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Genesis 15:6 (ESV)

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

What is the craziest thing about our faith? Some people would argue that the whole thing is crazy. Others argue against the standards of God, believing our morality to be out of whack. Of course, some hate the concept of a God who would judge anybody for anything. Some think that what we believe about the world being created from nothing is loony. Yet others argue that the concept of miracles is farfetched.

But I’m wondering if the verse above is the nuttiest thing about the faith. In Genesis 15, God and Abram are having a conversation. The bottom line of the conversation is that God made some specific promises to Abram, promises that seem impossible. Yet, when Abram believed God, God counted it as righteousness.

Stop and think about this concept from outside of the Christian worldview. How in the world could a simple belief be exchanged for a life of right living? We already saw that Abram had doubted God. We already saw that Abram subjected his wife to a horrific experience in Egypt because of Abram’s selfish fear. Yet, when Abram simply believed God, that was it; his record came up righteous as opposed to sinful. That seems crazy.

No other world religion can even come close to this belief system. Of course, there are religions that reject the concept of justice and which assume that there is no judgment to come. These are fairly unsatisfying. Though they allow for men not to fear the wrath of a deity, they also offer no concept of proper retribution for the evil men of the world. We find it very difficult to find any satisfaction in a belief system that would allow Hitler, Stalin, and child molesters to face the exact same eternity as the rest of humanity.

Other religious systems assume that there is some sort of justice, be that from a deity or a universally-imposed system of reward and punishment. To all of these religions, except for Christianity, the rewards are based on right living. You do good, you get good. You do bad, you get bad. Live right, and your stock goes up. Live wrong, your stock goes down. Fulfill the requirements, carry out the rituals, give to the cause, and you win. Refuse to obey, refuse to perform the rights, do them wrongly, and you lose.

But here in Genesis 15:6 we see the alternative to all world religions and belief systems. Christianity fully rejects the notion of no judgment for humanity—God is just. Yet, Christianity also rejects a performance-based system. Instead, in the craziest part of the faith, we see that a man is counted as righteous before God, not because he was righteous, not because he did something right, not because he avoided sin, not because he carried out the ritual, but simply because and only because he believed God.

Of course, Abram was on the beginning cusp of the faith. He believed God, and God counted him as righteous. Later, God would show us that to become his children, we are to believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus is God who fulfills the plan of God. And, as crazy as it seems, when we put our entire hope for our entire eternity in Jesus and Jesus alone, we are counted righteous by God, forgiven, and made into children of the Creator.

Lord, your story is amazing. Your plan is beyond human imagining. All man-made religions place the burden of righteousness on our shoulders, as if man in his frailty could ever live up to your standard. Only you offer genuine hope to fallen humanity while also being just. Thank you for your mercy and your justice. Thank you for Jesus, who fulfilled all the work I could never fulfill. Thank you for counting me right before you, not based on my actions, but based on Jesus and the faith that you have given me to trust in him. 

In today’s reading, I began a look at the Sermon on the Mount. Here I am finding the greatest insight for today is in a more sweeping rather than close look.

Jesus begins by identifying the blessings of God on people who, to the world, do not look so blessed. The world would consider the people in the Beatitudes to be weak and cursed by prosperity standards. Yet, in the eternal scheme of things, they are rewarded and happy before God. Our lives are far more than what the world sees.

Then, Jesus tells us to be what we are. We are salt and should be salty. We are light, and should shine. In neither of these do we see a lot of prescription about how to do it, at least not yet. Though full sermons have been preached on each of those things alone, it seems from a quick fly-over that Jesus is telling us to impact the world by being different than the world.

How be different? The next thing Jesus says is that we are to be very different than the Pharisees and teachers of the law. We do not let go of any of God’s word. We do not teach people to ignore God’s word. We, instead, obey the word better than the professional teachers of the law.

How? How obey better? Jesus says that the teachers are really specific in speaking out against murder. We are not to even entertain hatred. We are never to devalue human beings. We look different than the teachers of old by not looking for loopholes to get out of the intent of God’s law.

How else? The teacher oppose adultery. We are to stand firm for sexual purity. We are to take steps not to allow ourselves to entertain lust.

How else? The teachers are often focused on the rules and regulations around divorce, making sure the certificates are in order. Jesus tells us that no divorce happens without great sin occurring somewhere. We are to treasure and value marriage, not look for the way out.

In all this, we see that God’s standard is perfection. We see that there are no little escape clauses that give us the opportunity to live for the flesh instead of following the intended way of the Lord.

Of course, when we live differently, not slinking around corners to ignore the word of God, we will be salty to the world, changing the taste of all that comes into contact with us. We will shine out as bright as a city on a hill in comparison to the dark backdrop of a world that embraces bitterness, that loves lust, and that destroys marriage. Just obeying the intent of the word of God will impact the world around us.

