I will have a numerous seed, but more than that, I believe that the seed God gives me will bring Christ into the world. He will crush the serpent's head and set me free (Genesis 3:15). So Abram's justification rests on the fact that he believes in Christ.In Romans 4 the apostle Paul takes this up so beautifully. Speaking of Abram he says, ‘Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification’ (Romans 4:18-25). And from Galatians 3:16 we learn just what Paul was saying about Abram: ‘Now to Abram and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ’ (Galatians 3:16). That is the position that is explained by the apostle Paul. We could turn to other passages in Romans also to show that Abram understood the promise of God not only to refer to the massive number of descendants, but to Christ. He was the chief one. He was the one who would come from them and make it possible for them to enter into glory.No wonder the good old commentators like Matthew Henry say these words apply to Christ. The verse does not say that they do; they seem to say that Abram simply believed in God and his promise. But no, says Matthew Henry, you have got to read it this way: he believed in Christ that the Messiah would be among them, the one through whom salvation would come, ‘and he counted it to him for righteousness.’ So righteousness was imputed to him. Does that mean Abram was converted at that time? Was the moment of his conversion? No, it does not mean that. He was plainly converted from the very moment that God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, if not before, and he put his faith and his trust in God. So it is simply that here the ground of his conversion is more clearly explained. He believed in the Lord who would come. Christ was the seed to whom they looked.