We will be looking again in our series in Galatians. We took a week off last week because we had a guest preacher here. He, Jason, if you recall, led us in a great message through Psalm 2, but we're returning now to the book of Galatians and picking up where we left off in Galatians chapter 3.
In a moment, we can turn there and look at it, but I want to ask a question first. You ever played the "my dad is bigger than your dad" game? What kid doesn't have an experience of that, right? There's something just inherent about being a kid, and I don't really know when it starts. I don't really have a recollection of the first time I can distinctly remember comparing my dad to somebody else's dad and thinking of all the ways that my dad was better and more important and cooler than the other person's dad, but it happens, right? We've all experienced it. And there's just this little implicit game that children play where you just sit there and, "Yeah, well, my dad," and then you fill in the blank. You know, "My dad's bigger. My dad's stronger. My dad's smarter. My dad drives a nicer car." You know, you've got all these things you fill in the blank just to prove, "Hey, my dad is more important and more substantial than your dad." Who hasn't experienced that? That back and forth that kids have.
And the reason for it is because we instinctively sense, hey, if my dad's less, then somehow I'm less. And so it's really just an expression of our own pride of just wanting to say, my dad's stronger, so that means I'm going to be stronger. My dad's smarter, so I'm going to be smarter. And we play that back and forth game, and kids do that all the time.
I remember even at one point being outmaneuvered, or it was basically we'd come to a stalemate in the "my dad" question, so then I trumped it with, as only a little boy consumed with G.I. Joes could, "Yeah, well my uncle flies a Black Hawk helicopter, so he could destroy your uncle!" That's an interesting twist on it, right? I had to win though. I had to prove.
We think that way and we operate that way, and it seems silly when you look at it as adults, even though we kind of operate in similar ways. We might not make it as blatant at times, right? What you maybe didn't know is that game is actually biblical. What we're gonna see in our text this morning is that there's a biblical version of the argument. That biblical version though goes My forefather is more important. My forefather is more special.
Now, just prior to our text this morning, a few weeks ago, we saw Paul argue from the facts of experience. He's laid the groundwork of the gospel in chapter 2. He's given explicit statement. Justification happens by faith, not by works of the law. He lays out the gospel. Remember, now he's bringing forth the evidence, and the first evidence he gives is experience. Experience. Remember he asked the Galatians, "How did you receive the Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit through works of the law or through faith?" Well, it's through faith. "And how are you going to be perfected? By the Spirit or by the flesh?" Well, now Paul begins turning to more explicitly biblical arguments. Not that the previous ones weren't biblical, but now he's going to turn to evidence from the Old Testament. And that's what he starts to bring forward this morning.
6 · Reads Galatians 3:1-9 aloud, establishing the biblical text that will be exposited and highlighting the key verses (6-9) that will be the sermon's focus
I'm going to start in verse 1 in chapter 3, and we'll spend our time looking at verses 6 to 9, so you can follow along. Paul writes this: O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? 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? And then today's text: Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are 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.
7 · States the first main point—Abraham is identified as the father of blessing, the key figure through whom God's covenant promises flow
What we see there The thing that Paul begins to pull forward is that Abraham is the father of blessing.
8 · Loops back to the childhood game illustration, now reframing it explicitly as biblical—establishing that heritage claims in Galatia are not peripheral but central to the controversy Paul addresses
And so, I wasn't really kidding when I said there's biblical precedent for this game of showing that "my father" is significant. It's important to know that your forefather specifically is important. The "my dad is better than you dad" argument in a weird sort of way, is biblical.
9 · Establishes Abraham's central place in the biblical narrative, arguing he may be the most important Old Testament figure and that understanding his role is critical to grasping the Galatian controversy
To get your heads around this debate that's raging in Galatia, if we're going to really comprehend all the background that sits behind this book of the Bible, we've got to spend some time thinking through the monumental importance of Abraham. Abraham, biblically, is just massive. He's perhaps the most key figure of the entire Old Testament. At the very least, he's on the short list with Abraham, Moses, and David. But you could make the argument he is the most significant figure there, the most significant character in the story and the narrative that's playing out before our eyes in the pages of Scripture.
10 · Acknowledges the congregation's potential confusion about the circumcision debate and signals that the sermon will provide biblical-theological background to make sense of it
Now, if all this raging debate about circumcision and law keeping seems strange to us, all the stuff we've been talking about the last few weeks in Galatians, We probably need a little refresher in biblical theology. We need to spend some time going back and reviewing all the stuff that sits in the background of this controversy.
11 · Rehearses the canonical narrative of Israel's exodus and reception of the law, situating Israel's covenant identity within the broader redemptive-historical storyline
Israel, the Jewish people, God's covenant people, remember? They received the law at Mount Sinai. Now they received the law right after they'd gotten delivered out of bondage in Egypt, right? And they receive the law after being delivered from slavery, 400 years of slavery that God prophesied would happen right before they're about to head into the Promised Land, correct?
