Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #13 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 15:6:

And he believed in JEHOVAH; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

As we saw in our last study, faith is a work. The Bible says those very words in 1Thessalonians, chapter 1 and in 2Thessalonians, chapter 1. And a “work” is an act of obedience to a Law of God. When God would command, any attempted obedience or actual obedience to the command defines a “work,” according to the Biblical definition of that word.

This was Israel’s fatal error when it came to righteousness. We can see this in our verse in Genesis 15, verse 6 and we do not even have to go the New Testament. Any Old Testament Jew or anyone identified with the nation of Israel could have looked at this verse and they could have concluded that it was a requirement and necessary to believe in JEHOVAH to become righteous. And this was a fatal error for Israel. Based on this kind of idea, they proceeded to attempt to establish their own righteousness. They had many other wrong ideas because God had given them many Laws concerning sacrifice, feast days and the Sabbath and they thought, “We will keep the commandments to worship God on the seventh day Sabbath and we will observe the sacrifices.” And through these acts of obedience (or attempts at obedience), Israel thought they could attain unto righteousness, but they were completely wrong.

Of course, this is the identical error of the churches today. Let us read in Romans 10:1-4:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

The Old Testament Jew believed in God. They do not seem to have had a problem in believing in God, as we read the historical accounts found in the Bible, but they were ignorant of God’s righteousness. What does that mean? It means that when God spoke commandments and Israel heard them, they operated under the wrong assumption that to have a right relationship with God they must obey and believe and then they would be righteous in God’s sight. But that was their disastrous error. God gave the Law, but the purpose of the Law was nothing like what they were thinking. We will look at another passage in Romans that will tell us the purpose of the Law, but it was not so men could respond in obedience to attain to righteousness. No – that was not possible because man had no ability to do so, due to his fallen condition; he was dead in sin. Therefore, there was no way any man could satisfy and obey the Law of God perfectly to the point of righteousness.

God gave the Law for another reason, but Israel’s mistake was to think, “God said this and God wants me to obey this and, as a result, I will be righteous.” They misunderstood the laws concerning the feast days, sacrifices, Sabbaths and even belief. None of it brought them righteousness in the sight of God and that is why God brought judgment upon Israel of old, again, and again. It was due to their unfaithfulness or unrighteousness. Whenever they would make an error as they attempted to achieve righteousness on the basis of good works and keeping the Law of God, it was an imperfect attempt. If you are going to try to get right with God based on the Law, you must keep the whole Law perfectly. If you were guilty on one point, you were guilty of all and that would bring down the wrath of God upon you.

It was all because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and, therefore, they went about to try to establish their own righteousness and they did not submit themselves to the “righteousness of God.” What would be the righteousness of God? Romans 10, verse 4 tells us, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

Many New Testament Christians churches and congregations and their pastors and teachers were very observant and had a keen eye for recognizing the failure of national Israel to attain righteousness in God’s sight and, yet, the New Testament churches and congregations experienced the same failure. They have made the same error, but in different areas. The New Testament churches were not commanded to offer sacrifices or to observe many of the Laws that had been given to Israel. They had just a handful of Laws at first and, yet, the churches would latch onto a wonderful Law they saw in the Bible. It was a Law that had to do with faith. God wrote in His Law Book, the Bible, a law that was written in such a way that it was designed to trap and fool the unsaved, professed Christians throughout the church age. They thought, “I cannot get right with God and attain righteousness by the keeping of the Law, because the Bible is clear about that, but I can get righteous with God by believing.”

The great snare or trap that God set for the churches was their ignorance of the Law of God being the whole Bible and every commandment. Every time the Bible tells us to do something, it is a commandment of God and is part of the Law. Therefore, when God commands us to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” He is issuing another Law. And, yet, the way God writes about faith in the New Testament, He has worded things in such a way that they do not recognize it as Law. They are ignorant of the same thing national Israel was ignorant of and that was the “righteousness of God” and, therefore, they went about to establish their own righteousness through the keeping of this “law of faith” or the “law of belief.” Yes, they recognize that they cannot keep the whole Law perfectly, but that is one thing they think they can do. Again, they do not recognize it as Law, but let me jump ahead and read Romans 3:27:

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

There are individuals that may have been previous Family Radio listeners and once believed these things and now they do not and they no longer believe we are saved by the faith of Christ and they are listening to Reformed teachers and theology. I do not even want to get in to how they use their intellect to reword things and set up their system of theology because it is just a bunch of “hot air,” because they have come to the horrible conclusion that we are not saved by the faith of Christ, but that man’s faith plays a role. So, they point to Romans 3, verse 27 and they say, “You see, faith is not a law. It says that boasting is excluded and by what law is it excluded? ‘By what law? Of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.’ If you become saved by exercising your faith (and your own faith playing a role), then you cannot glory in that because you have to recognize that God gave you the faith and faith is a gift.”

