Gal 3:6–9 — Abraham, the Man of Faith

Paul’s Argument

He not only exercised faith at that one moment when it says there in verse 6, that he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Paul there is quoting from Genesis 15, verse six. But he not only believed and was justified at that moment, but throughout his whole life, he lived a life of faith in the promises of God. And he was a man of faith. He was a man characterized by faith. So we are looking at Paul’s argument here.

This is the beginning of the second major section of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the doctrinal section, where he is giving the arguments from Scripture for why it is that the Gentiles who have come to faith in Christ in the cities in the Roman province of Galatia, Why it is that they do not need to be circumcised and keep the law and the clean and unclean distinction of the law as mandated by the Judaizers.

The Judaizers are saying, yes, it is good that you believe in Jesus, but that is not enough. You must add to that, keeping the Law. Circumcision, in their mind, was not a sign and seal of salvation by grace. In their mind, circumcision was a sign of being committed to keeping the Law. It was the moment where you took upon yourself the yoke of the Law. And that is why Paul is very strong later on in Galatians, in chapter five and verse two, he says, look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, that is, if you accept circumcision under those terms, the terms that the Judaizers are placing it upon you, that you have to do this to be right with God, I say that if you accept circumcision under those terms, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law because that is what the Judaizers are claiming that circumcision stands for.

But Paul is arguing here that we are not accepted before God by keeping the law. We are accepted before God because of what Christ has done. And so he begins his argument here in the first doctrinal section. The first doctrinal argument is to appeal to their own experience.

When you first heard the gospel, when I was there in your cities there in Galatian, I was preaching Christ. What did I preach? Was I preaching that if you keep the law you can be blessed? No, I was preaching Christ and Him crucified. He begins the argument there, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

But if you listen to what the Judaizers are saying, if you go down this path and submit to circumcision and law-keeping as they are saying, then it would have been in vain. Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do it by works of the law or by hearing with faith? It is ridiculous. Obviously back then you were not law keepers, you were not circumcised when you first came to know the Lord.

And yet you were blessed with receiving the gift of the Spirit, showing that God accepted you. Then at this point in the argument, beginning in verse six, Paul adds a second point to his argument against the Judaizers. The first argument was to appeal to their own experience, how they became Christians, how they received the Spirit.

It was through hearing the gospel and believing in it. It was not through keeping the law. But now he is making a second argument, beginning in verse 6, and he says, So, does he who supplies the Spirit do so by works of the law? Or by hearing with faith? Obviously it is by hearing with faith. Just as Abraham believed God, That is, he heard and with faith, responding to the hearing, he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. The Galatian Christian’s experience of hearing the gospel and believing in it and receiving all the blessings of God, Simply by faith in Christ is the same as Abraham’s experience of hearing the promises of God in the gospel and believing in those promises and being reckoned as righteous in the sight of God.

Exposition

Abraham Believed God

Simply by faith. Paul here quotes Genesis 15:6. This is not the beginning of Abraham’s walk with God. That goes back to Genesis chapter 12 when God first appeared to him and told him to leave his country and to go into the land of Canaan.

And he believed the promise then as well. But now this is another moment in Abraham’s life of faith, in his walk with God, where he is being reminded again of the promises of the gospel, the promises of the offspring to come, and the inheritance that is offered to the offspring. He is hearing those promises again. This time with somewhat more of an anxiety because he is saying, Lord, you promised that I would have an offspring, but so far I am childless.

Maybe my servant Eliezer of Damascus is going to be the one, is going to inherit. And the Lord says to him, no, he is not the one I am talking about. You are going to have a son from your very own body. And he said, go look at the stars and see if you can count them. So shall your offspring be.

And that is where it says, that is at that point where it says that Abraham believed in the Lord. He believed in the promises of God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, Paul could have ended his entire letter to the Galatians at verse five, because he has already made the point very clearly that they are justified by faith in Christ alone.

Just think back to your own conversion. Just think back when you heard the gospel for the first time and how you received the Spirit simply by believing in Christ and not by doing the works of the law. The idea of being circumcised and living a Jewish lifestyle and keeping the clean, unclean distinctions, it was not even in your mind. You had no thought that that was something you should do. You simply heard the gospel, you heard about Christ and Him crucified, and you believed. And you were saved and received the gift of the Spirit.