12 · Asserts the theological claim that all of Israel's covenant blessings trace back to Abraham—that being Abraham's descendant is the basis for receiving God's promises
Well, what we can sometimes lose sight of is all of that is happening because Israel has a connection to one man. Their forefather is Abraham. The blessings of God flow through Abraham. That can kind of sound like a strange statement, so maybe more accurately we can say the blessings and promises of God are received by being Abraham's descendant.
13 · Unpacks the stakes of the Galatian controversy—being Abraham's descendant determines whether you inherit salvation and covenant blessing, making the debate over how one becomes Abraham's child a matter of eternal consequence
So it is really important to be able to say in that argument, Abraham's my forefather, and this is what that implies about me. That's what's at stake in what's going on here, and Paul knows this. If you want to receive the blessings of salvation, if you want to be a part of God's people, if you want to inherit the promises that the Old Testament and the New Testament are filled with, if you want any part of those things, biblically, biblically, you must be connected to Abraham. You have to be able to go into the "my dad" argument and say, "Yeah, well, my forefather was Abraham!" Otherwise, none of that is yours. We'll see why this morning.
14 · Characterizes Paul's letter as a polemical grenade, acknowledging the combative nature of the Galatian debate and that Paul anticipates his opponents' response
Abraham is the father of blessing, and as Paul lays out his argument, he knows his opponents are preparing their counterargument. You don't write a loaded letter like Galatians and not expect that there's going to be some blowback, right? I mean, he's throwing a grenade in there and there's going to be some collateral damage. There's going to be some people that are going to come back swinging.
15 · Clarifies that Paul is writing defensively—he's responding to opponents who have already attacked his gospel, reframing the letter as a counterargument rather than an initial salvo
But really, if we read some of the background that's happened in Galatia, this letter is really more likely, more appropriately seen as a counter-argument. There's already an argument being made in Galatia against Paul. It's not that Paul has the initiative here. He's defending himself. He's defending his gospel. Defending his entire understanding of Scripture. So he comes with this counterargument to push back against his opponents. So in this sense, he's fighting. He's on the defensive side of the courtroom. That's what's going on.
16 · Summarizes the opponents' position—circumcision is the necessary sign of covenant membership and thus the gateway to salvation and blessing
Now, his opponents, to prove their claim that circumcision was required to enter God's people— When we think of it, we hear that circumcision is required as an entrance into God's people. Just think, that means God's people are the people who receive blessing and salvation. That's what it means to be a part of God's people. And they're saying circumcision is required to be a part of that people who receive the blessings of the promises and salvation.
17 · Identifies Genesis 17 as the key text Paul's opponents are using to prove circumcision is required, setting up the exegetical battle Paul will fight
Paul's opponents, in making that argument, in saying circumcision is necessary for that, are almost certainly running to Genesis 17. And when we recognize this is a counterargument, it's almost positive that they've already said Genesis 17. This proves that Paul is wrong. So what we read here is an answer to that.
18 · Signals the shift to direct Scripture reading, preparing the congregation to hear the text Paul's opponents are wielding
Well, this is what Genesis 17 says.
19 · Reads Genesis 17 aloud, the passage commanding circumcision as the sign of God's covenant with Abraham and threatening that the uncircumcised will be cut off from the covenant people—the text Paul's opponents use to require circumcision for Gentile believers
Remember we said we've got to get our minds around the biblical theology of the significance of Abraham. Genesis 17 says, when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared— when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me And you and your offspring after you. This is the covenant. Every male among you shall be circumcised. Any uncircumcised male, God goes on to say, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people. So cut off from the blessings of God, from the blessings of God that flow through Abraham. Why? Because he has broken my covenant.
20 · Dramatizes the force of the opponents' argument from Genesis 17, showing how compelling it appears—circumcision is commanded, it's an everlasting covenant, and the uncircumcised are cursed
You kind of picture Paul's opponents throw that on the table. Now what are you going to say, Paul? It's an everlasting covenant. God says to Abraham, I'm going to bless you. And we're saying it's okay for these Gentiles to come in. We get the nations are coming in and God promised that, but Right there it says the nations come in, but uncircumcised have to be circumcised. End of case. What are you going to say to that, Paul? How do you argue against the weight of that? From God's own mouth, Abraham appears to have received the covenant because he was blameless, and the sign of this covenant is circumcision. Keep the law, get circumcised, and now you can be a part of the blessings that flow from the patriarch. If you're outside of Abraham, if you're not circumcised, as Genesis 17 puts it, it's not that you just don't get blessed, it's that you're cursed. That's pretty serious stuff, right? Can you kind of see the issues that are at play?
