Many argue that as soon as one hears the Gospel and believes in his heart, he is saved, nothing to do. And they quote Romans 4:3; as evidence for this. ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ But when did this happen? It was recorded when Abraham was in Canaan. Genesis 15:6; Years after living in Canaan. It did not happen when he was in… Ur, when he first heard the Word or in Haran. Acts 7:2-4; Genesis 11:31-32; His obedience to leaving his family and traveling to Canaan and remaining there was evidence that he had faith in God. This active faith is what was credited as righteousness. A faith James speaks about in James 2:14-26
Abraham first put the promises of God into action, before being reckoned as righteous. In fact he was disobedient by allowing his father to lead, so his father dies in Haran and Abraham gets the call again and this time he leads, taking Sarai and Lot. But he had to act upon the promises made by God to be considered righteous.
We too have to hear the promises of God and act upon them, Acts 2:37; upon hearing the gospel they responded by saying what shall we do? Acts 2:38 repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. As Abraham, so must we, believe in the promises and act upon them, Abraham left Ur and lived in Canaan, we leave our past lifestyle, REPENT and live in God’s kingdom by being baptized into Christ, Colossians 1:13
It is not a work that saved Abraham but an obedient faith, Romans 1:5; In Romans it is the works of the Law that Paul claims cannot save you, the Law given 400 yrs later. To get into relationship with God Abraham was told to move, his obedient faith did and that was his righteousness after he obeyed. To get into relationship with Christ we are told to be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, and when we obey, that is our righteousness, a righteousness not our own, but when we put on Christ in baptism, we put on His righteousness.