1) faith/righteousness = Ge.15
2) circumcision = Ge.17
3) Isaac incident = Ge.22
1) faith/righteousness
2) refuses to get circumcised
3) reconsiders and gets circumcised
4) refuses to kill Isaac
Would Abraham have lost his righteousness at step 2), regained it at step 3), then lose it again at step 4)?
Would he have been considered to have never had righteousness at 2) and then credited with righteousness at 3) only to have been considered to have never had righteousness at 4)?
Or does it work some other way?
Only if salvation is performance-based. But it is faith-based in God as savior, not in doing or not doing the right or wrong actions. If after Ge.15 Abraham had refused to obey God, God would have found another to make a patriarch that would. In fact, Noah may have been God’s first choice, and Abraham His second. But Noah is still credited with righteousness (from before he built the ark) based on the same faith as Abraham.