Meet Holly Lester

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."

How I can read this seemingly straightforward verse and still try to do everything I can to become righteous through works? I recently found myself in a season when I was doing a lot of right things: in a community group, serving, etc. Then I realized that my relationship with Jesus was distant, superficial, and almost awkward. All of these things I was doing are great things—unless they become distractions from my relationship with Christ. 

This makes me think about my earthly father. I can trust what my dad says because we've spent time together. He is kind, loving, and wise. He has provided for me, celebrated with me, and disciplined me. My dad views me as valuable and precious. Because I know my dad's character and how he sees me, I can trust him. God is the perfection of our earthly fathers and is more loving, powerful, and merciful than we can imagine. And so we can trust Him with everything!

God asked some big things of Abraham—to move from his country to live in tents in a foreign land and to give up his only son as a sacrifice: "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back." (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Abraham’s actions in Genesis 12 and 15 show that he trusted God. This is the heart of every person of faith—trusting first and then acting on that faith. The action is simply proof of a belief that will be counted as righteousness. 

Without the one crucial event in history, Jesus' death and resurrection, no one would be redeemed. Christ’s death on the cross paid for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), saving Old Testament and New Testament believers! People always have been and always will be saved the same way: by grace, through faith.