Counted Righteous

The LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith. Genesis 15:5-6

ABRAM COULD HAVE taken stock of the promises made to him by God and discounted them. He could have simply deemed them too good to be true and disregarded them. Instead, he went against intuition and logic, against what he saw and felt, and believed God. Abram trusted God’s promise, not only that he would have many descendants, but that one of them would bless the world and be its Savior.

Because Abram believed God, a miraculous and mysterious transaction took place. Abram was “counted” as righteous. A deposit was made to Abram’s spiritual account in the sight of God, a deposit of righteousness. It wasn’t wages that he earned, and neither was it something that magically appeared out of nowhere. This was real righteousness. But it was not Abram’s righteousness. Abram believed God, and his faith became the channel through which he received the perfect righteousness of another. When Christ came, living a life of sinless obedience and loving devotion to God, the true and perfect source of the righteousness credited to Abram was revealed.

Oh, God, would you give ________ this saving faith? Would you give ________ the faith to take stock of your promises and grab hold of them? Please deposit to her account the same righteousness that was deposited to Abram’s account —the righteousness of Christ.