But, we also know that we have never obeyed this law that well. This is why we realize that we need a Savior. Citizens of God’s kingdom are blessed. But none of us have ever lived up to the identifying marks of citizens of that kingdom. We need to be rescued and forgiven, and Jesus is showing us how great is that need. But, once we are forgiven, Jesus is also showing us that our lives and our values have to shine out differently than the values of a world that has forgotten eternity.

Realize how much humility this requires. While we obey the word of God, we have no room to be jerks toward the world. The world is full of sinners. We are sinners too. We do not ever act as though sin is OK. Yet, we also do not look at anyone as if we are better. All we are is rescued.

Lord, I would ask you that you will help me to think in your way and to obey your word. Let me be salt and light to the world around me. I know that I do not have the kind of personal righteousness that will win me entrance into your kingdom. My only hope is the righteousness of Christ and his finished work. Please, Lord, sanctify me in your word so that my life might reflect the righteousness of Christ that you have imputed to me.  

From Genesis 6-9, we see the judgment of God in the flood and the grace of God in the rescue of Noah and his family. How fascinating, given the theme of the devil’s attempt to throw God’s plan off track at every turn, that. God just keeps the plan moving. Humanity sinned in such a great way that they all should have been wiped from the face of the earth. God had one man, and only one family, who he preserved to preserve his promise. And even then, in chapter 9, we see that Noah had his own feet of clay. Yet, even in that that awkward family moment, God still preserved the line of promise. No matter what had happened, God’s plan to rescue his people by sending the descendant of the woman to crush the serpent is still moving forward. And, we know from Noah’s weakness that the best man alive during the days of the flood is not a good enough man to pull off this rescue.

In Psalm 3, we see David wrestling against the wicked who oppose him. David is part of that line of promise we have been considering all along. If David is taken out, the promise fails. But God preserves David just as he prayed. However, it is also interesting that , like Noah, David is a sinful man and thus not the promised rescuer. David is running from the wicked, but the wicked is David’s own son who opposes him as a direct result of David’s own sin as God made clear in 2 Samuel 11-12.

Interestingly, in Matthew 4:1-11, we see Satan’s attempt to derail God’s plan by tempting Christ to sin. Satan threw more and greater temptation toward Jesus than Noah faced. Yet Jesus, unlike any other person in the line of the promised one, withstood the greatest temptation that the devil had to offer. Something about Jesus is markedly different than those who have come before him. He is living a perfectly sinless life, the only kind of life that could purchase our pardon and clothe us in the righteousness necessary to enter the presence of God.

Lord Jesus, you made it clear that man is to worship God and serve him only. Yet, you, Jesus, received the worship of Thomas after your resurrection. I thank you, that you are both God and Savior, the perfect one who defeated temptation and lived out the perfection that I could never have lived. If David and Noah are not righteous enough to live sinlessly, how much further away am I? I need you and your mercy. Thank you for doing what I could never do. I worship you and again declare my desire to follow you with all that I am and all that I have.

The following are a couple of thoughts from today’s Bible reading, day 2 of the CCV plan:

Genesis 4: 1, 17, 20-22

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

20 Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22 Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

Why have the genealogical record of Cain? Why have all this record of baby after baby after baby, especially of people we will not follow? There is a tremendous picture of the kindness of God here. The Lord could have destroyed Cain. The Lord could have kept Cain from fathering any children. But the Lord was kind to him. The Lord allowed him the blessing of life and of descendants.

Note as well that Cain’s line is where we see three important people. It is out of this messed up family that we find the inventors of music and tools. God has shown the common grace to his world of allowing men, even those not of the line of promise, to bring things to the world that help to improve the prospects of men. The three inventors are the children of the first polygamous marriage, something God highlights in the life of Lamech, a complete scoundrel. Yet, in all that, Lamek’s children are still people, made in the image of God, who bring good to the world.    

Genesis 4:25-26

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

How beautiful that the line of promise continues. We had to wonder if God’s promise had been thwarted by the murder of Abel. Cain was outcast. Abel was dead. How could the woman’s descendant crush the serpant? Thanks be to God, Eve bore another son. Another line exists. It is through that line that people begin to call on the name of the Lord. And we see that, no matter how evil man gets and how messed up the world looks, God’s plan is solid. That will be a running theme in Genesis.

Lord, I thank you for your word. You are faithful to your promises and loving toward your creation. I thank you for the common grace of music and tools. I thank you that you show your mercies, even to those who oppose you, while they live. I thank you for preserving the line of promise. I thank you that, no matter how messed up the world looks, you remind me that you will not fail. Your kingdom will come. Your will shall be done.