Abraham's Beliefs

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Abraham serves as the classic example of faith in God. Simply put, God told Abraham to do something and he did it. He did not question God’s commands, nor did he doubt anything God said to him. Beginning early on in the biblical narrative, Abraham is quickly shown to be faithful by his actions when God commanded him to leave Ur (cf. Gen. 12:1-4). Rather than doubt or waver by why God would ask this of him, he simply obeyed. Furthermore, when he was commanded to offer up Isaac, the son of promise, he was completely obedient to this command (cf. Gen. 22:1-18). Directly resulting from his obedience to these commands was God’s promises to him. God tells him that his name will be made great, his seed will become a great nation, and all of the nations would be blessed through his seed (cf. Gen. 12:2-3, 17:1-8). However, Abraham was not perfect. He suffered from problems with fear and deceit (cf. Gen. 12:10-20, 20:1-18). Instead of trusting God in these circumstances, he instead relied upon his own wisdom. This is where God’s grace and mercy emerges in the biblical narrative. Although this man Abraham was not perfect and had problems, God still saw him as His faithful and obedient servant. Yet, this is where the phrase “account to him as righteousness” found in Genesis 15:6 finds its purpose.…show more content…
Contrary to the popular view, God is not placing righteousness from elsewhere in Abraham’s proverbial account. Rather, God is overlooking Abraham’s transgressions. The Psalmist declared, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (cf. Ps. 32:1-2). The concept is simple: God overlooks Abraham’s sins and deals with him as though he had no
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