Sermon by Pastor Robert Green, 12th Sunday after Pentecost, August 7, 2016, Yr. C, No. 1202, Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, PA., W.E.L.S., based on Genesis 15:1-6
Have the courage of conviction of faith to not be afraid!
In the reading from Genesis for today, God speaks to you about fear, a great challenge to faith and his answer to fear. Fear is the emotion, a state of mind, that says one cannot trust what is going on or anxiety that danger is near. Fear includes the notion of concern over something that threatens or brings bad news. Fear is a challenge to faith, for unchecked fear can destroy faith. Faith on the other hand is trust in someone or thing, even when we cannot see it. In the reading for today from Hebrews 11, the author defines faith this way, in 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” In Scripture the word "hope" means more than a mere wish for it means "to have a confident expectation of something." Thus, faith is being fully confident in the reality of certain things. Thus, faith is continuously being sure of the reality of the things we believe in, even though we cannot see them.
Fear is a challenge to faith, for fear says we cannot be sure at all of what we do not see. Since we cannot see God, or we cannot see his love, or his grace or his forgiveness, fear says we can not be at sure about it and therefore we cannot trust in it. Faith is the courage of conviction to simply believe God and take him at his Word even over the things we cannot see, as Abram did in the reading for today from Genesis 15. In this reading, God wants us to have the courage of conviction of faith to not be afraid!
We know Abram as Abraham, but he was known as Abram until he was 100 years old. When he was 75 God called Abram to leave the land of Ur, present day Iraq, and to go to a land God would show him. Abram went his family to Haran, present day Turkey, and there God said to MosesGenesis 12:2-3,“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Remarkable promises, the greatest of which concerns you, for with the last promise that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,” The only way all people’s, which included all before and after Abram, would be blessed through him, was for the Savior to come from him. This was the Savior promised to Adam and Eve in the promise that the single male offspring of Eve would come and crush or destroy the head of Satan. Paul says this about this promise, Galatians 3:9 (NIV),“The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
When God made this promise to Abram, Abram was 75 and his wife Sarai, later known as Sarah, was 65 and she was barren. Shortly after this, Abram showed a lack of faith that God would protect him, at least long enough for the conception and birth of the first descendant. When Abram went to Egypt, he became afraid the Egyptians would kill him for his wife, and so he had Sarai lie and say she was his sister. The Egyptian king then took Sarai into his harm. God kept her safe and brought her back to Abram. A little while later, Abram and his nephew Lot, parted ways and Lot went to Sodom. That was when the five kings attacked and captured Lot and others. Abram came to his rescue. This is where the reading comes in for today.
God tells us, Genesis 15:1-6 (NIV) “After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”Of what was Abram afraid? Abram expresses his fear in saying,“But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”If his servant became his heir, then God would not have kept his promise that all nations would be blessed through Abram, the promise of the Savior. If God did not keep the promise of the Savior, then Abram had much to fear, for he was a sinner. God had already made clear that the day someone sins, is the day he or she spiritually dies. Abram had already sinned.
We are told, “Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”God in his grace, his undeserved love, assured Abram he would keep his promise of all the descendents to come, especially the Savior, by promising again that the heir would come from his own body.
Dear Christian, note that God addressed Abram’s fear not by some showy miracle, but simply by assuring him he would keep his promises. Would it not have been enough for God to have made this promise and never spoke about it again? Yet, God affirms his promise to send the Savior to offer us grace or undeserved love and forgiveness over and over again, because he knows how hard it is to believe it. When you struggle with fear and forgiveness, go back to this simple account of God’s repeating once again, that he would keep his promise of the Savior. Let this strengthen you in faith to believe him when he says Jesus is the Savior.
How is it that God is the shield and great reward? The shield is the picture of protection. God wanted Abram and you to know that he is your shield, your protector from evil, sin and death, for his your great reward. This is not a reward that you or I earn, it is one freely given through faith, as Abram was about to find out. That God was his shield and great reward would mean something to Abram only to the extent that he believed it.
How God is our shield and great reward is summed up the simple statement of salvation, “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” What does this mean? The Hebrew word for “Abram believed” gives us our English word “amen” used to close our prayers. It has the sense of “may it be so” or to “regard something as true, to believe it.”Abram believed for he took God at his Word that he would keep his promise of giving Abram descendants, as numerous as the stars in the sky, but particularly that he would keep his promise that the Christ would come from his bloodline. Abram believe the gospel promise of forgiveness!
What does it mean that he credited it to him as righteousness? To credit or reckoned something means to say that something belongs to another. To credit someone with a quote is to say, that person first came up with it. A more literal translation would be “Abram believed in the LORD and he credited to him righteousness.”Recall that the word “LORD” in all capital letters really is God’s name Yahweh and is used to remind us that God is the God of grace and promise. Abram believed in the LORD Yahweh and in his promises of grace and forgiveness.
What righteousness was this? Righteousness means to be right with God, to have no sin on your soul and to have kept God’s laws perfectly. To be righteous is to be holy. Therefore, since Abram was a sinner, this righteousness most certainly was not his own. This righteousness was the righteousness that comes from God, the perfect righteousness of Christ the Savior.
Jesus saves us by having lived the perfect life without sin to be the perfect sacrifice. That is why his suffering of damnation was sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world. Then, as the perfect Son of God, he credits us with his perfect righteousness through faith. Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:20-24 (NIV), “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”To be justified is to be declared not guilty of sin and to be declared righteous or holy, with having kept the law perfectly.
To teach us that he was not coming up with something new, Paul goes back to Genesis 15:6 to show how God saved Abram in the same way he saves us. Paul said, Romans 4:1-15 (NIV), “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” In other words, the righteousness credited to Abram was not something of his own he could boast about, for his own righteousness fell short of God’s demands of perfect holiness. The righteousness comes from the forgiveness of sins.
Paul goes on to explain that being declared righteous means to have the full free forgiveness of sins, saying, in Romans 4: 4-8, “Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”God is our shield for he alone can shield us from our sin, death and the devil. His is our great reward for the Savior was perfect and freely gives us his perfect righteousness so that God never counts our sins against us.
Take to heart that Paul concluded his discussion of Abraham saying, “The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Dear Christian, when you come face to face with your greatest fears, the fear that God does not love or will not forgive you, remember this account of Abram’s fear. Listen to God encourage you tohave the courage of conviction of faith to not be afraid in the face of doubt and fear; for God credits us with righteousness through faith! To God be all glory, amen!