So, you are foolish to think that now you need to add to that. That now you need to go and get circumcised and commit yourself to a life of law-keeping. That is a foolish thing. He could have ended right there. That would have been a very strong argument against the Judaizers, and that would have been sufficient, but it is interesting that Paul still has quite a few things to say after that?

He has already made it very clear that they are justified by faith alone, and their own experience proves that, and the way that they came to know the Lord proves that. Why does he go on into all of this detailed discussion of Abraham, Abraham’s promises, quoting Genesis 15, quoting from Genesis 12, later on he is going to quote from other passages as he is weaving together all of this, what we would call from our point of view, biblical theology. That is, looking at the Old Testament and doing biblical theology and understanding Abraham and the law and all of the history of God’s dealings with His people. In other words, Paul is going beyond simply the simple argument of, do not get circumcised, you do not need to, you have enough, you believe in Christ, you are good.

the reason why Paul needs to do this is because the debate that Paul is having with the Judaizers, who are Jewish Christians, who profess to believe in Christ, but who also think that you need to be circumcised and keep the law to be saved. He is having an argument with the Judaizers, who are themselves appealing to the Old Testament. Now, if you are a Judaizer and you think that keeping the law and being circumcised is necessary, then what would be your main argument for that? Your main argument for that would be, let us go look at the Bible.

God commanded that Abraham should be circumcised and his sons. And then you also keep reading the story and after Abraham has his sons and Jacob goes down to Egypt and the people multiply. Then they come back out of Egypt. Then God gives them the law.

So all that we are saying, I am talking now the voice of the Judaizers, all that we are saying is right there in the Bible. We are not making this up. We are just telling you what the Bible says. You have got to be circumcised. You have got to keep the law. It is right there in the scriptures. So this debate that Paul is having with the Judaizers is not merely the simple question of should we get circumcised or not.

It is also a broader question of how do we interpret the Old Testament. And how do we understand what God is doing when He made those promises, and He gave the law, and He commanded the people of Israel to be circumcised? How do we read the storyline of the Bible in the right way? And Paul and the Judaizers have two totally different paradigms, two totally different ways of reading the Old Testament.

According to the Judaizer’s interpretation of the Old Testament, and very plausibly so, according to the Judaizer’s understanding, the main focus of the Old Testament is the Law. That is the main thing that the Old Testament is all about. That is the main thing that the Bible, remember their Bible is just the Old Testament, so that is the main thing that the Bible is all about, is the giving of the Law.

But Paul’s coming along and saying, your reading of the storyline of the Bible, your reading of the Bible is incorrect. You are taking the law as being primary and reading everything in light of that. And then now that Christ has come, you are even interpreting what Christ has done, and you are interpreting the work of Christ and the gospel of Christ under the terms of the law, as if it is simply a continuation of the law.

And Paul says, no, you have completely misunderstood the Old Testament. The primary thing in the Old Testament is not the law, it is the promise. The primary thing in the Old Testament is the promise. Yes, the law is there, but it is secondary to the promise and subordinate to it.

And of course, Paul is going to explain how the law fits in later on as we go through Galatians chapter three. He is going to raise the very question, Paul, if the law, if you are saying that the promise is primary, then why did God give the law? And he is going to answer that question beginning in verses 19 and following. So we will get to that. But right now, Paul is saying, you need to understand that the primary thing in the Old Testament is the promise. And that is why Paul then brings up this issue of Abraham.

He makes the first argument from their own experience, how they came to know the Lord, simply by faith in the promises of God, in the preaching of the gospel, and Christ crucified. And then he says, that is exactly the same way it was with Abraham. Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And so Paul concludes from that, verse seven, know then, here is the conclusion, if Abraham was saved by simply believing in God, then it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Sons and Heirs

Being a son of Abraham here means being an heir of the promises that God gave to Abraham. The promises that God gave to Abraham were, to your offspring I will give this land. Those who inherit the land promised to Abraham are the sons of Abraham. Now that is at that first level of meaning, in the first level of fulfillment, which literally had to do with the land, but there is also a second level meaning there to this reality of being a son of Abraham. It is those who will inherit that to which the land pointed, which is heaven, which is the new creation, which is all the blessings that we have that Christ has purchased for us. Paul clearly interprets being a son of Abraham and inheriting the promises that God made to Abraham as being a spiritual thing.

