I’m going to leave baptism as a topic with this one last thought. And it’s all about God’s covenant with Abraham (Abram at the time) —
(Gen 15:3–6 ESV) 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Recall that this is the text that Paul uses in Rom 4 and Gal 3 to argue that God saves Gentiles by faith because of this very covenant. That’s good, solid narrative, covenant theology. This parallels our own faith in Jesus.
So what happens next?
(Gen 15:7–10 ESV) 7 And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.
We’ve covered this text many times, but never to make this point. After Abraham had faith that God credited as righteousness, but as part of the same conversation, Abraham asked, “How am I to know that I shall possess it?” God credited Abraham with righteousness, but Abraham wanted something more tangible. Why?
Well, likely because he’s from the East where the tangible is preferred over the abstract, where story is preferred over theory. In short, “Show me.” He had faith. The text says so. But he needed to see a sign of God’s faithfulness nonetheless.
And so God, who is patient and faithful, showed him. He asked Abraham to enter into a blood covenant in which every animal used in sacrificial worship of God was slaughtered — cut in half! — leaving a river of blood running between the split carcasses.
The practice in those days (and still practiced today in some parts of Near East but not with so many animals) was for the two parties making a covenant to walk through the pool of blood, their bloody footprints symbolizing the pact: If I do not keep this covenant, you may do to me what you just did to these animals.
(Gen 15:17–19 ESV) 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
But God did not ask Abraham to walk through the blood! Rather, God himself walked through it twice, once as a smoking fire pot and once as a flaming torch. Recall that God is often spoken of in the Scriptures in terms of smoke and fire (Exo 19:18; Isa 4:5; 30:27; Joel 20:30 (Acts 2:19)), especially on Mt. Sinai and as a cloud of smoke and fire that led Israel (Exo 13:21). Context makes clear that the cloud was smoke.
So God went through twice — once to bind himself to the covenant, and again in Abraham’s place — saying on behalf of Abraham and his descendants “If you do not keep this covenant, you may do to me what you just did to these animals.” This is the promise to which God was faithful on the cross.
So when was Abraham saved? When God credited him with righteousness? Or the next day, when he demonstrated his love for Abraham by promising to die in his place should Abraham (or his descendants) violate the covenant?
What if Abraham had been run over by a chariot on the way to covenant ceremony? Would he have been saved? What if he refused to participate? In fact, Gen 15:12 means that he was terrified of what God was asking of him. I mean, if God had insisted that Abraham walk through the blood, agreeing to let God kill him if he violated his covenant promise, how long would he have lived?
And there you have it. The crediting of righteousness and the ritual making of a covenant are not identical, but they are close in time, by design, and had Abraham refused to participate, well, God would have known that in advance — being God and all — and Abraham would not have been credited with righteousness. Surely.
Years later, when Abraham had doubts about a covenant that might not be fulfilled for thousands of years, which event would have given him the most assurance of God’s faithfulness: the fact that God had credited him with righteousness? Or the fact that God walked twice through the blood?
So when was Abraham saved?
Amen.
If we are to believe Abraham was saved by faith and we also are saved by faith prior being baptized, I vote no. God gives us no assurance of salvation by faith alone. It amazes that some are so eager to believe in salvation by faith alone. From the first day the church of the Lord existed, entry into the church has been by way of being baptized. Because of FAITH, of course. Not in the absence of faith. But it’s in baptism that we die to sin and are raised to walk in NEW LIFE. Those who teach salvation apart from obeying the gospel by repenting and being baptized do us no favor. Peter’s words on the birthday of the church are recorded for our instruction. We disbelieve at our peril.
I entered a comment and it didn’t show up. There was one comment before I commented and one after I commented, the same one that had been there before. Perhaps I hadn’t clicked on an icon, since the information was already filled in and my photo showing.
I commented that salvation is not be faith alone. It has never been by faith alone. It will never be by faith alone. Anyone who implies that sin is taken away in other ways than by the washing of the blood of Jesus which is part of baptism in water is mistaken and is teaching falsely and wrongly.
Would it be correct to say that abram may not have been told that he was declared justified by God according to his faith ?? Also, it seems you are indicating that the sealing of the covenant with Abraham was all Gods doing. Abraham was a spectator to what God did on his behalf. The only thing that God ever gave him credit for was his faith. Sounds like what Jesus told the folks when they asked what they had to do in order to be better than the pharisees
Price,
Abraham had to slaughter the animals — a very expensive and difficult task. And for some reason, the text records that he shooed the birds off the carcasses. I’ve not figured the relevance of that one out. What Abraham did not have to do was swear on his life to obey the covenant God had made by walking through the blood.
The text doesn’t say how Abram came to know that he’d been found righteous for his faith. I think we are supposed to understand that this was communicated by God, but we aren’t given the words.
But, of course, the issue arises to today. If someone comes to faith in God, how does he know that God counts him as righteous? In Gen 15, God made several very serious promises to Abraham before the covenanting ceremony — but evidently Abraham needed more than words.
Ray,
The site had some glitches during the day that have now been resolved. That may explain your problems posting.
thank you
Yes, thank you Jay.
When God asked Abraham to slay Isaac he didn’t stop Abraham until the last moment. This showed commitment from Abraham, because even when we think we will do something, we may not follow through. God wants follow through from us. He doesn’t just want us to think it or say it or believe it, but to do it in belief. The Jews had separated out faith from thier rituals and made them just rituals, but God wanted faith, but he wanted the rituals too, otherwise He wouldn’t have commanded them. Abraham was accounted te righteous because he was righteous in faith and action, mostly and then there is grace. He might not have been saved at one particular point, but given the promise at a point.