"Remember it wasn't Abraham's righteousness that was credited to him for righteousness, it was his faith."
This statement is a beauty...the statement of the day so far. How a mind can conjure up such a ridiculously muddled statement and pretend to be serious is beyond me. Religion does CRAZY things to people's heads. I would advise against religiosity that turns logic on its head.
Righteous is as righteous does. It's still doing righteousness if by faith or by works. If ALL our righteousness is as filthy rags so is our own faith. So there is NO logic...just religious mumbo-jumbo. This above statement in red comes from a filthy rags type of righteousness. Call it out. ALL OUR righteousness... means ALL....even the righteousness we say is God's that we CLAIM for ourselves. It's all filthy. It's filthy because it is tainted with ego.
Ol' Epi....
Abraham believed God; i.e. the promises of God: that he would be his shield and exceeding great reward, Gen_15:1; that he would give him an heir of his body, Gen_15:4; that he would multiply his seed, Gen_15:5, whereby he understood not only his fleshly seed, but also the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, which was come of his loins; He took on him the seed of Abraham, Heb_2:16.
And besides these promises in Gen_15:1-21, he believed that promise which was made him, Gen_12:3, That in him and his seed all families of the earth should be blessed. That in these promises the Messiah is understood, is evident from Gal_3:8,16; and that Abraham had an eye to him is evident, without exception, from
Joh_8:56.
It was counted unto him for righteousness; i.e. he was justified thereby:
to have faith imputed for righteousness, and to be justified by faith, is the same thing. Faith is not our righteousness materially, but objectively and organically, as it apprehends and implies the righteousness of Christ, which is the matter of our justification.
Our adversaries the papists oppose the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us; they cavil at the very word, and call it putative righteousness: and yet the apostle useth the word ten times in this chapter, and in the same sense that word ten times in this chapter, and in the same sense that we take it.
But how shall we reconcile our apostle with St. James, about the manner of Abraham’s justification: he says expressly, Jas_2:21, that Abraham our father was justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac; and thence he infers, Rom_4:24, that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
They are easily reconciled, forasmuch as the one discourseth of the cause of our justification before God; the other, of the signs of justification before men. The one speaks of the imputation of righteousness; the other, of the declaration of righteousness. The one speaks of the office of faith; the other, of the quality of faith. The one speaks of the justification of the person; the other, of the faith of that person. The one speaks of Abraham to be justified; the other, of Abraham already justified.
Yes?
