Day 3
Lisa Scheffler, author
What is a promise worth? It depends on who is making the promise. Are they trustworthy? If they don’t keep their word, then their promise was worth nothing. Can they actually do what they promise? I could promise you a million dollars, but I couldn’t keep that promise!
From their inception, the Jewish people had always relied on the promises of God. God could never go back on his word; his faithfulness and ability were beyond question. So Paul is going to take the Galatian Christians way back to their origins and covenant that God first made with their ancestor, Abraham to show them that faith in Christ is what truly saves.
Read
Galatians 3:6-9
6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
What has always been the means by which people were justified?
Reflect
The early chapters of the Bible’s first book contain tale after tale of humanity’s rebellion and sin. The consequences were clear. Because humanity turned its back on the Creator and people went their own way, human relationships were marked by suspicion, fear, resentment, and violence. Now you might think that God would have given up on humanity to wipe the slate clean. Happily, that’s not how God operates. He loves his creation and wants to restore it. He loves people and wants to be reconciled to them. And he had a plan to do both.
Genesis 15 describes the covenant God made with Abraham, promising this great family, a land of their own, and that through him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Paul’s point here is that through Christ, the Gentile believers have become part of that family. Their acceptance into the family of God through Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless the nations of the earth through Abraham’s line.
What Paul also notes is that when God spoke to Abraham, a pagan Gentile, and called him to leave his father’s home and go to a new land, Abraham trusted God and went. When God told Abraham that he and his wife Sarah would have a child in their old age, even though they’d never conceived before, he believed God and waited. Abraham trusted in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and power. Abraham trusted God, and acted accordingly.
That doesn’t mean that his faith earned his membership in God’s covenant; God freely bound himself to Abraham and his descendants. But Abraham does respond to God in faith, and his faith made him right with God. That’s what makes anyone right with God. Always has and always will.
Like a lot of us, Abraham and Sarah had times when their faith in God was as strong and sure as the mountains of their future homeland. They not only believed God, they acted like it. But other times, their faith shifted like the loose sands of the desert. They doubted God and even tried to help his plan along, instead of waiting and trusting. You might guess, that didn’t turn out well.
Yet, God is faithful even when his people aren’t. And eventually, Jesus Christ would come through the line of Abraham. He is the ever-faithful one, the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises. The one who never rebelled and showed us what it means to live as a child of God and a citizen of his kingdom. The one who gave himself to save us all.
Respond
How has your faith grown over the course of your life, since you trusted in Christ? Can you relate to Abraham and Sarah who had times of great faith and times of great doubt? As you think about your walk with God, what has strengthened your faith? Take some time to praise God for how he has worked in your life. Ask him for even greater faith as you continue your journey with him.
After reflecting some on your own story, are there parts that you could share with someone else, Christian or non-Christian, that might encourage them in their faith? Encourage them through bouts of anxiety? Or struggles with addiction? Let’s have more and more meaningful conversations where people can experience Christ through us.
