_{Guercino Abramo ripudia Agar}

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” – John 3:8

“For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” -Romans 4:13, NRSVU

God tells Abram to go away from his home, from his country and his father’s house to a land that would remain unknown until he was shown by God. Upon arrival, God would make, of him, a great nation. That took faith.

Hear the promise as your own. It is your legacy of faith.  I will make your name great. You will be a blessing, such a blessing that when people bless you, I will bless them. When people curse you, I will curse them.

So, Abraham did exactly what God told him to do. Isn’t this kind of faith reflected by the psalmist, in Psalm 121?

 “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”

Our help comes from the Lord. He keeps our feet steady. He never sleeps. He’s always watching. He brings the sun by day. He brings the moon by night, and he keeps us from all evil. The Lord watches over us.

This is in part. The legacy that Abraham passed on to each of us. – Faith.

In Romans 4, Paul attributes Abraham’s life and work of righteousness to faith.

Did Abraham have reason for boasting about his works? Paul says that Abraham believed in God and that God counted that as righteousness. That righteousness was a part of God’s gift. It was by trusting God that he gained a righteousness. He had faith in his heart, and he lived out his faith as he became the father of nations.

Roll down the centuries to Jesus. In John 3. An elder by the name of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews told Jesus he knew God has sent him because no one could do the works he did without God. But Jesus told him that he needed to be born of the Spirit. What is born of flesh is also flesh. 

Faith is spiritual work. That was the work of Abraham and of Jesus,

This is the legacy.  God intended for all nations to be blessed through the faith and the obedience of Abraham.

God so loved the world that in the fullness of time he gave his only son, so that whoever has faith in him shall never perish but have everlasting life.