But, what they fail to understand is that God says in Romans 3:27 that faith is a law. It is the law of faith and works are excluded. But what they do not understand is that the “law of faith” is a law that God gives. Yes – if you believe with your mouth and in your heart, as it says in Romans 10:9, you will be saved. However, I mentioned earlier that man is quite capable of believing and professing with his mouth and even intellectually, but the “heart” is the spirit and it is dead. It cannot believe any more than a physically dead person can believe. Man is dead in his soul and he cannot believe in his soul and, therefore, man cannot satisfactorily respond to the Bible’s command to believe.

And, yet, there is a “law of faith” and who was it that was perfectly obedient to the law of faith? It was the Lord Jesus Christ and that is why the Bible says we are saved by His faith and not our own faith. Without any question, we can know that a man’s faith cannot bring him righteousness because the Bible said in Romans 3, verse 27 that there is a “law of faith.” And remember what it says in Galatians 2:16:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law…

So, there is a recognition in Romans 3:27 that the Bible does call “faith” a Law and, therefore, no man is justified by the works of the law or through obedience to that law of faith. It is an impossibility. There is a contradiction if you say you are justified by observing the “law of faith,” because no man is justified by the works of the Law. Here in Galatians we are told that, but the fuller application of the law of faith is that with man it is impossible, but will God all things are possible, so it goes on to say in Galatians 2:16:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ…

Here is how there can be a law of faith and we are saved through the law of faith because God has written in His Word that it is Christ’s faith. The end of the Law is Christ, concerning righteousness, as it said in Romans 10, verse 4. It is not man’s faith, but it is Christ’s faith and, therefore, we are saved. Of course, boasting is excluded and glorying is excluded because God gets the glory – Christ did all the work and it is His faith that saves us and not man’s faith.

To go along with this and to offer additional proof that faith is a work, it says in 1Thessalonians, chapter 1 and in 2Thessalonians, chapter 1 that faith is a law, as it says in Romans 3, verse 27. We also have the statement in 1John 3:23:

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

This is God’s commandment, just like, “Thou shalt not kill.” Is that a Law? Yes. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Is that a Law? Yes. “Thou shalt not steal.” Is that a Law? Yes. “Thou shalt not worship any other gods.” Is that a Law? Yes. “That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” Is that a commandment? Yes, it says, “And this is his commandment,” and it is the same word translated as “commandment” that is used elsewhere regarding the Law. The whole Bible is a Law Book and everything God commands mankind is a Law. You must believe, but if you fail to keep that Law, you will die. So, many go about trying to obey it and trying to keep the Law of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ because they read in Romans 10, verse 9 that if they can believe they will be saved. But that is true of any Law and all Laws. If you keep the Law of God, you will be righteous. You will not die. The Bible tells us that. The Bible tells us that a man may attain righteousness through the keeping of the Law, but the only thing is you must do it perfectly on every point of the Law. In the context of Abraham believing God and “it” being accounted to him for righteousness, it goes on to say in Galatians 3:10:

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

This is the Bible speaking. It then says in Galatians 3:11:

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

Today the modern Christian in the churches that have all been given up by God are in spiritual blindness and they would say, “No man is justified by the law in the sight of God, but we the just shall live by faith and that is what I am telling you – I am going to live because I believe.” Again, they fail to understand what the Bible is saying. A comparison of scriptures on that quote would have taken them to Habakkuk 2 and revealed much, as it says in Habakkuk 2:4:

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

The just shall live by His (Christ’s) faith, not man’s faith. As Galatians 2:16 tells us, it is by the faith of Jesus Christ. I want to read what it goes on to say in Galatians and I want to read this because some people might think I am trying to avoid some scripture, but it says in Galatians 3:12:

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

That is, the keeping of the Law is to not trust in the faith of Christ, so when a person is attempting to keep the “law of faith,” they are not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are trusting in their own ability. And what a terrible idea that it, as they are trusting in their own ability to believe. It is their righteousness that they are relying upon concerning “faith.” But God is saying that the Law is not of faith or not of Christ, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. When someone says, “I accepted Christ,” it is the more obvious and less knowledgeable response to the Bible that the free-will Christian will often say, but there is the more knowledgeable, but equally wrong, Reformed theology response that comes from their knowledge that the doctrine of “free will” is “Anathema,” so they will use language that speaks of election and the grace of God and decorate it with Biblical words and, yet, they will slip in that you must “believe.” You must show forth “faith” in some way. They do not trust the faith of Christ. They do not trust the Word of God and they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.

That is what we are going to look at in our next Bible study, Lord willing. When it comes to faith, Abram believed JEHOVAH and JEHOVAH counted “it” to him for righteousness. There is “faith” and “righteousness,” but, again, people think it is Abram’s faith that produced righteousness in God’s sight. That is not the case and we will look at the relationship of “faith” and “righteousness” in our next study.