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Faith is counted as righteousness by God if it a living faith.

Abraham followed God’s instructions to sacrifice his only son. He proved his faith in a God he knew was righteous, as he raised the knife to kill his only son.

Before the knife came down, God knew his faith was valid. Abraham’s trust in God was proven before he realized his faith. He proved his faith to God. He had a righteous faith. His faith was counted as righteousness. Faith and righteousness are mutually worked in us to continually form Jesus in us.

Faith that results in God’s righteousness functions according to an analogy pictured by the song lyrics about love and marriage: “love and marriage work together like a horse and carriage...you can’t have one without the other”! At least that’s the way marriage should be. And that’s the way faith and righteousness will be.

The lyric however sometimes becomes reversed; some attempt to have one without the other. Righteousness without faith becomes self…more and more of self emphasis. Some attempt to travel spiritually in the carriage…without the “Horse”. Obviously, this does not work.

This is the reason we are informed concerning what comes first:

“Then Abram believed in (affirmed, trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord; and He counted (credited) it to him [a]as righteousness (doing right in regard to God and man).” – Genesis 15:6

This is where the statement “free grace” comes from. Of course grace is not free. It cost the Son of God a death of agony. Our “carriage” will not move unless we have faith in the One who draws and pulls us toward the destination of God’s righteousness.

If we will let Jesus Christ draw our "carriage" and lead us, we will reach the destination of eternal life.

Notice the comment from a footnote to this scripture:

“This was crucial to God’s plan of salvation, as can be seen in Romans 4. There was simply no way that anyone except Christ could ever be sufficiently righteous to meet God’s standards and avoid condemnation. Having faith in God and placing one’s trust in Him was not in itself something that could be a substitute for perfect righteousness, but God graciously determined to accept faith as an equivalent for that righteousness nonetheless. So in a sense, Abraham—and all believers since him, who are his spiritual descendants—received righteousness on credit, and the bill for that righteousness was paid by the death of Christ on the cross.” (Amplified Bible Commentary)

Will you let Him pull your “carriage” to the destination of life eternal?

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

Keep Your Dreams to Yourself