21 · Highlights the weight of Jewish tradition supporting the opponents' view—millennia of covenant theology understanding circumcision as the gateway to blessing
For thousands of years God's people have understood this is what's at stake with circumcision. In the Jewish mindset, Abraham is the model. He's the perfect Jew. For millennia, people who failed to get circumcised are cut off from the covenant. So in their minds, what they advocate in Galatia is perfectly in keeping with the entire Old Testament. They're being biblical, they think. So how does Paul just think he's going to come along and sweep all of that off the table? Does Paul really think he's gonna go toe-to-toe with Abraham?
22 · Introduces Second Temple literature as evidence for how the Jewish world understood Abraham and circumcision, setting up quotations that will illustrate the opponents' theology
And this stuff is all over the place. You read Second Temple literature, which is literature that was written after the end of the Old Testament and before the beginning of the New Testament, and you're basically reading what the Jewish people would have thought of as almost inspired commentary on on the Bible.
23 · Quotes Second Temple literature praising Abraham for keeping the law and being faithful when tested, showing that Jewish tradition viewed Abraham's righteousness as based on obedience, not faith
In one place it says this: Abraham was the great father of a multitude of nations. Kind of sounds like our passage in Galatians. And no one has been found like him in glory. He kept the law of the Most High and entered into covenant with him. He certified the covenant in his flesh, and when he was tested, he proved faithful. Therefore, because when he was tested, he did the right thing The Lord assured him with an oath that the nations would be blessed through his offspring.
24 · Quotes additional Second Temple texts portraying Abraham as obedient and perfect, culminating in 1 Maccabees' claim that his obedience—not faith—was reckoned as righteousness, directly contradicting Paul's reading
Another place where it says, for Abraham was perfect in all his actions with the Lord and was pleasing through righteousness all the days of his life. Starting to see the picture? The idea of faithfulness established that Abraham was God's man primarily because Abraham was obedient. Not because of faith. That's what is viewed as being good theology. Genesis 17, he's circumcised. In Genesis 22, Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac. He has the sign of the covenant, and now he goes out and he obeys what God tells him to do. And in commenting on that, 1 Maccabees says, was not Abraham found faithful? Found found obedient when tested, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness? That's a loaded phrase. Wasn't he found obedient, and that was reckoned to him as righteousness? Wasn't his obedience what made him right before God?
25 · Uses a humorous cultural reference—a Sunday school song rewritten to reflect the opponents' exclusivism—to illustrate the Jewish mindset that uncircumcised Gentiles are outside the river of blessing
You know the old Sunday school song? Father Abraham had many sons, right? If they sang that back in the days of the New Testament, the intertestamental period, they would have sung it like this: Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham, and I am one of them, and you are not, so let's go get you circumcised. That's how they would have thought of it. I am one of these sons, you're not. The only way to solve this is we gotta go cut the flesh. Let's hurry up and get it, because this is— he's the father of blessings. There's a river of blessing that comes from God, and at the head of that river is Abraham. And if you're not in the river of Abraham, you're not getting any blessings. And if you're not circumcised, you're not in that river.
26 · Pivots to Paul's counterargument—Paul agrees Abraham is the father of blessing, but he disputes the mechanism by which one becomes Abraham's child, focusing on how Abraham was counted righteous
Well, the Bible clearly states God's blessings come, in a sense, through Abraham. That's biblical. The promise of Genesis 17 is specific that the nations will be blessed through Abraham. This is the covenant God makes with him. Now, Paul doesn't argue that Abraham is the father of blessing. He agrees that he's going to make similar arguments in our passage. What he argues about is how we become one of his many sons. He's going to argue about how Abraham was reckoned righteous.
27 · States the second main point—Abraham's descendants are founded on faith
So just to our second point, Abraham's family, his descendants, are founded on faith. In response to all that evidence, biblical or almost inspired commentary, Paul goes back even further in the story. Jewish tradition in Paul's day found the hope for Abraham's offspring in Genesis 22 and Genesis 17. Abraham obeyed, and Abraham was circumcised. But Paul says, The problem is they needed to go back further. Not Genesis 22, not Genesis 17, but to Genesis 15, which is what Paul quotes in our passage in verse 6. Genesis 15:6, also here in Galatians 3:6: Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
28 · Contrasts 1 Maccabees' reading (obedience reckoned as righteousness) with Genesis 15:6 (faith reckoned as righteousness) and teaches the hermeneutical principle that Scripture interprets Scripture—Genesis 15:6 is the lens through which Genesis 17 and 22 must be read
You see the difference between that and the Maccabees text? One is obedient and reckoned righteous. The other one believes and is reckoned righteous. To grasp the appropriateness of what Paul's doing, we have to recognize the intertextuality of Scripture. Now, that's a $5 theological word that just means Scripture interprets Scripture. When you read the Bible, you've got to allow other passages of the Bible to inform how you're understanding. Otherwise, you end up proof-texting. That's essentially what's happening in Galatia. These Judaizers are proof-texting from Genesis 17 and Genesis 22, maybe even Genesis 18, without recognizing that, without allowing the rest of Scripture to speak and to speak fully and clearly their misunderstanding. Paul shows us that we need to view those other texts through the interpretive lens of Genesis 15:6, before Abraham is circumcised.
