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)

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.

In Galatians 3, we are at the beginning stages of Paul's theological defense to the Galatians. In this passage, Paul moves beyond their personal experience that the gospel of grace is true and shifts to scriptural evidence that it is true. To prove his point from the pages of the Bible, Paul calls 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). But Abraham predated Moses by well over half a millennium and was widely considered the prototype of godliness by every person of Jewish descent. [1] The false teachers loved Abraham.

Paul uses the example of Abraham as scriptural proof that the gospel of grace is true, highlighting Abraham's belief and Abraham's blessing.

Abraham's Belief

"Abraham 'believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'" (6).

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 that would 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

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 sent my Son to fulfill the righteous requirement for you, and 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.

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." [2]

Accepted Without Works

This truth shows that 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, taking what belongs to Jesus and transferring it to us, we are loved and accepted by God.

How marvelously freeing to know that God does not embrace us because of our 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.

When he finds 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 and accepts them.

Keep on believing the magnificent promises of God. You are not accepted because of your piety or religiosity but because you believe in the marvelous promises of the gospel of grace. The more we believe and trust God, the better our lives will be.

Abraham's Blessing

In addition to righteousness, there is also the blessing of the promise God said he would perform in Abraham’s life. 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.

Paul then 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 have 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 toward God's promise to make his family so numerous as 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 those of faith are the sons of Abraham (7).

Faith in Christ makes you the spiritual offspring of Abraham. Being brought into Abraham's heritage and family is a great blessing. When I was a boy in church, we sang, "Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. 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.

As believers in Christ, we are adopted into God's family (Ephesians. 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. When you believe in Jesus, you are no longer a slave of sin, but a child of God, complete with purpose and meaning.

Friendship with God

Another blessing that faith unlocks is friendship with God. Scripture refers to Abraham as a friend of God, and this friendship was founded upon faith (2 Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23). As long as the foundation of our relationship with God is our works, we do not stand a chance in that friendship. But if faith is the foundation of our relationship, like Abraham, we can be friends with God. This covenant of grace through faith 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.

We should be amazed that God would make us into his friends by simple faith in Christ!

A Changed Life

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 here). 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." [3]

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 is what led Abraham to leave his homeland, 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 he seems to have often faltered through our eyes, God saw his faith.

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 also changed.

[1] 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. [2] Keller, Timothy (quoting Douglas Moo) 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company. [3] Bridges, Jerry. 2018. The Discipline of Grace. Navpress Publishing Group.