And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Gen. 22:18)

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He says not, "And to seeds" -- as of many -- but as of one, "And to thy seed," which is Christ. (Gal. 3:16)

Abraham and FAITH are always mentioned in the same sentence, and well they should be. Abraham stands as the OT type of believer. The covenant which God made with him holds much teaching which helps us in our NT understanding of God’s plan and purpose.

Abraham, then Abram, first comes onto the scene in Genesis 11 without much fanfare. Abram’s father Terah leaves Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan. They ended up at Haran. The most notable thing said about Abram at this point is that his wife, Sarai, is barren. (Gen. 11:30)

We must remember that in those days if you were a woman who was barren, it was a personal disgrace. But more than that, everything owned by the husband stood in jeopardy, for if there were no son, there would no one of your family to inherit all of the father’s property. This was a culture based on inheritance.

It was at this point that God called Abram. He said,

"Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curse thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Note that ALL of this happened before "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." It happened long before that. This was before there was a covenant, and before Abraham was circumcised.

What we are seeing here is that God begins with a person by calling them OUT. Sure. If you are going to come to Christ, God must draw you to that decision. There is a process involved here, which entails some faith. Abraham obeyed, by faith. He was already seeking God.

Abram obeyed God and left for Canaan. Abram was seventy-five years old when he finally did come to Canaan. The next years would include the failure in going down to Egypt, the separation from Lot, the rescue of Lot from the kings, and Abram’s experience with Melchizedek. There was much Abraham needed to experience before he could stand before God and believe Him in a way that could be "reckoned to him as righteousness."

What does this mean? Well, it means that Abraham believed that God was faithful, and because he believed it, God counted Abram’s faith AS righteousness. Don’t misunderstand. Abram did not have any righteousness of his own. Rather, Abram had only faith in GOD’S righteousness. Thus, God said, "Your faith in MY righteousness makes it possible for Me to impute to you MY righteousness."

It is really vital that we see exactly what is going on here, because it is precisely what happens today when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham’s faith did not make him righteous. Neither was Abraham’s faith righteous. No. There is NO MERIT here – no righteousness on the part of Abraham. Abraham simply put his faith in God’s righteousness – God’s faithfulness. This accrued to Abraham the very righteousness of God in which he had put his faith.

This is such a basic Truth – so simple, yet so profound. God does not expect us to be righteous enough to please Him. But once we put our faith in Christ, He puts His righteousness in us. We are as righteous as the One in whom we have put our faith – because we actually have his righteousness.

Faith is not MERIT. It never was and never will be. Not the faith of the Bible. In the Bible, there is never any thought of faith which includes, "giving God permission to save me." Or, a faith which is "my contribution to my own salvation." No. Faith is never any of those things.

People may think that faith is merit. People may think that faith is our contribution to our own salvation. They may create doctrines from this assumption, and even argue against these suggestions as a straw man. But the faith of the Bible never carries with it the slightest notion of merit being due to the one having faith.

The Bible teaches that real faith comes from the recognition that I have no merit, and have no righteousness. Indeed, that’s WHY I’m placing my faith in Christ. I need HIS righteousness. Thus, rather than my faith being merit, it is the outcome of my seeing that I have no merit, and must rely upon the merit and righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Here is another way of saying the same thing: My faith is NOT righteous. No. My faith is in the Righteous One. The OBJECT of my faith is why God is able to reckon to me His righteousness – not my faith itself.

You will notice that when Abram believed God, that it does not say, "Abram’s faith entitled him to a son." No. It simply says that God reckoned to him a righteousness because of his faith. In short, Abram’s faith made it possible for him to receive a son, because he believed the God who promised him the impossible. And that is much different.

"Abram believed God." His faith in God was reckoned to him as righteousness – not because his faith was righteous – but because his faith was in God’s righteousness!

The First, or Old Covenant

It was upon this occasion, in Genesis 15, that God actually begins to establish His covenant with Abram. You will not find God so much as mentioning the notion of a covenant to Abram until AFTER "Abram believed God." The Old Covenant was the outcome of faith. Faith was not the outcome of the Old Covenant.

In the NT Paul points out that this is important because it shows that in order to become a spiritual child of Abraham, you need only believe. There is no Covenant that causes you to believe or not believe. Neither are there any works. No, by faith you become Abraham’s seed through the new birth, and heirs according to promise. Again, it is faith, and then covenant. Faith, and then works. Not the other way around.

God also promised Abram the land of Canaan. He said, "Unto thy seed I have given this land." God promised Abram the land which would be Israel, and into which Moses would eventually lead the children of Israel, out of Egypt, 430 years later.