29 · Establishes the timeline—Abraham's righteousness is declared before circumcision, before Isaac, before any of the works Jewish tradition relies on
In Genesis 15:6, Abraham doesn't have the sign of the covenant. Before Isaac is born, so before the child of promise has come, before he takes the child of promise and lays him on an altar, an old man believed the impossible, that God would keep his promise. That God would keep His promise. Abraham was not reckoned righteous because he was obedient when tested. Abraham is reckoned, or counted righteous, solely because of faith. He believed God's word.
30 · Diagnoses the problem behind the Judaizers' error—they idealize Abraham, treating him as a moral exemplar rather than a sinner justified by faith
Before circumcision is on the map, before the law is given, Abraham gets declared righteous by God, and the reason Paul shows us is it was faith. Now, one of the problems that led to all the confusion in Galatia is that there's this tendency, and we can share it too, to idealize Old Testament characters. I grew up, you know, I heard sermons like that where you'd hear a sermon from the Old Testament, it was essentially, "This is how you need to be like Abraham," or, "This is how you need to be like David because he did all these great things," and they did all these great things, and you don't want to be like so-and-so, you know. There's this tendency to hero worship some of these Old Testament characters.
31 · Catalogs Abraham's sins—moon worship, lying, jeopardizing Sarah, conceiving Ishmael—to demolish the idealized portrait and establish that Abraham was counted righteous by imputed righteousness, not inherent righteousness
And so there's pronouncements that Abraham was perfectly righteous, right? That he was blameless. You kind of hear that and you think, are we reading the same Bible? How do you read the story of Abraham and see that he's perfect and that he's blameless? The text doesn't say in Galatians here that Abraham was righteous, does it? What does it say? It says God counted him, which is another way of saying God imputed righteousness to him. It took a righteousness that wasn't his and covered him in it. Didn't take a righteousness that wasn't his and make him righteous. He covered him in that righteousness. That's significant. If we take our hero worship glasses off and read Genesis with unvarnished eyes, we see Abraham had some real flaws, right? Flaws is just a really wimpy way of saying Abraham was a sinner. He's a moon worshiper. Before God calls him, he sits at night worshiping the moon. That's who Abraham was. He's a proto-werewolf, I don't know. At multiple points, he lies and connives to preserve himself rather than entrust himself to God. This lying and conniving even goes to the point where he potentially puts his wife Sarah, the woman who God says, "This is the woman who's going to bear the child that will be the source of all these promises. He takes that wife and gives her to another man. Fill in the blanks of what that means, right? He does it twice, not just once and learned his lesson. He does it twice. That's kind of a big deal. That's serious stuff. He's impatient with God's fulfillment of the promise, and so he conceives the child Ishmael with Hagar. Kind of paying for that strife nowadays, aren't we? It wasn't Abraham's impeccable holiness that reckoned him righteous. Genesis is filled with evidence of the fact that Abraham, Abraham, fell short. No, it was his faith.
32 · Quotes Galatians 3:7 and draws out Paul's point—the way to become Abraham's son is through faith, not flesh
And so Paul writes in Galatians 3:7, "Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham." Paul makes the connection that Abraham isn't just the father of blessing. He's the father of blessing. He's the guy you want to name in the game to say, "My forefather is better than your forefather through faith." That's how you get to claim Abraham in that competition.
33 · Reads Romans 4 at length to show Paul's fuller argument—Abraham was counted righteous before circumcision precisely so that uncircumcised Gentiles could be justified by faith and become Abraham's children
Listen how Paul himself details this in Romans 4. He elaborates on the same idea that he's mentioning here in Galatians chapter 3. He says this in Romans 4: What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Quoting the same text, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but it was before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose, the reason for all of that, that God made sure there was a correct ordering of when he counted Abraham righteous by faith, and that it happened before circumcision, was that he would make Abraham the father of all who believe without circumcision, so that the righteousness would be counted to them as well. And to make him, Abraham, the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham had. Follow Paul's argument there. Follow how he's fleshing out what's happening in Galatians.
