Abraham the Believer
Galatians 6:6-9 · Vern Peterman · Jul 29, 2007
Galatians (2007), No. 15
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926034581206

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to be moving into this passage that Gene just read for us here. And as we do so, I just want to bring a couple things to your attention. Last week we offered a handout on Acts 13.48, and this is the one where it's translated, as many as have been appointed to eternal life believed. And so some of you came up and said, hey, we're out, and I passed those along via email. But we have additional copies in the back if you would like to get a hold of those and miss that. We also have on the cabinet a one-page handout that Hal had produced, and you can feel free to take that. It's a very well-done outline of the passage. So that'd be a good study help if you'd like to take advantage of that.

So now, in our passage here, we're going to ask the question, what's in a name and then another name? All right? What are we saying? Abraham is at the front end of a pattern that we see throughout Scripture that goes like this. People in Scripture, and you may have noticed this pattern, oftentimes have more than one name. And sometimes we see distinctly someone having one name and then being later on given another. And that's certainly the case with Abraham. We have Abraham in our passage today who start off with the name Abram.

And we'll see the difference here shortly. Cephas. or Kephas in the Aramaic, to Peter. They both mean rock. And what did the Lord do? He added the Greek name Peter. So he had two handles, if you will. Saul being changed to Paul. He was given the name Saul, which would have been his Hebrew name, Shaul, actually, and then Paul, or Paulus. Now, in case you think, well, that's nice for them, get used to it.

It says in Revelation 2.17 that the Lord is going to give you a new name. And, get this, it's a name that only He and you will know. How about that? So, you're all going to get a new name. If you're a believer here this morning, this is just the beginning. Okay? You're all going to get a new name. And you get to find out what that is when you go to be with the Lord. I can't tell you in advance because I don't know. I don't know what my own new name will be. Alright.

Now, we have the squeeze between Genesis 16 and Genesis 18, this passage Genesis 17, 1 through 5. And so it's squeezed in between there. Genesis 16 is where Hagar gives birth to Ishmael and that account, Genesis 18, includes the initial story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment and also the laughing of Sarah. And so that squeeze between there, we need to get that out of there. So we'll let it come out. There we go. All right.

When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly." The Lord went on there talking with Abraham. But first, Abraham fell before the Lord. He fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you.

And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram. That's his name from his earlier years in the Hebrew, High Father. But your name shall be called or shall be Abraham, which slight variation, but that little difference means father of a multitude. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. The first statement of the covenant that the Lord made with Abraham, because they actually restated and expanded on it several times, is in Genesis 12, the first few verses there. Now the Lord said to Abram, whom we know as Abraham, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show to you. and I will make you a great nation.

And we're going to see more of what that means. And I will bless you and I will make your name great and so you shall be a blessing. In chapter 15, the first three verses there, after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram, again later called Abraham, in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great.

And Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? See, the concern in Abram's time, a very substantial concern, is, I must have an heir. I must have an heir. So he's very concerned about this. Alright? And I just want to clarify, that's heir, not hair. Okay? I'd like the Lord to make a promise to me about hair, but that's not what it means. Okay.

Then, verse 4, Then, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, But one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, Now look towards the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then he, that is, Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Key verse for our study this morning. We're going to take a closer look at that as a matter of fact.

Genesis 15.6, this is still on the first page of your handout. Here is Abraham. Then he, Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he, the Lord, reckoned it to him, Abraham, as righteousness. This passage is very basic as to how we are saved. Not only does Paul quote it in Galatians, but it's referred to in Romans and in James as well.

The essential message is that only the Lord is fundamentally righteous by character. The Lord is by definition righteous. He is righteous by character. No exceptions. Only by means of faith are we, notice the difference, declared righteous. The Lord declares us righteous. He alone has the right and place to do that.

How does He do that? It's based on the debt of sin being paid for by Christ. by Christ's death on the cross for us. Christ's righteousness is by fundamental character. He, being the Son of God, is fundamentally and essentially righteous. God's authority to make such a pronouncement of us, to declare us righteous, is by His accounting.

We'll see that just shortly here. In Galatians 3, 6-9, notice the number of times this fellow Abraham shows up. He shows up essentially in each verse there. Abraham, Abraham, Abraham. He is a critical theme. So why did Paul bring up Abraham? Basically by this time Abraham had been 2,000 years. in Paul's history, 4,000 years in our history in round numbers. Abraham lived 4,000 years ago. Why bring up this Abraham guy to deal with an issue now 2,000 years later in Paul's day? So why do you bring up Abraham?

