Galatians 3:6–9

By leading their minds straight to Abraham, he strikes at the root of their spiritual disease. Those who misled them had won a hearing for their lie by making false use of a name God Himself had honoured. So he simply points to the Jewish Scriptures and proves the all-important fact. Abraham knew nothing of law or circumcision at the time when God justified him by faith — and those self-deceived teachers of law and preachers of circumcision claimed to be his children.

Even Abraham, then, the man all law-keepers boasted in, knew nothing of works as a ground of blessing. God pronounced him righteous. He did so not only before the law came, but before circumcision began.

This is the great principle underlying the whole Christian system. "Abraham believed God" — not something about God, but God Himself. This is faith. It is taking God's thoughts in place of our own. It is, in short, letting God think for us.

It was a clear, starry night. The Lord brought Abraham out of his tent. He said to him, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then He said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abraham believed the Lord's word, though he was then an old man and his wife an old woman. In the eyes of man this promise was impossible. But Abraham believed God, and God counted this faith to him as righteousness… Abraham did not look at the impossibility of the promise. He looked at the almighty power of the One who made it.

The words counted, imputed and reckoned all have the same force. The word reckoned expresses that force most closely. "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." That is, God reckoned Abraham righteous, or held him to be righteous, because of his faith. The little word "for" can mislead. It may suggest that faith is a substitute for righteousness, something that can be turned into righteousness. "Reckoned to him as righteousness" gives the sense more nearly.

God does reckon a person to be in a state that is not in fact his. But imputed righteousness does not mean a quantity of righteousness lying outside him and put to his account. It means the state, in God's sight, of the person God accounts righteous. Righteousness imputed to a man is the same as God accounting that man righteous.

If a man does a week's work for me, it is no act of grace on my part to pay him the proper amount. I owe that worker until I have paid him. How was Abraham justified? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." It was faith on Abraham's part, and grace on God's… Someone may say, "I thought God would justify the godly." No, He justifies the ungodly, in absolute grace, on the ground of righteousness — that is, the atoning work of His Son.

A testimony from God, received by faith, has always been the only ground on which souls have come into blessing from God… The history of Abraham also shows that before the law came, and so completely apart from law, God was blessing man on the principle of faith… Abraham believed God, and so God reckoned him to be in a righteous condition. It follows that those alone who are blessed on the principle of faith are the true sons of Abraham.

The Jewish teachers had said, You must become as Jews. You must live like Jews. Keep the Jewish law and the Jewish feasts. Receive circumcision, the special mark that sets a Jew apart. Then you are converts to the Jewish religion, and can count as Jews. Know then (or, Be it known to you), says Paul, that the ones who are on the principle of faith, these are Abraham's sons. Outward marks do not make a man a son of Abraham. Natural birth does not either. But the ones who follow in the steps of Abraham and have faith in God — in God's sight these are the true sons of Abraham.

Even Abraham, the man every legalist boasted in, knew nothing of works as a ground of blessing! God declared him righteous before He gave the law, and even before He brought in circumcision... Not "those who are circumcised," as they seemed to suppose, but "those of faith." God rejects mere claims of the flesh. He looks for faith in all who would stand before Him.

The teachers who pressed the law had been trying to persuade the Galatians to accept circumcision. That would put them in a sort of Jewish position, making them children of Abraham in an outward way. It would have been a poor imitation, if compared with the true-born Israelite. And all the while, if they were "of faith," that is, believers, they were children of Abraham, and that in the deepest possible sense, as verse 7 makes clear.

Christians are called "sons" of Abraham, but never children of Abraham. We are his sons because we are justified by faith. He is the father of all who believe, for "those of faith ... are the sons of Abraham." We are not his children by natural descent, as offspring of his stock.

If faith brought Abraham into this place of blessing, all his seed are blessed in the same way. He begins with the natural seed, the Jew; but he brings in the Gentiles also... It showed that they would be blessed as Gentiles. They did not have to become Jews in all but name, for the blessing would flow out to them as Gentiles.

Jews and Muslims today boast in their natural relationship to Abraham. Yet in moral and spiritual reality they prove to be the opposite of Abraham, united in their hostility to the Lord Jesus. This is the point He presses on the Jews: if they were really Abraham's children, they would act as Abraham did.

By a bold yet natural figure of speech, the Scripture is here (as often elsewhere also) given the attributes of Him whose word it is. But this is not merely a figure of speech. For the word of God is living, as well as powerful. To ascribe foresight to it is only to assert its prophetic power with special emphasis. God's word is as Himself; for it is a record of the thoughts and purposes of One whose counsel is eternal.