34 · Characterizes Jewish boasting in heritage as playing the 'my father is better' game wrongly, missing that Abraham was counted righteous before circumcision—while he was, in a sense, 'un-Jewish
The Jews are constantly boasting in heritage, right? They're playing the "my father is better" game for all the wrong reasons. "I want to lord it over you that I'm one of Abraham's descendants and you're not. So it doesn't matter if you're Roman and you've got armies and wealth. Come the end of the day, I've got Abraham and you're in trouble and I'm not." That was the mentality they had. But Abraham was justified by his faith, not his flesh. Instead, his faith is counted to him as righteousness while he was uncircumcised. So Paul's basically saying, you know what, Abraham becomes righteous, gets counted righteous in a sense, while he's un-Jewish. He's not circumcised yet.
35 · Uses John 8 to show Jesus challenging Jewish claims to be Abraham's children—they are children by flesh but not by faith
Now the Jews are just consumed with this heritage of the flesh. And they're so consumed with it that it prevents them from having faith in Jesus. In John chapter 8, we hear the story of a group of Jews in an argument with Jesus, going back and forth between each other. Remember what the Jews say in that text, going back and forth? Hey, hold on, hold on! Abraham is our father! Oh yeah, Jesus? My dad's Abraham. That's what's going on to Jesus, right? He's got a little bit of a trump card when it comes to whose daddy, right? Our father's Abraham. And Jesus said to them, if you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. That's scandalous stuff. What do you mean, do the deeds of Abraham? I'm one of Abraham's children, and I got circumcised on the 8th day to prove it. I know I'm one, I've done the deed. He's saying, no, you Jews according to the flesh, if you were Abraham's children, you'd do the deed of Abraham. You'd believe in me. In other words, if you're Abraham's children, believe like he did. You want to be counted and connected to the blessings that God promised to Abraham, then you need to have faith like Abraham did. He's your father by faith, not by the flesh. You need to, as Paul says in Romans 4, walk in the footsteps of faith. That's a beautiful phrase.
36 · Asserts the unified message of Scripture—salvation has always been by faith, in both Old and New Testaments
The way of salvation has never changed.
37 · Illustrates the error of thinking salvation works differently in the Old Testament by recounting a pastor who taught that Christians shouldn't read the Old Testament—a view Paul's argument in Galatians refutes
I knew a guy in Minnesota who was very well-meaning, very earnest, was in the process of becoming a pastor, desired to teach, and he had studied, he had learned, he had fallen in line with this theology that taught that, you know, there's different modes of salvation in different parts of Scripture. So you read the Old Testament and things are different. Than they are in the New Testament. And so he took that then, and he would teach this in his church, that— and he was taught this by another pastor, a guy who was on the radio actually— you know, if you're a Christian, you shouldn't ever read the Old Testament, and you shouldn't ever read the Gospels. Those are for Jewish people. You only read Acts and the epistles. You only read the rest of the New Testament. Now that kind of seems out of whack, doesn't it? Kind of sounds weird. I don't do that, right? But we can have a less articulated version of that philosophy in our heads if we think that there's a way God saved people in the Old Testament that's different from the way he saves people now.
38 · Asserts that Scripture is unified and non-contradictory—salvation by faith is the consistent message of both testaments
One thing we learned from Paul in this text is that it is completely wrongheaded to pit the Old Testament against the New Testament. Paul goes to the Old Testament to establish it's always been this way. Galatians 3 and Romans 4 are emphatic. Abraham is justified by faith. Paul upholds strongly the concurrence of Scripture. It holds together. It's not contradictory. And therefore salvation has always and will always be by faith alone.
39 · Traces the progressive revelation of the gospel through Old Testament figures—Adam, Abraham, David, the prophets—showing that each had faith in God's promise, with the content of that faith growing clearer as God revealed more of the plan of salvation
So Abraham and Sarah and Joseph and Ruth and David and Josiah and Daniel and on down the line were all saved, not by works of the law, but by faith in the promise. Now, the Old Testament saints looked forward. They looked forward to the promise being fulfilled. And as God revealed more of the plan of salvation, the content of that faith took greater shape. For Abraham, it was faith that God would bring— for Adam, it was faith that God would bring someone, some descendant, to crush the serpent. For Abraham, it's faith that land and blessing would come to his descendants, a man who's left everything behind. For David, it's faith that Yahweh, the covenant God, would raise up one of his descendants to rule as the perfect king. For the prophets, it's that the Messiah wouldn't just rule, but that he would regather the scattered people of God. He would inaugurate salvation. For all the Old Testament saints, those who believed like Abraham, the sacrificial system revealed the need for atonement to achieve forgiveness, and they lived in faith that God wouldn't count their sins against them. For some reason, God was letting them kill bulls and goats and forgiving them for sins against Him.
