GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GALATIANS 3:6-9
Click to listen to this devotion.
6 Consider Abraham. “He believed God, and that was credited to his account as righteousness.” 7 So you know that the true descendants of Abraham are descendants by faith. 8 And the Scripture foresaw this truth, that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preaching the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “Through you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Who are the true descendants of Abraham? Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees, “If you were Abraham’s descendants, then you would do the things Abraham did” (John 8:38). And what is it that Abraham did? The Scribes and Pharisees knew full well that Abraham had nothing to do with the Law of Moses, since Moses wasn’t born yet when Abraham lived.
Some readers may struggle with Old Testament chronology, but five hundred years separate Abraham and Moses. It’s the same gap that lies between Luther and us today. In fact, if you take the year when Luther was born (1483 AD) and change the “AD” to “BC,” that would be a year in the life of Moses (although not the year he was born). It’s the same way with Abraham and you. If you take the year when you were born and change the “AD” to “BC,” it would be a year in the life of Abraham. So the interval of about five hundred years that separates you and Luther is about the same interval that separated old Abraham and young Moses.
So all of the laws that Moses was given were given five hundred years after the time of Abraham, and yet Abraham was justified before God. “Oh,” someone might say, “what about circumcision? Isn’t that what the Judaizers were really concerned about? Wasn’t Abraham circumcised?” That can’t be denied, but even circumcision came after Abraham was declared righteous by faith, and not before. Circumcision did not come until Abraham was ninety-nine years old, when God commanded that it be done to everyone in Abraham’s household (Genesis 17:10) and this was done just as God commanded (Genesis 17:27). But Abraham was declared righteous on account of his faith long before this, sometime after he was 75 (when he arrived in Canaan) and before he was 85 (when Hagar became pregnant with Ishmael).
And more than this, Paul goes on to say, the Scripture foresaw all of this, and that this is how the Gentiles would be saved: by faith, not by works, just as Abraham was saved by faith and not by his works. For Scripture said long before any of this happened, even before Abraham came down into the land of Canaan, that this is how “all peoples on earth would be blessed” through him (Genesis 12:3). This blessing would be the coming of the Savior through Abraham’s line, and through faith in that same Savior just as Abraham had faith in him.
Therefore, everyone who has faith in Christ is the true descendant of Abraham, whether they are Gentile or Jew; whether they were taught the gospel as little children or not until long after in their adult life. Faith comes by hearing the message, and by faith people are saved; faith in Christ our Lord.
Martin Luther was careful about the language he used to explain the words of Moses, “Is was reckoned to him as righteousness.” I translated this sentence in the text today as: “It (that is, his faith) was credited to his account as righteousness.” For this is what Moses means, it is what Paul means, and most importantly of all, it is exactly what the Holy Spirit means. There are two things that make Christian righteousness perfect. The first is faith that is set into our hearts. This faith is given to us by God, a divinely given jewel for each one of us, set into our hearts by God that believes in Christ. The second thing is that God reckons, that is, he credits it to our account, that this imperfect faith of ours (imperfect because we are imperfect and sinful, not because the gift is flawed in any way) is perfect righteousness for the sake of Christ.
The Bible does not use the picture of the modern wedding, which always has a public declaration and usually has a ring, but we could use this as an illustration since it fits the Scriptural parts. The bride’s ring, especially her engagement ring, is usually a gemstone. Such stones might be very expensive or they might be quite humble, yet the stones, whether large or small, are not flawed. So it is with our faith. And after the gemstone is given, the ceremony follows, which is the public declaration of the marriage. And so this is something like our faith: a jewel which God gives, which is faith, and the formal declaration made by God in his own court of heavenly justice, in which he credits our faith as righteousness. He gives it, and he credits it. There is no human effort involved at all.
We who are blessed by God with this righteousness are blessed because of the gift of God. We remain sinners, but we are righteous in God’s sight on account of Christ. When Luther made this point, he said, “A Christian man is righteous and a sinner at the same time.” The Christian is a child of God even as he is an enemy of God. We easily see this in every example Scripture gives. Adam fell, but what forgiven. Noah sinned, Abraham sinned, Jacob sinned, Moses sinned, and on and on. But these sinners, who were sinners until they died, were also forgiven and righteous before God. So it is with Peter, with John, with Paul, and with me. Sinners who are at the same time saints. Why else does God give us the Lord’s Supper for a sacrament when he has already given us baptism? Isn’t baptism enough? Of course it is. Baptism covers over the guilt of all sin for a person’s whole life: the sin he is born with, the sin he committed in his heart during the act of being baptized, and for every other sin he commits from that moment until the moment he breathes his last breath on this earth. And yet, forgiven as he is, the believer remains a sinner, and keeps on sinning, and begs to run back to Christ for forgiveness. And so the Lord also gives and gives and gives his body and blood to us in the sacrament to assure and to reassure. He says: “Your sins are forgiven. You are at peace with God.” This, too, sustains our faith, and reinforces the gift he has already given. It’s like the strong setting that holds the gem in place. That righteousness? It’s not going to budge. It’s not going anywhere. “It is the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” It stands in heaven on your account forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online.
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel:
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Galatians 3:6-9 Credited to your account