What exactly does it mean when the Bible tells us “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness?” What specifically did Abraham believe and how can simply “believing” make one righteous?
When Abraham was an old man God promised him a son, and Abraham believed. Even though Abraham was old, and his wife Sarah’s womb was barren, the Bible says Abraham hoped against hope that it was so. This is faith in God because there was absolutely no human way this child could happen without a miracle which is exactly what God is all about.
When the word “believe” is used I think sometimes we don’t really understand what it means. There is the sense that to believe means you hear someone says something and you believe it to be true. Then there is the kind of believing that completely alters your walk in life. This is the kind of believing Abraham had. He heard God tell him he would have a son and be the Father of many nations and he simply believed. He didn’t have any logical reasons he just put his trust and faith in the one that gave him the promise. He started to see himself as God saw him even though outwardly it may not have looked like it was true. He started walking in faith that it was true, because God told him and not because it looked or felt that way in the natural.
We in the New Covenant age also are called to simply believe God. Just as God started calling Abraham a father of many nations long before his firstborn child came. We are called holy, blameless, beyond reproach and whole in Christ. There are plenty of people in Christ that do not appear that way at all if we look at them in the natural, but do we believe God or what our intellect and emotions tell us? When we start to see ourselves as God sees us we may start to see God bring those things to fruition in us. Remember Abraham’s God is the same God we serve and “he calls those things which be not as though they were.”
In the book of Galatians we discover the promise God gave to Abraham and his seed is actually talking of Christ. Christ is the seed of Abraham. If we simply believe God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ and receive him we too will be counted righteous. God can now see us as righteous because we have the righteous one living within us. All of the descriptions of us as righteous, holy, sanctified, redeemed and etc. are only possible “in Christ.” I could never stress enough that we, in of ourselves, can never become righteous before God. It is only through the amazing gift of Christ we can be what God calls us to be.
Abraham’s righteousness is exactly the same as everyone else’s. If anyone is righteous before God it is only because Christ dwells within them. It is that simple. God made a way for Abraham to become the father of many nations by way of a miraculous birth. He does the same in us that believe. Believing in God’s promise essentially means we receive what he promises by faith. We become a partaker of Christ’s righteousness by simply receiving by faith the promised seed of Abraham, who is the one and only Son of God-Jesus Christ.
Written by Louie