The Blessing of Abraham

Bill Connors

Dear Church: A Study of Galatians • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Galatians 3:6–14

Saving Faith

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B: Galatians 3:1-6

B: 6-14

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself. Thank the band and Alvin. Thank Joe for filling in for the past two weeks. Invite guests to parlor after service.We are hosting two events on back-to-back weekends for women:Aspire Women’s Conference, an evening full of laughter, learning, stories & music. This is the third year that we have hosted Shine. Aspire is next Friday, September 13, from 7 to 10 pm. You can get tickets in the church office, or online at aspirewomensevents.com. I also believe they will be available at the door. Flyers are available in the foyer on the Get Connected Table.The REAL Women’s Conference will be held the following weekend, September 20 and 21, from 6-9 on Friday night, and 8:15 to 3 on Saturday. This two-day conference is intended to encourage, inspire, and equip women to shift their focus from “Why is this happening?” to “I wonder what God is working through this?” You can get more information in at getrealwithgod.com, and cards are also available on the Get Connected Table.Tonight at 6:30 following our evening service in Miller Hall, Carol Smith will be sharing about her missions work in Russia at Adults on Mission.This Tuesday, September 10, the church offices will be closed for our staff calendaring retreat.Next Sunday night at 5:30 will be our bi-monthly business meeting here in the sanctuary. Members, please plan to be here next Sunday evening. One thing that we will be voting on will be whether to ordain Chuck Crisler as a deacon. VIDEO TESTIMONY.

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself. Thank the band. Invite guests to parlor after service.

The Aspire Women’s Conference that we hosted here on Friday was great, from what I heard. This coming weekend, there is another opportunity for ladies to engage with each other and grow together. The REAL Women’s Conference will be held September 20 and 21, from 6-9 on Friday night, and 8:15 to 3 on Saturday. This two-day conference is intended to encourage, inspire, and equip women to shift their focus from “Why is this happening?” to “I wonder what God is working through this?” You can get more information in at getrealwithgod.com, and cards are also available on the Get Connected Table.

I wanted to let everyone know that next Sunday night, September 22, during our evening service at 5:30, we will be ordaining Curtis Smith as a deacon. We voted on ordaining Curtis at the March business meeting. Any ordained men are welcome to come and be a part of Curtis’ examination at 4:00 that afternoon in Miller Hall.

Tonight at 5:30 will be our bi-monthly business meeting here in the sanctuary. Members, please plan to be here tonight. Last week, we watched the video testimony of Chuck and Rebecca Crisler. We will be voting on whether to ordain Chuck as a deacon tonight. We will also be voting on whether to ordain Wayne Whitlock as a deacon. VIDEO TESTIMONY.

Aspire Women’s Conference, an evening full of laughter, learning, stories & music. This is the third year that we have hosted Shine. Aspire is next Friday, September 13, from 7 to 10 pm. You can get tickets in the church office, or online at aspirewomensevents.com. I also believe they will be available at the door. Flyers are available in the foyer on the Get Connected Table.

The REAL Women’s Conference will be held the following weekend, September 20 and 21, from 6-9 on Friday night, and 8:15 to 3 on Saturday. This two-day conference is intended to encourage, inspire, and equip women to shift their focus from “Why is this happening?” to “I wonder what God is working through this?” You can get more information in at getrealwithgod.com, and cards are also available on the Get Connected Table.

This Tuesday, September 10, the church offices will be closed for our staff calendaring retreat.Next Sunday night at 5:30 will be our bi-monthly business meeting here in the sanctuary. Members, please plan to be here next Sunday evening. One thing that we will be voting on will be whether to ordain Chuck Crisler as a deacon. VIDEO TESTIMONY.

Opening

Last week, I ended with verse 6 of in order to finish the sentence as the CSB has it broken down, and verses 1 through 5 were, as I said last week, full of questions of us to ask of ourselves:

How were we saved?

How do we grow?

Is there meaning in suffering for our faith?

