Look At Abraham
LOOK AT ABRAHAM
GALATIANS 3:6-9
Who are Abraham’s true descendants?
Paul switches to a second line of attack. It is aimed directly at the Galatians, but the real opponents are those Jewish-Christians who have unsettled them (1:7; 5:12) and are therefore more blameworthy. A cautionary reminder to any who aspire to become Christian teachers, as James’ letter (James 3:1) recalls!
The Jewish teachers had evidently made much of Abraham in their propaganda methods, offering the plausible argument: you Gentiles wish to inherit the blessings of righteousness which our forefather received; why then do you hesitate to follow his example and get circumcised? Paul meets this argument from Scripture by encountering the Judaizers on their own ground.
Abraham (he responds) did indeed receive divine approval, and God put him right with himself. But on what basis? The patriarch was, above all, a man of faith (3:6), and it is those who tread this pathway who find acceptance with God (3:7). Besides, as Paul elsewhere is at pains to elucidate (Romans 4:9-12), Abraham was set right with God before he practiced circumcision, so the Judaizers have given away their case by an appeal to the great example of Old Testament godliness.
One further scriptural quotation is needed to drive the last nail into the Judaizers’ argument, already riddled with massive objections. Scripture itself is appealed to in God’s first promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3; 18:18) who was to be the ancestor, not of the Jews only, but of “all the nations.” The gospel promise, universal in its scope and transnational in its embrace, was already given in the call of Abraham, the first Jew and the founder of the race. How, then, could the Judaizers’ claim that the Gentiles must become Jews in order to be complete Christians ever be entertained? Paul’s logic must have been irresistible (3:9).
Read more about Abraham in Romans 4:1-25; Hebrews 6:13-15; 7:1ff.; 11:8-19; James 2:21.