Father Abraham had many sons

In Galatians 3:6, Paul has taken us back to the example of Abraham, the ancestor of God’s people, to whom, through whom and in whom God’s covenant with his people was made.   He has demonstrated, as he will again when he writes to the Christians in Rome that Abraham was justified by faith. In other words, his covenant relationship with God, being right with God was a gift of grace that Abraham received by trusting God, believing in him and his promises. It wasn’t a status that Abraham kept by his good deeds. 

A look at the text (Read Galatians 3:7-9)

If the covenant which created God’s people as the promised descendants of Abraham was through faith, then this meant that those designated as sons and heirs of Abraham were sons by faith.  They could not earn or force their way into the inheritance (v7). 

This had important implications according to Paul, it meant that Scripture itself, or God’s Word, his revelation to Abraham was able to see forward into the future and know that Gentiles would be justified, they would be right with God. This was the crucial implication of faith.  Becoming a son, an heir of the covenant promise was a matter of faith, not of human effort and therefore not restricted to the ethnic descendants of Abraham through Isaac. So, God’s word to Abraham was a promise that blessing would go to all nations in and through him.  Paul says that this promise was in effect a Old Testament preaching of the Gospel, before Jesus came (v8).

The consequence of this is that anyone who has faith in God through Jesus is “blessed.” In other words, they are full and legitimate recipients of the blessings of the covenant (v9)

Digging a little deeper

To understand Paul’s argument here, we need to go back to Genesis 12:1-3 where God first makes a covenant with Abraham.  A covenant is a solemn and permanent agreement. This covenant amounted to God’s promise of blessing (happiness, well-being, favour) on Abraham. Specifically, he would give him a land to live in where he would be under God’s rule, provision and protection.  Further, that he would give him descendants, he would make him into a people, a nation. Further, God promises that Abraham’s descendants will be blessed and be a blessing. Finally, he says that all nations will be blessed in Abraham.

We further need to remember that blessing is contrasted with curse in the Old Testament. You are either within the provisions of the covenant and under God’s blessing which means life or you are outside of the covenant, you are  a  stranger who does not belong to God’s people and you are under curse which means death. There are two options, we can either be under curse and death or blessing and life. The only way to be under blessing and life is to be within the covenant.

This covenant with Abraham was never rescinded.  To some extent, Paul would say that there was always one covenant and it was always about Jesus, he was the promised descendant in whom all nations would be blessed (but that is still to come).  The important thing at this stage is that the only way to be included in the blessing is therefore through faith in Jesus.  This means that the Gospel is both exclusive, only in and through Jesus and inclusive, it is not limited by race gender or class. 

A look at ourselves

The first thing we should do, as we read Galatians 3 is rejoice and give thanks to God, that we who were strangers, excluded from God’s promises have been brought near, forgiven and united into his people. This is completely underserved. Secondly, this good news that we are compelled to share with others.

Thirdly, the force of Paul’ argument throughout is that this truth should affect our attitudes to others. We will want those who are legitimate heirs of God’s blessings to receive the blessing and that blessing is experienced now as part of God’s family, the church.  We should not be doing anything which puts up barriers to those who are true heirs of grace from receiving and enjoying it.