Agape Nights—A monthly all-church gathering of Calvary's believers for food, fellowship, testimonies, worship, prayer, and scripture on the second Wednesday night of each month.

• Churches worldwide have experienced abnormal and unprecedented upheaval and turnover in recent years.
• The digitization of life—including church life—has proven detrimental.
• Believers (and non-believers) are thirsty to experience actual manifestations of God's power.

For at least a season, Calvary Monterey’s leadership should provide regular opportunities at regular intervals for new and increased relationships, enjoyment of actual personal contact, and corporate connection to God.

Definition: A monthly Wednesday night gathering of Calvary's believers for food, fellowship, testimonies, worship, prayer, and scripture.

Explanation: At least portions of New Testament church held a practice called “the love feast” (Jude 12, 1 Corinthians 11:17-22, Acts 2:42-27). This gathering has been expressed in culturally-appropriate ways throughout church history. It is not the Sunday/Weekend gathering but a second time for God’s people to be together. You might say it has been attended by the church's core wherever and whenever it has been in practice.

Goal: Agape Nights will lead the church further into connection and relationship with the Lord, church leadership, and one another.

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:1–9, ESV)

Introducing Abraham

The book of Galatians is a letter detailing a struggle for the gospel of grace. Paul was a first-century apostle, and God's purpose for Paul was to send him to the non-Jewish (Gentile) nations with the good news of Jesus. So Paul went everywhere he could, including the region of Galatia, telling people that Jesus had died on the cross for their sins before rising from the dead and ascending back to heaven. If they believed in Jesus' work on their behalf, they would be forgiven and seen as righteous by God.

But after Paul's departure, false teachers spread throughout the Galatian church, telling people they had to adopt Jewish practices to become true Christians. Their claim was that Paul was only a rogue operative, preaching a new message contrived in his own imaginative heart.

So Paul wrote to the Galatians. The letter is comprised of three parts:

• 1. An autobiographical argument: a defense of Paul's story or testimony.
• 2. A theological argument: a defense buttressed with Scripture.
• 3. An ethical argument: a defense against the accusation that grace produces immoral people.[^1] [^2]

Here, in Galatians 3, we are at the beginning stages of Paul's theological defense. At this point, he has already exhorted the Galatians to remember their own story. He reminded them that when he arrived in Galatia, he clearly portrayed Jesus' death on the cross to them. And when they believed, the unmistakable presence of God came upon them. Paul wanted them to remember that the Spirit worked powerfully in their midst without any of them adopting or converting to Judaism (Galatians 3:1-5).

But, in our passage today, Paul moves beyond their personal experience that the gospel of grace is true and shifts to Scriptural evidence that the gospel of grace is true. And to prove his point from the pages of the Bible, Paul called a star witness—Abraham. Abraham and his story were the perfect way to combat the false teachers. They repeatedly appealed to Moses (and the Law as penned through Moses). Moses said men should be circumcised. Moses said we should keep the Sabbath. Moses established religious festivals for us. Moses inaugurated the sacrificial system. Moses gave us these works as ways to be God's children.

So when Paul trotted out Abraham, it was a devastating move. Abraham predated Moses by well over half a millennium and was widely considered the prototype of godliness by every person of Jewish descent.[^3] The false teachers loved Abraham. And, clearly, so did God—he blessed Abraham's life.

So Paul holds out Abraham as his first Scriptural proof that the gospel of grace is true. And what he highlighted was Abraham's belief and Abraham's blessing. From this short passage, let's consider both.

Abraham's Belief

First, Paul focused on Abraham's belief by quoting from Genesis 15:6. He said, "Abraham 'believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'" (6).

What Paul is alluding to is a moment early on in Abraham's story. Early in Genesis, God called this man out of his homeland and away from his family, promising to make a great nation out of him, one that would somehow and someday bless all the other nations on earth (9, Gen. 12:1-3). So Abraham set out in obedience on a journey with God. And because God had promised him descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky, Abraham waited for God to give him and Sarah at least one child. The years ticked by, and still no child, so Abraham asked God if his servant Eliezer would be the heir of his household, the one through whom God would fulfill the promise (Gen. 15:2-3). But God said:

“This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:4–6, ESV)

Promise + Faith = Righteousness

It is this passage that Paul quotes here in Galatians, and it is the story that gave him sound Scriptural footing for preaching the gospel of grace. Abraham was not made righteous by completing religious tasks but by believing in the massive promise God made. All of God's true Old Testament saints were made righteous in the same way—they trusted God and his promises. And the Galatians were made righteous in that way as well. God made a massive promise: I have sent my Son to fulfill the righteous requirement for you, then he died on your behalf and rose from the dead. Trust in him, and you will obtain his standing before me. You will be righteous in my sight. Big promise. Faith required. Result: righteousness.

And what does it mean that Abraham's belief in God's promise was counted to him as righteousness? When Abraham believed in God's promise, God orchestrated a trade—Abraham's faith was counted as righteousness. God credited (NIV, HCSB) Abraham with righteousness that "did not inherently belong to him."[^4]

This imputation, accreditation, accounting, or declaration is what happens to us when we trust in Christ's substitutionary death. Like a judge declaring a guilty defendant not guilty, God declares every believer in Christ as righteous. Like a banker declaring a debtor to be free of all debt, God declares everyone who leans on the sacrifice of his Son as righteous.

