Michiana Covenant Presbyterian Church

[Sung Psalm: 102] When was Abraham justified?! Last time, we saw in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness – it was counted to him (or imputed to him) as righteousness. So you might say that Abraham was justified in Genesis 15. But, of course, Abraham had believed God many years earlier, back in Genesis 12. So Abraham was justified at least by Genesis 12. In Romans 4, Paul will talk about the episode in Genesis 17 in terms of Abraham's justifying faith. And in James 2, James will point to Genesis 22 – the offering of Isaac, as a part of Abraham's justification. This is because the one act of justification – whereby God declares you righteous in his sight, forgiving all your sins, only because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone – that one justification – is experienced by us over and over again. You see – justification is not a "more and more" sort of thing. You can't be any more justified. You either are justified or you a