First of all, the Jews, the ones who were claiming you've got to be circumcised in order to be saved, you've got to follow the law of Moses in order to be saved, The Jews had the greatest respect for Abraham. So if you have respect for Abraham, let's learn from Abraham. How was Abraham saved?

Key point. They even believed that being descended on the genealogical tree, the family tree from Abraham, would guarantee their salvation. One of the things that we have stated before, it was a Jewish myth passed along among the Jews that Abraham stands by the gates of hell to assure that no Jew ever goes in. And so Abraham would certainly guarantee, as one of our fathers of our country, as the father of the country ultimately, that they would get in.

Also, the account of Abraham was in the very first book of the law, and of course they had great respect for all five books of Moses, and especially that first one. Anything out of Moses' books would certainly hold great weight. But wait, there's more. And now we're starting to sound like an info commercial. Now, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

These are similar to words that are found in Romans several times, Romans chapter 4 and James 2.23. Abraham did nothing more and nothing less to be saved than believe God. And that's Paul's point. Abraham believed God. And what did God say?

He reckoned it as righteousness. God did the declaration. It's not up to me to declare it. It's not up to me to decide. I believe, God says, that's good. I count it as righteousness. See, God is the heavenly accountant. He reckoned it. This is a word that was used in accounting terminology in New Testament times. And God is the spiritual, eternal accountant. He is the one that keeps the books, so to speak. Who looks at our account status. He says, ah, that person is a believer. He then calculates our standing with Him. Believer, account status believer, righteous. That's what He declares. So how can God do that? How can God make that happen? God can calculate our account as righteous when our account status is believer. What does He do? He says, ah, that person, that account status for that person is believer. Therefore, And I'm using figurative language.

God stamps it big and large. Righteous. Righteous. God declares us righteous. He has that ability, that power, that knowledge and understanding. That person's a believer. I declare them righteous. He has the ability to do that because of the righteous one who took our sins upon himself. Because of him. He can do that because the massive mountain of liabilities, debts, that we owed. That's how sins are pictured, especially in the New Testament.

The massive mountain of liabilities that we owed have all, every one, been paid by Christ. He paid every one. Full price. No bargain deals, no coupons. He paid the full price for every single sin. He paid the price for all of our sins, every one, no exceptions. Our sins, that massive mountain of debt, that huge overwhelming pile, was transferred entirely over to Christ's account when we believe.

Notice as we go through this passage, one other thing. This word believed or faith keeps being carried through the entire passage. Why is that? What we'll notice here is these words are part of a family of words. In English we talk about belief and faith and trust and we have those different words and we even have some kind of a different nuance for those words, don't we? We tend to think of those words in slightly different ways.

In the New Testament, in New Testament Greek, in the language that Paul wrote in, those words were all part of a family of words. They were all put together. To believe, to have faith, and to trust were all thought of as the same. And so he puts that family of words generously throughout this passage at the start, in the middle, and in the beginning, at the end, all the way through.

And what is he saying? This is not just intellectual assent. Oh, I have a concept that Christ paid for my sins, and I sort of intellectually assent to that. No. It is believing that it is true in the spiritual facts as God's revealed them, and depending upon what God has accomplished. That's what faith is. That's what he's talking about here repeatedly. Faith and the spiritual facts. Not just intellectually, but personally. Take it personally. The other line that keeps coming across here is those who are of faith. I have a key point to make here.

Being of faith in the context in which Paul used it is not just being of some kind of faith. Sometimes you'll hear this terminology, this phrase, people of faith. Ever heard that? And it just sort of means people who believe something religious. That's not what he's talking about.

Just being people who believe something of a religious character is not sufficient. This is people of faith, people who believe God and specifically what he has revealed for us. That's why Paul had no problem telling the Philippian jailer, the Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul didn't say, well, be a person of faith. Believe, what? In the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.

A specific direction. Those who are sons of Abraham. He's not talking about those who have a physical descendancy from Abraham, is he? He's specifically steering away from that. He says, no, just being descended from him is not enough. And that is quite his point.

Sons are those closely related to and like in character, okay? Closely related to and like in character. It's something we brought out in the Sermon on the Mount elective just before coming in here. When you see in Scripture, there'll be sons of, children of, you'll see that kind of use commonly. One of the kind of opposite side examples we use, sons of disobedience, okay? related to disobedience and like disobedience in character, right?