Accepted Without Works

One ramification of this truth is that it shows it is possible to be loved and accepted by a perfect and holy God while we are imperfect and unholy. Because God deposits sinlessness and perfection into our account, because he takes what belongs to Jesus and transfers it to us, we are loved and accepted by God.

How marvelously freeing to know that God does not embrace us because of our personal virtue or piety. The thing God looked for among the Galatians was not circumcision or other religious acts. What God wanted more than anything else was belief in his only begotten Son.

Like someone giving a massive gift and waiting for the recipient to explode with happiness, God gave the most valuable of all gifts when he gave his Son, and he looks for those who explode with joy over that gift. He cherishes those who believe in what he has given. And when he finds people like that—people who do not trample the gift of the Son underfoot but regard it as the most precious treasure—God accounts their faith as righteousness before him. He embraces them. He accepts them.

Keep On Believing

It is at this point I urge you to believe—and keep on believing—the magnificent promises of God. You are not accepted because of your piety or religiosity but your belief in the marvelous promises of the gospel of grace. And we continue in the Christian life the same way we began—by faith. And the more we believe and trust God, the better life is.

I recently came again across the story of Caleb in the book of Joshua. He and Joshua, as much younger men, were two of twelve spies that Moses had sent into Canaan on a recognizance mission. Ten of those spies doubted God could give them a land filled with impressive military forces, but Caleb and Joshua believed. Unfortunately, their people believed the ten spies, and that lack of trust in God kept them out of the land for forty more years until a new generation emerged (Numbers 13-14).

The book of Joshua is the story of that new generation, the one allowed into the land. By that time, every man alive looked up to Joshua and Caleb. They were the last men alive from their generation, and the reason they were alive was that God promised they would go into the land one day. God loved their faith. And, in his old age, Caleb approached general Joshua and told him he still wanted to fight for the territory God promised him. His faith was still alive. He still believed in the promises of God. He still ran in the power and victory of God (Joshua 14:6-15).

I recall his story here because the life of faith is an attractive one. The better one. The one that stands the test of time. And I pray we—even if we've already believed the gospel of grace—would all allow the goodness of the gospel of grace to propel us into a further and deeper trust in God. It is the best brand of life.

Abraham's Blessing

So that's a bit about Abraham's belief, but let's consider Abraham's blessing. We already saw how God blessed Abraham with righteousness, but there is also the blessing of the promise God said he would perform. Paul alludes to it by quoting again from Genesis when he said, "the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed'" (8). So somehow, Abraham's life would bless the world, which is what happened when Jesus came. As a descendant of Abraham, Jesus became a blessing to everyone.

And then Paul said, "those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith" (9). In other words, by faith in Christ, we have been given a passport into the same blessings Abraham received. We've already explored the overarching blessing of imputed righteousness, but what doors does God's gift of righteousness unlock for us? What doors did it unlock for Abraham?

A Place In God's Family

One blessing faith unlocks is that it puts you in God's family. When Abraham stepped out from his homeland in obedience to God, he was moving towards God's promise to make his family like the stars in the sky and sand on the seashore. He was inaugurating a great and glorious family of God. He was the first in a long line of God's people, a new family God would work through. And Paul said that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham (7).

What this means is that faith in Christ makes you the spiritual offspring of Abraham. Galatians will explore this further, but it is a great blessing to be brought into Abraham's heritage and family. When I was a boy in church, we used to sing a song about how Father Abraham has many sons, many sons has Father Abraham. We sang, "I am one of them, and so are you, so let's all praise the Lord." I had no idea what that meant, but now, as I read my Old Testament, I am dumbfounded that I have been brought into such a rich, historical, and ancient heritage—Abraham's family.

I recently heard professional skateboard legend Tony Hawk describe himself as a child. His mother was in her early forties when he was born, and all his siblings were much older than him. But he was a wired and highly energetic kid, and he wore his mother down. One day, she was so fed up that she told him that if he didn't calm down, she was going to flush herself down the toilet. He was unrelenting, so she went into the bathroom and flushed before slipping behind the door. Little Tony came running in just as the last of the water swirled down the drain. He looked around. His mother was gone. I think she let him cry it out for quite a while. He was a wild child, but everything changed when he discovered skateboarding. He became focused, obsessed, and determined—his energy was channeled, and the rest is history.[^5]

It reminded me that God wants even the craziest among us. He wants to bring us into his family. And when we are brought into his family, we are given something far greater than skateboarding to throw ourselves into. We are given a mission, a purpose, and the love of our Heavenly Father.

As believers in Christ, we are adopted into God's family (Eph. 1:5). In the first century, adoption often meant bringing an adult servant into the fold as a full-fledged family member—previously a slave, but now a son. And this is what happens when you believe in Jesus. No longer are you a slave of sin, but now you are a child of God complete with purpose and meaning.

