Galatians 3:6

The apostle having reproved the Galatians for not obeying the truth, and endeavoured to impress them with a sense of their folly herein, in these verses he largely proves the doctrine which he had reproved them for rejecting, namely, that of justification by faith without the works of the law. This he does several ways.

I. From the example of Abraham's justification. This argument the apostle uses, Rom. 4. Abraham believed God, and that was accounted to him for righteousness (Gal 3:6); that is, his faith fastened upon the word and promise of God, and upon his believing he was owned and accepted of God as a righteous man: as on this account he is represented as the father of the faithful, so the apostle would have us to know that those who are of faith are the children of Abraham (Gal 3:7), not according to the flesh, but according to the promise; and, consequently, that they are justified in the same way that he was. Abraham was justified by faith, and so are they. To confirm this, the apostle acquaints us that the promise made to Abraham (Gen 12:3), In thee shall all nations be blessed, had a reference hereunto, Gal 3:8. The scripture is said to foresee, because he that indited the scripture did foresee, that God would justify the heathen world in the way of faith; and therefore in Abraham, that is, in the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, not the Jews only, but the Gentiles also, should be blessed; not only blessed in the seed of Abraham, but blessed as Abraham was, being justified as he was. This the apostle calls preaching the gospel to Abraham; and thence infers (Gal 3:9) that those who are of faith, that is, true believers, of what nation soever they are, are blessed with faithful Abraham. They are blessed with Abraham the father of the faithful, by the promise made to him, and therefore by faith as he was. It was through faith in the promise of God that he was blessed, and it is only in the same way that others obtain this privilege.

II. He shows that we cannot be justified but by faith fastening on the gospel, because the law condemns us. If we put ourselves upon trial in that court, and stand to the sentence of it, we are certainly cast, and lost, and undone; for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, as many as depend upon the merit of their own works as their righteousness, as plead not guilty, and insist upon their own justification, the cause will certainly go against them; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them, Gal 3:10, and Deu 27:26. The condition of life, by the law, is perfect, personal, and perpetual, obedience; the language of it is, Do this and live; or, as Gal 3:12, The man that doeth them shall live in them: and for every failure herein the law denounces a curse. Unless our obedience be universal, continuing in all things that are written in the book of the law, and unless it be perpetual too (if in any instance at any time we fail and come short), we fall under the curse of the law. The curse is wrath revealed, and ruin threatened: it is a separation unto all evil, and this is in full force, power, and virtue, against all sinners, and therefore against all men; for all have sinned and become guilty before God: and if, as transgressors of the law, we are under the curse of it, it must be a vain thing to look for justification by it. But, though this is not to be expected from the law, yet the apostle afterwards acquaints us that there is a way open to our escaping this curse, and regaining the favour of God, namely, through faith in Christ, who (as he says, Gal 3:13) hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, etc. A strange method it was which Christ took to redeem us from the curse of the law; it was by his being himself made a curse for us. Being made sin for us, he was made a curse for us; not separated from God, but laid for the present under that infamous token of the divine displeasure upon which the law of Moses had put a particular brand, Deu 21:23. The design of this was that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ - that all who believed on Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, might become heirs of Abraham's blessing, and particularly of that great promise of the Spirit, which was peculiarly reserved for the times of the gospel. Hence it appeared that it was not by putting themselves under the law, but by faith in Christ, that they become the people of God and heirs of the promise. Here note, 1. The misery which as sinners we are sunk into - we are under the curse and condemnation of the law. 2. The love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ towards us - he has submitted to be made a curse for us, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. 3. The happy prospect which we now have through him, not only of escaping the curse, but of inheriting the blessing. And, 4. That it is only through faith in him that we can hope to obtain this favour.

III. To prove that justification is by faith, and not by the works of the law, the apostle alleges the express testimony of the Old Testament, Gal 3:11. The place referred to is Hab 2:4, where it is said, The just shall live by faith; it is again quoted, Rom 1:17, and Heb 10:38. The design of it is to show that those only are just or righteous who do truly live, who are freed from death and wrath, and restored into a state of life in the favour of God; and that it is only through faith that persons become righteous, and as such obtain this life and happiness - that they are accepted of God, and enabled to live to him now, and are entitled to an eternal life in the enjoyment of him hereafter. Hence the apostle says, It is evident that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Whatever he may be in the account of others, yet he is not so in the sight of God; for the law is not of faith - that says nothing concerning faith in the business of justification, nor does it give life to those who believe; but the language of it is, The man that doeth them shall live in them, as Lev 18:5. It requires perfect obedience as the condition of life, and therefore now can by no means be the rule of our justification. This argument of the apostle's may give us occasion to remark that justification by faith is no new doctrine, but what was established and taught in the church of God long before the times of the gospel. Yea, it is the only way wherein any sinners ever were, or can be, justified.

IV. To this purpose the apostle urges the stability of the covenant which God made with Abraham, which was not vacated nor disannulled by the giving of the law to Moses, Gal 3:15, etc. Faith had the precedence of the law, for Abraham was justified by faith. It was a promise that he built upon, and promises are the proper objects of faith. God entered into covenant with Abraham (Gal 3:8), and this covenant was firm and steady; even men's covenants are so, and therefore much more his. When a deed is executed, or articles of agreement are sealed, both parties are bound, and it is too late then to settle things otherwise; and therefore it is not to be supposed that by the subsequent law the covenant of God should be vacated. The original word diathēkē signifies both a covenant and a testament. Now the promise made to Abraham was rather a testament than a covenant. When a testament has become of force by the death of the testator, it is not capable of being altered; and therefore, the promise that was given to Abraham being of the nature of a testament, it remains firm and unalterable. But, if it should be said that a grant or testament may be defeated for want of persons to claim the benefit of it (Gal 3:16), he shows that there is no danger of that in this case. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, but the covenant is made with Abraham and his seed. And he gives us a very surprising exposition of this. We should have thought it had been meant only of the people of the Jews. "Nay," says the apostle, "it is in the singular number, and points at a single person - that seed is Christ," So that the covenant is still in force; for Christ abideth for ever in his person, and in his spiritual seed, who are his by faith. And if it be objected that the law which was given by Moses did disannul this covenant, because that insisted so much upon works, and there was so little in it of faith or of the promised Messiah, he answers that the subsequent law could not disannul the previous covenant or promise (Gal 3:18): If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but, says he, God gave it to Abraham by promise, and therefore it would be inconsistent with his holiness, wisdom, and faithfulness, by any subsequent act to set aside the promise, and so alter the way of justification which he had thus established. If the inheritance was given to Abraham by promise, and thereby entailed upon his spiritual seed, we may be sure that God would not retract that promise; for he is not a man that he should repent.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The answer to the question in Gal 3:5 is here taken for granted, It was by the hearing of faith: following this up, he says, "Even as Abraham believed," &c. (Gen 15:4-6; Rom 4:3). God supplies unto you the Spirit as the result of faith, not works, just as Abraham obtained justification by faith, not by works (Gal 3:6, Gal 3:8, Gal 3:16; Gal 4:22, Gal 4:26, Gal 4:28). Where justification is, there the Spirit is, so that if the former comes by faith, the latter must also.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal_3:6

Even as Abraham believed God.

The faith of Abraham

I. A simple, child-like dependence on the naked word of God.

II. An acceptance of and trust in Gods promised Saviour.

III. A renouncing of his own works as meritorious.

IV. A faith that wrought by love, making him the friend of God.

V. One that overcame the world, leading him to seek a better country.

VI. One that evinced its reality by a self-denying obedience. (T. Robinson.)

I. Its object.

1. The promise of a seed, and consequently of a Saviour.

2. The faith of the gospel not simply Divine promise of salvation, but the specific offer of a Saviour.

II. Its ground.

1. Neither reason nor sense.

2. But the solemnly given, clearly stated, perfectly sufficient, wholly unsupported Word of God.

3. So the Christian rests on the offer of Christ (Joh_3:36).

III. Its acting.

1. Instantaneous.

2. Full-hearted (Rom_4:21).

IV. Its effect. It was counted to him for righteousness.

1. The nature of justification. Possessing no righteousness of his own, Abraham had the righteousness of another (not yet revealed) set to his account.

2. The time. The instant a soul believes, whether he is cognisant of it or not. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

I. It was faith in the personal revealed, covenant Jehovah; not merely in a word or sign, or in a prospect.

II. The bond of covenant. Faith on the one side, God dealing with a sinful creature as righteous on the other. The elements of that bond are--

1. Gracious acceptance.

2. Gracious revelation

3. Gracious reward of obedience. (W. Roberts, M. A.)

In Abraham the attitude of trustfulness was most marked. By faith he left home and kindred, and settled in a strange land; by faith he acted upon Gods promise of a race and an inheritance, although it seemed at variance with all human experience; by faith he offered up his only son, in whom alone that promise could be fulfilled (Act_7:2-5; Rom_4:16-22; Heb_11:8-12; Heb_11:17-19). Thus this one word faith sums up the lesson of his whole life. (Bp. Lightfoot.)

Abraham justified by faith

Powerful as is the effect of these words when we read them in their first untarnished freshness, they gain immensely in their original language, to which neither Greek nor German, much less Latin or English, can furnish any full equivalent. He supported himself, he built himself up, he reposed as a child in his mothers arms (such seems to be the force of the Hebrew) in the strength of God, in God whom he did not see, more than in the giant empires of earth, and the bright lights of heaven, or the charms of tribe and kindred, which were always before him. It was counted to him for righteousness. It was counted to him, and his history seals and ratifies the result. His faith transpires not in any outward profession, but precisely in that which far more nearly concerns him and every one of us, in his prayers, his actions, in the righteousness, uprightness, moral elevation of soul and spirit which sent him on his way straightforward, without turning to the right hand or to the left. (Dean Stanley.)

He was justified by faith when his faith was mighty in effect, when he trusted in God, when he believed the promises, when he expected a resurrection of the dead, when he was strong in faith, when he gave glory to God, when, against hope, lie believed in hope; and when all this passed into an act of a most glorious obedience, even denying his greatest desires, contradicting his most passionate affections, offering to God the best thing he had, and exposing to death his beloved Isaac at the command of God. By this faith he was justified, saith St. Paul; by these works, saith St. James, i.e., by this faith working this obedience. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Marks of a justifying faith

He that hath true justifying faith believes the power of God to be above the power of nature; the goodness of God above the merit and disposition of our persons; the bounty of God above the excellency of our works; the truth of God above the contradiction of our weak arguings and fears; the love of God above our cold experience and ineffectual reason; and the necessity of doing good works above the faint excuses and ignorant pretences of disputing sinners; but want of faith makes us generally wicked as we are, so often running to despair, so often baffled in our resolutions of a good life; but he whose faith makes him more than conqueror over these difficulties, to him shall Isaac be born even in his old age, the life of God shall be perfectly wrought in him; and by this faith, so operative, so strong, so lasting, so obedient; he shall be justified, and he shall be saved. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Faith accounted for righteousness

We call a childs imitation of copper-plate writing a copy, though every letter betrays a fault, and the whole effort, strictly speaking, more a caricature than a copy, but there is sincere intention in it, and therefore we account it a copy. In imputing faith for righteousness God acts by way of encouragement, and uses the most certain means by bringing us to righteousness at last. (E. W. Shalders, M. A.)

Trusting the promises

Last winter a man crossed the Mississippi on the ice, and, fearing it was too thin, began to crawl on his hands and knees in great terror; but when he gained the opposite shore, all worn out, another man drove past him gaily, sitting upon a sled loaded with pig-iron. That is just the way most Christians go up to the heavenly Canaan, trembling at every step lest the promises shall break under their feet, when really they are secure enough for us to hold our heads and sing with confidence as we march to the better land.

Abraham a witness to the doctrine of justification by faith

I. The text speaks of a gracious blessing. The blessing Abraham received was that his faith was accounted to him for righteousness. This is another term for justification. For the amplification of this part of the subject see Rom_4:1-8. Justification is a gracious blessing, for it includes--

1. The forgiveness of sins.

2. The being brought into the right relationship with Divine law. When a man has broken the Divine law, he is not justified--he feels himself condemned and excluded from the Divine favour. Could he be but once restored, and brought into harmony with that Divine law, he would be justified.

3. The being brought into a state of potential righteousness. While justification is not to be confounded with sanctification, it implies that sanctification will take place in the processes of spiritual recovery through which we shall pass. We are justified among other reasons because we shall be sanctified. How precious, then is this blessing!

II. The text states by whom this blessing is enjoyed. They which are of faith. This means--

1. Those who for salvation put no trust in any human work. They have no confidence in the flesh, in hereditary privileges, or national distinctions. (The Jews trusted in the fact that they were the natural descendants of Abraham.)

2. Those who through faith alone seek to obtain and retain spiritual life. Those who are not working that they may obtain the favour of God as a meritorious reward, but who are believing that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; and that the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

III. The apostle introduces a witness to these truths. To those who boasted that Abraham was their father, and who yet clung to the law for justification, the apostle declares that Abraham obtained the favour of God not as a worker but as a believer.

1. The object of Abrahams faith. He believed God. Bearing in mind the incidents of his life, this is abundantly clear that the Being in whom he trusted was the Almighty.

2. The subject of Abrahams faith.

3. The result of his faith.

Lessons:

1. There is no righteousness possible to us but through faith.

2. The inheritance of the gospel is a spiritual inheritance.

3. The Divine promise is the support of faith. (R. Nicholls.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Gal_3:6. Even as Abraham believed God.—Where justification is there the Spirit is, so that if the former comes by faith the latter must also.

Gal_3:8. Preached before the gospel unto Abraham.—Thus the gospel in its essential germ is older than the law, though the full development of the former is subsequent to the latter. The promise to Abraham was an anticipation of the gospel, not only as announcing the Messiah, but also as involving the doctrine of righteousness by faith.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gal_3:6-9

The Abrahamic Gospel—

I. Recognised the principle that righteousness is only by faith.—“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Gal_3:6). The promise to Abraham contained the germ of the gospel, and was the only gospel known to pre-Christian times. Though dimly apprehending its vast import, Abraham trusted in God’s Messianic promise, and his unfaltering faith, often severely tried, was in the judgment of the gracious God imputed to him as rectitude. “In this mode of salvation there was after all nothing new. The righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as Abraham. In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise as of fulfilment, faith is the root of religion; grace invites, righteousness waits upon the hearing of faith.”

II. Was universal in its spiritual provisions.—“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Gal_3:8). Twice is Abraham designated “the friend of God.” The Arabs still call him the friend. His image has impressed itself with singular force on the Oriental mind. He is the noblest figure of the Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in purity, and both in dignity of character. His religion exhibits a heroic strength and firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity, an elevation and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who boasted themselves his children was utterly opposed. Father of the Jewish race, Abraham was no Jew. He stands before us in the morning light of revelation a simple, noble, archaic type of man, true father of many nations. And his faith was the secret of the greatness which has commanded for him the reverence of four thousand years. His trust in God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the future of mankind (Findlay).

III. Shares its privilege and blessing with all who believe.—“They which are of faith, the same are the children of … are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal_3:7; Gal_3:9). With Abraham’s faith the Gentiles inherit his blessing. They were not simply blessed in him, through his faith which received and handed down the blessing, but blessed with him. Their righteousness rests on the same principle as his. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of faith, its springtime of promise and of hope. These morning hours passed away; and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of Mosaism, with its isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual drapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever growing more burdensome. Of all this the Church of Christ was to know nothing. It was called to enter into the labours of the legal centuries without the need of sharing their burdens. In the “Father of the Faithful” and the “Friend of God” Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find the warrant for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the natural children of Abraham unjustly strove to rob them (Findlay).

Lessons.—

1. The gospel has an honourable antiquity.

2. Righteousness is the practical side of true religion.

3. Faith is the way to righteousness.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Gal_3:6-9. Righteousness through Faith.

I. The divine method of blessing in past ages (Gal_3:6).

II. Modern believers are spiritual successors of the most eminent examples of faith in ancient times (Gal_3:7).

III. The unchanging gospel taught in Holy Scripture (Gal_3:8).

VI. Ensures the enjoyment of promised blessings (Gal_3:9).

Gal_3:6-7. Imitators of Abraham’s Faith.

I. We must have knowledge of the main and principal promise touching the blessing of God in Christ, and all other promises depending on the principal; and we must know the scope and tenor of them that we be not deceived.