How is God working in your life?

This last question was one that I sort of left us hanging on. I hope that during this past week, you’ve had time to take some stock of your relationship with God as you reflected on these questions. When Paul asked the questions he asked in verses 1-5, he was building a case for faith over law or faith over flesh. That it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we are justified, saved, and grow: we cannot justify ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot spiritually grow ourselves.

This morning, we’re going to continue our series called “Dear Church,” by looking at the beginning of Paul’s argument from Scripture regarding the Galatian Situation: and the place that he chose to start his argument was the “father” of the nation of Israel: Abraham.

Let’s open our Bibles and stand in honor of the Word of the Lord (if you’re able) while we read our focal passage today, , verses 6-14 (reading 5 for sentence context):

Galatians 3:5–14 CSB

5 So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness? 7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. 11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Pray

Just to recap, there were a group of Jewish people who claimed to be from the Christian church in Jerusalem who had come into Galatia sometime shortly after Paul and Barnabas went through and founded the Christian churches there. These people claimed that one needed Jesus PLUS obeying the Jewish law in order to be saved. They were called Judaizers.

Paul has been arguing against the message of the Judaizers through imagery from his own life, and then from rational question-asking, as I just mentioned. Now, he is going to take some of their own scriptural reasoning and use it against them. In this passage, Paul quotes the Old Testament 6 times. 6 times in 8 verses. Five of those quotes are from the Hebrew Book of the Law, the Torah, which we have as the first five books of our Bibles: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And masterfully, Paul takes the life of Abraham and builds his argument against the Judaizers’ focus on both earning and working to keep our salvation. He opens up our focal passage with a quote from :

Galatians 3:6 CSB

6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?

Rather than assuming that everyone here knows who Abraham was, I’m going to give a quick synopsis of his life. We see the record of Abraham’s life in the book of Genesis, beginning sort of in chapter 11, but really picking up in chapter 12 (his name was Abram at the time… God changed it later).

When Abraham was 75, God called him out of a land called Ur, and told him to go to a land that God would show him. Abraham packed up himself, his wife Sarah (Sarai at the time), his nephew Lot, and all of their stuff, and set out at the command of the Lord:

genesis 12:1-4

Genesis 12:1–4 CSB

1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

The Lord promised to Abraham that he would become a great nation (meaning that he would have many generations of offspring), and that He would bless all the nations on earth through Abraham. Time passes and Abraham and Sarah still don’t have children. God reminds Abraham that the promise is still in effect, and Abraham asks how that is even possible, given that he is old and doesn’t have children. God makes the promise again in , and Abraham takes the promise on faith:

Genesis 15:5–6 CSB

5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

genesis 15:4-

Genesis 15:4–6 CSB

4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Abraham believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness. The Lord made a promise, and Abraham believed it.

Ultimately, Abraham does have a son with Sarah in their old age (Abraham was 100 at the time), named Isaac. God later tested Abraham by telling him to take Isaac and sacrifice him as an offering to God (2), and again, Abraham hears God and believes Him, getting all the way to the point of being moments away from actually sacrificing Isaac, before God intervenes and praises Abraham’s willing obedience. Isaac went on to have a son named Jacob, and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and the twelve tribes of Israel all descended from his sons.

So the Judaizers were claiming that believing in Jesus was great, but you needed to finish things up by following the law as well. Paul is arguing here in Galatians that we are justified only by faith, and not by keeping the law. They were kind of looking back to when the law was given to Moses in Exodus and the rest of the Torah.

Paul looked even further back (over 400 years further) to the patriarch of the entire nation: Father Abraham. In looking back even further, Paul begins to build his case that justification only comes, and has ever only come, through faith, and not by works.

It’s simple: Abraham believed God, and it was “credited to him as righteousness.”

What does this mean: “it was credited to him as righteousness?”