40 · Contrasts New Testament faith, which looks backward to Christ's finished work and forward to the consummation of all promises, while maintaining the same structure of saving faith—trust in God's promise
For New Testament Saints, faith looks backwards. It looks to Christ crucified, raised, and enthroned. We see the atonement and the sacrifice of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice of an insufficient Old Testament Levitical system. We see every promise in the Old Testament in light of the revelation of Jesus as its perfect, glorious fulfillment. Every promise in the Bible is fulfilled in Jesus. And our faith also looks forward, faith that anticipates that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, there will be a day when the promises will reign in all their fullness and the curse will be totally eradicated.
41 · Exposits Galatians 3:8's claim that Scripture preached the gospel to Abraham, establishing the reciprocal relationship between Scripture and gospel—Scripture reveals the gospel, and the gospel is the interpretive key to Scripture
This concurrence in the message of the Old Testament and the New Testament is why Paul can make the incredible statement he makes in verse 8. Read verse 8 with me. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Don't tell me the Old Testament has a different message, that it has a different gospel, that the Old Testament was A covenant of works. The New Testament is now a covenant of grace. Now, the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham. The Scripture preached the gospel to Abraham. Now, that's an interesting statement. Without the Scriptures, it's saying you can never understand the gospel. You'll never fully grasp what it is. The Scripture is the means by which the gospel is fully revealed to people. It was that way with Abraham, it is with us now. The Scripture always preached the Gospel. The Old Testament was never preaching a different message. It was one unified message awaiting the further revelation of the New Testament, but still the same message. But the other side is also true. The Gospel is the key to the Scriptures. If you don't understand the Gospel correctly, correctly, you are missing the entire point. This is what we observe in many of Jesus' interactions with the Jews, right? He interacts with these people who have studied and been consumed by the scriptures. They are Abraham's physical descendants, but their misunderstanding of the gospel left them looking the Messiah in the face, and instead of worshiping him, they will crucify him. John 5:39, Jesus says, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me." The scripture has always carried the gospel story. The New Testament shows it in laser-sharp focus. Some of it isn't quite as clear in the Old Testament. But it's always shared the gospel story. But if you don't understand the nature of the gospel, you can read the Bible till you're blue in the face and it will do you no good.
42 · Transitions to the third main point—that Abraham's blessings go to all nations through faith, not just ethnic Israel
So Abraham is the father of blessing through faith, but by faith Abraham's blessings don't just extend to the Jewish people they extend to the nations.
43 · Exposits Galatians 3:8-9, showing that the promise that 'all nations will be blessed' through Abraham is fulfilled in those who have faith, regardless of ethnicity—Abraham's spiritual descendants are as numerous as the stars
By faith, Abraham's blessings go out to all the nations. In verses 8 and 9, we see, 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. Abraham begets because he believes. That makes sense both in the literal sense of Isaac— he receives the child of promise because he believes in the God who promised him— and in the broader sense, he will have descendants as numerous as the stars because he believes. I like the stars, and he could say that that's true because They're not going to be fleshly descendants. They're going to come from the example of faith. Verse 9: So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. That's pretty massive. Paul's saying everyone who believes, regardless of ethnicity, is blessed with the believing Abraham. God's promise of blessing to Abraham is now experienced by Christians who have faith, Christians who have no connection genetically to Abraham.
44 · Makes the bold theological claim that the church is the true Israel—uncircumcised Gentile believers who have faith in Christ are the inheritors of Abraham's covenant blessings, replacing ethnic Israel as the people of God
The blessing of Abraham isn't just material blessing, it's salvation itself. The inheritance of Abraham's children is the faith they possess in Christ. Paul says to be a son of Abraham, all you need to have is the same faith that Abraham had. All Christians who have faith in Christ are children of Israel. They're true Israelites, which is a strange thing to say about a bunch of uncircumcised Gentiles, right? This is the true Israel. It's not inappropriate to say the church is the true Israel. That doesn't mean there's not some still-to-be-fulfilled eschatological hope for ethnic Israel that will be poured out. But it is to say the church has replaced Israel as the people of God, the inheritors of covenant blessing.
45 · Quotes Romans 2:28-29 (note: the preacher misspoke and said Romans 8:28) to support the claim that true Jewishness is inward and spiritual, not outward and physical
Romans 8:28: For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart.
46 · Signals the sermon's turn toward application, framing the concluding question—what kind of faith makes one Abraham's child?
Here's a question as we conclude. We've established pretty well so far, right, that it's faith that's the key that's gonna tie you to Abraham. It's not, not the flesh. Abraham receives righteousness, is reckoned to him because of his faith. That, that's what's gonna tie you into the people of God that stretches across all ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries. But what kind of faith is Paul describing?