II. We must with Abraham believe the truth and power of God in the accomplishment of the said promises, or in the working of our vocation, justification, sanctification, glorification.

III. We must by faith obey God in all things, shutting our eyes and suffering ourselves to be led blindfold, as it were, by the word of God. Thus did Abraham in all things, even in actions against nature. But this practice is rare among us. For there are three things which prevail among us—the love of worldly honour, the love of pleasure, and the love of riches; and where these bear sway there faith takes no place.—Perkins.

Gal_3:8-9. All Nations blessed in Abraham.—

1. The covenant of grace with Abraham extended not only to his carnal seed, but to all believers, even among the Gentiles.

2. The blessings promised to Abraham were not only temporal, but heavenly and spiritual: the temporal were often inculcated on the ancient Church, not as if they were all or the main blessings of the covenant, but as they were shadows of things heavenly.

3. The promise to Abraham contained the sum of the gospel—the glad tidings of all spiritual blessings, and that the Gentiles should have access, in the days of the gospel, to these blessings. The gospel is therefore no new doctrine, but the same in substance with that taught to Abraham and to the Church under the Old Testament.

4. Eminent privileges bestowed on particular persons do not exempt them from walking to heaven in the common pathway with others. Abraham, the father of believers, in whom all nations were blessed, enjoyed the blessing, not because of his own merit, but freely and by faith as well as others.—Fergusson.

The Abrahamic Gospel intended for All.

I. The nation of the Jews shall be called and converted to the participation of this blessing.—When and how, God knows; but it shall be done before the end of the world. If all nations be called, then the Jews.

II. That which was foretold to Abraham is verified in our eyes.—This nation and many other nations are at this day blessed in the seed of Abraham.

1. Give to God thanks and praise that we are born in these days.

2. We must amend and turn to God that we may now be partakers of the promised blessing.

3. We must bless all, do good to all, and hurt to none.

III. All men who are of Abraham’s faith shall be partakers of the same blessing with him.—God respects not the greatness of our faith so much as the truth of it.—Perkins.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

B. Doctrinal Exposition

Gal_3:6 to Gal_4:7.

1. Salvation is not to be attained by works of the law, but through faith alone

(Gal_3:6-18).

a. Demonstration from Scripture

(Gal_3:6-14.)

6Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.7Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children [sons] of 8Abraham. And [Moreover] the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify [or justifieth]11 the heathen [Gentiles] through faith, preached before the gospel [proclaimed beforehand the glad tidings]12unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.13 9So then they which be [who are] of faith are blessed with [together with the]14 faithful Abraham. 10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the [ora] curse: for it is written,15Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11But that no man is justified by the law [in the law no man is justified]16 in the sight of God, it is evident: for, 12The just shall live by faith. And [Now] 17 the law is not of faith: but, The man 13[He]18 that doeth [or has done] them shall live in them. Christ hath [omit hath]19 redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made [having become]20 a curse for us; for [as]21 it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14That the blessing of Abraham might come on [unto] 22 the Gentiles through [ἐν, in] Jesus Christ [Christ Jesus];23 that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Gal_3:6. Even as Abraham believed God.—This stands in immediate connection with the preceding, and gives the answer to the question in Gal_3:5, by an affirmation of the second part of it (for Paul views the gift of the Spirit previously mentioned as a proof of justification, and can therefore answer the question in Gal_3:5 with the statement in Gal_3:6). Through the preaching of faith God bestows the Spirit of faith, and thereby justifies, even as Abraham attained to justification in the same way. But in a much as Paul in going on still keeps Abraham in view, we may, and ought to begin here a new section. This verse does not contain a citation proper, but Paul gives what is contained in Gen_15:6 respecting Abraham, as his own immediate declaration. (Comp. Rom_4:3.) That accounted to him for righteousness is understood by Paul entirely in the sense of “being justified” needs no demonstration.24

Gal_3:7. Here, in the first place, he only draws from it the conclusion, that a man by faith becomes a son of Abraham. (Οἰ ἐκ πίστεως, “the spiritual character represented under the form of the causal relation,” those that are born of faith, have as it were their nature from it. Ewald explains it somewhat differently: those whose efforts and achievements proceed from faith, as the deepest, and at the same time highest power.) This conclusion of course rests on the presupposition that faith was an essential trait in Abraham’s character, and is directed against the Judaizers, who believe that they can prove themselves genuine children of Abraham by works of the law. [The older commentators took γινώσκετε as indicative; “ye know then;” modern ones generally consider it an imperative: Know ye therefore.—So Meyer, De Wette, Ellicott, Wordsworth, also Syriac, Vulgate. Ellicott: “The imperative is not only more animated, but more logically correct, for the declaration in the verse is really one of the points which the Apostle is laboring to prove.” He contends that ἄρα is most properly joined with the imperative. Alford and Lightfootadopt the other view, the latter suggesting that the verb means “to perceive” rather than “to know,” which makes the indicative more suitable. There is not necessarily any “argumentative irony” (Alford) here. On the whole the imperative seems preferable.—R.]

Paul has made reference to Abraham as the type of justifying faith; he does not, however, content himself with that, but, going deeper, he finds still more striking proof in the significance of Abraham as the bringer of blessing for all the heathen. He dwells the longer on the Old Testament because it was to this that the false teachers naturally appealed against Paul, and by their appeals to it imposed on the Galatians. So he on the other hand seeks to establish his doctrine from the Old Testament, simply by going more deeply into it. [Lightfoot: “The passage Gal_3:6-9 was omitted in Marcion’s recension of the Epistle, as repugnant to his leading principle of the antagonism between the Old and New Testaments.”—R.]

Gal_3:8. Moreover the Scripture foreseeing.—Δἑ is simply continuative. [Neither “and” nor “but” gives the precise force.—R.] What God has promised is ascribed to the Scripture itself, not simply because it is related in the Scripture, but because the Scripture, as inspired by God, is conceived as the organ of the Spirit of God. The same then is true of God’s foreknowledge, from which the promise proceeded. Yet Paul has not gained from some other source a knowledge of the fact that the Scripture foresaw, and in this foresight gave the promise (Wieseler), but he draws the conclusion as to the “foreseeing” simply from the promise itself: because it is promised, that “all nations shall be blessed in Abraham,” the “justifying of the Gentiles through faith” must also have been predetermined. Why, he then explains in what follows.—[Ellicott calls δικαιοῖ an ethical present, with significant reference to the eternal and immutable counsels of God. Alford: “Present, not merely because the time foreseen was regarded as present, not present as respected the time of writing, but because it was God’s one way of justification—He never justified in any other way—so that it is the normal present: ‘He is a God that justifieth’ through faith.”—R.] Paul cites as proof Gen_12:1-3; Gen_18:18. The chief emphasis lies upon “shall be blessed,” which is therefore placed first in the Greek; yet only so far as it is a “being blessed in Abraham.” The sense is: The blessing bestowed upon thee includes a blessing hereafter to come upon all the Gentiles (ἔθνη here of course in the pregnant sense=Gentiles). From this the conclusion is drawn in

Gal_3:9. So then they which be of faith.—“So then”= agreeably to the promise in Gal_3:8. Gal_3:9 is nothing else than an exposition of the promise cited in Gal_3:8. In Abraham, it was promised, all the heathen are to be blessed, a promise which has the sense indicated above. Now, he was the believing one, and it was (as follows from Gal_3:6) on account of his faith that he received the promise of blessing. Therefore it is, of course, believers that are partakers of the blessing promised to him, it is they who are his children, and it is to them therefore that the promise of blessing holds good.—Are blessed with [together with the] faithful Abraham.—In this sentence the ἐν is dropped, for the sense is: because the “being blessed in him,” is promised to all the heathen, therefore “they which be of faith” (the heathen, if they are “of faith”) are blessed with him, that is, primarily, in like manner as he; but still further: it expresses the sameness of the lot into which they entered with him, and through this one lot they entered into inner communion with him.—[The preposition shows their community with him in the blessing; the adjective “faithful” renders prominent that point of ethical character in which they must resemble each other, in order to partake of the same blessing. (So Meyer, Alford.)—R.] “Are blessed.”—As to the meaning of this, there is little occasion for dispute. If we look at the original passage, this is, of course, to be understood quite generally, as is implied in the idea of Blessing = Manifestation of Divine Favor. This again is more specially defined in different ways, and so here; so far as concerns the blessing received by Abraham himself: “together with the faithful Abraham,” the primary meaning is that he should obtain a posterity, and as concerns the blessing of the Gentiles in Abraham, the passage is justly regarded as a Messianic promise in the wider sense=the Gentiles shall have part in the salvation brought by the Messiah, in the salvation that proceeds from one who is Abraham’s offspring. The latter is the sense here. Which side of this Messianic salvation, however, Paul has in mind, is to be made out solely from the connection, most simply from what is put in opposition to it, namely, to be “under the curse,” and, to that again, the simple antithesis is “justified” (Gal_3:11). Paul of course views “blessed” and “justified” as essentially correlative, coincident ideas: and hence in Gal_3:8 the one, namely, “justified,” is inferred from the other, “blessed.” Only, as is easily understood, “blessed” still remains the more general idea; what kind of blessing is meant must be shown by the context. Somewhat more restricted, again, than “justification,” is “receiving the Spirit,” which, however, is not only connected with the “justification,” but is really the true “blessing,” on which account Paul, starting from “receiving the Spirit” in the beginning of this chapter, returns to it again in Gal_3:14.—The ground of the promise in Gal_3:8, and also of the statement expository of it in Gal_3:9, is given in Gal_3:10. A blessing to be bestowed upon the Gentiles in Abraham, and therefore one resting upon faith, is promised; such a one is, and only such a one can be, contemplated.

Gal_3:10. For as many as are of the works of the law, are under a curse.—The force of this is: it must be those “of faith” who are blessed; for those who busy themselves with “works of the law” (the only alternative possible, if not “of faith”) cannot be blessed; since these are under the curse, and therefore a bestowal of blessing cannot avail for them. [This negative argument (Gal_3:10; Gal_3:12,) strengthens the position taken in the preceding verses, and has an immediate application to the Galatian errors, to which however no allusion is made in this strictly argumentative passage.—R.] “Of the works of the law;” the form is the same as in the antithetical expression, “of faith,” but more fully stated.—Cursed is every one, etc.—Deut. 17:26, freely quoted from the LXX. The passage proves what it is cited to prove, viz., that “as many as are of the law are under the curse,” provided a non-continuance can be established. This shows that the reference here is to ethical requirements, and not merely to ritualistic ones; thus confirming the view of “works of the law,” given in chap. 2. At the same time the passage shows that the ground of “a man is not justified by the works of the law,” is that those who “are of the works of the law are under the curse;” the non-justification has then of course its ground, not in the externality of the law, for that would not of necessity involve a curse, but in our not keeping it.

Gal_3:11. But that in the law no man is justified, etc.—Those who are of the works of the law are under the curse. This includes not being justified, but only implicite. Paul now states it expressly, in order to support it by declarations of Scripture, as he previously did the positive side. The course of thought might, perhaps, be still more accurately defined as follows: Cursed, it has been declared, is every one that continueth not in all things; but, on the other hand, it might be said, such as entirely fulfil the law will be blest. But, remarks Paul, that is excluded by the tenor of the two Scripture passages about to be cited, for according to them man ζήσεται ἐκ πίστεως, but the law is in no wise ἐκ πίστεως, therefore no one is justified ἐν νόμῳ; the thought that “in the law” justification is possible, is to be entirely put aside.—In the sight of God.—Παρὰ θεῷ defines more particularly the idea of “justified,” and sets it in antithesis to any (justifying) human judgment. The proof that “in the law no man is justified,” Paul derives from two Scripture passages. According to the one (Hab_2:4) “to live,” results from “faith,” according to the other (Lev_18:5) the law does not take note of faith, but of doing; through doing, fulfilling the law, a man has life.—This, of course, has demonstrative force, for “no man is justified” only on the presupposition that this doing (in the second passage) remains only a requirement, and does not actually take place, and that it is with the knowledge of this state of things that the prophet represents faith as the condition of life.—The just shall live by faith.—אֱמוּנָה in the original has, rightly explained, not the signification “faithfulness,” but as Paul translates it, “Trust, Faith.” [The first is undoubtedly the primary meaning of the Hebrew word, but the other is implied in it. It is noteworthy that this passage is one of the two in the Old Testament, where the word “faith” is used in the E. V. See a very suggestive note in Lightfoot, p. 152.—R.]—יִחְיֶח he then naturally understands, agreeably to the New Testament knowledge of salvation, in the higher sense of the Messianic life, that which renders its consummation in eternal life. ̓Εκ πίστεως must be joined as in the original with ςήσεται, and not with ο ̔δίκαιος. Wieseler justly remarks: In proof of the connection ὁ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως, it is alleged that the origin of justification was to be shown, not that of salvation or life. It must not be forgotten, however, that according to the connection the emphasis does not rest upon δικαιοῦσθαι in itself, but upon the fact that this results ἐκ πίστεως; moreover that Paul is not here using his own words, in which case instead of ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται he would undoubtedly have chosen another term of expression, such as πίστεως δικαιοῦσθαι, but that he had to choose from the actually existing passages which treated of the central significance of faith. Whoever examines these more particularly will not be able to deny that the choice made is a happy one. For what does ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται signify, but that Faith is the fundamental condition through which a man becomes well-pleasing to God, and partaker of the gracious gift of life? In this formula, therefore, the δικαιοῦσθαι ἐκ πίστεως, or the statement that one is declared righteous or well-pleasing to God, in consequence of faith, is in truth included. Δίκαιος, on the other hand, signifies the righteous or devout man, and has here nothing more than an etymological connection with δικαιοῦσθαι. That ἐκ πίστεως is joined by Paul in the Galatians with ζήσεται, appears, moreover, from its antithesis, ζήσεται ἐν αὐτοῖς: “he will live through the commandments.” [It is difficult to decide this question of connection; either would be grammatical, both are sustained by high authorities. Winer, De Wette, Ewald, Ellicott agree with Wieseler; while Bengel, Pareus, Meyer, Alford, and very many others connect “by faith” with “the just.” The former conforms better with the Hebrew; the latter with the general course of Paul’s thoughts here and elsewhere. The former is safer, the latter more pointed, but from either the same truth would be deduced.—R.]

Gal_3:12. Now the law is not of faith.—[Δέ, logical, introducing the minor proposition: “The just shall live by faith.” “Now the law is not of faith” (so Meyer).—R.] “The law is not an institution whose nature is determined by faith.” Wieseler. [Lightfoot: ‘Faith is not the starting-point of the law. The law does not take faith as its fundamental principle. On the other hand, it rigidly enforces the performance of all its enactments.’—Has done them.—Actual and entire performance of all requirements. Doing, not believing—.R.]