My message today is entitled “The Blessing of Abraham” not because Abraham has blessed us (even though he has, just as God promised him), but because God blessed Abraham, and that same blessing is available to us from God. The blessing of being justified, declared righteous, through faith and faith alone. But this blessing only comes through and because of God’s grace.

1) God blesses His people by grace alone.

When God called Abraham out of Ur back in and promised to bless him, did He do so based upon how obedient Abraham was, or how powerful Abraham was, or how good-looking Abraham was? No. In fact, the calling had nothing to do with Abraham, other than that he was the target of the call and would be the recipient of the blessing.

If we were going to consider the historical context, it’s highly likely that when Abraham was called by God, Abraham was a pagan. He may have had many gods that he worshiped, because the Chaldeans, whom he lived around, did as well. The Lord said a lot about what He was going to do, but nothing about what Abraham had to do to receive it, other than leave Ur. Which makes sense, given the pagan culture. It wasn’t “I’ll bless you if you go.” It was “Go, so you’re where you can receive My blessing.”

See, God was the one making all of the promises. And He made these promises completely by His own grace: to make Abraham into a great nation, to bless him, to make him a blessing, to bless those who bless Abraham, and to curse those who mistreat him, and to bless all the peoples on earth through him. God’s making all the promises. And He’s making these promises simply by His grace. It’s just because He wants to make them.

In one of my favorite Old Testament passages, God ratifies His covenant with Abraham. This is just after what we read a moment ago in . In those times, people would ratify agreements by making a sacrifice: they would cut the animal in half, lay the two halves on either side, and then walk between the halves together. God has Abraham get five animals, and cut them in half, as if He and Abraham are going to go through them together. But Abraham falls asleep, and while he’s asleep, God makes a covenant with Himself to bless Abraham:

Genesis 15:17–18 CSB

17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River:

genesis 15:17

God made this promise to Himself to bless Abraham. Abraham wasn’t even awake for it. It was completely by God’s grace that Abraham was blessed.

But what does that have to do with us? Everything!

How was Abraham declared to be righteous, or justified? Paul wrote in , quoting from :

Galatians 3:6 CSB

6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?

God had promised to make Abraham into a great nation, and to bless the world through him, but he didn’t even have any children! So Abraham just believed it. Righteousness was “credited” to him on the basis of faith. Abraham had done nothing to earn, nothing to deserve God’s blessing. This is why righteousness had to be “credited to him...” Because Abraham couldn’t have deserved it or earned it. God spoke, Abraham believed. That was it.

Tim Keller makes a great point in his commentary on Galatians:

Paul expands on this in , which has a lot of similarity to our focal passage today. More than one commentator actually said that is the best commentary on .

Notice that it does not say that Abraham believed in God (though he certainly did!). Believing in God is not saving faith ( says that even “the demons believe”). Rather, he had to believe and trust what God actually said in His promise to save. You can’t believe God without believing in God, but you can believe in God without believing God! Saving faith is different from generic general faith in the existence of God, or even in the doctrines and teachings of the Bible in general.

Romans 4:1-

Romans 4:1–5 CSB

1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

And now, God through Paul gives a wider meaning to the promise that He had made to Abraham all that time ago: he says that those who believe as Abraham did are Abraham’s descendants:

Galatians 3:7 CSB

7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons.

galatians 3:7

So the grace of God in the life of Abraham is now carried down to those who have faith like Abraham had. This is us! And because we believe God, then like Abraham, righteousness is credited to us, even though we neither deserve it nor earn it. It is simply by God’s grace, just like it was to Abraham. What a promise this is for us! But he’s not done...

Tim Keller makes a great point in his commentary on Galatians:

Paul continues:

Galatians 3:8–9 CSB

8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.

Galatians 3:8 CSB

8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you.

Way back in Abraham’s day, the Good News of God’s incredible work of salvation was present: that God would extend the hope of salvation to all people, including the Gentiles (all the nations). Those who believed that good news would then be declared righteous, just as Abraham was: they would receive that same blessing.

