"Because you listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you ..." (Gen. 3.17)
"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (Gen. 4.7)
Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Gen. 5.24)
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Gen. 6.9)
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went ... (Gen. 12.1-4a)
And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15.6)
And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. (Gen. 16.2b)
...the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly. (Gen. 17.1b-2)
The LORD said, "Shall I hide form Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him." (Gen. 18.17-19)
(the angel of the LORD) said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore ... and in your offspring shall all the nations be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." (Gen. 22.16-18)After reflection on these, consider:
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Rom. 3.28)
Was not Abraham justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ... You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2.21, 24)
Thoughts?
Update: Here's some more interesting ones.
For what reason was Abraham blessed? Was it not because he wrought righteousness and truth through faith? (1 Clement 31.2)
All these, therefore, were highly honored, and made great, not for their own sake , or for their own works, or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through the operation of His will. And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men ... (1 Clement 32.3-4)