Gal_3:13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.—“The asyndeton makes the contrast more energetic.”—Meyer. [ “Redeemed.” Wordsworth: “The aorist is important to be observed, as intimating that the Redemption was effected by one act, i. e., by the shedding of His blood, paid as the price of our ransom, when He became a curse for us by dying on the cross.”—R.] That Paul here proceeds to speak of the redemption from the curse, and therefore presupposes the latter as existing, is of easy explanation. In Gal_3:10 it had been declared that “as many as of the works of the law are under a curse;” and, on the other hand, it needed no demonstration that all those who had the “law,” and as yet nothing else, that is, the Jews, are “of the works of the law” and therefore “are under a curse.” “Us,” therefore, naturally refers primarily to the Jews, for these, who alone had the “law,” alone stood under the “curse of the law.” Comp. also, particularly, Gal_4:5 : “to redeem them that were under the law.” Wieseler also justly remarks, that particularly in the doctrinal exposition in the Galatians, Paul loves, from easily intelligible reasons, to include himself with the Jewish people, in the first person. Yet I would not be disposed wholly to reject the more general sense of ἡμᾶς. It is true, it was primarily only the Jews who stood under the curse of the law; but Paul here may be thinking not only of the actual, but also of the ideal or possible being under it; that is, through Christ the true way to justification by faith in Him is opened to all. it could not therefore be any longer demanded of the Gentiles (and they could not be tempted) to concern themselves with “the works of the law,” through which they also would have come under the curse of the law. Ἔθνη, Gal_3:14, need not be taken as the direct antithesis of this; doubtless it has the emphasis, and on this account stands first, but the ἔθνη may have been made particularly prominent, only because the fulfilment of the promise given in relation to them has become possible through the atoning death of Christ, and in the blessing of the Gentiles the reality and effect of the death of Christ is chiefly manifest. But that the effect of this extends of course to the Jews, also is added in the clause introduced by iva. In this clause at least Meyer, Wieseler, and others, understand the first person plural generally, of Jews and Gentiles. Meyer, limiting ἡμᾶς, Gal_3:13, to the Jews, understands the somewhat difficult connection of Gal_3:13-14 peculiarly, almost too artificially: as long as the curse of the law stood in force, and the Jews therefore were unredeemed, the Gentiles could not become partakers of that blessing; for it was involved in the preëminence which, according to the Divine plan of redemption was bestowed on the Jews, that salvation should proceed from them to the Gentiles. When therefore Christ through His atoning death freed the Jews from the curse of their law, God must necessarily have had the design therewith, of imparting to the Gentiles the promised justification, and that not in any such way as through the law, but in Christ Jesus, through whom already redemption from the curse of the law had been effected for the Jews. More simple, and more congruous also with the interpretation of ἡμᾶς in the general sense, is Usteri’s explanation: Christ has, by His vicarious death, redeemed us from the curse of the law, in order that (if now henceforth justification is attained through faith) the Gentiles may become partakers of the blessing of Abraham, as from now henceforth there is required for justification a condition possible for all, namely, Faith. The simplest and best exposition of “redeemed from the curse of the law” is Meyer’s: “The law is personified as a potentate, who had subjected those dependent upon him to his curse; but from this constraint of the curse, out of which they would not else have come, has Christ redeemed them, and that by His having procured for them, through His mors salisfactoria, the forgiveness of sins (Eph_1:7; Col_1:14; Rom_3:24 et al.), so that now the curse of the law had no more relation to them (objectively—to which must then be added—and nothing else can be added—‘faith,’ in order that this redemption may also be subjectively realized.)

Having become a curse for us.—The mode of the redemption is here expressed, namely, by His crucifixion, in which he was set forth as burdened with the Divine ὀργή. The emphasis therefore rests on the word κατάρα, which on this account is attracted to the end, and the use of which is immediately to be justified by a declaration of Scripture. The abstract instead of the concrete is chosen, in order to represent with more of vigorous precision the adequacy of the satisfaction which Christ has rendered (comp. the previous ἐκ κατάρας), and it stands without the article, because the thought is not, that Christ suffered the definite, just named curse of the law, to which the subjects of the law are exposed, but in a general sense, that He became an accursed one; it is meant to express not what curse he became, but that He became a curse (the that moreover appears from the following Scripture passage).—̔Ψπὲρ ἡμῶν : “ὑπέρ in all places where the discourse is of the atoning death not=instead of, but=in behalf of. The satisfaction, which Christ rendered, was rendered in our behalf: that it was vicarious is implied in the nature of the act itself, not in the preposition. The curse of the law would have had to be realized in that all who did not completely satisfy the law (and this no one could), would have been compelled to endure the execution of the Divine ὀργή against them; but for their deliverance from this sentence Christ with His death has intervened, inasmuch as He died as Accursed, whereby, as through a ransom, that damnatory relation of the law was dissolved.” See the Doctrinal Notes below.

As it is written, Cursed is every one, etc.—Scriptural justification of the declaration just made respecting Christ, “having become a curse:” from Deu_21:23, cited freely from the LXX. “The original passage has reference to persons stoned, and then far greater ignominy, publicly hung up on a (probably cruciform) stake, who, however, must not be left to hang over night, because such accursed ones would else have defiled the holy land. Deu_21:23; Num_25:4 : Jos_10:26-27; 2Sa_4:12. And in that Christ also when executed hung upon a stake, the epithet ἐπικατάρατος applies also to Him.” Meyer. [Wordsworth notes a remarkable conformity of the prophetical reference to Christ in the passage here cited. The body must be taken down, but “if He had been crucified on some ordinary day, not on the day before that High Day, the Jews would have been as eager that He should remain on the cross as they were then earnest that He should be taken down. Thus, in crucifying Him, and taking Him down from the cross, they proved unconsciously that He whom they crucified is the Messiah, and that it was He who, bearing the curse of the law, has taken away that curse from all who believe.”—R.] “Therefore, even if in the original passage crucifixion proper is not meant (which was not an ancient Israelitish punishment), yet that which particularly made both kinds of punishment a curse, the hanging and exposure on the wood was common to them. Ξύλον, used of the wood of the cross, undoubtedly on account of the עֵץ of the Old Testament passage, is found also Act_5:30; Act_10:39; Act_13:29; 1Pe_2:24.” Wieseler. [Ellicott: “It is interesting to notice that the dead body was not hanged by the neck, but by the hands, and not on a tree, but on a piece of wood.”—R.]

Gal_3:14. That unto the Gentiles might come.—Respecting the connection see above on Gal_3:13.—The blessing of Abraham= the blessing before announced to Abraham.—In Christ Jesus.—“In Christ (in His expiatory death) the bestowal of the blessing has its ground. The following διὰ τῆς πίστεως expresses the matter from the point of view of the subjective medium, while ἐν Χριστῷ sets forth the objective fact.” Meyer.—That we might receive the promise of the Spirit.—“Climatically parallel to the first clause of intention.” Meyer. The first, person, “that we might receive,” applies undoubtedly to Christians generally, Jews or Gentiles.—“Receive the promise of the Spirit”=to receive the promised Spirit. [Ellicott: “Not merely the promised Spirit, but the realization of the promise of the Spirit.” This is to be preferred.—R.] Is this to be taken as a nearer definition of the “blessing of Abraham?” It is not immediately identical with this as (see on Gal_3:9) the “blessing” (in itself quite general) in the connection means primarily the “justification.” However not only does the receiving of the Spirit stand in immediate connection, both of thought and fact, with the justification, but although in “the promise of the Spirit,” the primary reference is to such a promise as that in Joel 3 : [E. V.], yet this again stands, at least in the history of salvation, in connection with the promise given to Abraham in reference to the heathen, so that the two promises are combined on satisfactory grounds in this relation also. In any case Paul is looking back to the beginning of Gal_3:2. [Lightfoot: ‘The law, the greater barrier which excluded the Gentiles, is done away in Christ. By its removal the Gentiles are put on a level with the Jews; and thus united, they both gain access through the Spirit to the Father.’ Comp. Eph_2:14-18. Ellicott: “After a wondrous chain of arguments, expressed with equal force, brevity and profundity, the Apostle comes back to the subject of Gal_3:2; the gift of the Holy Ghost came through faith in Jesus Christ.”—R.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

1. Abraham’s justification on the ground of his faith (or rather the direct declaration of the Scripture respecting it), is adduced by Paul as an argument for Justification on the ground of Faith here, and particularly, as is known, in Romans 4. also. The faith in Christ must therefore be regarded by Paul as one in kind with that of Abraham. But it by no means follows from this, as Wieseler justly remarks, that Abraham himself already believed on the Messiah. “For in the Old Testament history of Abraham the idea of the Messiah is nowhere mentioned, often as there was occasion for it, but only the idea of a salvation and blessing coming from Abraham to all nations, the first traces of a universal kingdom of God, to which however the Divine Head is yet lacking. In the New Testament also the idea of the Messiah is nowhere attributed to Abraham. The passage Joh_8:5-6, hardly signifies any thing else than that Abraham, in the theophanies, etc., experienced by him, already beheld the preëxisting Christ.” Yet Paul, with entire justice, places the Christian faith in parallelism with that of Abraham; for the one, as well as the other, was essentially a trustful laying hold of a promise coming from Divine grace, as to which, moreover, Wieseler points out that with Abraham, the promised heir of his body came into view at the same time as the future bearer of the collective blessing promised to Abraham, and faith on the promise respecting Him was therefore faith also on the kingdom of God originating in his posterity. It by no means follows from this, that then the matter [inhalt] of the Christian and of the Abrahamic faith would be a different one, and that faith would justify on account of its subjective character, while yet it justifies only on account of its matter and object. In the promise given by Divine grace, the faith of the Christian, as of Abraham, has its common matter. For such a promise the Christian lays hold of in faith on Christ, as much as Abraham did in his faith. The real ground of justification in both cases is therefore the grace of God, which gives man something that he could not of himself attain to, and on natural conditions could not even expect, and faith is, as that which nevertheless confidently lays hold of this grace, only the conditio sine qua non.—It is very true, this grace of God itself has a different matter with Christians and with Abraham; with Christians its matter is essentially the reconciliation accomplished in Christ, and the forgiveness of sin implied therein, with Abraham it is what has just been mentioned—a distinction which is conditioned simply by the course of the economy of salvation, and which does not prejudice Paul’s parallelizing of the two; for Paul speaks here—comp. Gal_5:7-9—quite generally of πίστις, has in view, therefore what constitutes its generic nature.—Agreeably to this the definite matter of the δικαιοῦσθαι in the two cases is different, i.e., the generic unity is the becoming acceptable to God and accordingly being blessed by Him, and this community of character fully justifies this parallelizing also. But with Christians this general idea is still further defined as follows: to be delivered from the divine wrath incurred by their sins, and to become partakers of the forgiveness of sins. A distinction, to this extent at least, between the δικαιοῦσθαι of Abraham and that of Christians, must be conceded even by those who assume the Messiah to have been the object of faith in the case of Abraham also. For even on this assumption, it will not be alleged that “accounted to him for righteousness” in the case of Abraham has exactly the sense: his sins were forgiven him. This is not treated of in any way in this passage.—That this appeal to Abraham’s faith is in no respect an arbitrary laying hold of a single chance passage, that accords with the line of argument, is clear. For, allowing that this judgment respecting the faith of Abraham is found only here, yet confessedly faith in God’s gracious promise was that which specifically characterized Abraham, was precisely that which made him the child of God, nay, the Friend of God, and so of course acceptable to God. This would be irrefragably established by the history of his life, even if we had not this direct declaration. Gen_15:6.—With perfect justice therefore Paul can designate those who are “of faith” as Abraham’s sons. A strong, crushing expression against the Jewish national pride, corresponding to the words of John the Baptist, Mat_3:9, and of Jesus Himself, Joh_8:39—and yet not in conflict with the truth that according to the Divine purpose the Jewish nation as such, agreeably to its natural descent from Abraham, was the chosen nation. For this people itself, as a whole, was meant to be of the faith of its ancestor, in order to be a true people of God; and the Divine judgment made, we know, a perpetual distinction among the mass of the people between such as were “of faithful Abraham” =were his legitimate [i. e., spiritually legitimate.—R.] children, and such as were not.25

2. The Scripture is the exposition of a Divine plan of salvation, connected and of uniform tenor throughout, which has had its definite historical unfolding. In it therefore the earlier has respect, to the later, the first to the last; a word of God, belonging to the beginning, is already shaped in view of the consummation; to this is added, that the God who beholds at once the beginning and the end, ideally anticipates with direct words of promise the future development of His counsel of salvation.—To recognize even in the germ the development, requires, doubtless, an apprehension intimately conversant with Scriptural truth, an eye illumined by the Spirit.

3. The curse of the law. As the blessing comes from God, as a revelation of His favor and grace (in gifts), so also the curse, as a revelation of His wrath (in judgments, which concentrate themselves in the κατάκριμα of death). In that this revelation of wrath is a consequence of the non-fulfilment of the law, the curse is called “the curse of the law,” Gal_3:13 (under which therefore, in the first place, only the Jews stood, as being alone those who hold to the law, but under which of course all would come, who are “of the works of the law”). More precisely: a man comes under this “curse,” is under bonds to it, and held prisoner by it, if he is “of the works of the law” (Gal_3:10), that is, performs indeed single works, but nothing more, and yet believes himself thereby to have satisfied the law, which is in no wise the case (see above on “works of the law” in the preceding section).

4. Christ a curse for us. To avert this curse of God and to bring His blessing upon all men, Christ has become “a curse for us.” Here we stand in presence of the deepest mystery of atonement; we may not, in order to make it more comprehensible, weaken the fact, but must take the words even here, as they say and sound, without artifices of interpretation. Since Christ has freed us from our curse, by having become a curse for us, then, if our redemption from the curse is not to be an illusion, but something real, He became also really the bearer of the Divine curse, He has borne the Divine ὀργή passively, has felt it, and also actively has sustained it. And this has come to pass by His death on the cross. Only we must of course not suffer the monstrous thought to arise that God was angry with Him, something that could not be; nay more, it was in His death on the cross that He was above all an ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας, “odor of sweetness,” unto God. Nevertheless He has, in the first place, undergone the Divine wrath by suffering death, whereby there was accomplished on Him the κατάκριμα, “condemnation,” of death, and so the curse upon sin; the mode of death, moreover, exhibiting this death, even in form, as a death under curse. Yet that is not all, He has, in the second place, also felt the wrath of God, in that the enjoyment, the sense of the blessed communion of love with God vanished from Him without the reality of this communion itself thereby ceasing. He was, it is true, an ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας to God, but the sense of it vanished from Him, although perhaps only momentarily in those instants of anguish when He uttered the complaint upon the cross that God had forsaken Him. But what was lacking in duration, so to speak, was most completely, as it were, compensated by the fearful intensity of such a sense of abandonment by God, in the soul of the beloved Son of God. To this extent He has fully become a curse, has felt the wrath of God, even as condemning wrath. But if it is objected, “but not as eternally condemning,” we must again refer to that intensity of the sense of wrath as an adequate expiation.—He has thus become a curse for us =in our behalf; but in our behalf only inasmuch as He thereby came in our place. The vicariousness does not lie in the expression ὑπέρ, but in the fact; if we, by the very fact that He became “a curse,” have been made free from the “curse,” in that there is of course involved that He came in our place; an exchange of positions occurred.—For it is stated that the effect of Christ’s “becoming a curse” is to “redeem us from the curse of the law,” and so at all events an entire acquittal therefrom, and averting of it. Christ is here represented as showing Himself (immediately, yes alone) active in the work of redemption; He offered Himself, is the sense, in becoming a curse, and therewith He presented a ransom—to whom? to “the curse of the law” which had dominion over us. The ransom consisted in Himself; He devoted Himself in this very “becoming a curse” to the power of this potentate, and thus in return let us go free. Analyzing the conception thus, we see that it is a figurative one; in order to reduce it to its exact expression, we must take in the idea (which Paul does not here introduce in so many words) of the sin-offering. In becoming a curse Christ became a sin-offering, and this, because it was an unblemished one, and for this reason an ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας, was accepted by God; and in return Christ, as it were, discharged us from the curse of the law which He represented, took it from us. (Inasmuch as Christ Himself brought this sin-offering in free obedience, He is with justice described as the one active in it, as here; the action of God Himself being of course understood.)—This is only the negative side, the positive is then added Gal_3:14, where the positive (and moreover subjective) effects of the redemption “from the curse of the law” are named; generically, the being blessed, specially, the receiving of the Spirit. Upon this, especially upon the relation of it to justification, see above in the Exeg. Notes. We add only the observation: in the Apostle’s apprehension of the history of salvation, the operation of the death of Christ is taken out of its isolation; we recognize in it only the fulfilment of the promise given in the beginning of the redemptive revelation; in Christ it is nothing else than the blessing of Abraham that comes to fulfilment; Beginning and End are united. (See upon this the next Sections.)

5. [The two curses. Wordsworth thus sums up the doctrinal points implied: “Two curses pronounced in the law are here referred to by St. Paul. All mankind was liable to the former one. How was it to be removed?

(1) He who was to remove it must not himself be liable to it. He who was to be a substitute for the guilty must himself be innocent He who was to suffer in the stead of the disobedient must himself be obedient in all things.

(2) He who was to be the substitute for all must have the common nature of all. He must not take the person of one individual man (such as Abraham, Moses, Elias), but He must take the nature of all, and sum up all mankind in himself.

(3) He who was to do more than counterbalance the weight of the sins of all must have infinite merits of His own, in order that the scale of Divine Justice may preponderate in their favor. And nothing that is not divine is infinite. In order, therefore, that He may be able to suffer for sin, he must be human; and in order that He may be able to take away the sins, and to satisfy God’s Justice for them, He must be Divine.