It is not simply limited to literal real estate in the land of Canaan. The very fact that Paul would bring up Abraham as an example and say that he was a believer just like you, and that he was reckoned as righteous just like you, and that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham, shows that he is thinking of God’s promises to Abraham, not simply at that first level of meaning, which was literally fulfilled in the time of Joshua when the people went into the land and inherited it, but he is thinking in terms of the broader reality to which the land pointed, heaven itself. If you recall in the bulletin for today, the silent meditation that I chose was from Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verses nine through 10. The author of Hebrews, obviously influenced by Paul’s theology, says, by faith Abraham went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

4. He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. According to the author of Hebrews, and according to Paul, Abraham was putting his hope in this second level reality to which the land pointed. Yes, he was looking forward to the literal fulfillment of that, which did happen several hundred years after Abraham, but he was looking beyond that to that to which it pointed, to the true reality, to heaven itself.

So Paul says, know then that it is those of faith, not those who are of the law, not those who get circumcised and submit themselves to keeping the law. It is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Because how was Abraham receiving these blessings? It was by faith.

So it is the same for us. Know then that it is those of faith, it is those who are characterized by a life of faith, of simply believing God’s promises and receiving them, who are the sons of Abraham, who will inherit. And then he goes on in verse eight and says, and the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So Paul is saying, I am going to take it even further.

The Gospel Preached to Abraham

Not only do we see this parallel that just as Abraham simply believed and it was counted to him as righteousness, so also you Galatian Christians, you simply believed in Christ crucified and you were justified and received forgiveness and salvation in him. So it is not merely that there is an analogy that Abraham believed what he was promised But that is not heaven or anything spiritual, that concerns only earthly things. And then he believed it and it was counted to him as righteousness. So also, you Gentile Christians, you believe in the spiritual realities and you receive it. And so there is an analogy of these two examples of faith. Paul is saying, no, it is not just an analogy. It is not just that one person had faith in earthly promises and you have faith in heavenly promises. It is not just an analogy.

He is saying, actually, he says, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles, you Gentiles, by faith, preached the same gospel that you received beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. The promises that God made to Abraham were not simply tied to the earthly first-level fulfillment of having lots of offspring who will inherit an earthly piece of real estate. The promises that God made to Abraham, as made to Abraham, not simply that us looking back can now see the deeper meaning, but the promises that were made to Abraham already had the Gentiles in view. Is not that amazing? The Gentiles were already in view at the very beginning.

Now, the verse that Paul is quoting from here, in you shall all the nations be blessed, is a combination of two verses. It is Genesis 12, verse three, combined with Genesis 22, 18. But look at Genesis 12, verse three. This is the very, very first promise. God reiterates the promise to Abraham multiple times throughout the patriarchal narrative. But the very first time that God makes the promise to Abraham is in Genesis 12.

Verse one, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you, All the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And so Paul is clearly bringing in Genesis 22-18 because of those two ideas. The offspring idea and also the idea of the nations. The families of the earth, the nations of the earth are almost the same. But the use of the word nations in particular Paul wants to bring out because it is the same word Gentiles. Nations and Gentiles are interchangeable. In fact, the Greek word that is used to translate the word nations in Genesis, in the Greek translation, the Septuagint, it is the same word Gentiles. So Paul specifically wants to bring in that concept of the Gentiles.

Now, how was it that the Gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham in this particular statement? We understand the gospel is preached to Abraham in a number of other ways. For example, offering up his son Isaac was a picture of the sacrifice of Christ and so on. But how in this particular statement, in you shall all the nations be blessed, how do you see the gospel there?

That just seems to be a promise that the Gentiles are going to be blessed someday as well. The answer is that if you compare with Genesis 22 18, it does not say in you, it says in your offspring. In your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

So what that tells us then is that Paul understands that the offspring is Christ. Now he does understand that it is also a corporate dimension that includes all the people of God. But in Paul’s mind, the offspring primarily is Christ himself. And you can see that even in the Genesis narrative, because of the fact that when God makes the promise to Abraham that he is going to have a numerous offspring, as numerous as the stars of the heaven, he also focuses in upon the individual dimension, which is Isaac?

