believe and follow

This week we are invited to take up our cross and follow Christ. As our example, we are given Abraham. We are not told of how he left Ur, or Aram. We do not follow him as he leaves behind families and cities to be a nomad following the voice of God. It would be an easy sermon if we had. We would have a picture of a man taking up his cross… but then that is not what was credited to him as righteousness.

He believed God’s word. We see God’s side in the Genesis story. He comes and makes covenant with Abraham and Sarah. He owns them, names them as his own. It was not his sacrifice in following God’s word that earns him the stamp of righteousness, but simply that he believed. The English origin of that word betrays what has been lost in translation. Believe is to love. It is not mental assent but the heart’s attention.

Paul concludes

Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

God also calls us by name, who love him. Jesus’ invitation is to no less. We cannot claim love with out following. True love demands action.