Galatians 3:6-7, “On The Consideration of Abraham”

“Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ ⁷Understand then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.” -Galatians 3:6-7

The apostle Paul was masterful at taking the Old Testament and applying it to the truth of Jesus Christ, of whom he became witness. Both Jesus and Paul, by their words, show the incredible truth behind the Old Testament, that though by the new covenant, we are granted righteousness by faith in Christ, it doesn’t necessarily negate the old covenant, or visa versa. In fact, the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old.

A frequent question among believers and the secular community is, if one is saved in Christ, what about all those who came before Christ? Were they not given the opportunity to be saved? I used to struggle with this question myself, but after reading this verse and others like it, and with my own personal discoveries and revelations concerning the nature of faith, I have come to the conclusion that even prior to Christ, man was capable of coming under grace.

As Paul says, let us consider Abraham. Abraham was a man of great faith, so much so that when the Lord asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham complied with the command. Yet, at the last minute, the Lord sent an angel to prevent the sacrifice of Isaac, but provided a ram to take Abraham’s sons place. Not only does this speak of great faith, but also obedience, which springs forth from that faith.

Now Abraham was faulty just as any other man, but even prior to the new covenant, his faith was credited to him as righteousness by God. This is due to the nature of faith, which we should all take a lesson from, that by understanding this lesson, one may overcome doubt and worry. Briefly, I will mention as I write this, that it is a lesson that is speaking to me as well.

It’s not as simple as having faith in the existence of Christ and our Lord, rather faith runs deeper than this, and it is important to meditate on it that our roots may grow deeper. Abraham not only believed in God, but believed in what He said. This might seem like a small difference, but in reality it is quite large, for to believe in what God says, is to believe in His promises. Therefore, when God told Abraham that his offspring would be the savior of the world, Abraham completely believed and it, again, was credited to him.

Within Paul’s letters, Paul elaborates on Abraham’s offspring. Paul tells us in the context, “offspring,” is presented, it is not plural, but rather singular. Thus, a multitude of Abraham’s descendants wouldn’t save the world, but rather one singular man of a divine nature, that is Christ. In Jesus’s time, the prophecy of a savior was no secret, in fact many were looking for the savior, but in their pride, the Jews misunderstood the heavenly nature of the savior. Many expected a mere king and not the King of Kings.

Abraham understood this and had faith in God that the savior would come and thereby, put his faith not only in God, but the savior that was to come. This is why we are children of Abraham. Abraham was of a previous generation, before the new covenant and Abraham believed this covenant was to come. Thus, with Abraham coming before, he is our father of those who would be credited righteousness through faith.

Abraham was not considered righteous for obedience to any Law (although the Law hadn’t been given unto Moses yet) or by any of his works, but was considered and credited righteousness because of faith and belief. It is akin to this same faith in the Lord and His promises that we become the descendants of Abraham. In Galatians 3:8-9, Paul states:

“The 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.’ ⁷So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

Therefore, let us not only believe in God the Father, and the Son, but let us believe in what they make known unto us by the Word and through the Spirit, who counsels us in all things. Anyone who did this under the old covenant was granted a like righteousness, but being under the new, we are witnesses to Christ’s death, by which we are justified, and His resurrection, through which righteousness and eternal life comes. Christ gained the firstfruits of the glorified body, due to His righteousness, but Abraham was the father of righteousness by faith.

What the Lord tells us is true and should not be doubted. It is correct to say some promises won’t come to pass until the appointed time, but let us not grow weary of our waiting upon the Lord, nor let it produce doubt within us. The Lord cannot break a covenant, for to do so would make Him imperfect, and we would cease to exist altogether. Thus, all the Lord has said will come to pass, in this age or the next, and this shall not hinder our faith. For even Abraham wasn’t hindered in his faith, but knew the promises of God would be fulfilled even when our father of righteousness by faith had passed from the world.

