Galatians 3:6-9 - Abraham Believed God
#25 in our verse-by-verse study of the book of Galatians.
Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 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.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. - Galatians 3:6-9 (ESV)
Introduction
The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Galatians, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as a defense of the gospel. He had visited the region and shared the gospel with the people there. They had received this gospel and believed it, but later false teachers came and began teaching that adherence to the Mosaic Law was also necessary to be saved. To protect the gospel, Paul wrote this letter.
In chapter 1 and for a good portion of chapter 2, Paul shares how he received the gospel message and how the message had been protected. This was done, at least in part, to let the audience know they were receiving the true message.
But with verse 2:16, Paul drops a bombshell:
“Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” - Galatians 2:16 (ESV) (emphasis added)
Boom.
The gospel message had been protected as it made its way to them, but that Good News was that Jesus had done the work. And the way a person was saved, was not “by works of the law,” but through “faith in Christ.”
With the beginning of chapter 3, Paul turns his attention specifically to the audience and begins to ask them a series of questions that are designed to point them back to the obvious answer: “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”
By the end of these questions, Paul has again re-directed the audience back to the topic of “faith” - specifically Abraham’s. His faith is not just an example for us to follow, but it is also a specific example of how the gospel of Jesus Christ works and is applied.
(v. 6) “Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’”
Does this passage of Scripture sound familiar? It should as it appears several times in Scripture. The first comes in Genesis 15 as God is making His covenant with Abraham, who was at the time called Abram.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “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 15:1-6 (ESV)
God had previously called Abraham (Genesis 12) and given him a promise:
“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” - Genesis 12:2 (ESV)
God had called Abraham out of his home country and instructed him that he would go to a place God would show him. He was then told “I will make of you a great nation, and I will will you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”
But life rolled along and though Abraham gained possessions and wealth, he was an old man who did not have an heir. As noted above, Abraham’s analyzed the situation and came up with this: “a member of my household will be my heir.” While there is certainly no shame in that, at least by today’s standards, without an heir it certainly looked like Abraham would not be made into a great nation.
That is the situation when God speaks again with Abraham in Genesis 15.
But what are God’s first words in this next encounter? “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Despite whatever time has passed, God’s plans for Abraham have not changed. God tells Abraham to not be afraid (“fear not”), reminds him of the supernatural covering of protection placed over him (“your shield”), and then God tells him once again, “your reward shall be very great.” God did not forget a promise made years ago. He is faithful. He does what He says He will do.
Abraham’s response was a reasonable one from a human perspective. Especially from a human being that is advanced in age. Abraham said, “what will you give me, for I continue childless” and “behold, you have given me no offspring.” Based on that status, if Abraham had died he would have had no biological heir. As he surmised, “a member of my household will be my heir.”
God has been known to deliver some incredible messages to people (through various ways) and the responses of these people have varied. Often times, though, those being visited will have questions. For example, an angel delivered a message to Zechariah about the birth of his son, John the Baptist (Luke 1). Later in that same chapter, an angel visits Jesus’s mother, Mary, and delivers the news that she will be with child.
Each of these people had questions. Zechariah said, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18) And Mary asked, “How will this be since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34) Why is this mentioned here? Because each of these questions seemed to be asked with a different intent and God’s response was different for each. Because Zechariah questioned out of unbelief, he received silence until after his son was born. Mary’s question was natural and did not exhibit unbelief and she received more instructions and encouragement from the angel.
So what about Abraham’s questions? What did God think about what Abraham asked?
“O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” - Genesis 15:2 (ESV)
God told Abraham, “your reward shall be very great,” and Abraham responded the question, “what will you give me, for I continue childless?”
Sometimes it is hard to tell the exact tone of a conversation from simply reading the words. Unless we were there, or unless the text tells us specifically, we often try to apply our own thoughts or try to insert our own interpretation. In this case, we shouldn’t do that. We might interpret this asked question by Abraham as done so sarcastically, angrily, without faith, or maybe in the same way that Zechariah asked.
But that isn’t the case.
God was not upset with Abraham’s question. He wasn’t offended or insulted. There was no rebuke or chastening. Instead, God spoke to him and said, “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” (Genesis 15:4) And, specifically, “your very own son” can be interpreted as “what will come out of your own loins.”
Then, God took Abraham outside and spoke to him again.
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.” - Genesis 15:5 (ESV)
Abraham was old and childless. He probably felt worn out from his long, eventful life. The world would have looked at him and considered him past the useful age of being used by God. Maybe even for a moment Abraham looked at himself that way. But in this encounter with God, he was told several specific things, “and he believed the LORD.”
