“And you hath He quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
The Lord promised Abraham, before Isaac’s birth, that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the heaven, and Abraham “believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead . . . neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19). After Abraham “offered up his only begotten son (Isaac) . . . accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17,19), God again told him “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore . . . because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:17,18).
In obeying God’s voice, Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform” (Romans 4:20,21). His faith therefore was “imputed to him for righteousness” (v.22). Abraham was brought to the point where he knew beyond all doubt that he was incapable of assisting God in the accomplishment of His divine purposes in bringing to life the nation of Israel and, in so doing, his faith became a model for all believers, “that he might be the father of all them that believe . . . that righteousness might be imputed unto them also” (Romans 4:11).
We who were dead in trespasses and sins have believed that God “hath raised Him (Jesus Christ) from the dead” and have believed “unto righteousness” (Romans 10:9,10). It is through His righteousness that dead sinners are both “quickened” and made righteous. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21). CJH
