Guys — make sure you understand and are able to pass on this important truth from God’s Word. I came upon this passage as I was reading this morning: Genesis 15:5–6 (ESV) 5 And [God] brought [Abram] 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.

This verse is an important key to understanding the gospel. God gave Abram a promise and Abram simply believed God. God counted his believing as righteousness. The law had not yet come, but we know that Abram, like all of us, was a sinner. And yet, because he believed God, God credited him with righteousness.

In Genesis 12, God had promised to bless Abram and his seed. This promise was unconditional and had nothing to do with obedience. It had to do with believing the promise which God had made.

Another key passage that the New Testament picks up is Habakkuk 2:4, which says that the just shall live by faith. Faith doesn’t mean just believing that things will turn out all right. Faith means believing what God has said. A just person, a justified person, is one who believes God.

Now you will have to dig out the rest of this for yourselves, but the gist is that God unconditionally promised to bless Abram and his seed. (Unconditionally means Abram had no laws to obey to earn the promise.) The New Testament teaches that the seed is Jesus Christ and all of those who are in Christ because of their faith in Him. Jesus says that He will eternally save those who believe Him. Those who trust Christ in this way are forgiven all of their sins and justified from everything from which you cannot be justified by keeping the law (Acts 13:39).

The promise is to Abram and his seed, and if you believe what God has said, you are Abram’s seed and heirs of the unconditional promises of God (Galatians 3:29). Don’t try to earn it by keeping the law. The standards are so high you can’t keep it no matter how hard you try. But God, in His grace and kindness, has provided eternal life to all those who believe His promise of forgiveness in Christ. (Dig deeper into Romans 4-6 and Galatians 3-4)