Galatians 3:6
6 Even as [kathos] Abraham [Abraam] believed [pisteuo] God, [theos] and [kai] it was accounted [logizomai] to him [autos] for [eis] righteousness. [dikaiosune]
KJV-Interlinear
6 Even so Abraham believed God,
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. NASB
Way back in Genesis, Gen. 15:6, Abraham listened to
God and believed at that hearing. He did
not circumcise himself until two chapters and many years later.
Abraham had a child by the handmaid, Hagar, when he
was eighty-six years old. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised
himself, Gen. 17:23. This was many, many
years after Abraham believed.
Paul refers to Abraham very briefly here, but he
expands on the subject in Romans a bit more, Rom. 4. And there Paul states that these words that
were written in Genesis, were not written for Abraham’s sake, but for our sake,
so that we would not look to works for our justification, but to faith.
Furthermore, the Law written by Moses did not even
exist in Abrahams day and would not exist for several more centuries, so
Abraham could not have been saved by the works of the Law.
So, the false teachers in Galatia, who were adamant
that the works of the Law were paramount for salvation and the spiritual life,
were completely wrong. The Old Testament,
upon which they relied for their argument, disproved them.
And this is where so many people get off on the
wrong spiritual foot, so to speak.
Faith does not refer to wishes or some ambiguous
conviction or belief. Faith is dependent
on facts and substance which doctrine provides.
Anyone who does not rely on faith, by default then
relies on works, their own works, for whatever relationship that they think
they have with God.
If you do not engage in a daily study of the word
of God, through instruction, then you are relying on your own efforts and
beliefs and opinions to advance you in your spiritual life. And that is a huge mistake that will cause
you to end up with a wasted life.
And everyone has their entire life to do get it
right, rather than finding themselves at the end of their life and discovering
too late that they wasted their entire life with no opportunity to correct it.