(4) In order that He may remove the curse pronounced in the law of God for disobedience, He must undergo that punishment which is specially declared in the Law to be the curse of God.

(5) That punishment is hanging on a tree. That is specially called in the Law the curse of God. Deu_21:23.

By undergoing this curse for us, Christ, He who is God from everlasting, and who became Emmanuel, God with us, God in our flesh, uniting together the two natures—the Divine and the Human—in His One Person—Christ Jesus, redeemed us from the curse of the Law. Thus, having accepted the curse, He liberated us from it.”—R.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Gal_3:6. Rieger:—This reckoning somewhat for righteousness rests most of all on God’s taking pleasure in faith, and on the fulfilling of His promises, those to which faith trusts. True, even faith gives God the honor, and is in this respect greater than any work. But even faith cannot always give to God the honor so willingly, so fully, with such victory over all doubts arising from the reason, as it should. Therefore God’s imputation is still the best, according to which good pleasure of His will He counts even a weak spark of faith for righteousness, and therefore I may be assured that, though I now and then be somewhat doubtful of His gracious will, which He has towards me, mistrust Him, become in spirit sad and heavy, I am yet surrounded and overspread with the broad heaven of His promises, and especially of His forgiving grace, and even then His gracious imputation remains valid.

Gal_3:7. Heubner:—Abraham’s spiritual children are only those like-minded with him, i.e. believing souls. By faith thou becomest like the old patriarchs; they acknowledge thee for worthy offspring, whether thou be derived from the same nation, according to the flesh, as they, or not. Spiritual genealogy and probate is of another sort from civil.

[Calvin:—Paul has omitted one remark, which will be readily supplied, that there is no place in the Church for any man who is not a son of Abraham.—Hooker:—The invisible Church consisteth only of true Israelites, true sons of Abraham, true servants and saints of God.—R.]

Rieger:—The footsteps of faith and the walk therein prove this descent (Rom_4:12).

Gal_3:8.—O man be assured, all thy temptations also, and needs, He hath seen beforehand! Only go with confidence to the Scripture, therein to seek God’s consolations.—Who reads the Old Testament enough with the view of finding Christ every where therein?

Gal_3:9. Berlenb. Bible:—Already with Abraham began the stream of blessing that proceeds from God to believers. This now is the blessing of the one God, flowing from the like grace of God, even though in the most manifold manifestations.—Companionship in blessing a blessed companionship.—Wilt thou have blessing? Believe! Other way there is none.—We see then, where the trouble is, if one finds in his soul no such well-being or blessing, but rather the curse, and disquietness in his conscience. It is in this matter of faith, which a man will not frankly receive from God, and let old matters go, and deny them for Christs sake. But a man must himself be of faith, as Paul here expresses it, that is, thou must have so committed thy heart to the Spirit of Christ, that He has been able to gain possession of thee, and through faith bear thee as a child of God. Then is a man “of faith,” that is, he has, as to the spirit, a Divine origin.

Gal_3:10. “As many:” let there so as many of them as there will; and were there of them as many again who declare for this party and make their boast and glory of it, and will have their salvation from it.—“Of the works of the law:” this expresses the inner ground of the man, what fashions his soul, and whose child he is. It is not people who teach the law, but such as are born of the same. It means not: who give diligence to live after the measure of the law, but who live legally, take here a work and there a work, approach therewith before God, and so place themselves under the curse. “Under” signifies imprisonment, for these people bar themselves in.—Luther:—Our Lord God has two manner of blessings, a bodily, that appertains to this life, and a spiritual, that appertains to the life everlasting. Such bodily blessing have the ungodly in fulness and abundance. To banish the eternal curse, that is, the eternal wrath of God, death and damnation, there avails neither the world’s nor the law’s righteousness. Therefore those that have not more than the corporeal blessing alone, are for this reason not God’s children, and blessed before God, but under the curse they are and abide.—If now God’s law puts men under a curse, how much more other laws, which are of much less worth?

Heubner:—If we will be saved by the law, we must do all, and must be able to say, that we have never neglected any thing commanded, nor done any thing forbidden. In brief, the matter stands thus: if we will merit salvation, amazingly little will come of it, for our virtue is piece-work; against one or two legal performances God can oppose ten transgressions. Whoever does not view the requirements of the law with the diminishing glass of light-mindedness, and his own works with the magnifying glass of self-love, must acknowledge this.—[John Brown:—It is absurdity thus to seek for justification from that which is and must be the source of condemnation. To expect to be warmed by the keen northern blast, or to have our thirst quenched by a draught of liquid fire, were not more, were not so incongruous.—R.]

Gal_3:11. Cramer:—The religion that teaches us to believe that we are saved by grace without works, is the true, original, Catholic religion, to which also Habakkuk and the old prophets bear witness; therefore the Romish religion, which contradicts this, can be neither the original, nor the true Catholic church, but must be a new church.—Starke:—The regenerate, who are already righteous through faith, continue in their righteousness and blessedness, and become at the last perfectly blessed, but still only through faith.

Gal_3:12. The law will have doers, that deserve Heaven by works. The gospel will have only sinners, who have done working, but who, repenting them of their sins (or broken into contriteness by the law), seek medicine, help and grace in Christ and His Father’s compassion. They now see aright their guiltiness, together with the loathsomeness of sin; they now first understand and love Moses aright, and walk after his law; not out of constraint or hope of reward, but as being already righteous in Christ, and minded to show forth the profit, purpose, joy and might of such righteousness in all manner of works possible.

Gal_3:13. Luther:—God hath cast all sin of all men upon His Son. Then forthwith comes the law, accusing Him and saying: Here find I this one among sinners, yea who hath taken all men’s sins upon Himself, and bears them, and I see in the whole world besides not another sin, except upon Him alone; therefore shall He suffer for it and die the death upon the cross.—Insomuch then as through this only Mediator, Jesus Christ, Sin and Death are taken away, without doubt the whole world were so pure that our Lord God therein could see nothing except mere righteousness and holiness, if we only could believe it.—On that side there is no lack. But the lack is with us, who believe it so faintly. If we believed it fully, doubtless we should already have been blessed and in Paradise, but the old sack, that still hangs around our neck, holds us back from arriving at such certain faith.—We should not look at Christ after the flesh, as if He were a man, righteous and holy for Himself alone, and having nothing to do with us. True it is that Christ is the holiest person of all, but thou must not stop with that knowledge, that does not yet give thee Christ. But thou knowest Him aright, and obtainest Him for thy own, when thou believest that this holiest Person of all has been bestowed upon thee by the Father, that He should be thy High-priest and Saviour, yea, thy minister and servant, who should lay from Him His own innocence and holiness, and take upon Him thy sinful person, and therein bear thy sin, death and curse, and thus become a sacrifice and a curse for thee, that He might so redeem thee from the curse of the law.—All virtue lies in the little words: for us.

[Two curses are here mentioned by Paul. The one: “Cursed is every one that continueth not,” etc. That curse lay on all mankind. The other: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” This curse Christ took, that He might redeem us from the first. Both were curses in and of the law. The one specifies the guilt, the other the punishment. Christ bore the accursed punishment, thus He takes away the accursed guilt. He stood for the “every one” who continueth not, by becoming the very one who hung; upon the tree.—R.]

[Wordsworth:—How much reason have we to abominate our sins, which were the principal causes of the crucifixion of Christ! They were indeed the traitors which, by the hands of Judas, delivered Him up. The Jewish priests were but our advocates; we by them did adjudge and sentence Him. Pilate was but our spokesman, the Roman executioners were but our agents therein. The Jewish people were but proxies acting our parts; our sins were they which cried out: “Crucify Him,” with clamors more loud and more effectual, than did all the Jewish rabble.—The second Adam hung on the tree in Calvary, in order that by hanging on the tree He might abolish the sin committed by us in the first Adam, when he ate of the fruit of the tree of good and evil in Paradise.—There on the cross He extends His hands to all and calls all—Gentiles as well as Jews.—R.]

Gal_3:14. Lange:—The blessing comes not alone from Christ, but also in Christ. For whoever does not receive it in Christ, receives it not from Christ; as indeed many wish to have it from Christ, but not to take it in Christ, that is, receive it so that they thereby suffer themselves to be brought into His fellowship and in it enjoy the blessing with large addition.

On the whole Section:—The Christian’s walk, a walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham.—Those who occupy themselves with works of the law, are under the curse: (1) a fearful word, (2) yet only too true.—Blessing or Curse? Other alternative there is none.—Christ has turned the curse into blessing.—The redemption from the curse of the law through Christ.—He became a curse for us. (1) How is that possible? and yet (2) it was necessary, for (3) thereupon rests our salvation.—Our righteousness before God is grounded alone upon faith: (1) this is taught by Abraham’s example; (2) proved by the promise given by God to Abraham; (3) attested by the innermost essence of the law; (4) made sure by the redemption established by Christ.—Only through faith in the Crucified One have we part in the redemption accomplished by Him. I. That faith generally is the condition, Gal_3:6-12. (1) Proof from the example of Abraham’s faith, Gal_3:6-9; (a) on account of his faith was Abraham accounted righteous before God, Gal_3:6; (b) the promise given to him of the blessing of the Gentiles, presupposes in these also faith. (2) Demonstration from the impossibility of any one being redeemed from the curse of the law through any manner of works, Gal_3:10-12. II. That the redemption accomplished by Christ is the essential matter [Inhalt] of faith on Him. (1) That Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; (2) that He has effected this by Himself becoming a curse for us.—The death of Christ deserves an imperishable remembrance, because in it He became a curse for us. (1) He became a curse for us: (2) Therein lies the power of His death for blessing.

[Cowper:—

Oh, how unlike the complex works of man,

Heaven’s easy, artless, unincumbered plan!

No meretricious graces to beguile:

No clustering ornaments to clog the pile.

From ostentation as from weakness free,

It stands, like the cerulean arch we see,

Majestic in its own simplicity.

Inscribed above the portal, from afar

Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul-quickening words—Believe and Live.]

Footnotes:

[11]Gal_3:8.—[Δικαιοῖ, present—Ellicott calls it the “ethical present.” “God justifleth,” this is His one way (Alford).—R.]

[12]Gal_3:8.—-[Since “gospel” has a distinct meaning now. it is perhaps better to take the more etymological phrase in rendering προευηγγελίσατο. Schmoller: “Gab die verheissuang.”—R.]

[13]Gal_3:8.—Elz. has εὐλογηθήσονται instead of ἐνευλογηθήσονται against decisive authorities.

[14]Gal_3:9.—[“Together with” is more distinct than “with.” The article of the Greek is retained to emphasize “faithful.”—R.]

[15]Gal_3:10.—According to the best MSS. ὅτι should be inserted before ἐπικατάρατος. [The generally received reading does not affect the English form, since ὅτι is here a mere quotation mark.—R.]

[16]Gal_3:11.—[Since ἐν νόμῳ must be rendered “in the law;” to avoid the too close proximity with “in the sight of,” it is better to retain the Greek order, which is emphatic also.—R.]

[17]Gal_3:12.—[Δέ “logical, introducing the minor proposition” (Alford). “Now” is perhaps better than “but.”—R.]

[18]Gal_3:12.—After αὐτά, Elz. reads ἄνθρωπος against decisive authorities.

[19]Gal_3:13.—[The aorist ἐξηγόρασεν is historical, hence the simple past is better.—In Gal_3:12, ποιήσας, aorist participle, should be rendered “hath done” to bring out its proper force.—R.]

[20]Gal_3:13.—[Τενόμενος, “becoming,” but as it explains the manner of the past act “redeemed,” “having become” is more accurate “By becoming” would be still more forcible—R.]

[21]Gal_3:13.—Lachmann and Tischendorf, following weighty authorities, read: ὅτι γέγραπται instead γἐγραπται γάρ [So Meyer and modern English editors. א. has γέγ.γάρ.—R.]

[22]Gal_3:14.—[Εις, “unto.” The clause were perhaps better read in this order: “That unto the Gentiles the blessing of Abraham might come in Christ Jesus” (so Ellicott).—R.]

[23]Gal_3:14.—[Χριστῷ ̓Ιησοῦ is the reading of most MSS. (א. B. Ιριστῷ), and is adopted by most modern editors.—R.]

[24][Calvin thus refers to “the idle cavillings of certain persons who evade Paul’s reasoning. Moses, they tell us, gives the name of righteousness to goodness; and so means nothing more than that Abraham was reckoned a good man because he believed God. Giddy minds of this description, raised up in our time by Satan, endeavor, by indirect slanders, to undermine the certainty of Scripture. Paul knew that Moses was not there giving lessons to boys in grammar, but was speaking of a decision which God had pronounced, and very properly viewed the word righteousness in a theological sense. For it is not in that sense in which goodness is mentioned with approbation among men, that we are accounted righteous in the sight of God, but only where we render perfect obedience to the law. Righteousness is contrasted with the transgression of the law, even in its smallest point; and because we have it not of ourselves, it is freely given to us by God.”—R.]

[25] Stanley (History of the Jewish Church. Vol. I., Sect. 1) gives a more poetic view of Abraham’s faith. Fascinating as these lectures are. it is easier to see whither they tend as one studies this argument of Paul. The stress which this brilliant author puts upon “obeyed” in this very connection, may sound like the voice of a broader Christianity, but tested by Paul’s argument here, it proves to be the echo of a narrowing Judaism: “of the law.” Lightfoot’s note, p. 156, is much more satisfactory.—R.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 12

ABRAHAMS BLESSING AND THE LAWS CURSE.

Gal_3:6-14

FAITH then, we have learnt, not works of law, was the condition on which the Galatians received the Spirit of Christ. By this gate they entered the Church of God, and had come into possession of the spiritual blessings common to all Christian believers, and of those extraordinary gifts of grace which marked the Apostolic days.

In this mode of salvation, the Apostle goes on to show, there was after all nothing new. The righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as Abraham. His religion rested on this ground. "The promise of the Spirit," held by him in trust for the world, was given to his faith. "You received the Spirit, God works in you His marvellous powers, by the hearing of faith-even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise as of fulfilment, faith is the root of religion; grace invites, righteousness waits upon the hearing of faith. So Paul declares in Gal_3:6-9, and re-affirms with emphasis in Gal_3:14. The intervening sentences set forth by contrast the curse that hangs over the man who seeks salvation by way of law and personal merit.

Thus the two standing types of religion, the two ways by which men seek salvation, are put in contrast with each other-faith with its blessing, law with its curse. The former is the path on which the Galatians had entered, under the guidance of Paul; the latter, that to which the Judaic teachers were leading them. So far the two principles stand only in antagonism. The antinomy will be resolved in the latter part of the chapter.

But why does Paul make so much of the faith of Abraham? Not only because it furnished him with a telling illustration, or because the words of Gen_15:6 supplied a decisive proof-text for his doctrine: he could not well have chosen any other ground. Abrahams case was the instantia probans in this debate. "We are Abrahams seed": {Mat_3:9; Joh_8:33-59} this was the proud consciousness that swelled every Jewish breast. "Abrahams bosom" was the Israelites heaven: even in Hades his guilty sons could claim pity from "Father Abraham". {Luk_16:19-31} In the use of this title were concentrated all the theocratic pride and national bigotry of the Jewish race. To the example of Abraham the Judaistic teacher would not fail to appeal. He would tell the Galatians how the patriarch was called, like themselves, out of the heathen world to the knowledge of the true God; how he was separated from his Gentile kindred, and received the mark of circumcision to be worn thenceforth by all who followed in his steps, and who sought the fulfilment of the promise granted to Abraham and his seed.

The Apostle holds, as strongly as any Judaist, that the promise belongs to the children of Abraham. But what makes a son of Abraham? "Birth, true Jewish blood, of course," replied the Judaist. The Gentile, in his view, could only come into a share of the heritage by receiving circumcision, the mark of legal adoption and incorporation. Paul answers this question by raising another. What was it that brought Abraham his blessing? To what did he owe his righteousness? It was faith: so Scripture declares-"Abraham believed God." Righteousness, covenant, promise, blessing-all turned upon this. And the true sons of Abraham are those who are like him: "Know then that the men of faith, these are Abrahams sons." This declaration is a blow, launched with studied effect full in the face of Jewish privilege. Only a Pharisee, only a Rabbi, knew how to wound in this fashion. Like the words of Stephens defence, such sentences as these stung Judaic pride to the quick. No wonder that his fellow-countrymen, in their fierce fanaticism of race, pursued Paul with burning hate and set a mark upon his life.

