Gen 15:6, Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 
	In our corporate reading of the Word of God, we now come to a verse that is considered among the great passages of scripture. Let it be clearly understood that all scripture is of immense value. Every verse is the inspired Word of God and must be considered as such. However, this is one of those specific various passages that just so fully enthralls our hearts and minds with all the vast magnitude of God’s work and promise and faithfulness and encouragement. This is one of those tremendous verses that captivates us and has engrossed many throughout Christian history, including the Apostle Paul and the Writer to the Hebrews, as we will see. 
	The initial key to this passage is the fact that Abram, soon to be called Abraham, believed in the Lord. That counts for everything in this life. Unless we believe in the Lord, everything we do and say and think and work towards and count on will be as nothing. Our life on this earth is utterly meaningless apart from true belief on the Lord! 
Abraham believed in the promise of God to come. He based his entire earthly walk with God on the fact of God’s faithfulness and merciful dealing with Abraham. He knew that God would do what He stated, even if Abraham did not understand how God would perform all that He had promised. Abraham trusted God and counted on the Christ to come.
This is the very basis of our eternal life as well as our life on this earth. Without our belief, our faith in the Lord, we have nothing to hold to in all those times of trials and trouble and circumstances that serve to test the reality of our trust in God. We must believe or perish! There is no other way of it! We know the fulfillment of that promise made to Abraham. He looked forward to the Christ and we are the direct inheritance in the Christ. 
Listen to our Lord Jesus as He makes this declaration. Mark 1:14+15, And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." It is only by virtue of believing the Good News of the Kingdom of God, knowing that God has rescued man by the very death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son, that we have any hope of salvation. It is only by our faith in Christ that we can be brought into a truly living and eternal relationship with God. It is not based on the works of our hands or the worthiness of our lives that will make God real to us. It is whether or not we will believe on His Son, sent to redeem us unto God by His spilt blood and pierced body. If we believe on Jesus, and confess Him with our mouths and with all our hearts, we will receive that impartation of righteousness as was counted unto Abraham’s faith in God.   
	John 6:29, Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." Just as God revealed Himself to Abraham, so He reveals Himself to us in a living and personal relationship in which we can call upon Him and trust in Him to do all that He has promised to us in His Beloved Son. Of this we can be certain, again as we hear the words of Christ, Himself, John 14:1, "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 
	This faith in God is not only in the fact of His existence, but in His magnificent plan and purpose in all of His creation. What God has done is a marvel to behold. He deserves all the credit and the honor and the glory for it. It is our place to give Him the glory that He has earned through His marvelous love toward us in the redemption that He put into place. Mankind sundered the walk with God in trying to become as gods unto ourselves. However God, Himself, paid the rightful price of death for that sin. He is the One Who has rescued us from the curse of sin and death. Our lives, now in Christ, are to reflect that reality in the manner in which we operate on this earth. 
	Mark 11:22-25, And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you. "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions. 
	In line with this living faith and belief on God, we show forth the effect that our relationship with Christ has in us. Our whole essence is to be focused on that which pleases Him and not ourselves as we have our dealings in this world. It becomes an adventure, as was the life of Abraham, in watching God manifest Himself in all His might and glory and grace and beauty as we learn to more and more trust and obey Him.
	As the Lord spoke through the Prophet in Hab 2:4, "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. …the righteous will live by his faith. This is the same faith that was exercised by Abraham all those centuries ago. It manifests itself throughout the entire manner of our walk on this earth. It flavors our every interaction with those in our lives as we proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in a most living way. 
	The Apostle Paul referenced this very truth as he wrote to the Roman Church. Rom 1:16+17, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." It is by the very faith or belief on God that our lives manifest the eternal life in Christ of which we have been made partakers. 
	To quote the Holman Bible with regard to this faith, Outside the Gospels faith is related to the keynote concepts of the Christian message: the state of salvation (Eph 2:8-9), sanctification (Acts 26:18), purification (Acts 15:9), justification or imputed righteousness (Rom 4:5; 5:1; Gal 3:24), adoption as children of God (Gal 3:26).