Romans 10:9, “On Loves Got Everything To Do With It”

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” -Romans 10:9

In a previous entry (see my entry concerning Romans 1:12, “On The Correlation Between Faith and Love”), I had discussed some of the like attributes between both love and faith. Yet, when we consider our faith in the Lord, we find love to be a necessary condition for our faith in Jesus Christ. Without this love, our relationship with the Lord cannot develop and will eventually be negated by the doubt that we as believers are sometimes confronted and assaulted with, for our faith cannot be steadfast without loves inclusion in the relationship. We can obviously see this when it comes to loving our brethren, how much more should it be applicable to our relationship with the Lord, who is love? The Bible makes it perfectly clear how love and faith are the prerequisites to developing a deeper friendship with the Lord (see my entry concerning John 15:15, “On Having a Friendship With The Lord”). 1 John 4:19 states (see my entry, “On Love’s First Cause”):

“We love because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19

Throughout my life, many times have I heard the phrase, “God is love.” From this verse in 1 John, it is more than apparent that this is truth, for it links our love with His. Though God has many attributes, including discipline, these all have their basis in love. Even concerning His wrath, He takes no pleasure in the punishment of the ungodly, but God cannot co-inhabit with evil. As Psalms 5:4 tells us, “With you the wicked cannot dwell.” In the same way two forms of matter cannot occupy the space, so too, the wicked cannot dwell with perfect holiness. This, is in fact, a contradiction, and thereby we need the justification that was manifest and offered upon Calvary. What God does take pleasure in, however, is the justification of the wicked by His Son! This is not only backed up in Scripture, but if it wasn’t true, Christ would not have came and died upon such a cruel instrument of death in the first place. Yet, the cross became His glory! If this did not appease God’s justice and have the ability to, not only change a sinners being, but also clothe the depraved with a garment of righteousness, then the Trinity would have never been separated. Yet, since it has alleviated God’s justice, we are granted the opportunity to come to the Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, in faith. By this very thing, which should be evident in our hearts, and through which springs all godly obedience, we are saved. Thereby, we next find ourselves in The Book of John, at one of the most famous verses in all of Scripture, Chapter 3, Verses 16 and 17:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

Regarding God’s discipline, it is also based in love. Hebrews 12:7-13 likens God to a loving worldly father (indeed when looking at family proper, or rather, a proper family, we find much in the family structure symbolizes God’s nature):

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ⁸If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. ¹²Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³‘Make level paths for your feet,’ so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”

Notice that Verse 8 clearly expresses John 3:16, for if everyone, by love, undergoes discipline, then it follows, “that God so loved the world,” is indeed true. God’s love is absolutely perfect and in complete accordance with His nature. Before our existence in the world came to pass, He already loved us and had our justification planned out in Christ. We can come to the Lord in the first place, as sinners, due to this preexisting love. If it exists prior, on a temporal plain where we didn’t even exist yet, how much more important is this mutual love when we do exist and come to the Lord by faith? Our faith, among other things, is a recognition of that love, and by it we love God reciprocally as the Book of Deuteronomy commands:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.” -Deuteronomy 6:5-6

It is this same faith and love in His Son, by which we are granted the Holy Spirit. To those who have eyes, let them understand, for due to the corruption of this world, the following may be hard to contemplate, or uncomfortable to focus on. However, it is important. As man and women become one flesh in love, likewise do we become one with the Lord by His love and sacrifice. He dwells within us, as the Spirit of Holiness, and if we are in the Spirit as well, love is perfectly manifest and we, by the Spirit, cannot do anything apart from love. If our actions are ones that don’t speak to the love of God in either word or example, it is of the self. As 1 Corinthians says:

“Therefore I tell you that no one is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” -1 Corinthians 12:3

Though this love was manifest in perfection by the Son, in both His death and resurrection, it existed prior to Christ’s first coming and was in the Law, which according to the Gospels can be summed up with just two commandments:

“‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? ³⁷Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the first commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” -Matthew 22:36-40

The Law, revealed by God unto Moses, shows explicitly the attributes and nature of God. Hence, we can only conclude the Law is good, just as our Lord is good. In the same way, because God is love, the Law, by necessity, follows suit. Therefore, since we know love to be such an intrinsic part of God, our faith too should resonate with love for our Lord. In addition, the love of God is boundless and this being the case, our love can always become manifest greater in our lives. Though we can love too little, we cannot love enough. This week, let us pray that the Lord may extend the boundaries of love we have set by the desires of the self and our own comfort, that we may better serve both the Lord and man. Let us pray that we may glorify Him even further than we have, through not just words, but rather by example. Amen.