Remember that, I go back to what I said before about where that moment in Genesis 15, where Abraham is saying, it does not look like I am going to have my own child, so maybe my servant will take my place. And the Lord says to him specifically, no, you are going to have an offspring from your very own body. And he is focusing specifically on the individual aspect of the offspring promise there, not simply the corporate aspect of the whole nation of Israel, and then as we extend into the new covenant, all the people of God, but rather focusing specifically on the individual.

Abraham’s son, Isaac, who is his only begotten beloved son? His special son, the one whom he is later asked to offer on the altar in Genesis 22. And so Paul is thinking that this statement, in you shall all the nations be blessed, he is thinking that this means the way in which all the Gentiles will be blessed is in Abraham’s offspring in the individual sense. That is, in Isaac as a type of Christ, the Messiah to come, who will offer the final sacrifice for sin. How is it that in you, in Abraham, all the nations will be blessed? It would be in Abraham’s offspring. That is in the Messiah in Christ.

Abraham, the Man of Faith

And so then, Paul concludes, so then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. According to Paul then, the life of Abraham is a powerful testimony to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. We see with Abraham’s initial call in Genesis 12, He was living in Ur of the Chaldeans when God called him to leave his homeland and to go to a land that God would show him. And Paul sees in this already a beginning of the Gospel being preached to Abraham in advance, foretelling that God’s blessing would ultimately come to all the nations through the Messiah. And in response, Abraham believed.

He obeyed the Lord and he trusted God’s word. And he acted in faith. He had no proof that there was this land. He did not know even what it was or where it was. And when he got there, it was already inhabited by the Canaanites. Yet in faith, he believed God.

He was believing in the promise of God, which was already the gospel being preached ahead of time to Abraham. Abraham then is the model. He is the man of faith. Abraham was called by God and given gracious promises and he simply believed in God’s promises and this faith was counted as righteousness. Abraham was not keeping the law at this point. He was not circumcised at this point. In fact, he is not really even that godly of a person.

Immediately after his initial call in Genesis 12, you have the incident where he goes down to Egypt because of the famine. And when he is there in Egypt, he is afraid that they are going to kill him and take his wife because she was exceedingly beautiful. And so he says, let us lie and say that you are my sister, which was partly true. It was like a half truth. But he was doing it to save his own skin. And yet, what happened there?

Did God judge Abraham because he disobeyed him because of his sin? No, God actually blessed him even more and gave him more camels and servants and so on, showing that God was blessing him because of God’s own desire to do so and to fulfill his promises of grace.

It was not based upon works. The fulfillment of the promise of God which was still in the future and it is going to be fulfilled in two stages. The first level fulfillment with literal Israel in the land, but the second level fulfillment in Christ and the new creation. The fulfillment of God’s promises depends totally upon God’s faithfulness, not on Abraham’s obedience. Abraham is a man of faith.

One Covenant of Grace

What doctrine can we derive from this passage? The main point, the main doctrine we can derive is that there is only one covenant of grace stretching from the Old Testament into the New. There is only one gospel promise. The promises that God made to Abraham and the gospel that was preached to the Galatian Christians of Christ and Him crucified is the same gospel. Yes, the words might be different, and the language that is used is couched in the terminology of offspring and land for Abraham, but it is still the same promise. There is only one gospel promise, and there is only one way of salvation, which is by faith in Christ. Some people say that the Old Testament believers only had faith in God and His promises, but not faith in Christ. But as Paul reads the Abraham story, he thinks that Abraham had faith in Christ, because he is focusing upon that promise of the offspring to come, in whom all the nations will be blessed.

The amazing reality is that the inclusion of the Gentiles was also promised along with this. And that is one of the key things that helps us to see that the promises that God was making to Abraham cannot be interpreted literally. Or cannot be limited only to that first level literal fulfillment. How is it possible for the Gentiles also to be blessed along with Abraham if they are not the literal offspring of Abraham in the biological sense, and if they are not going to inherit the literal land? And yet the text says, in you all the nations will be blessed? In you, in Abraham’s offspring, in Christ, all the Gentiles will be blessed. They are going to receive the same blessing that was given to Abraham.