Each of these comes by faith. As in the Gospels, faith is an attitude toward and relationship with God mediated by Christ Jesus. It is surrender to God's gift of righteousness in Christ rather than seeking to achieve righteousness alone.
Faith is also called a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22) — something God creates in a person. In another place "faith" is used quite differently as a gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to some but not to others (1 Cor 12:8-9). Apparently such special gifts of faith refer to the ability to do great acts for God, what Jesus called moving mountains (Matt 17:20; 1 Cor 13:2). End Quote. (from Holman Bible Dictionary. Copyright © 1991 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.)
	As should be evident, this faith or believing on God is much more than simply thinking that there is a God. It involves every facet of our beings in such vital ways. Using this quote, let us investigate this saving faith which kept Abraham and keeps us with God in this life and for all of eternity. 
First, this faith is unto salvation. Eph 2:8+9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. We have no doubt or fear as we believe upon God for this saving faith is from Him. It is not dependent on anything that we have to maintain or perform. It is a free gift to those who will receive it with open hearts and minds and beings.
Second, this faith works in us sanctification before God. Again, this is not set in what we try to accomplish. It is the working and perfecting nature of Christ that is instilled into us by the Holy Spirit. We come to the place where we do not want and neither do we enjoy the things that we once did in our sin and ignorance of God. By the very faith of Christ, we are now made to be the new creation that will utterly please God in every aspect and detail. Acts 26:15-18, "And I said, 'Who art Thou, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 'But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. ' 
	Next, this faith and belief on God institutes our purification in this life. We receive cleanliness and holiness of heart and mind as we trust and obey the Holy Spirit fully in line with His Word. Acts 15:7-9, And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. "And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 
	In line with this, faith establishes us in justification, the imputed righteousness of Christ covering us completely in His love and mercy and grace. It is inclusive of the indwelling Holy Spirit Who guides and directs our every step in this world. He opens and makes His Word life to us, in us, and through us. He manifests the gracious gift of eternal life as He so fully works in us the unshakeable reality that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. In Christ, by His gift of this working and active faith in our lives, we are absolutely justified with God, no longer under the curse of sin and death. 
Rom 4:2-8, For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account." 
	As the Apostle Paul later writes in Rom 5:1+2, Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. We are justified by faith which brings us into peace with God. We no longer have to struggle with the fears of the unknown. Neither do we have to worry about whether or not we are doing enough to earn good standing in the eyes of the eternal Judge. We know that we are saved through no effort of our own. Therefore our justification rests on Him Who has called us unto Himself and saved us. In that reality we are able to exult in His grace and unto His glory. Our entire focal point of life becomes transformed from me and my needs unto Him and that which will serve to honor and to glorify Him. That means that we are enabled to rejoice and to celebrate His goodness and tender mercy and love with the every fabric of our beings.
	The final aspect that we will consider in line with our belief on God, the faith in Our Lord God Creator and Savior, is the fact that we are adopted into the very family of God through His working faith. Gal 3:22-26, But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 
	Keep in mind that we are never made to be as gods. We are not brought into the place where we will be a god in any form or fashion. We are brought into that deep and personal relationship, through Jesus Christ, by which we are considered to be the sons of God in our connection to God through His Only Begotten Son. We are well-pleasing to the Father in the fact of our believing on His Son. We are made to be partakers of Christ in that living union by which He becomes the very life that we live. 
	Our everything is formed and finished and manifested by virtue of how we are related to Christ, and that will take all of eternity to comprehend and to reveal. It is the faith of Christ which transposes us and elevates and establishes us into the very presence of God. As we believe upon Him, as we are daily crucified to self, partakers of His glorious death and resurrection, so will our lives come into this familial connection. In it, God will receive all glory and praise and adoration for the great work which He has done in bringing us unto Himself. 
	When we continue, next time, Lord willing, we will look at this faith, this belief on God in terms of how it is manifested as the fruit and the gift of the Holy Spirit in us. So be it!
Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Amen.

			
This morning’s benediction is 2 Sam 22:47. "The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock; And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation… Amen.