Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

y faith. While this is, of course, fully biblical, the problem is that the wording
of the text does not seem to say this.
(2) Abraham’s faith itself constitutes the righteousness that makes him
acceptable to God and produces his friendship with God. This has the advantage
of being closer to the text. But it has an even greater problem than the
first interpretation. It cannot be endorsed as biblical, since it removes the necessity
of the work of Christ in both his cross and resurrection.
Since the first interpretation is not what the text says (“Faith is imputed
unto righteousness”) and the second is not biblical (One becomes acceptable
to God on the basis of an “alien” righteousness, namely, that of the Savior), a
third interpretation appears to be preferable.
(3) God ascribes such an enormous importance to faith that he imputes it
unto righteousness. In other words, the emphasis is not upon faith as an instrument
(Interpretation Number 1) nor on faith as a work (Interpretation
Number 2), but on the pivotal importance and power of faith. In the eyes of
God having faith is tantamount to having righteousness. “You have faith? I
attach righteousness to it.” As I already mentioned, the source of that righteousness
is not stated in Genesis 15, neither is its essence defined, nor its instrument
identified in as many words. All this is progressively revealed. God
appears to be its source (Is. 45:24-25), Christ its essence (Jer. 23:6; 33:16),
and faith its, now fully defined, instrument (Hab. 2:4). In other words, only in
progressive revelation the righteousness of Genesis 15:5 appears to be a Godrighteousness,
a Christ-righteousness and a (fully developed) faithrighteousness
(See also Phil. 3:9). Genesis 15:5 “merely” points out that “to
have faith is for all practical purposes to have righteousness,” no more and no
less! The focus and emphasis, therefore, are the awesome effect of embracing,
and appropriating the promises of God. This, incidentally, is not a new
view. Three centuries ago it was already emphasized that this is the focus in
the phrase in question, “Scripture does not declare what is the matter of our
justification, but only what value the Lord is pleased to put upon acts of faith”
(Manton, 257).
Well, as has been argued already, this sets the stage for James’ powerful
teaching. Genesis 15 and Genesis 22 go hand in glove. In fact, Genesis 15
finds its goal and fulfillment in Genesis 22. More potently yet, Genesis 15
comes into its own in Genesis 22. For all practical purposes, my claim to be a
believer in Jesus Christ sounds hollow, and does not need to be taken at face
value, unless it is backed up by the sacrifice of what is dearest and nearest to
me ... like a son or a daughter. In short, when I profess faith, it is not so that
someone else is obliged to believe it unless he or she can disprove it. Rather,
when I profess faith, it is incumbent upon me to show (potentially earth-
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