But the identity of Abrahams blessing with that enjoyed by Gentile Christians is not left to rest on mere inference and analogy of principle. Another quotation clinches the argument: "In thee," God promised to the patriarch, "shall be blessed"-not the natural seed, not the circumcised alone-but "all the nations (Gentiles)"! And "the Scripture" said this, "foreseeing" what is now taking place, namely, "that God justifieth the Gentiles by faith." So that in giving this promise to Abraham it gave him, his "gospel before the time (προευηγγελισατο)." Good news indeed it was to the noble patriarch, that all the nations-of whom as a wide traveller he knew so much, and over whose condition he doubtless grieved - were finally to be blessed with the light of faith and the knowledge of the true God; and thus blessed through himself. In this prospect he "rejoiced to see Christs day"; nay, the Saviour tells us, like Moses and Elijah, "he saw it and was glad." Up to this point in Abrahams history, as Pauls readers would observe, there was no mention of circumcision or legal requirement (Gal_3:17; Rom_4:9-13). It was on purely evangelical principles, by a declaration of Gods grace listened to in thankful faith, that he had received the promise which linked him to the universal Church and entitled every true believer to call him father. "So that the men of faith are blessed, along with faithful Abraham."

1. What then, we ask, was the nature of Abrahams blessing? In its essence, it was righteousness. The "blessing" of Gal_3:9; Gal_3:14 is synonymous with the "justification" of Gal_3:6; Gal_3:8, embracing with it all its fruits and consequences. No higher benediction could come to any man than that God should "count him righteous."

Paul and the Legalists agreed in designating righteousness before God mans chief good. But they and he intended different things by it. Nay, Pauls conception of righteousness, it is said, differed radically from that of the Old Testament, and even of his companion writers in the New Testament. Confessedly, his doctrine presents this idea under a peculiar aspect. But there is a spiritual identity, a common basis of truth, in all the Biblical teaching on this vital subject. Abrahams righteousness was the state of a man who trustfully accepts Gods word of grace, and is thereby set right with God, and put in the way of being and doing right thenceforward. In virtue of his faith, God regarded and dealt with Abraham as a righteous man: Righteousness of character springs out of righteousness of standing. God makes a man righteous by counting him so! This is the Divine paradox of Justification by Faith. When the Hebrew author says, "God counted it to him for righteousness," he does not mean in lieu of righteousness, as though faith were a substitute for a righteousness not forthcoming and now rendered superfluous; but so as to amount to righteousness, with a view to righteousness. This "reckoning" is the sovereign act of the Creator, who gives what He demands, "who maketh alive the dead," and calleth the things that are not as though they Rom_4:17-22. He sees the fruit in the germ.

There is nothing arbitrary, or merely forensic in this imputation. Faith is, for such a being as man, the spring of all righteousness before God, the one act of the soul which is primarily and supremely right. What is more just than that the creature should trust his Creator, the child his Father? Here is the root of all right understanding and right relations between men and God-that which gives God, so to speak, a moral hold upon us. And by this trust of the heart, yielding itself in the "obedience of faith" to its Lord and Redeemer, it comes into communion with all those energies and purposes in Him which make for righteousness. Hence from first to last, alike in the earlier and later stages of revelation, mans righteousness is "not his own"; it is "the righteousness that is of God, based upon faith." {Php_3:9} Faith unites us to the source of righteousness, from which unbelief severs us. So that Pauls teaching leads us to the fountainhead, while other Biblical teachers for the most part guide us along the course of the same Divine righteousness for man. His doctrine is required by theirs; their doctrine is implied, and indeed more than once expressly stated, in his. {Rom_8:4; 1Co_6:9; Eph_5:9; Tit_2:12-14; etc.}

The Old Testament deals with the materials of character, with the qualities and behaviour constituting a righteous man, more than with the cause or process that makes him righteous. All the more significant therefore are such pronouncements as that of Gen_15:6, and the saying of Hab_2:4, Pauls other leading quotation on this subject. This second reference, taken from the times of Israels declension, a thousand years and more after Abraham, gives proof of the vitality of the righteousness of faith. The haughty, sensual Chaldean is master of the earth. Kingdom after kingdom he has trampled down. Judah lies at his mercy, and has no mercy to expect. But the prophet looks beyond the storm and ruin of the time. "Art Thou not from everlasting, my God, my Holy One? We shall not die". {Hab_1:12} The faith of Abraham lives in his breast. The people in whom that faith is cannot die. While empires fall, and races are swept away in the flood of conquest, "The just shall live by his faith." If faith is seen here at a different point from that given before, it is still the same faith of Abraham, the grasp of the soul upon the Divine word - there first evoked, here steadfastly maintained, there and here the one ground of righteousness, and therefore of life, for man or for people, Habakkuk and the "remnant" of his day were "blessed with faithful Abraham"; how blessed, his splendid prophecy shows. Righteousness is of faith; life of righteousness: this is the doctrine of Paul, witnessed to by law and prophets.

Into what a life of blessing the righteousness of faith introduced "faithful Abraham," these Galatian students of the Old Testament very well knew. {2Ch_20:7; Isa. 12; comp. Jam_2:23} is he designated "the friend of God." The Arabs still call him el khalil, the friend. His image has impressed itself with singular force on the Oriental mind. He is the noblest figure of the Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in purity, and both in dignity of character. The man to whom God said, "Fear not, Abraham: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward"; and again, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect": on how lofty a platform of spiritual eminence was he set! The scene of Gen. 18, throws into striking relief the greatness of Abraham, the greatness of our human nature in him; when the Lord says, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?" and allows him to make his bold intercession for the guilty cities of the Plain. Even the trial to which the patriarch was subjected in the sacrifice of Isaac, was a singular honour, done to one whose faith was "counted worthy to endure" this unexampled strain. His religion exhibits a heroic strength and firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity, an elevation and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who boasted themselves his children was utterly opposed. Father of the Jewish race, Abraham was no Jew. He stands before us in the morning light of revelation a simple, noble, archaic type of man, true "father of many nations." And his faith was the secret of the greatness which has commanded for him the reverence of four thousand years. His trust in God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the future of mankind.

With Abrahams faith, the Gentiles inherit his blessing. They were not simply blessed in him, through his faith which received and handed down the blessing-but blessed with him. Their righteousness rests on the same principle as his. Religion reverts to its earlier, purer type. Just as in the Epistle to the Hebrews Melchizedeks priesthood is adduced as belonging to a more Christlike order, antecedent to and underlying the Aaronic; so we find here, beneath the cumbrous structure of legalism, the evidence of a primitive religious life, cast in a larger mould, with a happier style of experience, a piety broader, freer, at once more spiritual and more human. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of faith, its spring-time of promise and of hope. These morning hours passed away; and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of Mosaism, with its isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual drapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever growing more burdensome. Of all this the Church of Christ was to know nothing. It was called to enter into the labours of the legal centuries, without the need of sharing their burdens. In the "Father of the faithful" and the "Friend of God" Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find the warrant for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the natural children of Abraham unjustly strove to rob them.

2. But if the Galatians are resolved to be under the Law, they must understand what this means. The legal state, Paul declares, instead of the blessing of Abraham, brings with it a curse: "As many as are of law-works, are under a curse."

This the Apostle, in other words, had told Peter at Antioch. He maintained that whoever sets up the law as a ground of salvation, "makes himself a transgressor"; {Gal_2:18} he brings upon himself the misery of having violated law. This is no doubtful contingency. The law in explicit terms pronounces its curse against every man who, binding himself to keep it, yet breaks it in any particular.

The Scripture which Paul quotes to this effect, forms the conclusion of the commination uttered by the people of Israel, according to the directions of Moses, from Mount Ebal, on their entrance into Canaan: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." How terribly had that imprecation been fulfilled! They had in truth pledged themselves to the impossible. The Law had not been kept-could not be kept on merely legal principles, by man or nation. The confessions of the Old Testament, already cited in Gal_2:16, were proof of this. That no one had "continued in all things written in the law to do them," goes without saying. If Gentile Christians adopt the law of Moses, they must be prepared to render an obedience complete and unfaltering in every detail {Gal_5:3} -or have this curse hanging perpetually above their heads. They will bring on themselves the very condemnation which was lying so heavily upon the conscience of Israel after the flesh.

This sequence of law and transgression belonged to Pauls deepest convictions. "The law," he says, "worketh out wrath". {Rom_4:14-15} This is an axiom of Paulinism. Human nature being what it is, law means transgression; and the law being what it is, transgression means Divine anger and the curse. The law is just; the penalty is necessary. The conscience of the ancient people of God compelled them to pronounce the imprecation dictated by Moses. The same thing occurs every day, and under the most varied moral conditions. Every man who knows what is right, and will not do it, execrates himself. The consciousness of transgression is a clinging, inward curse, a witness of ill-desert, foreboding punishment. The law of conscience, like that of Ebal and Gerizim, admits of no exceptions, no intermission. In the majesty of its unbending sternness it can only be satisfied by our continuing in all things that it prescribes. Every instance of failure, attended with whatever excuse or condonation, leaves upon us its mark of self-reproach. And this inward condemnation, this consciousness of guilt latent in the human breast, is not self-condemnation alone, not a merely subjective state; but it proceeds from Gods present judgment on the man. It is the shadow of His just displeasure.

What Paul here proves from Scripture, bitter experience had taught him. As the law unfolded itself to his youthful conscience, he approved it as "holy and just and good." He was pledged and resolved to observe it in every point. He must despise himself if he acted otherwise. He strove to be - in the sight of men indeed he was - "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." If ever a man carried out to the letter the legal requirements, and fulfilled the moralists ideal, it was Saul of Tarsus. Yet his failure was complete, desperate! While men accounted him a paragon of virtue, he loathed himself; he knew that before God his righteousness was worthless. The "law of sin in his members" defied "the law of his reason," and made its power the more sensible the more it was repressed. The curse thundered by the six tribes from Ebal resounded in his ears. And there was no escape. The grasp of the law was relentless, because it was just, like the grasp of death. Against all that was holiest in it the evil in himself stood up in stark, immitigable opposition. "O wretched man that I am," groans the proud Pharisee, "who shall deliver me!" From this curse Christ had redeemed him. And he would not, if he could help it, have the Galatians expose themselves to it again. On legal principles, there is no safety but in absolute, flawless obedience, such as no man ever has rendered, or ever will. Let them trust the experience of centuries of Jewish bondage.

Gal_3:11-12 support the assertion that the Law issues in condemnation, by a further, negative proof. The argument is a syllogism, both whose premises are drawn from the Old Testament. It may be formally stated thus. Major preraise (evangelical maxim): "The just man lives of faith." {Hab_2:4} (Gal_3:11). Minor: The man of law does not live of faith (for he lives by doing: legal maxim, Gal_3:12). {Lev_8:5} Ergo: The man of law is not just before God (ver. 11). While therefore the Scripture by its afore-cited commination closes the door of life against righteousness of works, that door is opened to the men of faith. The two principles are logical contradictories. To grant righteousness to faith is to deny it to legal works. This assumption furnishes our minor premise in Gal_3:12. The legal axiom is, "He that doeth them shall live in them": that is to say, The law gives life for doing not therefore for believing; we get no sort of legal credit for that. The two ways have different starting-points, as they lead to opposite goals. From faith one marches, through Gods righteousness, to blessing; from works, through self-righteousness, to the curse.

The two paths now lie before us-the Pauline and the legal method of salvation, the Abrahamic and the Mosaic scheme of religion. According to the latter, one begins by keeping so many rules-ethical, ceremonial, or what not; and after doing this, one expects to be counted righteous by God. According to the former, the man begins by an act of self-surrendering trust in Gods word of grace, and God already reckons him just on that account, without his pretending to anything in the way of merit for himself. In short, the Legalist tries to make God believe in him: Abraham and Paul are content to believe in God. They do not set themselves over against God, with a righteousness of their own which He is bound to recognise; they commit themselves to God, that He may work out His righteousness in them. Along this path lies blessing-peace of heart, fellowship with God, moral strength, life in its fulness, depth, and permanence. From this source Paul derives all that was noblest in the Church of the Old. Covenant. And he puts the calm, grand image of Father Abraham before us for our pattern, in contrast with the narrow, painful, bitter spirit of Jewish legalism, inwardly self-condemned.

3. But how pass from this curse to that blessing? How escape from the nemesis of the broken law into the freedom, of Abrahams faith? To this question Gal_3:13 makes answer: "Christ bought us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." Christs redemption changes the curse into a blessing.

We entered this Epistle under the shadow of the cross. It has been all along the centre of the writers thought. He has found in it the solution of the terrible problem forced upon him by the law. Law had led him to Christs cross; laid him in Christs grave; and there left him, to rise with Christ a new, free man, living henceforth to God. {Gal_2:19-21} So we understand the purpose and the issue of the death of Jesus Christ; now we must look more narrowly at the fact itself.

"Christ became a curse!" Verily the Apostle was not "seeking to please or persuade men." This expression throws the scandal of the cross into the strongest relief. Far from veiling it or apologising for it, Paul accentuates this offence. His experience taught him that Jewish pride must be compelled to reckon with it. No, he would not have "the offence of the cross abolished". {Gal_5:11}

And did not Christ become a curse? Could the fact be denied by any Jew? His death was that of the most abandoned criminals. By the combined verdict of Jew and Gentile, of civil and religious authority, endorsed by the voice of the populace, He was pronounced a malefactor and blasphemer. But this was not all. The hatred and injustice of men are hard to bear; yet many a sensitive man has borne them in a worthy cause without shrinking. It was a darker dread, an infliction far more crushing, that compelled the cry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!" Against the maledictions of men Jesus might surely at the worst have counted on the Fathers good pleasure. But even that failed Him. There fell upon His soul the death of death, the very curse of sin - abandoned by God! Men "did esteem Him" - and for the moment He esteemed Himself-"smitten of God." He hung there abhorred of men, forsaken of His God; earth all hate, heaven all blackness to His view. Are the Apostles words too strong? Delivering up His Son to pass through this baptism, God did in truth make Him a curse for us. By His "determinate counsel" the Almighty set Jesus Christ in the place of condemned sinners, and allowed the curse of this wicked world to claim Him for its victim.

The death that befell Him was chosen as if for the purpose of declaring Him accursed. The Jewish people have thus stigmatised Him. They made the Roman magistrate and the heathen soldiery their instrument in gibbeting their Messiah. "Shall I crucify your King?" said Pilate. "Yes," they answered, "crucify Him!" Their rulers thought to lay on the hated Nazarene an everlasting curse. Was it not written, "A curse of God is every one that hangeth on a tree?" This saying attached in the Jewish mind a peculiar loathing to the person of the dead thus exposed. Once crucified, the name of Jesus would surely perish from the lips of men; no Jew would hereafter dare to profess faith in Him. His cause could never surmount this ignominy. In later times the bitterest epithet that Jewish scorn could fling against our Saviour (God forgive them!) was just this word of Deuteronomy, hattaluy- the hanged one.

This sentence of execration, with its shame freshly smarting, Paul has seized and twined into a crown of glory. "Hanged on a tree, crushed with reproach-accursed, you say, He was, my Lord, my Saviour! It is true. But the curse He bore was ours. His death, unmerited by Him, was our ransom-price, endured to buy us out of our curse of sin and death." This is the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice. In speaking of "ransom" and "redemption," using the terms of the market, Christ and His Apostles are applying human language to things in their essence unutterable, things which we define in their effects rather than in themselves. "We know, we prophesy, in part." We know that we were condemned by Gods holy law; that Christ, Himself sinless, came under the laws curse, and taking the place of sinners, "became sin for us"; and that His interposition has brought us out of condemnation into blessing and peace. How can we conceive the matter otherwise than as it is put in His own words: He "gave Himself a ransom-The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep?" He suffers in our room and stead; He bears inflictions incurred by our sins, and due to ourselves; He does this at the Divine Will, and under the Divine Law: what is this but to "buy us out," to pay the price which frees us from the prison-house of death?