How is that possible for Gentiles unless the blessing itself is understood in a spiritual sense as ultimately being about Christ and the gospel and salvation and not being limited only to that first level fulfillment. The inclusion of the Gentiles, which was promised from the very beginning, going all the way back to Abraham and the promises to Abraham, is a key indicator, it is a key highlighter that tells us there is something more going on here than simply having lots of kids and living in this wonderful land flowing with milk and honey. There is something deeper happening here. There is a spiritual reality that is taking place.

You can even see that in the Abraham story itself. For example, remember in Genesis 14. Genesis 14 is the chapter right before the one where it says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. In Genesis 14, you have that whole story of the Canaanite kings.

They are having this battle between themselves and in the midst of the battle, Lot and his family get taken into captivity. And Abraham raises an army, rescues Lot, rescues all their possessions, and delivers them from the Canaanite kings. And the kings that were on their side wanted to reward Abraham and say, here, I will give you this amazing reward for your service, for doing this work of saving Lot.

And Abraham says, I am not going to take anything from you because my reward is a heavenly reward. My reward is God himself. And the very next chapter, chapter 15, one, the Lord appears to Abraham and says, I am your shield and your very great reward. And Abraham believed in God and his promises. There is a spiritual thing happening even with Abraham. Even Abraham knew it. Even Abraham was looking beyond the earthly possessions and lots of camels and lots of servants and all these blessings and this reality that the land is about to be given to his offspring. He is looking beyond that to the heavenly reality, to the spiritual blessings that he has with God himself.

So the doctrine from our text is that the gospel is not new. The gospel and even the inclusion of the Gentiles is not new. It is not a mystery that was only revealed after Pentecost. It is the plan of God all the way back from the beginning. The Gentiles are to be blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. What God is doing with the church, which is composed of both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus, is not a separate plan. It is not a second track. It is not something new. It is simply the continuation of God’s plan all the way back in the beginning. We are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Applications

Justification and the Life of Faith

The main doctrine of our text, then, is that there is only one covenant of grace. Yes, there is a pre-messianic version of that, that is before the Messiah comes. There is the pre-messianic administration of the covenant of grace in the types and shadows. And these earthly promises, but those earthly types and shadows were pointing ahead to the messianic fulfillment. We live in the messianic fulfillment of the covenant of grace. We live in the new covenant, but the new covenant is the continuation of and fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. What are some applications that we can bring out of this for ourselves? Number one, justification by faith should not be tied too closely to the moment of conversion. We cannot always identify when that moment was in our lives. When was Abraham justified? If you look at the story of Abraham, when was he justified?

You might say, Paul says it was in Genesis 15, six, when he believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness. But what about Genesis 12? When God first appeared to him in Ur of the Chaldeans and said, go from your own country into the land that I will show you. And it says Abraham went, and he believed the Lord, and he even built an altar in the land to be a way of thanking the Lord for his promises. Or what about Genesis 13?

Abraham was justified. By faith, because he was a man of faith. And so rather than tying justification too closely to the moment of conversion, which is not always easy for us to identify. Some people do have very clear moments, like the Apostle Paul. He was on the road to Damascus. He could identify when he was converted very clearly.

But most of us live a life like Abraham’s, where we first hear the promises of the Gospel and we believe, but we still do not fully understand? And there is considerably more learning that needs to take place. Most of us have key moments in our lives like Abraham did. As we learn more and more what the promises mean, and we respond in faith. There is an interesting process that happens in the life of Abraham that is very parallel to us.

God would come to him with the promise, then some difficulty would happen, the famine in the land, and the initial response to that difficulty challenges the promise, And maybe Abraham’s initial response was not the most faith-filled response, but yet in the midst of it all, God still confirms his faith, and then he is counted as righteous again in the eyes of God, and then he receives the blessing of the inheritance that is promised to him. Even before the fulfillment with creating the nation of Israel and bringing them into the land under Joshua, there are little moments of blessing that Abraham receives in his life, where he is receiving anticipations of the fulfillment of the promise. Just like we receive the Spirit as the down payment of our eternal inheritance in the age to come. But this pattern of promise, difficulty, Not sure what the response is, but then it comes out as being faith, counted as righteous, and then receiving the blessing.

This is the pattern of our entire life. And it happens repeatedly, just like it happened repeatedly with Abraham. I was looking, just in the first four chapters, so that is Genesis 12, 13, 14, and 15. We could go on, but just in those first four chapters, God comes to Abraham on five separate times, five separate occasions, to repeat his promise to him. This is the promise, remember it. To your offspring I will give this land. Look up your eyes, count the stars if you are able to. Five different times he repeats the promise.