Sons of Abraham related to him by faith, not by descendancy, but like in character. What's the character? Believing. Believing. Believing what God says. That's the likeness of Abraham. Sons of Abraham. Now here is this verse 8. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles, that is, declare the Gentiles to be righteous.

How? Because they put enough money in the offering slot? No. Because they mowed enough lawns? As much as we like to have you do that. No, that doesn't do anything for righteousness. It's by faith. But what does he say here in verse 8? The scripture foreseeing, and here's the scripture, put that up there, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. I'll put some I's there, okay? Preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Okay, so Scripture talks, right? Saying, all the nations will be blessed in you.

Is he really talking about Scripture seeing? It is the God of Scripture, isn't it? He's using figurative language to say the God of Scripture, knowing the end from the beginning, knowing all things in advance, speaks through Scripture, preaching the gospel beforehand to Abraham, before there was the law. before the law ever came in place. And what is it?

Believe. And that's accounted as righteous. Righteousness. That God would justify the Gentiles by faith. I don't know about you, but it's probably a good number of us are of Gentile background. Rumor has it I have some little tiny pinch of Jewish in me, but I haven't found it yet. So anyway. Justify the Gentiles by faith. God does not justify the Gentiles by the law of Moses, contrary to what these Judaizers, these legalists were claiming. But only by faith in God's sole provision for salvation. By faith alone.

Notice this word beforehand. Paul's point here, and he's got a timing issue in mind. Paul's point here is that Abraham was saved by faith before the law was even given, so that the law was not essential to salvation. Get that? If Abraham was saved by faith, if he is reckoned as righteous, then I don't need the law to be safe. That's Paul's point. Notice the before. That's a key thing.

In Genesis 17, 9-11, God said further to Abraham, Now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between you and me." What is it? It is the sign. See that? Faith was encountered that is considered or reckoned, God calculated to Abraham for faith to be righteousness as he was circumcised before God brought it up, before God brought up circumcision. See, this was afterwards.

This is precisely the issue that Paul is dealing with, with these Judaizers, these legalists who are coming into the churches of Galatia and saying, you've got to follow the law of Moses if you're ever going to be saved, down to the letter. As we would say, every jot and tittle. every Yod and Katz in the original. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. That was what they were saying.

Notice Paul brings up this timing of righteousness in Romans. Romans 4 we mentioned. Let's take a look at it. Starting in verse 9. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. So he brings it up again. How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, was he declared righteous by faith before or after? Drum roll, ready, set, here we go.

Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. He was accounted righteous by faith before the symbol was brought in, the symbol of circumcision. In verse 11, and he received the sign, here it is again, sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had while uncircumcised. He had the righteousness of faith while he was uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe, like us.

If we have put our trust in what the Lord has said is necessary for salvation, We believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again. You put your trust in the works of Christ. That's the faith that God says is all it takes for him to declare you righteous. That's the gospel. The end of verse 8, all the nations will be blessed in you.

This is a direct quote from Genesis 18.18 in the Greek version of the Old Testament. Similar to the end of Genesis 12, 3 as well. Here we see the end of Genesis 12, 3. And now the Lord said to Abram, who later was called Abraham, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Or in 18, 18, Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Think about this. All the nations will be blessed in you. What's he saying here? Paul reveals a secret of how all the nations, that is all the people, these refer to the people, not just the political entities, how they will be blessed in Abraham. What does he do?

Galatians 3.16 tells us that every person on the planet is blessed by Christ.

Now, will all of them receive that blessing? No. It's by faith, right? Everyone is blessed. Christ died for every single person on the planet. All those who believe receive that blessing. Christ, whom Paul calls the seed of Abraham, is the one by whom salvation is made available to every single person. Made available to every single person. Received by those who believe. Entirely by grace through faith. From Adam to the end of the time on earth. From Adam, the one who first sinned, to the last person born on the planet. This is available by grace through faith.

This chart here is one that we've made available before. It's also one of the three supplemental handouts you're welcome to take advantage of as you exit on the right. Now, faith in Christ is looking forward and looking back. You see, salvation is by faith whether you were like Abraham 2,000 years before. Christ was crucified on the cross and buried and raised. Whether you're looking forward to God's provision by faith, or like us, we look back on God's provision by faith. They look back, or we look back, they look forward, right?

Even the Passover, where Moses had to mark the top and each of the sides with blood, a lamb's blood, signifying the death on the cross. Looking ahead, looking ahead to God's provision. That was looking forward. The Passover for 1,400 years was looking forward. We look back, and as a matter of fact, as we do customarily here the first Sunday of each month, We look back on the Lord's provision, don't we? And we remember what the Lord has done. Abraham looked forward. Moses looked forward.