"Christ redeemed us, " says the Apostle, thinking questionless of himself and his Jewish kindred, on whom the law weighed so heavily. His redemption was offered "to the Jew first." But not to the Jew alone, nor as a Jew. The time of release had come for all men. "Abrahams blessing," long withheld, was now to be imparted, as it had been promised, to "all the tribes of the earth." In the removal of the legal curse, God comes near to men as in the ancient days. His love is shed abroad; His spirit of sonship dwells in human hearts. In Christ Jesus crucified, risen, reigning-a new world comes into being, which restores and surpasses the promise of the old.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:6-9 Abraham’s experience shows that faith has always been the basis for relationship with God and for receiving what God has promised.

3:6 This quote is from Gen 15:6, where God established his covenant with Abraham (see Gen 15:1-21; 17:1-27). This statement is foundational in defining God’s relationship with humanity (see Hab 2:4; Rom 4:1-8, 17-22).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal 3:6. Ἀβραὰμ, Abraham) See Rom 4:3, note. The genealogy [pedigree]—the armoury of Paul, Gal 3:6; Gal 3:8; Gal 3:16; ch. Gal 4:22; for we must have recourse to our origin [the first beginnings of things], Mat 19:4.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_3:6. The answer, obvious of itself, to the preceding question is: ἐξ ἀκοῆς πίστεως; and to this, but not directly to that question itself (as Hofmann holds, according to his wrong interpretation of ἀκοῆς πίστεως), Paul subjoinsmaking use of the words well known to his readers, Gen_15:6, according to the LXX.that great religious-historic argument for the righteousness of faith, which is presented in the justification of the progenitor of the theocratic people. Seeing that Paul has just specified the operation of the Spirit caused by the preached news of faith, as that which proves the justifying power of faith, he may with just logic continue: even as Abraham believed God (trusted His Messianic promise; comp. on Joh_8:56), and it (this faith) was counted to him as righteousness, that is, in the judgment of the gracious God was imputed to him as rectitude.[120] Neither, therefore, is a colon to be placed (with Koppe) after Ἀβρ., nor (with Beza and Hilgenfeld) is Gal_3:6 to be considered as protasis and Gal_3:7 as apodosis, for Gal_3:7 is evidently independent, and it would be a very arbitrary course (with Hilgenfeld) to take Gal_3:6 as an anacoluthon. See, moreover, on Rom_4:3; Hoelemann, de justitiœ ex fide ambabus in V. T. sedibus, Lips. 1867, p. 8 ff. For the reward of Abrahams justifying faith according to Gen. l.c., see Jam_2:22 f.; 1Ma_2:52; and Mechilta in Jalkut Sim. I. f. 69. 3, hoc planum est, Abrahamum neque hunc mundum neque futurum haereditate consequi potuisse, nisi per fidem, qua credidit, q. d. Gen_15:6.

[120] It is self-evident from the words of the text, how improperly the idea of sanctification is here mixed up with justification by the Catholics (also Bisping and Reithmayr). We have here justification simply as an actus forensis of the divine judgment, and that proceeding from grace. Rom_4:2 ff.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 3:6 . The faith of the Galatians is likened to that of Abraham, in that it found the same acceptance with God.

The quotation of Gen 15:6 was reckoned follows the LXX, whereas our version, following the Hebrew text, refers to God, he counted it . This passage is repeatedly commented on by Philo as well as in the N.T. Paul bases his argument upon it in Rom 4:3 by way of proof that God imputes righteousness on the ground of faith, not of works, and James guards it against misinterpretation by teachers who degraded faith into a barren assent of the intellect (Jas 2:17-23 ). Obviously Jewish teachers had already concentrated attention on this passage on account of the explicit testimony which it bears to the faith of Abraham and to God’s acceptance of that faith; and stress had been laid upon its authority in their schools of theology.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. This verse serves both as an answer to St Paul’s question in Gal 3:5—yes, it was by faith—and also as a transition to the next important paragraph showing the same truth from Scripture. Marcion omitted Gal 3:6-9 (see Jerome here) in accordance with his opposition to the Old Testament.

καθὼς Ἀβραὰμ ἐπίστευσεν τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην. From Gen 15:6. So verbally in the LXX. A, D (B non est). In Rom 4:3; Jas 2:23 the only difference is ἐπίστευσεν δὲ Ἀβραάμ. In Rom 4:9 only the second half is quoted, ἐλογίσθη τῳ Ἀβραὰμ ἡ πίστις εἰς δικαιοσύνην, and this is again used in Gal 3:22-23. The Judaizers were doubtless urging the Gentile Christians to be circumcised as Abraham was. St Paul shows, on the contrary, that he, the great forefather of the Jews, obtained his righteousness not by circumcision and works, but by faith. “The right state of mind is declared to be in God’s sight equivalent to the right action” (Mayor on Jas 2:23). Observe, however, that in St Paul’s usage faith does not take the place of the Law in the sense that it, in itself, is the ground of confidence. On the contrary, faith is only the hand that lays hold on Christ. On the Jewish estimation of Abraham see Sanday-Headlam on Rom 4:3-8.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The first argument which is of great force, and hath three grounds, The first, That Abraham was justified by faith, to wit, by free imputation of righteousness according to the promise apprehended by faith, as Moses doth most plainly witness.

See Rom. 4.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 6. Abraham believed God] This is quoted from Ge 15:6, where see the note; and St. Paul produces it, Ro 4:3-5, where also see the notes. Abraham, while even uncircumcised, believed in God, and his faith was reckoned to him for justification; and Abraham is called the father of the faithful, or, of believers. If, then, he was justified without the deeds of the law, he was justified by faith; and if he was justified by faith, long before the law was given then the law is not necessary to salvation.

It is remarkable that the Jews themselves maintained that Abraham was saved by faith. Mehilta, in Yalcut Simeoni, page 1, fol. 69, makes this assertion: "It is evident that Abraham could not obtain an inheritance either in this world or in the world to come, but by faith."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Having appealed to facts and experience, he now gives quotations from Scripture. And first, he brings forward the example of Abraham. Arguments drawn from examples are not always so conclusive, but this is one of the most powerful, because neither in the subject nor in the person is there any ground of exception. There is no variety of roads to righteousness, and so Abraham is called “the father of all them that believe,” (Romans 4:11,) because he is a pattern adapted to all; nay, in his person has been laid down to us the universal rule for obtaining righteousness.

6. Even as Abraham. We must here supply some such phrase as but rather; for, having put a question, he resolved instantly to cut off every ground of hesitation. At least the phrase “even as,” (καθὼς,) refers only to the verse immediately preceding, to the “ministration of the Spirit and of miracles by the hearing of faith;” as if he had said, that, in the grace bestowed on them, a similarity might be found to the case of Abraham.

Believed God. By this quotation he proves both here, and in the 4th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that men are justified by faith, because the faith of Abraham was accounted to him, for righteousness. (Romans 4:3.) We must here inquire briefly, first, what Paul intends by faith; secondly, what is righteousness; and thirdly, why faith is represented to be a cause of justification. Faith does not mean any kind of conviction which men may have of the truth of God; for though Cain had a hundred times exercised faith in God when denouncing punishment against him, this had nothing to do with obtaining righteousness. Abraham was justified by believing, because, when he received from God a promise of fatherly kindness, he embraced it as certain. Faith therefore has a relation and respect to such a divine promise as may enable men to place their trust and confidence in God.

As to the word righteousness, we must attend to the phraseology of Moses. When he says, that

“he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness,” (Genesis 15:6,)

he intimates that that person is righteous who is reckoned as such in the sight of God. Now, since men have not righteousness dwelling within themselves, they obtain this by imputation; because God holds their faith as accounted for righteousness. We are therefore said to be “justified by faith,” (Romans 3:28; 5:1,) not because faith infuses into us a habit or quality, but because we are accepted by God.

But why does faith receive such honor as to be entitled a cause of our justification? First, we must observe, that it is merely an instrumental cause; for, strictly speaking, our righteousness is nothing else than God’s free acceptance of us, on which our salvation is founded. But as the Lord testifies his love and grace in the gospel, by offering to us that righteousness of which I have spoken, so we receive it by faith. And thus, when we ascribe to faith a man’s justification, we are not treating of the principal cause, but merely pointing out the way in which men arrive at true righteousness. For this righteousness is not a quality which exists in men, but is the mere gift of God, and is enjoyed by faith only; and not even as a reward justly due to faith, but because we receive by faith what God freely gives. All such expressions as the following are of similar import: We are “justified freely by his grace.” (Romans 3:24.) Christ is our righteousness. The mercy of God is the cause of our righteousness. By the death and resurrection of Christ, righteousness has been procured for us. Righteousness is bestowed on us through the gospel. We obtain righteousness by faith.

Hence appears the ridiculousness of the blunder of attempting to reconcile the two propositions, that we are justified by faith, and that we are justified at the same time by works; for he who is “just by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 Hebrews 10:38) is poor and destitute of personal righteousness, and relies on the grace of God alone. And this is the reason why Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, concludes that Abraham, having obtained righteousness by faith, had no right to glory before God. (Romans 4:2.) For it is not said that faith was imputed to him for a part of righteousness, but simply for righteousness; so that his faith was truly his righteousness. Besides, faith looks at nothing but the mercy of God, and a dead and risen Christ. All merit of works is thus excluded from being the cause of justification, when the whole is ascribed to faith. For faith, — so far as it embraces the undeserved goodness of God, Christ with all his benefits, the testimony of our adoption which is contained in the gospel, — is universally contrasted with the law, with the merit of works, and with human excellence. The notion of the sophists, that it is contrasted with ceremonies alone, will presently be disproved, with little difficulty, from the context. Let us therefore remember, that those who are righteous by faith, are righteous out of themselves, that is, in Christ.

Hence, too, we obtain a refutation of the idle cavilling of certain persons who evade Paul’s reasoning. Moses they tell us, gives the name of righteousness to goodness; and so means nothing more than that Abraham was reckoned a good man, because he believed God. Giddy minds of this description, raised up in our time by Satan, endeavor, by indirect slanders, to undermine the certainty of Scripture. Paul knew that Moses was not there giving lessons to boys in grammar, but was speaking of a decision which God had pronounced, and very properly viewed the word righteousness in a theological sense. For it is not in that sense in which goodness is mentioned with approbation among men, that we are accounted righteous in the sight of God, but only where we render perfect obedience to the law. Righteousness is contrasted with the transgression of the law, even in its smallest point; and because we have it not from ourselves, it is freely given to us by God.

But here the Jews object that Paul has completely tortured the words of Moses to suit his own purpose; for Moses does not here treat of Christ, or of eternal life, but only mentions an earthly inheritance. The Papists are not very different from the Jews; for, though they do not venture to inveigh against Paul, they entirely evade his meaning. Paul, we reply, takes for granted, what Christians hold to be a first principle, that whatever promises the Lord made to Abraham were appendages of that first promise,

“I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis 15:1.)

When Abraham received the promise,

“In multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore” (Genesis 22:17,)

he did not limit his view to that word, but included it in the grace of adoption as a part of the whole, and, in the same manner, every other promise was viewed by him as a testimony of God’s fatherly kindness, which tended to strengthen his hope of salvation. Unbelievers differ from the children of God in this respect, that, while they enjoy in common with them the bounties of Providence, they devour them like cattle, and look no higher. The children of God, on the other hand, knowing that all their blessings have been sanctified by the promises, acknowledge God in them as their Father. They are often directed, in this way, to the hope of eternal life; for they begin with the faith of their adoption, which is the foundation of the whole. Abraham was not justified merely because he believed that God would “multiply his seed,” (Genesis 22:17,) but because he embraced the grace of God, trusting to the promised Mediator, in whom, as Paul elsewhere declares, “all the promises of God are yea and amen.” (2 Corinthians 1:20.)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) Even as.—The argument is here very condensed. Ideas lie close together in the Apostle’s mind which are some distance apart in ours. He asks whether, in bestowing the gifts of the Spirit upon the Christian Church, God made use of the medium of the Law or of faith. The answer he assumes to be faith; and his thoughts fly at once to that crucial instance of faith—the faith of Abraham.

Abraham believed God . . .—Quoted from the LXX. version of Gen_15:6. The same quotation is made, in the same words and with the same object, in Rom_4:3, where see the Note. Comp. also the Excursus E to that Epistle, on “Imputed Righteousness.”

(6-14) These prolific results are due to faith, and not to the Law; just as it was faith which won for Abraham that imputed righteousness. Faith was the cause, blessing the consequence, which extends to all the spiritual descendants of Abraham. The Scripture distinctly foresaw this when it declared that the heathen too (i.e., those who believe from among the heathen) should be blessed in Abraham. The effects of the Law are just the opposite of this. Where faith brings a blessing the Law brought a curse. The Law never made any man accepted as righteous. This is a privilege reserved for faith. The Law demands a literal fulfilment, which is impossible. Hence the Law entailed a curse, which Christ has removed by taking it upon Himself. Thus the blessing promised to Abraham, and the outpouring of the Spirit included in it, have been opened out to Gentiles as well as Jews, and indeed to all who give in their adhesion to Christ by faith.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6–9. Exemplified by the case of Abraham

6. We must supply the obvious answers to the question of Gal_3:5. Assuredly those miraculous powers followed the preaching of faith; (comp. Mar_16:20) and so it was with Abraham; he believed and was justified.

The quotation is from the LXX. version of Gen_15:6. [The Hebrew reads, ‘and He counted it to him for righteousness’.] It occurs also Rom_4:3; Jas_2:23. From the appeal thus made by St Paul and St James to the case of Abraham, it would seem that they regarded the passage in Genesis as affording common ground to themselves and all (whether Jews or converts) who acknowledged the authority of the O.T. Scriptures.

On the faith of Abraham, see Appendix IV. p. 88.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Even as Abraham believed God,.... The apostle having observed, that the special grace and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were received not through the preaching of the law, but through the doctrine of faith; by an easy transition, passes on to a further confirmation of the doctrine of justification by faith, by producing the instance of Abraham, what the Scripture says of him, and the promise made unto him; which is very appropriate to his purpose, since Abraham was certainly a righteous man, the first of the circumcision, and the head of the Jewish nation; and whom the false teachers much gloried in, and boasted of their being his seed, and of being circumcised as he was; and would fain have persuaded the Gentiles to the same practice, in imitation of him, and as necessary to their justification before God; whereas the apostle here shows, referring to Gen 15:6 that Abraham was justified by faith, and not by any works whatever, much less by circumcision; for what he here refers to, was many years before his circumcision; and since therefore he was a justified person, declared to be so, before it and without it, it was not necessary to his justification, nor is it to any other person's: he

believed God. The object of faith is God, Father, Son, and Spirit; here Jehovah the Son seems principally intended, who in Gen 15:1 is called the "Word of the Lord"; the essential Word, who was with God from everlasting, and was God, and in the fulness of time was made flesh and dwelt among men; and "Abraham's shield", the same the apostle in Eph 6:16 calls "the shield of faith"; meaning not the grace of faith, but Christ the object of faith; which faith lays hold on, and makes use of as a shield against the temptations of Satan: and also his "exceeding great reward"; his all in all, being made to him, as to all believers, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption: him he believed, not only that he was God, but he believed his word of promise, and in his power and faithfulness to fulfil it; which regarded not only his natural offspring, and a numerous race, the enjoyment of the land of Canaan, and many temporal good things in it, but the Messiah, and spiritual blessings in him: he "believed in the Lord", Gen 15:6 in Jehovah the Word, in him as his shield, and exceeding great reward, in him as the Lord his righteousness:

and it was accounted to him for righteousness; that is, by God, whom he believed; for the sense is, not that Abraham ascribed righteousness to God, and celebrated his justice and faithfulness, as some; nor, as others, that Abraham was accounted a righteous man by the world; but that something was accounted by God to Abraham as his righteousness, which could not be the act of his faith; for faith is not a man's righteousness, neither in whole nor in part; faith and righteousness are two distinct things, and are often distinguished one from another in Scripture: besides, that which was accounted to Abraham for righteousness, is imputed to others also; see Rom 4:23 which can never be true of the act of his faith; but is of the object of it, the word of the Lord, his shield and exceeding great reward, the Lord his righteousness and strength, who is made or accounted, as to him, so to others, righteousness. The righteousness of Christ, whom he believed in, was accounted to him as his justifying righteousness now for faith to be accounted for righteousness, is all one as to be justified by faith; that is, by Christ, or by his righteousness imputed and received by faith; and if Abraham was justified this way, as he was, the apostle has his argument against the false teachers.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Ver. 6. It was accounted to him] This the Papists jeeringly call a putative righteousness. The Jews also deride it, and say, that every fox shall yield his own skin to the flayer. See Rom 4:9; Rom 4:11-12.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Even as Abraham believed God ... - see this passage fully explained in the notes at Rom 4:3. The passage is introduced here by the apostle to show that the most eminent of the patriarchs was not saved by the deeds of the Law. He was saved by faith, and this fact showed that it was possible to be saved in that way, and that it was the design of God to save people in this manner. Abraham believed God, and was justified, before the Law of Moses was given. It could not, therefore, be pretended that the Law was necessary to justification; for if it had been, Abraham could not have been saved. But if not necessary in his case, it was in no other; and this instance demonstrated that the false teachers among the Galatians were wrong even according to the Old Testament.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

As it is written: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. See Romans iv. 3. They only who imitate the faith of Abraham shall be blessed with him, and are his spiritual children, whether Jews or Gentiles, whom God promised to bless by the seed of Abraham; i.e. by Christ, who descended from Abraham. (Witham) --- The apostle thus argues with the Galatians; Abraham, who was never under the law, still received the grace of justification in reward of his faith, even before he had received circumcision. Now, if a person can be justified without the law, the law can be no ways necessary to salvation. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

As Abraham was justified, so must all the children of Abraham; but

Abraham believed God, ( that is, agreed to the truth of all those promises which God gave him, and trusted in God for the fulfilling of them; for both those acts of the mind are included in believing God), and so was justified alone.

