Read Genesis 15:1-21 and Romans 4:3, 4, 9, 22. How does Abram reveal what it means to live by faith? What is the meaning of the sacrifice that God had Abram perform?

 God’s first response to Abram’s concern about an heir (Gen. 15:1-3) is that he will have a son from his “own body” (Gen. 15:4, NKJV). The same language is used by the prophet Nathan to refer to the seed of the future Messianic king (2 Sam. 7:12). Abram was reassured and “believed in the LORD” (Gen. 15:6), because he understood that the fulfillment of God’s promise depended not on his own righteousness but on God’s (Gen. 15:6; compare with Rom. 4:5, 6).

 This notion is extraordinary, especially in that culture. In the religion of the ancient Egyptians, for instance, judgment was evaluated on the basis of counting one’s human works of righteousness against the righteousness of the goddess Maat, who represented divine righteousness. In short, you had to earn “salvation.”

 God then sets up a sacrificial ceremony for Abram to perform. Basically, the sacrifice points to Christ’s death for our sins. Humans are saved by grace, the gift of God’s righteousness, symbolized by these sacrifices. But this particular ceremony conveys specific messages for Abram. The preying of the vultures on the sacrificial animals (Gen. 15:9-11) means that Abram’s descendants will suffer slavery for a period of “four hundred years” (Gen. 15:13), or four generations (Gen. 15:16). Then in the fourth generation, Abram’s descendants “shall return here” (Gen. 15:16, NKJV).

 The last scene of the sacrificial ceremony is dramatic: “a burning torch that passed between those pieces” (Gen. 15:17, NKJV). This extraordinary wonder signifies God’s commitment to fulfill His covenant promise of giving land to Abram’s descendants (Gen. 15:18).

 The boundaries of this Promised Land, “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates” (Gen. 15:18, NKJV) remind us of the boundaries of the Garden of Eden (compare with Gen. 2:13, 14). This prophecy has, therefore, more in view than just the Exodus and a homeland for Israel. On the distant horizon of this prophecy, in Abraham’s descendants taking the country of Canaan, looms the idea of the end-time salvation of God’s people, who will return to the Garden of Eden.