Abram had waited 13 years and still no son. And he wasn’t getting any younger. He was now about 88 years old. Thus, as human nature goes, Sarai suggested that what God "really meant" was that Abram was to have a son, not through her, but through a maid servant. In those days, it was not all that unusual to try to perpetuate your family inheritance by such means. Abram therefore had no big problem believing that perhaps this was what God really intended.

You will notice that God did not come down from heaven and intervene, saying, "Abram, you are misunderstanding Me. I really did mean that Sarai will have your son. So don’t take matters into your own hands."

No. God let Abram do this – not because He willed that Abraham have such a lapse – but because He knew that Abram had an "Ishmael" in his system, and it had to get out. God knows that sometimes the only way we will really rest in faith is after we have exhausted our own efforts. There is a certain PURGING in this of our motives from which we benefit.

Abram believed God. But he did not necessarily understand God. God allowed Abram to take matters into his own hands so that it could be proven that the efforts of man could not bring to pass God’s will. It would be nice if we would just believe. But God knows that we usually have to be shown this Truth in living color – through our failures and mistakes.

Yet Abram did make a mistake. He had tried to do for himself what only God could do. God could not bless that. In fact, God intended to wait thirteen more years, and make it seem all the MORE impossible that His promise could come to pass.

Note what is happening here: God deliberately lets things get to the point where things are beyond impossible. He lets us exhaust our own efforts, and brings them to naught. Then He says, "Now, no one will doubt that this was impossible by the flesh. All will see that it was only possible through my grace."

Eleven years after Ishmael’s birth, when Abram was 99 years old, God made a fifth appearance to him. This time God changed Abram’s name to "Abraham." This name change, as it so often does, denotes a change in Abraham himself. He was now ready to actually become "the father of many nations."

Circumcision was to be the SIGN of the Old Covenant. However, we must note, as does Paul in the New Testament, that circumcision occurred AFTER the original promise God made to Abram, and after Abram believed it, and after his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Not before. Thus, circumcision was not a sign that a person merited God’s promise – or a sign that he would LATER believe. No. Rather, it was a sign that the person already embraced God’s promise by faith. In other words, faith results in the covenant. The covenant does not result in faith.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, when he was yet uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. (Rom. 4:9-12)

What does Paul say that circumcision was to Abram? "A seal of the righteousness of the faith" – the faith which he had while he was yet uncircumcised. Paul wants to show that righteousness is not the product of works – but that works are the product of righteousness by faith. As just as importantly, Paul wants to show that covenant with God is the result of faith in Christ. Faith is not the result of some covenant working itself out.

We must be clear about this. Circumcision – and the Old Covenant which it stood for – was the outcome of, indeed, the seal of the FAITH which Abraham had already put in God. FAITH came FIRST. Then came circumcision and God’s Covenant with Abraham.

So we have this order of events thus far. God calls Abram out. He gives him promises. Abram believes. God makes a covenant, and makes circumcision the sign. Abraham offers Isaac and receives him back as a type of resurrection. And finally, Abram inherits what God promised. Sounds exactly like Christianity, doesn’t it? God draws us to Christ by showing His promise of salvation. We believe. Then, based on faith, we enter into the New Covenant, which is based on better promises than the Old. Our circumcision is the cutting off of the flesh. We inherit the promises through the resurrection.

God reckoned to Abraham righteousness BEFORE Abraham was circumcised, and before the Covenant was sealed. Not after. The point is, by faith we enter into the Covenant. The Covenant doesn’t "enter us" into faith. But practically speaking, this shows that nothing of the flesh – i.e., circumcision -- can make us righteous. Nothing. Only if we put our faith in Christ, will our lives then bear the SIGN of that faith: The righteousness of God.

Here we see fundamental Christianity. Faith results in a "foreign righteousness." It is a righteousness which is NOT OF US, but which is given to us. It is really CHRIST IN US. He is our righteousness. Faith results in His righteousness in us, which, in turn, will produce righteous works. That manifested righteousness can be said to be a "sign" that our "flesh" is "cut-off," and that we are "in Christ."

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: (Col. 2:10-11)

Circumcision, spiritually, is the "cutting off" of the sin nature itself through Jesus Christ. The flesh is "cut off," and we are set free from the old realm. But not just that. All of it is UNTO a new birth -- into a New Covenant. All of this isn’t the New Covenant, anymore than physical circumcision was the Old Covenant. These things, as was physical circumcision, are evidences, tokens, or a "sign" that we are IN Christ.