And it was accounted to him for righteousness: his faith itself was not imputed to him; those that put this sense upon the words, either forget that faith itself is a work, or that the apostle here is arguing for jusjustification by faith in opposition to justification by works, and cannot be imagined to have gone about to prove that justification is not by works, by proving that it is by a work. The meaning is no more than that he was upon it accounted righteous; not that God so honoured the work of faith, but that he so rewarded it, as being the condition annexed to the promise of justification. His faith was not his righteousness, but God so rewarded his exercise of faith, as that open it he reckoned (or imputed) that to him which was his righteousness, viz. the righteousness of him in whom he believed as revealed unto him in the promise.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Even as—These connective words imply that the last interrogation has the force, as often, of a strong affirmation.

Abraham—So in Romans, written near the same time, Abraham is adduced as an illustrious exemplar of faith. The notes on Romans iv are essentially a comment upon this passage. But, as Prof. Lightfoot has fully shown, Abraham had long been a standing model of faith in Jewish literature, both among the Greek-Jews of Alexandria, of whom the chief representative was Philo, and among the Rabbinical Jews of the Babylonian school, who retained much of ancient tradition. Thus, in the Apocrypha, (1Ma_2:52,) Mattathias, father of the Maccabees, enumerating a line of Hebrew worthies, begins with “Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness?” And so in the Rabbinical school it was said, “Great is faith, whereby Israel believed on Him that spake and the world was. For as a reward for Israel’s having believed in the Lord, the Holy Spirit dwelt on them… In like manner thou findest that Abraham, our father, inherited this world and the world to come, solely by the merit of faith, whereby he believed in the Lord; for it is said, And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness.” A doctrine of faith essentially, yet not wholly, true, existed, therefore, in the pre-Christian Jewish Church. The faith extolled by the Jewish rabbi was too often an intense doctrinal monotheism, a mere bigoted sticking to Judaism. It was said. “As soon as a he is to be loved and forgiven, and treated in all respects as a brother; and though he may have sinned in every possible way, he is, indeed, an erring Israelite, and is punished accordingly; but still he inherits eternal life.” Hence faith was not only a supremely meritorious virtue, but a substitute for other virtues. St. Paul and Christianity reconstructed the doctrine of faith in four ways:—First, in Christ crucified there was presented a new object of faith, awakening the profoundest emotions of our being; second, in the substitutive atonement there was conditioned an abandonment of all self-merit, all merit in the faith itself, and a salvation purely gracious was substituted; third, the faith by which this salvation is attained is a complete surrender of the whole being to Christ and to all holiness of heart and life; fourth, that holiness of life, springing from the heart, is wrought in the being by the gift of the Spirit, which is by Christ bestowed consequently upon the faith. Paul’s Galatians had had the crucified One presented to their faith, and accepted, (Gal_3:1;) they had received the Spirit and run well; yet after having entered into the full glory of the Christian faith they were relapsing into the cold Jewish twilight.

Accounted… for righteousness—Not that the faith was so great a merit that it became a righteousness of character; but by this faith Abraham gave himself over to God, and was by God pardoned of his sins, and accepted, and strengthened into a holiness of soul and conduct. Notes, Rom_4:3-4; Rom_4:16-17.

The Christian faith and blessing being identical with the Abrahamic, Paul shows the Galatians how they are going out from Abraham, Christ, faith, and grace, into Moses, law, judgment, and curse. So far from becoming truer sons of Abraham by circumcision, they are going out from the Abrahamic sonship.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness (kaqwv jAbraasteuse tw Qew kaisqh aujw eijv dikaiosunhn); was reckoned unto him for righteousness. The answer to the question in the foregoing verse is so obvious that the apostle goes on as if that answer had been given, namely, that it was simply in consequence of the hearing of faith that God conferred on any the Holy Spirit and his powers. This, he now adds, was in exact conformity with what was recorded of Abraham; as soon as Abraham heard the promise made to him, "So shall thy seed be," he believed it, and by the hearing of faith was justified. The mutual correspondence of the two cases lay in this, that in imparting to those believers the Holy Spirit, God showed that they were in his favour, were justified people, simply because of their faith; even as Abraham was shown to be in his favour, having likewise by faith been justified. The apostle weaves into his sentence the very words ofnhn. (Gen_15:6, as they appear in the Septuagint, with scarcely any modification; the Septuagint reading thus: Kaisteusen Abram tw Qew kaisqh aujtw eijv dikaiosu) But in doing so he both himself feels, and will have his readers feel, that they are words of Scripture from which, as such, reliable conclusions might be drawn, as is shown by the next verse. In the Hebrew, however, the passage runs as in our Authorized Version, "He believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness." The words are quoted with substantially the like agreement with the Septuagint and divergence from the Hebrew also in Rom_4:3, and by St. James in his Epistle (Jam_2:23) (ejpisteuse de jAbraam, etc.). "It was reckoned;" in the Hebrew, "he reckoned it;" "it," that is, his believing: God regarded it as imparting to him perfect acceptableness, his sins no longer disqualifying him for being an object of the Divine favour. It is of the greatest importance to take note what the kind of faith was which God reckoned to him for righteousness. It was not simply a persuasion that what God says must be true. As Calvin remarks, Cain might have a hundred times exercised faith in what God had said to him, without thereby receiving righteousness from God. The reason why Abraham was justified by believing was this: a promise had been given him by God of his fatherly goodness towards him; and this word of God"s he embraced as certainty. The faith, therefore, which the apostle is thinking of is the faith which has respect to some word of God which is of such a sort that reliance upon it will enable a man to repose in God"s love to him for time and for eternity. The reference to Abraham"s case which St. Paul makes in such very brief terms he expands in the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans to a considerable length, ending with these words: "Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was reckoned to him for righteousness; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our offences, and was raised for our justification." Christ"s death and resurrection are God"s word and guarantee to the whole human race, assuring us of his forgiveness and of his offer to us of eternal life. If we hear this word with faith, committing ourselves to his love, God on that ground at once justifies also us. It is evident that, in the apostle"s view, the word "righteousness," as used in the recited passage of Genesis, does not mean "a righteous act, that is, that Abraham"s believing God"s promise was viewed by Heaven with approval; but complete acceptableness investing Abraham himself. In consideration of that exercise of faith God accounted him a righteous man. The Greek phrase, ejlogisqh eijv dikaiosunhn, "was reckoned for righteousness," i.e. reckoned as being righteousness, is similar to logisqhnai eijv oujden, "reckoned as nought"; (Act_19:27) eijv peritomhsetai, "reckoned for circumcision"; (Rom_2:26) logizetai eijv sperma, "reckoned for a seed". (Rom_9:8) Are we to lifter from these two verses, 5 and 6, that in the apostle"s view all who received spiritual gifts were thereby proved to be, or to have been, justified persons and in enjoyment of the Divine favour? We can hardly think this. The phenomena disclosed to us in the two Epistles addressed to the Corinthians. as to the moral and spiritual behaviour of some at least of their body, tend to show that individuals possessed of charisms were found in some instances to make a very vainglorious use of them, and needed to be reminded that the thaumaturgic gifts were of a fleeting character and of incomparably less value than qualities of moral goodness. Certainly Christ himself has told us that "many" will at the last be found to have been possessed of such miraculous gifts, whom nevertheless he "never knew." One of the very apostles was a Judas. Perhaps the solution is this: companies of men were dealt with in the diffusion of these gifts according as they were characterized, viewed each as a whole, though there might be individuals in each company imperfectly, very superficially, some perhaps not at all, animated by the sentiment generally prevailing in the body. If a community as a whole was pervaded extensively by a spirit of frank acceptance of the gospel doctrine and of pious devotion, its members brought by baptism into the "body which is Christ," the Holy Spirit made such a community his habitation (1Co_3:16, 17 6:19; 2Co_6:16) and diffused his gifts among its members diversely and to all appearance Indiscriminately; (1Co_12:13) at all events not in such wise discriminately as that degrees of personal holiness and acceptableness before God could at all be estimated as standing in proportion to the outward brilliancy of thaumaturgie gifts severally possessed.

Vers. 6-9.

Second argument the case of Abraham.

The natural answer to the previous question is "through the hearing of faith," and this as naturally suggests the case of "faithful Abraham." The Jews boasted of their relationship to Abraham, and therefore an example taken from his history would have special force.

I THE JUSTIFICATION OF ABRAHAM WAS NOT THROUGH CIRCUMCISION, BUT BY FAITH. "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." No exception could be made to these words, for they were the very words of Moses. (Gen_15:6) The apostle dwells longer on the old Testament, because the Judaists would naturally appeal to it.

1. Abraham was not accepted for his virtues or his piety, or his circumcision, but because "he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness". (see homily on Gal_2:16) His faith was accepted as righteousness, not as an act, for it had no merit in itself, but as a fact, for it was not by works, but by faith, he was accepted. His faith was the mere instrument of his justification, not the ground of it; for Scripture always represents it as being "through" faith or "of" faith, never on account of it.

2. The transaction here referred to occurred hundreds of years before the Law was given on Sisal, and even some time before circumcision was appointed as a "seal of righteousness." If he, therefore, could be justified without circumcision, and prior to it, how then could the Judaists insist on its necessity? Abraham was not circumcised in order to be justified, but circumcised because he was justified.

3. The doctrine of the apostle was not, therefore, in any sense a novelty, as the Judaists might think. It was at least as old as Abraham.

II THE TRUE CONCEPTION OF ABRAHAMIC SONSHIP. "Know ye therefore that they who are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham.

1. It is not Abrahams blood, but Abrahams faith, which establishes the connection between the patriarch and his descendants. The Jews might say, "We have Abraham to our father;" and they might ask in surprise, "What profit, then, is there in circumcision?" They would imitate his circumcision rather than his faith. But the apostle says emphatically that the true sons are "they of faith," whose fundamental principle is faith.

2. It is Christ who makes the nexus between Abraham and us. We believe in Christ, who is Abraham"s seed; therefore we are sons of Abraham.

3. There is but one Church in the two dispensations. Some modern sects hold that the Church is a New Testament organization, and that Old Testament saints have no part in it. How can this be, if we believers "are blessed with not apart from Abraham"? (Gal_3:9) The apostle shows how Abraham has the heirship, the sonship, the kingdom, the glory, on the ground of the promise. He did not, therefore, receive the promise only for his children. Take the promise of the Spirit from Abraham; we take it from ourselves. Is the father of the family to be excluded, and only the children to gain admission to the kingdom?

III THE PROOF FROM SCRIPTURE. "Moreover, the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the heathen through faith, announced the good news beforehand to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

1. The exact import of the promise.

(1) The blessing is justification, which is opposed to the curse of which he presently speaks. But that includes a title to eternal life as well as pardon.

(2) The unity of Abraham and his spiritual descendants. He is the root and the representative of his seed. The unity is not that established by circumcision, but something far deeper.

1. God had purposes of mercy toward the heathen. These purposes included their justification on the same grounds as those which secured the acceptance of the Jews. The Jewish dispensation was particularistic, and was so far temporary and preparatory to a dispensation universalistic in its character. In Christ there was to be henceforth "neither Jew nor Gentile.

2. The way of salvation is the same in both dispensations. Old Testament saints were saved exactly like New Testament saints, by faith in the Lamb slain frorn the foundation of the world." The Levitical system was in itself an evangelical representation of the true method of salvation.

3. We see here the value of Scripture for proof, for confirmation, for comfort, through all ages.

IV COMMUNITY WELL AS UNITY IS THE BLESSING. "So then they which be of faith are blessed together with the faithful Abraham.

1. The blessing. It is the manifestation of Divine favour. The blessing and justification are regarded in the context as correlative terms.

2. The community between Abraham and his seed.

(1) He is "faithful Abraham," because of the simplicity, strength, and activity of his faith. He manifested all these characteristics of faith in

(a) his self-expatriation;

(b) his readiness to sacrifice Isaac;

(c) his warlike courage;

(d) his self-abnegation in the case of Lot.

(2) He is the "father of the faithful." There are but two properly representative men, the first and the second Adam; but Abraham holds a relation of his own, though not of a federal character, towards all who are his seed spiritually. He and they are blessed together.

3. The ground of this community. It is the promise of God, "In thee shall the nations of the earth be blessed," realized in course of time in the common faith of all who, whether Jew or Gentile, trust in one Redeemer, and find in him their true inheritance as joint-heirs with him.

Vers. 6-9.

The faith and blessing of Abraham.

Not only, says the apostle, did you begin the Christian life in faith, but even Abraham, whom the Jews reverence as their great exemplar, and whose heir they profess to be, even he was justified by faith; and therefore they who enjoy his blessing are the possessors of the same faith.

I ABRAHAM WAS A MAN OF FAITH. He knew nothing of the Levitical Law. He walked by faith. His faith was not assent to a creed. Nor was it an intelligent conviction of any "plan of salvation" obtained by means of a miraculous foresight of the atonement to be accomplished many centuries later in the sacrifice of Christ. It was a grand, simple trust in God. It was shown in his forsaking the idols of his forefathers and worshipping the one spiritual God, in his leaving his home and going he knew not whither in obedience to a Divine voice, in his willingness to sacrifice his son, in his hope of a future inheritance. Such a faith is personal reliance, leading to active obedience and encouraged by confident anticipation. Abraham"s faith is the model faith for us. For us faith is to rely upon Christ, to be loyal to Christ, to hope in Christ, and also to accept the fuller revelations of truth which Christ opens up to us as Abraham accepted the Divine voices vouchsafed to him. For the contents of faith will vary according to our light, The spirit of it, however, must be always the same.

II ABRAHAM"S FAITH WAS RECKONED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The special point in Abraham"s character was not his holiness, but his faith. God"s favour flowed to him through this channel. It was the way through which he, though imperfect and sinful, as are all the sons of Adam, was called to the privileged place of a righteous man. This is recorded of him in the sacred history, (Gen_15:6) and therefore should be admitted by all Jews. So much for St. Paul"s special argument. For us the important lesson is that, if so famous a saint, living even under the older religion, was accepted through faith, how much more apparent is it that faith is necessary for us! The reasons for relying on faith are

(1) historical faith justified Abraham, therefore it will justify us;

(2) theological faith brings us into living fellowship with God, and so opens our hearts to receive the forgiveness that puts us in the position of righteous men; and

(3) moral faith is the security for the future growth of righteousness, with the first effort of faith the first seed-grace of righteousness is sown.