Friendship With God

Another blessing faith unlocks is friendship with God. Scripture refers to Abraham as a friend of God, and this friendship was founded upon faith (2 Chr. 20:7, Isa. 41:8, Jas. 2:23). As long as the foundation of our relationship with God is our good works, we don't stand a chance in that friendship. But if faith is the foundation of our relationship, we, like Abraham, can be friends with God. It is this covenant of grace through faith that unlocks a new way of relating to God—no longer by works of the law but through the imputed righteousness of Christ—so now, each one of us can enjoy God.

As David wrote:

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14, ESV)

Recently, I was on an early morning walk with my little dude dog, Max. I walk the same route at the same time almost every morning, and because of this, I pass other regulars who also have a routine they follow. So Max has walked by the same people many times. Recently, two men who walk together, men we've seen many times, asked what my dog's name was. When I told them, they began talking to him. And he could not believe it! For the next half mile, he kept looking back, trying to get a glimpse of his new friends!

Well, as much as my pup was blown away by his new friends, we should be more amazed that God would make us into his friends by simple faith in Christ.

A Changed Life

And faith unlocks the blessing of a changed life. People sometimes wonder if sanctification (transformation and growth) has anything to do with justification (the deposited righteousness we are talking about today). It does. Justification and sanctification are inseparable. They "both have their source in the infinite love and free grace of God. They are both accomplished by faith. In justification, we rely on what Christ did for us on the cross. In sanctification, we rely on Christ to work in us by His Holy Spirit."[^6]

Dallas Willard said that sanctification "is not the result of mere human effort" but of "a regenerate will interacting with the constant overtures of grace from God."[^7] And we see all this in Abraham's story—justifying faith unlocked a life of sanctification and personal growth, a life responding to the constant overtures of God's grace. Faith in God, trust in God, is what led Abraham to leave his homeland in the first place, fight though radically outnumbered for his nephew Lot, give Lot the green lands near Sodom, and offer his son Isaac up to God. He trusted God. Though to our vision, he seems to have often faltered, God saw his faith. In Romans, Paul commented on Abraham's life:

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18–21, ESV)

Abraham's faith led him to hope, even against hope, that God would fulfill his promise that he would become the father of many nations. Even when he saw his own frailty and Sarah's infertility, he did not waver and continued to believe God's promise. This faith made him strong. It affected everything about him. And when we trust God—believe him and his promises—our lives are changed as well.

Paul's Conclusion

Let's wrap up by thinking about why Paul put this little discussion about Abraham here in this letter in the first place. Remember, the Galatians were being told that they needed to adopt Judaism to be true Christians. Faith in Christ was not enough—they needed to add the customs of Moses. The false teachers told them not to expect such a new and novel way of approaching God—the law was still required!

So Paul comes along and concludes that justification by simple faith in God's promises is nothing new and is, in fact, more ancient than Moses. Since Abraham believed God and received righteousness, Paul said we should know then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham (6-7). And since God told Abraham that through him all the nations on earth would be blessed, Paul concluded that those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (8-9). "Know then, so then," Paul said (7, 9).

With this master stroke, Paul has turned the tables on his opponents. They accused him of bringing this new and strange doctrine of justification by faith. But by appealing both to the Galatians' experience and Scripture's story, Paul showed how it is justification by works that is foreign to God. Paul had not declared a novel doctrine to the Galatians or anyone else. The way of salvation is consistent throughout the Old and New Testaments—we are saved by grace through faith.

In Matthew 22, Jesus told a parable about a wedding feast a king gave for his prince son. When he sent out his servants to invite the guests, it did not go as it does in Disney movies, where villagers are ecstatic that there is going to be a ball. Instead, his invitation was rejected, and some of his servants were shamefully treated. So the king commissioned the rest of his servants to go to the streets—to the highways and byways—to invite as many as they could find. The invitation must have included clothing provided by the king because when he saw one of his recently invited guests there without a garment, he told his attendants to cast him into outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The entire parable is outrageous. Who would reject the honor of being invited to the prince's wedding? What king would clothe an entire population just so they could be his guests? And why would the lack of proper attire get someone a one-way ticket to outer darkness?

But the strong elements of the parable are what make it memorable. And the lesson seems simple: accept and wear the garments the king provides. Don't bring your own garments; wear the ones he offers.

And this passage tells us the same. The way for us to be found acceptable for God's wedding feast—for his forever kingdom, first on earth and then in the new heavens and earth—is to accept the clothing he has provided. By simple faith in Christ, we will be draped with the appropriate attire for our God. Just as Abraham believed God's promise and God deposited righteousness to his account, so when we believe in Christ, we are clothed with the righteousness of God.

[^1]: Stott, John R. W. 2008. Galatians: Experiencing the Grace of Christ. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

[^2]: Moo, Douglas J. 2015. NT341 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Audio). Logos Mobile Education. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[^3]: Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.

[^4]: Keller, Timothy (quoting Douglas Moo) 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company.

[^5]: Jones, Sam. 2022. Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off. USA: HBO. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16118722/.

[^6]: Bridges, Jerry. 2018. The Discipline of Grace. Navpress Publishing Group.

[^7]: Willard, Dallas, and Randy Frazee. 2005. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.