And there are also moments of difficulty and doubting and where the response is not as great and as firm as it ought to be. But yet his faith comes through all the same. And God uses those difficulties to confirm his faith. You have the famine in the land, and when they go down to Egypt, you have the whole thing with Lot. All of these difficulties that happen that seem to challenge the promise.

Is God really going to do this? And Abraham responds in faith to the Lord, and he is counted as righteous in the eyes of God. This is the pattern of our Christian life. Thank God that he is faithful to us. He is faithful to his promises, even when our initial response to the difficulty is unbelieving and sinful. He patiently leads us to trust in him. He patiently reaffirms the promise, even when we are doubting it. He reminds us again and again of the promises of the gospel.

Reading Scripture through the Gospel

The first application is that justification by faith entails a life of faith. It is not simply tied to the moment of conversion where we say, I was justified back then. It is a life of faith, of continually repeating our trust in the promises of God through the trials of this life. And having our faith strengthened as we more and more come to understand God’s grace. That is the first application. But the second application is, let us read the scriptures the way Paul does. Notice that in our text, he specifically refers to the scripture in verse eight.

And the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. And at first glance, you read that phrase, that statement, in you shall all the nations be blessed, and you do not immediately think of it as being the gospel. It just seems like a prophecy of the Gentiles one day being blessed. But then the more you read it, the more you see, you compare this verse with chapter 22, verse 18, you see that in you is focusing on in your offspring. Let us read the scriptures the way Paul does. How does Paul do it? He begins with his understanding of the Gospel in Christ. Christ and Him crucified. The Gospel is everything for Paul. He was called and set apart for the Gospel of God.

Then he goes back to the Old Testament and he looks for the Gospel in the Old Testament. And where does he see the Gospel in the Old Testament? Anytime there is a reference to the offspring to come. Anytime there is a promise of God that he is going to fulfill that promise.

And that then helps him to understand what the Gospel is. The Gospel is essentially the promise of God. And that then helps us understand what is our response to the Gospel. The response to the Gospel, if the Gospel is a promise, is to believe the promise. It is to trust God in giving that promise.

Now, it is true that many times as you are reading the Old Testament, as you are reading the Scriptures, you will find negative examples? Like most of the time, it is people who are not responding in faith to the promises of God, but are responding in unbelief and in disobedience. But still, however you look at it, you can read the Old Testament, whether as an example of faith, like Abraham, or as an example of unbelief. And so then the Old Testament comes alive for you when you read it, not simply as arcane history, all these weird things happened to Abraham and so on, but rather you see yourself in the text.

You say, that is me, I am just like Abraham. I have the same exact difficulties. I know the promises and then I forget them. I am just like Abraham. I can see myself in the text and then that becomes an encouragement to you. That becomes an encouragement to you to walk with the Lord just like Abraham did. That you have the same promises that Abraham had. You have the same life of faith. Like Abraham had, just as Paul says here, so then those who are of faith, that is you believers in Christ, you are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. And what better way to be blessed than to read the scriptures and to see ourselves in the text so that we receive the same encouragement and the same blessing that Abraham also received.

The Old Testament then comes alive for us and becomes something that is spiritually nourishing for us. The Psalms are like that? The Psalms are probably the best place to go in the Old Testament to see the exact same situation that we have, all the same fears and conflicts and struggles and enemies and battles, and we are crying out to the Lord for grace and help and we can receive the same promises of encouragement from the Lord in the Psalms.

We have the same faith as the Old Testament believers. The same gospel, the same savior, the same promises, the same faith, and we are one with them. Which is why, of course, the author of Hebrews has that wonderful hall of faith chapter in Hebrews 11 to say, look, all the saints before us, they had the exact same life of faith in the Lord. And so since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, who have gone before us trusting in the promises of God, let us also do the same, fixing our eyes on Jesus. How wonderful it is that we have the Scriptures for us to encourage us and to build us up in our faith.

As you read Scripture in your personal devotions, remember that the entire Bible has been given to remind you of God’s promises and strengthen your faith in them, so that you may live a life of faith like Abraham, the man of faith.