III PARTICIPATION IN ABRAHAM"S FAITH IS THE CONDITION OF PARTICIPATION IN ABRAHAM"S BLESSING. Jews claimed the blessing by birthright. Jewish Christians offered it to the Gentiles on condition of their becoming as Jews. Both were wrong. Abraham received his blessing through his faith. It was necessarily conditioned by faith. Only men of faith could have it. Therefore Jews who lost faith lost the blessing. But all men of faith are spiritual sons of Abraham. Therefore all nations are blessed in Abraham just in proportion as they have a similar faith. Indeed, the finest legacy left by the patriarch was his faith. Canaan came and went. Spiritual blessings such as faith includes are eternal. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Doubtless in confirmation of that grand doctrine, that we are justified by faith, even as Abraham was. The Apostle, both in this and in the epistle to the Romans, makes great use of the instance of Abraham: the rather, because from Abraham the Jews drew their great argument, as they do this day, both for their own continuance in Judaism, and for denying the gentiles to be the church of God. Gen. xv, 6

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

VERSE 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

The Apostle next adduces the example of Abraham and reviews the testimony of the Scriptures concerning faith. The first passage is taken from Gen 15:6 : "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." The Apostle makes the most of this passage. Abraham may have enjoyed a good standing with men for his upright life, but not with God. In the sight of God, Abraham was a condemned sinner. That he was justified before God was not due to his own exertions, but due to his faith. The Scriptures expressly state: "Abraham believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

Paul places the emphasis upon the two words: Abraham believed. Faith in God constitutes the highest worship, the prime duty, the first obedience, and the foremost sacrifice. Without faith God forfeits His glory, wisdom, truth, and mercy in us. The first duty of man is to believe in God and to honor Him with his faith. Faith is truly the height of wisdom, the right kind of righteousness, the only real religion. This will give us an idea of the excellence of faith.

To believe in God as Abraham did is to be right with God because faith honors God. Faith says to God: "I believe what you say."

When we pay attention to reason, God seems to propose impossible matters in the Christian Creed. To reason it seems absurd that Christ should offer His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper; that Baptism should be the washing of regeneration; that the dead shall rise; that Christ the Son of God was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, etc. Reason shouts that all this is preposterous. Are you surprised that reason thinks little of faith? Reason thinks it ludicrous that faith should be the foremost service any person can render unto God.

Let your faith supplant reason. Abraham mastered reason by faith in the Word of God. Not as though reason ever yields meekly. It put up a fight against the faith of Abraham. Reason protested that it was absurd to think that Sarah who was ninety years old and barren by nature, should give birth to a son. But faith won the victory and routed reason, that ugly beast and enemy of God. Everyone who by faith slays reason, the world’s biggest monster, renders God a real service, a better service than the religions of all races and all the drudgery of meritorious monks can render.

Men fast, pray, watch, suffer. They intend to appease the wrath of God and to deserve God’s grace by their exertions. But there is no glory in it for God, because by their exertions these workers pronounce God an unmerciful slave driver, an unfaithful and angry Judge. They despise God, make a liar out of Him, snub Christ and all His benefits; in short they pull God from His throne and perch themselves on it.

Faith truly honors God. And because faith honors God, God counts faith for righteousness.

Christian righteousness is the confidence of the heart in God through Christ Jesus. Such confidence is accounted righteousness for Christ’s sake. Two things make for Christian righteousness: Faith in Christ, which is a gift of God; and God’s acceptance of this imperfect faith of ours for perfect righteousness. Because of my faith in Christ, God overlooks my distrust, the unwillingness of my spirit, my many other sins. Because the shadow of Christ’s wing covers me I have no fear that God will cover all my sins and take my imperfections for perfect righteousness.

God "winks" at my sins and covers them up. God says: "Because you believe in My Son I will forgive your sins until death shall deliver you from the body of sin."

Learn to understand the constitution of your Christian righteousness. Faith is weak, but it means enough to God that He will not lay sin to our charge. He will not punish nor condemn us for it. He will forgive our sins as though they amount to nothing at all. He will do it not because we are worthy of such mercy. He will do it for Jesus’ sake in whom we believe.

Paradoxically, a Christian is both right and wrong, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God. These contradictions no person can harmonize who does not understand the true way of salvation. Under the papacy we were told to toil until the feeling of guilt had left us. But the authors of this deranged idea were frequently driven to despair in the hour of death. It would have happened to me, if Christ had not mercifully delivered me from this error.

We comfort the afflicted sinner in this manner: Brother, you can never be perfect in this life, but you can be holy. He will say: "How can I be holy when I feel my sins?" I answer: You feel sin? That is a good sign. To realize that one is ill is a step, and a very necessary step, toward recovery. "But how will I get rid of my sin?" he will ask. I answer: See the heavenly Physician, Christ, who heals the broken-hearted. Do not consult that Quackdoctor, Reason. Believe in Christ and your sins will be pardoned. His righteousness will become your righteousness, and your sins will become His sins.

On one occasion Jesus said to His disciples: "The Father loveth you." Why? Not because the disciples were Pharisees, or circumcised, or particularly attentive to the Law. Jesus said: "The Father loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. It pleased you to know that the Father sent me into the world. And because you believed it the Father loves you." On another occasion Jesus called His disciples evil and commanded them to ask for forgiveness.

A Christian is beloved of God and a sinner. How can these two contradictions be harmonized: I am a sinner and deserve God’s wrath and punishment, and yet the Father loves me? Christ alone can harmonize these contradictions. He is the Mediator.

Do you now see how faith justifies without works? Sin lingers in us, and God hates sin. A transfusion of righteousness therefore becomes vitally necessary. This transfusion of righteousness we obtain from Christ because we believe in Him.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

God

Jehovah. Gen 15:6.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul brings Scripture-proof for his position:

v. 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

v. 7. Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

v. 8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

v. 9. So, then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

The apostle here reminds the Galatian Christians that were inclined to follow the Judaizing teachers of the example of Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish nation, to whom the Jews were wont to refer with particular pride, and thus incidentally answers the questions of vv. 2 and 5. He quotes Gen 15:6 according to the Greek translation: Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. See Rom 4:3. Not by any works which Abraham performed, but by his faith was he justified before God. For the faith of Abraham was not the mere assent to the words of the Lord upon that single occasion but it was faith in God as the Father of Jesus Christ and in the Messiah of the world, whose coming was promised to the patriarch. But Paul now draws a conclusion: You perceive, you understand, then, that they who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham. Since faith was the ground of Abraham’s justification, it follows that all those that have the faith of Abraham are his true children. The mere bodily descent from Abraham secures salvation for no man, but as Abraham was saved, thus all believers are saved, namely, by faith. See Joh 8:39. No matter what the nationality of a person map be, if he proves himself a true child of Abraham by exhibiting the same faith in God and the Savior, then he will inherit the blessing given to Abraham and to his seed forever.

To this proof from Scriptures Paul adds another to show that the heathen were also included in the promise: Moreover, the Scripture, foreseeing that by faith God would justify the Gentiles, proclaimed the Gospel to Abraham before: Blessed shall be in thee all the nation; (or Gentiles). Paul’s reference is to Gen 12:1-3; Gen 18:18, and he identifies the Word of God with the Scripture. God knew in advance that the Gentiles would be justified by faith: it was thus determined in His eternal and immutable counsels; He is the God that justifies by faith. Therefore the Gospel-message which was included in the promise to Abraham proclaimed a blessing to be bestowed upon all Gentiles. Since, however, the Gentiles were not connected with the Law of Moses, it is obvious that their justification could not be based upon anything else than their faith; works of the Law were excluded by the nature of the case. Therefore the conclusion offered by the apostle must be correct: So, then, they that are of faith are blessed with the believing Abraham. All men who, like Abraham, put their trust in their Lord and Savior in simple faith are included in the blessing of the promise. Men of faith are heirs of salvation, not men of works.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here our apostle proceeds to a second argument, to prove that persons are justified by faith, and not by works; and that is drawn from the example of Abraham: And the argument lies thus: "As Abraham, the father of the faithful, was justified; so must all believers, the children of faithful Abraham, be justified also. But though Abraham did abound in many virtues and good works, yet he was not justified by these, but by faith only; therefore by faith must all his children be justified also. Abraham believed God; that is, assented to, and relied upon the promise of God made unto him, that in him, that is, in the Messias, who was to descend from him. should all the nations of the earth be blessed; and this faith of his was accounted imputed, and reckoned to him for righteousness; that is, was accepted of God for his justification."

From whence the apostle doth infer, or draw this conclusion, that such as seek justification by faith, as Abraham did, are the children of Abraham, as the Gentiles were; that is, the children of his faith; a far greater privilege than what the Jews gloried in, namely, that they were the children of his flesh.

Learn hence, that as the pious Jews under the Old Testament, so are Christians now under the New Testament, justified alike. Were they justified freely? So are we. Are we justified fully? So are they. Was a righteousness necessary for them to be clothed with, in order to their acceptance with God? The same is necessary for us also. Was faith imputed by God to them for righeousness? So shall it be to us also.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. [ Gen_15:6 ; Rom_4:3 ; Rom_4:9 ; Rom_4:21-22 ]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6–9. Even as Abraham believed God, etc. The Galatians would have to reply to the questions of verse 5, “By the hearing of faith?” “Yes,” says Paul, “Even as Abraham, who was accepted as righteous by faith without the law.” See Gen. 15:6. This passage is quoted in Rom. 4:3, 9, 21, 22, and in James 2:23.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul reminds the Galatian believers that even Abraham received righteousness by faith and not by the law.

it was credited to him as righteousness

God saw Abraham's faith in God, so then God considered Abraham righteous.

those of faith

"those who have faith." The meaning of the noun "faith" can be expressed with the verb "believe." AT: "those who believe" (See: Abstract Nouns)

children of Abraham

This represents people whom God views as he viewed Abraham. AT: "righteous in the same way as Abraham" (See: Metaphor)

foreseeing

Because God made the promise to Abraham and they wrote it down before the promise came through Christ, the scripture is like someone who knows the future before it happens. AT: "predicted" or "saw before it happened" (See: Personification)

In you

"Because of what you have done" or "Because I have blessed you." The word "you" refers to Abraham and is singular. (See: Forms of You)

all the nations

"all the people-groups in the world." God was emphasizing that he was not favoring only the Jewish people, his chosen group. His plan of salvation was for both Jews and non-Jews.

translationWords

Abraham

believe

God

righteous

son

word of God

just

Gentile

faith

good news

preach

bless

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

6-9.] Abraham’s faith was his entrance into righteousness before God: and Scripture, in recording this, records also God’s promise to him, by virtue of which all the faithful inherit his blessing.

6.] The reply to the foregoing question is understood: it is ἐξ ἀκοῆς πίστεως. And then enters the thought of God’s ἐνεργεῖν as following upon Abraham’s faith. The fact of justification being now introduced, whereas before the ἐπιχορηγεῖν τὸ πνεῦμα was the matter enquired of, is no real departure from the subject, for both these belong to the ἐνάρξασθαι of ver. 3,—are concomitant, and inseparable. On the verse, see note, Rom 4:3.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. καθὼς “Ἀβραὰμ ἐπίστευσεν τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην.” “as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.” The apostle assumes that to his question of v. 5 his readers will, in accordance with the historic facts, answer: ἐξ ἀκοῆς πίστεως. To this answer he attaches a comparison between the faith of the Galatians and that of Abraham. The next two chapters, in which the argument revolves largely around Abraham and Abraham’s sons (see 3:7, 8, 14, 16, 18, 29, 4:22-31), show that this is no mere incidental illustration, but fills a vital place in his argument. The fact itself suggests, what an examination of the argument confirms, that Paul is here replying to an argument of his opponents. This argument, we may safely conjecture, was based on Gen. chaps. 12 and 17, especially 17:10-14, and most especially v. 14, and was to the effect that according to O. T. no one could participate in the blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham, and so in the messianic salvation that is inseparably associated with it, who was not circumcised. Neither the usage of δικαιοσύνη (see detached note on Δίκαιος, Δικαιοσύνη and Δικαιόω, pp. 469 ff.), nor that of λογίζεται εἰς (see below), is decisive as between the two meanings: (1) “it was attributed to him as right conduct,” i. e., “he was accounted to have acted righteously,” and (2) “it was reckoned to him as ground of acceptance.” The general context, however, dealing predominantly with righteousness in the forensic aspect, acceptance with God, decides for the latter meaning. Against the argument probably advanced by his opponents in Galatia to the effect that under the covenant with Abraham no one is acceptable to God who is not circumcised (Gen 17:14; cf. Jub. chap. 15, esp. v. 26.), Paul points out that, according to the scripture, to Abraham himself it was his faith that was accounted as ground of acceptance.

Λογίζομαι is used in Greek writers frequently and in a variety of applications of the general meaning “to reckon, to calculate, to deem, to consider.” To express the idea “to credit or charge something to one’s account, to put it to his account,” the Greeks used λογ· τινι· (Dem. 264:16; Lev 7:8(18). According to Cremer, “to account a thing as being this or that, or having a certain value,” was expressed by λογ· with two accusatives (Xen. Cyr. 1. 2:11, μίαν ἄμφω τούτω τὼ ἡμέρα λογίζονται). In the Lxx λογίζομαι is the translation of חָשַׁב, “to reckon,” “to account.” In N. T. it is used with much the same variation of meanings as in cl. Gr., and the idea “to credit or charge to one” is expressed in the same way. (Rom 4:4, Rom 4:6, 2Co 5:19; cf. Pro 17:28). “To reckon a thing or person to be this or that,” or “to account a thing as having a certain value,” is expressed as it is in the Lxx, who translate the Heb. חָשַׁבלְ by λογ· εἰς. The examples show that this form of expression may have either of the above-named meanings; “to think (one) to be this or that,” or “to count as having the value of this or that.” Thus in 1Sa 1:13: ἐλογίσατο αὐτὴν Ἡλὶ εἰς μεθύουσαν, it clearly bears the former meaning; so also Rom 9:8, τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας λογίζεται εἰς σπέρμα. But in Act 19:27: κινδυνεύει … ἱερὸν εἰς οὐθὲν λογισθῆναι, and in Rom 2:26: οὐχ ἡ ἀκροβυστία αὐτοῦ εἰς περιτομὴν λογισθήσεται, the latter is apparently the meaning. See also Gen 15:16, Psa 105 (106) 31, Isa 29:17, Isa 32:15, Isa 40:17, Lam 4:2, Hos 8:12, Wisd. 2:16, 3:17, 9:6, Jas 2:23. Even in this second class of cases, however, the word itself conveys no implication of a reckoning above or contrary to real value, as Cremer maintains. If this thought is conveyed it must be by the limitations of the word, not by the word itself. There being in the present passage no such limitations, the idea of estimation contrary to fact can not legitimately be discovered in the passage. Nor can it be imported into this passage from Rom 4:1-6, concerning which see in detached note on Δικαιοσύνη, p. 470.

6. Characterisation of the condition under law, and, in contrast with it, the condition since faith came; then we were held in custody under law, now we are all sons of God, heirs of the promise (3:23-29)

In further confirmation of the temporariness of the law and the inferiority of the condition under it the apostle describes the latter as one of custody, and that of a child under a pedagogue. Now, however, that that period is over and the full Christian experience of faith has come, we are no longer in subjection. Ye are sons of God, and all alike, without distinction of race, status, or sex, one in Christ Jesus; but if in him, and his, then also seed of Abraham. Thus the argument returns to its starting point in v. 7.

23 But before the faith came, we were kept guarded under law, shut up for the obtaining of the faith that was to be revealed. 24 So that the law has been for us a pedagogue to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But the faith having come we are no longer under a pedagogue. 26 For ye are all sons of God, through your faith, in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptised unto Christ did put on Christ. 28 There is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye seed of Abraham, heirs according to promise.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Even as [καθως] . The answer to the question of verse 5 is so obvious that it is not given. Paul proceeds at once to the illustration - the argument for the righteousness of faith furnished in the justification of Abraham. The spiritual gifts come through the message of faith, even as Abraham believed, etc.

Believed God [επιστευσεν τω θεω] . See on Rom 4:5. Believed God 's promise that he should become the father of many nations. See Rom 4:18 - 21. The reference is not to faith in the promised Messiah. It was accounted to him for righteousness [ελογισθη αυτω εις δικαιοσυνην] . See on Rom 4:5. Eiv does not mean instead of, but as. His faith was reckoned as righteousness - as something which it really was since all possibilities of righteousness are included in faith.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.