This is the message of Galatians and of Romans: You and I are spiritual Jews, or "real" children of Abraham, ONLY by faith in Jesus Christ. We are righteous only if we place our faith in the Righteous One. Our works cannot make us righteous. They are the product of HIS righteousness in and through us.

Faith has RESULTS – all of which are pictured by the Old Covenant. First, our faith results in spiritual circumcision. Our old man dies – is cut-off. Our faith likewise results in our reception of the blessings of the New Covenant. We are planted in the resurrection of Christ, and thus, born anew as a child of Abraham, as heirs according to eternal promise.

Concurrent with this is the fact that we, as was Abraham, have reckoned to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You and I are righteous ONLY if we place our faith in the Righteous One. Then God is able to reckon to us HIS righteousness. That goes with the "package" of being born again a child of Abraham.

Why is this important? Well, God wanted to show that it was FAITH that mattered, and not anything of works. God needed to make it clear that FAITH is what mattered, and not whether you were a chosen Jew.

The Jews were God’s elect people under the Old Covenant. Thus, a misunderstanding was possible: That people would think that being chosen by God -- that being chosen to be under the Covenant – would be the same as faith, or would result in faith. God is telling us NO. He is giving us a direct lesson here to the effect that Abraham had faith BEFORE he was circumcised. Thus, FAITH results in a person being under the Covenant -- not the other way around.

The teaching of the New Testament is that salvation is open to ALL – to both Jew and Gentile. But only those who BELIEVE and come under the Blood, and who become spiritually circumcised, come under the Covenant. The teaching is never that you are somehow under the Covenant, and that this results in you believing and being saved.

Circumcision was THE SIGN of the Old Covenant – THE SIGN that Abraham had believed God. It was THE SIGN that Abraham had been promised by God "a seed," and "a land."

Spiritual circumcision, under the New Covenant is also THE SIGN that I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ. Spiritual circumcision is freedom from sin, and, as was the case with Abraham, the fact that I am given the righteousness of God which comes by that faith.

But Paul had to make it clear that, in Christ, there is no significance attached to physical circumcision:

For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love. (Gal. 5:5-6)

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. (Gal. 6:14-15)

If you were a Jew of Paul’s day, these would be "fightin words." Of course. Circumcision, as we say, was THE SIGN of the Old Covenant. Thus, once Paul says circumcision means nothing, he is saying that the Old Covenant means nothing. He is saying that, in Christ, being a Jew, a child of Abraham, means nothing.

This IS exactly what Paul meant by his words. He wrote to the Romans:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Romans 2:28-29)

Paul’s point is that FAITH is what matters, and not being a Jew. FAITH in God is what matters, and not faith in myself, or in my works. Those who have placed their faith in Christ are spiritual Jews. There is no confidence to be had in the flesh, or in anything about us. Our boast is in the Lord.

Now, all of this is leading us up to the Truth about "Abraham’s seed." Abraham would go on to birth Isaac, and pass the great test which God put him through, with regard to offering Isaac on an altar. At the conclusion of that ordeal, God said,

By myself have I sworn, says the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:16-18)

Now, Paul clarifies that last sentence in his letter to the Galatians. He writes:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He says not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Gal. 3:16)

In other words, when God said to Abraham, "And in thy seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed," God was talking about Jesus Christ – not Isaac. Isaac would be the son of Abraham, but in Isaac would be Jesus Christ. HE was THE ONE SEED of Abraham, in and through Whom all of the nations of the world would be blessed.

Once we see that Christ is THE SEED, the NT teaching on this becomes clear. The teaching of the New Testament is that if you have your faith in Jesus Christ, you ARE a child of Abraham. You are a child of Abraham because, by faith, you are "in Christ" – who is THE SEED, or child, of Abraham.

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham…..And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise. (Gal. 3:7, 29)

Where do works enter in? Our works are the result of faith – not a substitute for it. And never the means by which we might be saved, stay saved, or keep in God’s grace. We are saved, "by grace, through faith, and unto good works." Works cannot birth children of promise. But children of promise do many works.

Abraham’s seed had an inheritance promised to Him. At the top of the list is eternal life. Jesus, that seed, won it all for us. When we put our faith in him, we become, not only "Abraham’s seed," but heirs, according to the promise God made to Abraham.

Do you want to be Abraham’s seed? Then put your faith in Jesus Christ. Your faith isn’t righteousness. But because your faith is in the One who IS righteousness, God will reckon to you His righteousness, and you will be a heir with Christ pertaining to the things of God. *