1 Corinthians 1:22, “On He Who Trumps Signs and Wisdom”

“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom.” -1 Corinthians 1:22

Christ, our savior, is so sublime He cant be put into any category except “Lord,” which only He can occupy. Christ was different, but greater, than the worldly king the Jews were expecting. They were expecting an earthly king, who blessed by God would raise Israel’s status to a world power. Yet, the Son of God was a king of another sort. Not a political one, but a heavenly one, who came to not just the Jews, but all mankind. Concerning what some expected, He was something far greater and some even to this day refuse to recognize it. They demanded the miraculous, in the Old Testament and New, but no number of miracles or fulfilled prophecies could convince or appease those who drove Christ to the cross. He was scorned, mocked, tortured and put to death, only to rise three-days later, alive and the King of Kings. Yet, for some that’s not enough, He is still mocked and spit on. People still demand from Him, the miraculous is done even to this day, but still today, as it was then, it’s not enough. You would think the mere conception of a figure like Christ would at least win some sort of respect. People will respect a sports figure or celebrity to the ends of the earth, but a man who was nailed to a cross for love of even those who scored Him to his face, is still receiving the same treatment to this day.

"Christ in The Wilderness," by Ivan Kramskoy. oil on canvas, c. 1872

Yet, there is another school, the school of thought and reason, which strives to know what it can’t. Though by it’s own rules say it needs to be witnessed to be proven, those supposed wise men contradict themselves by believing in something with no empirical evidence, and that is nothing but hydrogen. Belief, or faith, in that is alright, but belief and faith in God is not. God is a foolish idea, the eternal cloud of hydrogen is smart. Yet, fact is, it exists far in the past and cannot be proven. Science, where is your undeniable proof? You are made up of curious generalities but the specifics are lacking. All the breakthroughs you have made in medicine and technology, where is your breakthrough in the questions concerning the foundation of existence itself? All your “breakthroughs” concerning such deteriorate to being hoaxes, misidentifications, or just plain hypothetical. You have a theory for how the form of man developed, but what about the lung? The eye? The internal ear? The very things that make the form work? How did they even come to union in one form, man, and not others?

Where is your answer for the existence of things like math? How do laws exist without someone to write them? Evolution itself is a law, where did that come from? How does order exist without an orderer?

We see that both religious zealots and the wise can be blinded from the truth. How Christ put, and will put, them all to shame! These foundations of religion and science will crumble when Christ’s truth is revealed to all in its due time. It extends beyond the boundaries of science and reason, and those that call out for “proof.” It’s a truth which will not be extinguished and a truth that will never die.

Romans 1:20, “On The Nature of God’s Nature Manifest in Nature”

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. -Romans 1:20

It’s often that a Christian is approached by a non-believer challenging them to prove the existence of God. Usually, it’s not because they truly want to know, but rather it pleases them to see a Christian get tripped up when trying to answer them. This is apparent when one has an answer for them and their response is one of anger.

In an attempt not to go too far off the subject, the question makes the supposition that physicality and existence are not proof enough. Thus, it’s hard to find a proof, empirical proof, that would sway this hypothetical challenger.

The Bible, the very Word of God, is not silent when it comes to this issue, of not just proof of God’s existence being represented in nature, but also of who He is, that is His very being. So why the apparent contradiction in the verse,what are those qualities that are both invisible, but also clearly seen? The verse tells us it’s his divinity and eternal power that are made evident in the creation.

Truth is, that things like power and dominion cannot be understood unless its effect is manifest elsewhere. A king in his own being though granted power is powerless of his own accord unless it is exercised. It is by action that one can empirically determine the traits that reside in mere people. The bible declares that you can know a person due to the fruit he bares (Matthew 7:16, see my note, “On Judging Man and Scepticism”). You can see those qualities in a human being that otherwise may not be seen by his influence on the world around him.

It is the same with God, we gain valuable insight into not only His existence, but also His nature, that is who He is.

Let us suppose for a moment that you want to paint a picture, write a book, some poetry, or a piece of music. Like it or not, whether your a fan of allegory and it is conscious or not, you cannot help but include a piece of yourself in what you create. It may not be exact, but a person can be going through an art gallery and if they have eyes to see can tell quite a bit about the artist by the mere composition alone.

Likewise, God put a piece of Himself in everything, but if you have eyes to see, you can see God even in the most mundane of things. The fact the scriptures confront us with is that this truth is so obvious that no man, none, will be without excuse.

There is no spontaneity concerning something that is created, so to believe such is a contradiction according to Samuel Clark. We see things only coming into being through causality and to suppose at the very beginning there was nothing suggests a contradiction that cannot be resolved. So not just existence itself, but the particulars that make up the cosmos are great places to look if anyone ever wants to see God, for He, among other things, is both obvious and apparent.