He told them all to look forward, century after century, until what we call the Last Supper, when the Lord made the great handoff. And now we look back. The Lord said, do this in remembrance of Me. Remembrance. Why? We look back by faith on what God has accomplished.

For all times, from the time of Adam to the very end of time, salvation is always by faith in God's provision through Jesus Christ. This is true for everybody on the planet. It doesn't matter what time, whether you're looking forward 2,000 years or like us, looking back 2,000 years. It doesn't matter what the ethnicity.

The Jews certainly had a privileged place They look to God's provision. We look to God's provision. Just the same. Those who live before Christ's death on the cross look forward to God's provision for salvation through Christ's death. His death for us. Those living after Christ's death look back on it. Even when believers are under a different reigning principle, This is a point that we've been making repeatedly here. Even when believers are under a different reigning principle, salvation is still by faith.

Moses gave the law. The reigning principle was law until the day of Pentecost. The reigning principle was law. From then, from that day, up until now, up until the time the Lord takes us home, those in the church. The reigning principle is grace. But regardless, salvation is always by faith. Always. From the time that Moses gave the law up to Acts chapter 1, right before the day of Pentecost, reigning principle was law.

You're saved by faith, but your daily life is governed by what's in this law. Salvation was still by faith even before. And that's why Paul could make the point. Abraham was saved by faith, declared righteous by God, by faith, before the law was even given.

From Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, the day that Peter presented the gospel, and 3,000 were saved that day, until the Lord comes to take us to be with him, the day we're raptured. Believers in the church will be living under the reigning principle of grace. Grace all the time.

Ever see some of these cable or satellite channels where you turn it and this channel's got this one thing all the time? Like a joke I've heard is, you know, all wicker furniture all the time, you know? And so you can see those channels, they're just stuck on one thing. As long as the church is here on planet earth, from the day of Pentecost till the Lord calls us all home, that time, it's all grace all the time. We're stuck on one channel. But, there is infinite depth in that one channel of grace. Unlike the wicker channel. Salvation is still and will be by faith all the time.

You see, some look forward. Abraham looked forward. He said, God's provision, God will provide, he said to Isaac. During the time of Moses, he had the serpent raised up. The people were healed by that. It was a looking forward. He had them carry out the Passover, which they would do annually up until the Last Supper when the Lord made the hand off. He had them remember the coming, this is a looking forward to, the coming of the Lord's provision in the sacrifices in the temple again and again and again. Looking forward to God's provision. Some look back as we do and as we do whenever we take the Lord's table and at other times.

But all who believe are saved by faith in God's provision for salvation. Always. Then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. Isn't that interesting? I will bless all nations through you, but we are blessed with him. We are related to him by faith. Isn't that interesting? Do you think of yourself as a son of Abraham? Well, maybe not. But that's what Scripture lays out.

We're blessed with Abraham the believer, right alongside. Those who have the faith of Abraham, who believe in God, are blessed. Faith in God is counted as righteousness. That's a blessing. That's an immense blessing. We have expanded and explained, which I'll read through today with you. So follow along with me. It's on page four of your handout. It's an attempt to further explain the passage and make sure the points get across.

Even so, Abraham believed what God had said, taking God's promises as fact, and Abraham's believing was counted as permanent and godly righteousness by God himself. Therefore, you too can be certain that from that time on, those who believe in God's provision for salvation are sons of Abraham. That is, that they are closely related to Abraham by their faith and having the same kind of belief based on their belief in what God has said. And now in verse 8, the scripture written with a foreview that God would declare the Gentiles who believe, like Abraham, to be righteous. The scripture, in fact, declared the gospel long ago to Abraham, saying, all the ethnic groups of the world, all the people of the world, will be blessed in what God has promised to you and in your faith in what God has said. So then those who have faith in God's provision are blessed as Abraham was. Abraham, the one who believed.

Some look forward and some look back. But all who believe are saved by faith in God's provision for salvation. God's provision for us, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we look at what you've accomplished and in truth all we can do is believe. You've done it all. As our Lord Jesus himself said, it is finished. He's done it all. And we put our trust and confidence in you, trusting in the truths, the spiritual facts that you've laid out before us. And we're thankful because that's all we can do. We're thankful for the declaration that you've made, that each one of us here this morning that believes has declared righteous. Righteous in your sight. That is amazing and astounding. It is truly amazing grace. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.