Way back in Abraham’s day, the Good News of God’s incredible work of salvation was present: that God would extend that good news to all people, including the Gentiles (all the nations). Those who believed that good news would then be declared righteous, just as Abraham was.

Jesus even alluded to this idea in :

John 8:56 CSB

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

Abraham looked forward to the Messiah who was to come, and he believed. We look back on the Messiah who came and believe.

Jesus is not God’s plan B. He isn’t the backup. No, Jesus, God’s Son, was always going to be the sacrifice for our sins: He came and lived that perfect life that we couldn’t live, and died as a sacrifice in our place, so that God’s punishment for our sins would be poured out on Him. When we believe—when we trust in that work of Jesus—for the forgiveness of our sins, we are saved, and we are given a right standing before God… we are justified. And Jesus defeated death, rising from the grave, so that if we have trusted in His work on the cross, then we also receive the blessing of His work of defeating death, and we will live forever with Him.

So in God’s grace, He determined that He would bless Abraham, and consequently, He would bless all those who follow in Abraham’s footsteps of faith: believing—staking our eternity on the fact that it is God who justifies us and makes us right in His eyes. This justification is the blessing of Abraham. But just as the blessing is given only through grace, that blessing is received only through faith:

gal 3:10-

Tim Keller makes a great point in his commentary on Galatians:

Galatians 3:10 CSB

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.

When Paul here writes that those who “rely on the works of the law,” he’s saying that those who trust in personal performance for their happiness, security, and fulfillment. Basically, what we rely on is the bottom line of our lives—it’s what gives us meaning, confidence, and definition.

Therefore, when we rely upon the works of the law, thinking that our salvation is something that we earn or deserve or keep receiving because of our good works, we are not trusting in the blood of Christ to save us. And as a result, we place ourselves under a curse, because

2) God’s people receive His blessing through faith alone.

The problem with the Judaizers was that they were trying to convince the Galatians that there was more to being justified than just believing. Paul has to this point established that those who believe are Abraham’s spiritual children. Now, Paul shifts over to using this truth to refute the claim of the Judaizers:

So Paul has established that those who believe are Abraham’s spiritual children. Now, Paul shifts over to using this truth to refute the claim of the Judaizers:

Galatians 3:10 CSB

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.

Therefore, if we rely upon the works of the law, thinking that our right standing before is something that we earn or deserve or keep receiving because of our good works, we are not trusting in the blood of Christ, but something else.

And as a result, we place ourselves under a curse, because if the bottom line of our lives is built upon the works of the law for our justification, then it’s kind of an all-or-nothing deal. Either we have do absolutely everything it says for us to do, or we cannot be justified. If we cannot be justified (we cannot do everything written in the book of the law), then the only alternative is that we are cursed, because we cannot do everything written in the book of the law.

If we cannot be justified (we cannot do everything written in the book of the law), then the only alternative is that we are cursed, because we cannot do everything written in the book of the law.

Now,

The tension here is between salvation and justification. Can we be saved, yet seek to remain justified by works? Yes, as I talked about last week. We can try to work to receive something that’s already been given, already been made firm. Working to receive something that we already have is a type of curse.

But there is also the terrifying issue with salvation as well: if we think that we will somehow earn God’s righteous judgment on our lives, rather than trusting in the only work that saves—the work of Christ on the cross—then we truly will be cursed, because we will have missed it completely:

Galatians 3:11 CSB

11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.

Even in the Old Testament, it is clear that no one can be justified, or made righteous, by the law. Here, Paul quotes .

The tension here is between salvation and justification. Can we be saved, yet seek to remain justified (declared to be righteous) by works? Yes, as I talked about last week. We can try to work to receive something that’s already been given, already been made firm. Working to receive something that we already have is a type of curse.

But there is also the terrifying issue with our ultimate salvation as well: if we think that we will somehow earn God’s righteous judgment on our lives, rather than trusting in the only work that saves—the work of Christ on the cross—then we truly will be cursed, because we will have missed it completely. No one will be able to stand righteous before God on the basis of works. Only by faith.

