Faith Is Believing

How did Abraham get to be counted righteous with God? How was he made right with God? How were his sins forgiven? How did he get a relationship with God in chapter fifteen? He very simply believed God. He didn’t get circumcised to be right with God. He didn’t get baptised to get right with God. He didn’t turn over a new leaf to make himself right. Abraham believed God. He was so impacted by the truth of what God said that for the rest of his days he was a changed man.

In Genesis 22, 41 years after Abraham was counted right with God, God told Abraham to take Isaac to Mount Moriah and offer him there for a sacrifice. We looked at this story in the last lesson, and we know that God didn’t really want him to kill Isaac, but God was testing Abraham’s faith to see if he loved God. Abraham obeyed just what God told him to do. He was even willing to take his only son and put a knife through his bosom because God had told him to. Why? He trusted God and believed what God said. God had told him to sacrifice his son and he was willing to obey. When God saw that Abraham was willing to obey, he stopped him from killing Isaac. Obviously it was not God’s will for Isaac to die, but God was testing Abraham.

Here is the point I want to ‘drive home.’ To believe God means to put our faith and trust in what God has said. It means to depend on what God said instead of what we can see. It means we depend on what God said instead of what we can do. It means to depend on what God said instead of what we can understand or reason out on our own.

God said the only way of salvation is by what Jesus Christ has done on the cross of Calvary. That is the only way to have your sins paid for. Some people can’t accept that because it just doesn’t seem logical to them. But when you really believe God, a change takes place in your life, from that day forward. Forty‑one years after Abraham believed God, his life showed that he was still believing God. If you really believe something, you act upon it. 

I was taught something as a young child. I have believed it all my life and I act upon it daily. It is the law of gravity. I believe that what goes up has to come down, and what steps off tall buildings falls to the ground. I believe it without a doubt. I expect the law of gravity to act, so everyday of my life, I still live as if that law of gravity is in effect. When I get ready to step off a platform, I don’t force my foot down. I know the law of gravity says my weight will help me go down very quickly. So I don’t just kind of plop myself. I let myself down gently, so that each foot goes where it belongs. The law of gravity takes me down. All I have to do is make sure it is guided in the right direction.

What does that have to do with faith? When you have faith that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross of Calvary, it becomes something that will order your life for the rest of your days. You will act on that truth. You will count on the truth of the fact that He died as your Substitute. Therefore you live in such a way that every decision from here on out is going to be made with that fact in mind. Your attitude is, ‘Lord, You died for me. You bought me with a price. I belong to You. What do You want me to do?’

Every decision of life now comes under the scrutiny of the God who loved you enough to die for your sins. He becomes the owner of your life. He becomes the boss. He becomes the One who orders your steps, the One who calls the shots to determine which direction to go. He tells you what is right and what is wrong. He becomes the Lord of your life. That is what happens when you believe.