In this encounter with God he was told:
“Fear not, Abram, I am your shield”
“Your reward shall be very great”
“Your very own son shall be your heir”
“Number the stars…so shall your offspring be”
In that moment, Abraham didn’t look at his age, didn’t look at the state of his body, didn’t listen to what the world said, and didn’t even listen to what perhaps he had even spoken to himself at earlier times. In that moment, “Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’” In that moment, Abraham heard what God said and he believed Him. In that moment, he put everything else aside and trusted the promises God had made to him.
Believing
God told Abraham things. He made promises to him. Abraham believed what God told him and in that moment his belief “was counted to him as righteousness.”
“Believing,” as the word is being used here, doesn’t mean simply knowing things. Believing God is not equated with knowledge. James 2:19 helps us to understand this:
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! - James 2:19 (ESV)
The demons believe there is a God. They know a lot of things about God. But they aren’t going to heaven! So this tells us that knowing stuff doesn’t equate to “believing God” as the phrase is used here. No, “believing God” means transferring trust to God. We stop trusting ourselves and what we can do and we transfer that “belief” to God.
A kitchen chair will help us understand this.
Somewhere around us there is probably a chair or two. Maybe it’s a kitchen chair, a chair in our den, or a chair on the back porch. Let’s also pretend that this chair is in pretty good shape and sort of looks like the one in the picture above.
If you go to wherever the chair is located and stand and look at the chair, we don’t have much of a problem believing that the chair really does exist. And, if it is in good shape, we probably have no problem believing that this chair would actually hold us up if we went over and sat in the chair.
At that point - even though we believe the chair is real and we believe that it would hold us up - we really haven’t trusted the chair for anything. But when we move over to the chair and sit in it - that is when we demonstrate this trust! When all of our body weight is placed in the chair - that is when our knowledge is transferred to belief!
Counted as righteousness
Abraham sat in the chair. Abraham “believed God.” And when he did so, something special happened:
“Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
By simply believing God, trusting God, by “sitting in the chair,” that simple act was credited to him as “righteousness.” But before we can comprehend how amazing this passage is, we need to first understand what the word “righteousness” means.
Wayne Grudem, in his book “Systematic Theology” provides this definition for the word as is applies to God:
“God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.” - “Systematic Theology,” Wayne Grudem, p. 164)
This means that God is perfect. He always does what is right and he is the standard of what is right. Human beings, meanwhile, are the opposite of righteous - we are sinners. We are reminded of this in Romans 3:23, which says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In fact, in God’s sight, our very best “righteous deeds” - the things we try to do best and perfect to honor God - are viewed the same as dirty menstrual clothes. (Isaiah 64:6) This isn’t to say that everything we do, even our best, is sin, but it points out that even our best isn’t good enough to meet God’s standard of perfection to be in His presence.
This is why we need Jesus Christ.
Our work is not good enough. Even our best deeds separate us from God. Because of this, we need an Advocate, we need a Savior. We need someone to do the work for us and then we need Him to cover us with His work. This is what Christ does for us:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
With this in mind, let’s look back at today’s passage:
“Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
When Abraham “believed” God, when he sat in the chair, something happened. When Abraham believed God, his trust of God was “counted,” or attributed to his record, “as righteousness.” Simply believing God was enough.
When we think back to spiritual life for followers of God in the Old Testament times, we usually think about actions being taken. For example, atonement for sins was sought by making a sacrifice of an animal on an altar. There was nothing wrong with this because this was God had instructed to the people to do to comply with His Law.
But at the time of “Abraham believing” there was no Law. That came later. First there was Abraham, then there was his son Isaac, and then there was Isaac’s son, Jacob, whose name later became Israel and who also had 12 sons. One of these sons was Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, and eventually became an important ruler in Egypt. Later, his brothers came to him seeking help during a famine and they all relocated to Egypt. While there, they grew into a great nation of people, but they were held captive there as slaves. Moses, under God’s direction, led them out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. And it was on this journey that God’s Law was given to His people.
Again, at the time of “Abraham believing,” there was no Law. His belief, or trust, was enough. His trust of God, his believing in what God had said was enough for his relationship with God to be secure. And that is the point that the Apostle Paul is trying to make. Believing God was enough for Abraham to be secure, and it was all that was necessary for the salvation of the Galatians to be secure.
Application
“Abraham ‘believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
That’s all it takes to have a relationship with God - to believe Him.
But “believing” isn’t just knowing some stuff about Him. Believing Him is trusting Him fully and transferring our trust from ourselves and what we can do to trusting that what He did is enough. Believing God means doing what He says. Believing God means believing His word. Believing God means living a life of faith in this belief.
So where do we stand today? Do we believe God? Do we trust what He says? Are we living a life of faith?