47 · Applies the sermon by confronting cheap, decision-based faith and warning against unconverted belief—faith that is merely intellectual assent without true conversion
The faith that he's describing here isn't the kind of faith that we find in a lot of popular Christianity. This isn't the "I prayed a prayer once upon a time" kind of faith. Abraham's faith, it's not even just a simple conviction of truth. Much of decision-driven Christianity, you know, I prayed a prayer, I made a decision to follow Jesus, it devolves into this sort of thinking. I'm saved because on day X and year X I, quote, put my faith in Jesus. Now I've gone on. Which really just means, "I accepted on day X and year X that the message of the gospel was true." It's the kind of pseudo-faith that leads to churches filled with unconverted believers. Does that make sense? "Well, I believe, I believe it's true," and not converted. It's a serious thing. How do you share the gospel with an unconverted believer, someone who believes they are a Christian? Biblical faith goes much deeper.
48 · Steps out of the exposition to address the congregation directly about the pastoral stakes—there are people who think they are saved but are not, and understanding Abraham's faith helps discern true conversion
One of the things Paul is doing in Galatians is he's showing that there's groups of people who have the gospel wrong. They just got it wrong, and we gotta show them. And there's groups of people in Galatians where Paul is saying, "You think you get it and you don't. You think you're saved and you're not." How we understand the kind of faith Abraham had is important for this question.
49 · Defines the nature of Abraham's justifying faith—it was not mere intellectual assent but a life-shaping conviction and confidence in God's promises that became his hope and identity
Abraham's believing, his faith was justifying because when he heard God's promise, he embraced its truth with conviction. A conviction that changes the course of his life. Abraham's not merely saying, "I consent that God's promise bears truth." He's justified because God's faithfulness to the promise became the source of his hope and confidence. In other words, Abraham's life was shaped by his faith. It wasn't this thing in the background that happened years ago. Pull out his wallet, going into Egypt. There's my faith card. I got it stamped about 20-odd years ago. Got a faith card. I just kind of keep it in my back pocket, pull it out when I need it. It's not what it's talking about. It's not the biblical understanding. The believing had such a depth of confidence in God's promises that Abraham rested his entire hope upon the mercy of God.
50 · Explains Paul's hermeneutical method—Genesis 15:6 interprets Genesis 12:3, showing that the promise of blessing to the nations is grounded in justification by faith
Paul reverses the order of events to show us that Galatians 15:6, which we see in verse 6 of chapter 3 of Galatians— Genesis 15:6 is the hermeneutical lens through which we interpret Genesis 12:3, which we see in verse 8. So this idea that the nations are going to be blessed through Abraham has to be interpreted That promise comes first through the fact that he's counted righteous by faith.
51 · Uses Hebrews 11:8 to show that Abraham's obedience was an expression of faith, not the ground of his righteousness
Abraham's obedience in Genesis 12 was an obedience of faith, which is what we see in Hebrews. Hebrews 11:8 claims that by faith Abraham went into a land he didn't know. By faith he obeyed is what it literally says in that passage in Hebrews. The function of Genesis 15:6 is to explain the reason why Abraham was right with God in Genesis 12, not fundamentally because of obedience, but through a righteousness found in faith. And Hebrew hits these tones again and again and again. Hebrews is constantly bringing that to us, rightly interpreting Old Testament characters' obedience as evidence that they acted according to faith. It wasn't just this cheap thing they had in their back pocket because they believed one time at a DC Talk concert and raised their hands and prayed a prayer. Every once in a while when going gets really tough, "Oh yeah, I prayed that prayer, I'm good." No, it was an active, ongoing, believing. It continues, the free grace people go wrong in severing the connection between obedience and faith.
52 · Asserts that real faith produces obedience—obedience is the fruit of faith, not its ground
Real faith produces obedience. Faith is the basis of Abraham's obedience, and obedience is the expression of Abraham's faith. And so, like Abraham, our faith should produce that kind of fruit. So that's one thing we need to keep in mind when we think of what kind of faith was it. But in saying that, we've also got to guard against something else.
53 · Warns against the error of making faith itself a work—Abraham's faith was not his righteousness but the instrument by which he received Christ's righteousness
That's the tendency to make faith into its own form of work. You ever felt that or noticed that tendency within yourself? Paul isn't saying— this is something that's hard to get your mind around— he's not saying that Abraham's faith was his righteousness. Abraham's faith is not his righteousness. This construes faith in just another kind of work that makes us actually righteous before God. Well, yeah, God said he's righteous because he has faith, and that makes him righteous. No, faith is counted righteous. Faith is the instrument that causes the justification.
54 · Exposes the human tendency to turn faith into a work in which we boast, arguing that faith destroys boasting because it is a gift, not a meritorious act
This is what Paul can say. You can say that faith Destroys boasting in Romans 3. Well, if you're operating from the idea that faith is just another kind of work, and you would probably never say it that way, then you're gonna boast in faith. You're gonna be haughty towards those who don't believe, because in your mind, in the way your heart operates, faith has become a work. It's something you can rest your hat on. You can boast. Maybe you were just a little bit smarter than the other guy who didn't get it. No, no, you weren't. Faith is a gift. You can't boast in your faith as work because it isn't righteous. It's not a righteous act that gets credited to your account. You can see how just pernicious our inclination is to make works out of anything, right? Paul is pushing back against every fiber of human nature. I want to prove that I can make myself good enough in God's eyes. So even when you say I've got to believe, I'm going to make my believing something that I can say, "See, now I did it. I did this, so I'm right in your eyes." That makes faith a work. I'm earning favor now.