"THE SCRIPTURE, FORESEEING!" What a momentous statement! Who can foresee but God alone? Man may foresee a little way ahead when circumstances plainly point in one direction. But who can look down the centuries and say what will happen when nothing outside hints at the future? But this is what God does, and God alone can do. If the Scriptures foresee in this way, that proves God inspired them. And if God inspired them, they are entirely trustworthy.

It would be a mistake to think that every time the word "Gospel" appears in our English Bible it means the message we preach now. For example, Galatians 3:8 says that "the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham." This does not mean Abraham heard about the forgiveness of sins through a Saviour who died and rose again. His good news was that the promised blessing would come through his Seed.

God made the promise of blessing for the Gentiles to Abraham, not to Moses. It was also an unconditional promise, just as the promise to the Jews (through Abraham) was unconditional. Notice that this verse gives Scripture an importance measured only by the importance of God Himself.

He then carries them back to a time before the law. God had already given Abraham the first hint of the blessing that would come to the Gentiles: "In you shall all the nations be blessed." It was to Abraham that God showed Himself as the God of blessing, at a time when people everywhere had turned away from Him into idolatry.

He begins with the natural descendants, the Jew; but he brings in the Gentiles also… It showed that they would be blessed as Gentiles, not by becoming Jews in effect. The blessing would flow out to them as Gentiles… This proves that the blessing depends on faith, and not on the works of the law or circumcision. Abraham was blessed by faith, and God had promised him, "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" — not in circumcision, but in Abraham.

Where you get "all the families of the earth," it applies to us, although it will really be made good in the millennium in another way… "So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith," and so we come in.

The father was the only listener, but the whole generation of the righteous stood before God in him, as those he represented. In other words, the promise to Abraham was a gospel promise, given and received. Note both the manner and the measure of this promise. First, it rules out any idea that God justifies people in any way other than by faith.

How could this blessing come? Surely in the same way Abraham himself received the blessing. Faith, all of faith, and only faith. "So that the ones on the principle of faith are blessed with the believing Abraham." A rendering nearer to the Greek would be "the 'having faith Abraham.'" It was faith that marked Abraham. It was faith that brought the blessing to Abraham. So the ones on the principle of faith are marked out as being in the likeness of Abraham, and these are blessed just as Abraham was.

Every believer is a child of Abraham in a spiritual sense. And more than that, as verse 9 shows us, every believer enters into the blessing of Abraham. Verse 8 shows what the blessing of Abraham is. It was not just his own personal blessing, but that in him all nations should be blessed. He was not only to be counted righteous before God and to stand in the blessings that go with righteousness. Countless people from all nations were also to enjoy the same favour, and it was to reach them in him.

Others now hear the voice of the same God, in any language. They listen as He preaches peace by Jesus Christ. They too are blessed with believing Abraham — only in a fuller measure.

He refers to the first promise made to Abraham, because when it was made there was no thought of circumcision. It showed that they would be blessed as Gentiles — not by becoming Jews in effect; for the blessing would flow out to them as Gentiles... There he closes that part of the subject, proving that the blessing depends upon faith, and not upon the works of the law or circumcision. Abraham was blessed by faith, and God had promised him, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" — not in circumcision, but in Abraham.

Such are of faith, and are blessed with faithful Abraham (Gal. 3:9). They are his sons (Gal. 3:7), and all who are in Christ, or Christ's, are reckoned as Abraham's seed (Gal. 3:29). So the Lord takes hold of a class among men — a class from which none are excluded, whatever their nationality, if only they really believe on Him.

As in verse 7 he claimed Abraham's fatherhood for all believers, so here the blessing that goes with the birthright is claimed for them on exactly the same ground. For God blesses only in the way of faith; His delight is always in those who rest their souls on His word. But it is a personal, not an inherited, faith that receives the blessing. The whole strength of the Jew's claim to stand above the Gentile was that Israel was the family God had blessed. The apostle sets that unreal privilege aside for good, by tracing God's blessing back to its true and only cause. Flesh takes no blessing, and finds no entrance into the kingdom of God. He blesses whom He will, and on His own terms only.

Know, then, says the apostle, that Abraham, the father of the faithful and the holder of the promises, received everything by faith. So those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Those, on the other hand, who are of the works of the law, are under the curse. The law is good and holy, but it does not give a new nature, it does not give life, nor the strength needed to do what it commands.