Those who are saved are saved only through faith. It has always been this way. We will see more in the next few weeks about this, but for now, this is about trusting what God has done on the cross of Christ.

Tim Keller makes a great point in his commentary on Galatians:

The blessing of justification that Abraham received, he received only because he believed that what God had said was true, not that he had do do a bunch of stuff to get it. The Judaizers in Galatia had tried to convince them that they had to earn it, and it seems that part of that particularly was that they (the men) had to be circumcised. I’m going to have to address this briefly this morning.

Circumcision: the removal of the foreskin from the male genitalia, was (and is) a major part of a Hebrew man’s identity. It was a sign of the covenant given by God to Abraham back in . Circumcision is permanent: the male who is circumcised has a permanent, visible reminder of the covenant that God had made with him. Since this was so important for the Hebrews’ identity, the Judaizers felt that it was crucial for salvation as well. It was a part of keeping the law.

But Paul argued that Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, not because he was circumcised:

Romans 4:9–13 CSB

9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. 10 In what way then was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised. 13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

romans 4:9-

Now, does the fact that Abraham obeyed and became circumcised mean that he was trusting in a work to be justified? No! The faith that justifies will present itself in obedience to the commands of God: Not as a means to being saved, or a means of keeping our salvation, but out of a loving, grateful desire to delight the God who has saved us.

Abraham was justified by his faith in the promise of God before his circumcision, before he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. We also are justified by faith in the promise of God, and only by faith in the promise of God.

Galatians 3:12 CSB

12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them.

The problem is that if we think that we have to earn it, we never will know if we’ve earned it enough. This can create some major roadblocks in our walk with God and with others. We might see God as this task-master tyrant, who just imposes His strict will on us instead of guiding us in what is best. We might fall into the trap of comparison to others: am I better than them? Are they better than me?

If we think we’re justified by working, then we might start to think that there is some litmus test, some level that we have to attain: those who reach it are saved. Those just below the line are not. If we’re better than the next guy, we’re okay. But how do we know? Are we comparing to the right “next guy?” How do we manage the line? This creates self-doubt and insecurity, which pushes us to do more and more and more… it’s a trap.

How do we know that we’ve made it?

MORE HERE.

Galatians 3:13 CSB

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

We’ve “made it” by God’s grace through the redemption that is offered in Christ. He didn’t just take the curse, He became the curse. He embodied all that we should have received. He redeemed us: bought us out of slavery.

This quote is from . Those who were to be cut off from the people of Israel in the OT were generally stoned to death. Then their bodies would be put on a post as a testimony against them. It was not that the man was cursed because he was hung on the post, but rather, he was hung on the post as a sign of his curse. Paul draws the connection to Christ, whose execution was on a cross-tree to show that He experienced the curse of divine rejection. There, He freed us (“redeemed us”) from the curse of the law by taking it for us.

It was not that the man was cursed because he was hung, but rather, he was hung as a sign of his curse. Paul draws the connection to Christ, whose execution was on a cross-tree to show that He experienced the curse of divine rejection. There, He freed us (“redeemed us”) from the curse of the law by taking it for us.

Galatians 3:14 CSB

14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Tim Keller makes a great point in his commentary on Galatians:

Jesus died and became the curse that we should have become, so that the blessing of Abraham: justification by faith, could be given to us by grace. And by faith, we receive that blessing, along with God’s very presence in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until Christ’s return. We don’t have to worry if we’ve made it. God has given us His very self as a guarantee that He has made the way for us, if we have received Him by faith.

Closing

God blesses His people only by His grace.

We receive that blessing only through faith.

We can’t earn it.

If you’re trying to earn your salvation, thinking that you can somehow get your life right and then God will accept you, know that that’s not true: you cannot earn what can only be received as a gift of grace. Trust the finished work of God in the cross of Jesus, and surrender your life to Him in faith.

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