55 · Defines the nature of saving faith—it is not a righteousness itself but the instrument that unites us to Christ, the righteous one
Abraham's faith is counted as righteousness because what Abraham's faith does is it unites him to Christ, the righteous one. That's why he gets righteousness, because his faith is basically saying, I'm just clinging. I'm clinging to this. His faith is not a righteousness. Jesus' righteousness is acquired through the instrumentality of faith because he believes all the righteousness that isn't His gets put on top of him. The faith isn't like an extra righteousness that gets added on. It's not the equation that says, you know, through faith, I cling to my union with Christ and all the obedience that He got me. And then, you know, as I look at that equation, I also say, so there's all Jesus' obedience and then my faith. And that's why I'm good with God. That's not the equation of salvation. You see how that really sneakily creeps in there to make faith something that I rest in and I boast in? The equation is that through faith I have cast myself on the promise of my union with Christ, that by faith I put all my hope in the righteousness of Jesus. I recognize I come totally empty-handed. There's nothing I bring. This is totally receptive. Faith is just saying, "I believe that in Jesus, God can save me."
56 · Draws on Hebrews 11's description of Abraham's offering of Isaac to illustrate the nature of his faith—radical trust in God's promises even when circumstances seem to contradict them
There's no room in the Bible for boasting before God with the attitude, Well, I didn't do any of the other stuff. Jesus did all that, but I did figure it out to say yes to Him. As we'll see next week, even our believing was purchased for us on the cross. It was a gift of grace. I love Hebrews 11 and that description That chapter, the Hall of Faith. By faith Abraham obeyed. You know, it details the nature of Abraham's faith. It says, by faith, when he was tested, he offered up Isaac. So can you picture that? Dad's— he's taken his only son with Sarah, the son that God says, this is the only way you're getting all those blessings I promised you. So this little boy right here, and he climbs a mountain, and he ties him down on an altar, and he pulls out a knife. This isn't, you know, this isn't a metal knife. This is a stone flint knife, jagged. It's going to be painful for his son. And it says, by faith, when he was tested, he offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' But Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead. He clings continually. I don't know how. I don't understand what's happening. But I cling by faith to you, God, and the steadfastness you have to your promises.
57 · Applies Abraham's faith to the congregation's trials, urging them to cling to Christ when circumstances are unclear, trusting that all God's promises are yes in Him
And for us, what was a vague thing for Abraham is now in just razor-sharp focus. I don't know, I don't know how I'm going to fight the cancer. I don't know how I'm going to get the job. I don't know how I'm going to mend my marriage and make it healthy again. I don't know what I can do with my kids to help them see their need for Jesus. But I cling to Jesus. I cling to him, and I trust that in him and in the cross, every promise of God is yes for me. I haven't done anything for this, but I cling to Jesus. And more importantly, he clings to me.
58 · Closes the sermon in prayer, asking God to help the congregation see their blessings in Christ, to grant saving faith to those who do not believe, and to deepen the faith of believers, acknowledging that faith itself is a gift and that salvation is by grace alone through Christ alone
Would you bow your heads? Lord, I pray that just the sense from Your Word this morning of the enormity of Your blessings would be something we could see more clearly this week as we leave from here. Lord, that you would help us have a clearer sense of all the things that we can just be in a fog about, we can just take for granted— all the promises and blessings, all the aspects of our inheritance that are ours in Jesus. Would you help us to see all of those things And then would You just help us to believe? God, faith is Your gift. Salvation is by grace alone. You give the grace. It is through Christ alone. Even our believing is a gift that comes from Your hand. So Lord, for those here who have never believed, or they've consented in a cognitive way to the truth of the gospel, but they've never entrusted their future to Jesus, they've never walked in faith like Abraham, leaving everything they knew solely because Your Word said, Put your faith in me and I'll prove faithful. Holy Spirit, would you help those people? Would you cause them to be born again? Would you help them to see and believe? And Lord, for all those who you've already caused to be born again, who you've already saved, who your Spirit has already drawn to you, God, would you deepen our faith? We experience the back and forth of Abraham's life all over the place. Failures and faults and sins and weaknesses. We're constantly aware of our need to turn once again to you in faith and throw ourselves at your mercy and recognize It was only and always because of Jesus. And then, Lord, would you help that faith to bear fruit, that there would be life in our faith, that there would be love in our midst,