In making the New Covenant—once we have proceeded through the process of repentance and baptism, and have received God's Spirit—which baptizes us into Christ—we are then Abraham's children. That is, we are Abraham's descendants regardless of our race, regardless of our national origin. We are therefore part of that one Family into which God is drawing all of mankind, and we are made heirs of the promises made to Abraham as part of the Abrahamic Covenant. All the Old Covenant did was bridge the gap from the time Israel was released from their bondage until the promised Seed came.
Abraham was concerned that he had no children. In this section, God promised him that he would have countless children. Into this comes faith. Abraham believed Him. It is that simple. When it says that Abraham believed, we can understand from other portions of the Bible that his belief was such that it motivated him to submit—to obey God.
The word can also be translated "mature." It can also be translated "complete." It sounds to me like it is very similar to what God said to Abraham. What is Jesus beginning to do? He is beginning to introduce concepts that are part and parcel of both the Abrahamic Covenant and will also be part and parcel of the New Covenant.
Now, Abraham is very plainly called "the father of the faithful." It is as though he is the head of the family. It is as though as the head of that family, he, of all who have ever lived, with the exception of Jesus Christ, is the model after which we are to mold ourselves.
We also saw (back in Galatians 3) that, if you are Christ's, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Things are beginning to come together here within God's purpose, and they are coming together within the church.
Now we see that Abraham passed the test. What did he do? Abraham upheld his end of the covenant. Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.
I have kind of gone way around the pole, you might say, in order to impress upon you the fact that under the New Covenant the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant are valid and that Abraham is our spiritual father, as it were. He is the model of the family. And the model of the family, with whom God first made the covenant, obeyed God's voice. He kept God's charge. He kept the commandments and he kept the laws and Abraham's children are going to do the same thing! Otherwise, they will not show the characteristics of Abraham; and they will not really be his children.
Paul is not doing away with laws in the book of Galatians! He is simply saying law keeping cannot justify us. It is that simple. Sometimes we have to go way around the pole in order to get to the root of things. We see here, by God's own witness that Abraham lived up to the terms of the covenant. And because he did, it was being passed on to Isaac for him to do as his father, Abraham, had done.
But the problem of transgressions to the terms of the Old Covenant was not resolved until the promised Seed, Christ, came. When He came, He lived perfectly. He qualified to be the payment for sin and, at the same time, He confirmed the promises that were made unto Abraham—and they were made absolutely, eternally binding. God then proposed the New Covenant that He had previously prophesied of (in Jeremiah 31), which ties everything into one neat package. And He has presented it to all of mankind—not just Abraham's physical descendants.
It is not circumcision which makes one a part of this covenant. That was the sign that was given to Abraham and his physical descendants. Rather, it is circumcision of the heart! It is repentance and faith in the sacrifice of the promised Seed (Jesus Christ) that is the sign; and the receipt of the Holy Spirit is the seal. It authenticates what has occurred. It completes the making of the New Covenant with the individuals that God is calling.
Let us go to Genesis 16. We have already seen through Abraham’s life that for justification by faith, or you might say the receiving of God’s Spirit, does not prevent us from trying to fulfill God’s will on our own strength. Abraham has already tried a couple of different times. He had that venture down in Egypt, which I think was wrong for him to do, but nonetheless he did it. Here in chapter 16, we are going to see another attempt for Abraham, in which Abraham and Sarah, this time, becomes directly involved with them trying to fulfill the promises of God through their own human will, their own human energy, however you might want to put it. We might put it by works of the flesh.
What we have here is an allegory. An allegory is a generalization, usually contained in a story, that teaches a truth about human existence, and human life. I believe it is in the King James, verse 24, says that these things are an allegory. More modern translations use, “symbolic,” “figure,” or “simple.” Now, when Paul makes use of this speaking method, he is not saying that the story is a myth. Because usually in an allegory a myth is used, but in this case it is not a myth. What he is saying is that the religious significance of what occurred here is far greater of importance for you and me than literal history. So literally it did occur, but something else occurred there that is far more important to you and me, and it is something that has to be understood. Paul was giving us the understanding by making an allegory out of what is in this case, a true story.
Paul has already stated earlier that the book of Galatians is one long argument, one side of an argument, where Paul is trying to convince these people to break away from their reliance on the law. Paul has already stated his argument earlier in the book that the law brings witness a curse. This curse is mentioned in
Notice he does not say under the law, he says of works of the law. Let us understand something that I do know is true. Every law has a curse, not just God’s law, man’s law has a curse as well. Every law has a penalty. Therefore, it is understood that a curse, that is, the penalty, has to be carried out if the law is broken. The problem with God’s law is that the curse is death.
The problem is that man cannot keep God’s law perfectly, so man is caught in an endless cycle always trying to make up for his breaking the law. You can never get away from it because you can never keep God’s law perfectly. So, if you are depending upon law, as soon as you break it, that is all she wrote. If you pay the penalty, you are dead.
Now God had a way of reminding the people they were breaking the law through the sacrificial law. So they went through the ritual, but as we find in Hebrews 10, it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to forgive sin. It was never God’s intent for the blood of bulls and goats to forgive a human sin. That would be animal life for the life of a man, a very poor comparison. It could never do it.
So if a person tries to live up to the law, he is caught in an endless cycle, because he is always going to fall short. So here in Galatians 4:21, Paul asked a question. “Do you hear [do you comprehend, do you understand] what the law says?” Now, law here means the first five books, the Torah. It does not mean legislation. The reason I know that is because what Paul just referred to in the allegory was taken from Genesis 16. That’s part of the law. He is not talking about legislation, he is talking about the structure that is contained in the first five books. So, then he asks the question, “Do you understand what it says in Genesis 16?” This is just a re-phrase of what he said.
It is very likely that those who Paul was writing against had used Abraham as a very large part of their argument. He was their example. The Jews used descent from Abraham as a large part of their claim on God’s blessing and promises.
Abraham kept God’s law. Genesis 26 shows this … . . .
In principle, what He did here, first of all, was remind him of the promise. Then the next step was to broaden Abraham’s scope, beyond the limits of flesh and blood. See, He made him look up into the heavens. He literally made him do that, in a sense, made him look away from the physical, looking away from flesh and blood, looking away from the earth and towards God’s throne, into an expanse that was so great.
Remember, Abram was probably an astronomer, a mathematician. He took Abraham right into his elements, and said in a sense, in a nice, kind way, “Look dummy, get your mind off the self, get on to heaven above, get your mind on the vast scope of the power of which you are dealing.” And Abraham believed. It means that he took God at His word and God immediately responded. He accounted it to Abraham for righteousness. It was the right thing to do and God acknowledged it.
But now, the rest of the chapter. Abraham believed God. God is always the same. Faith, that belief, must be tested. Of all things, He tested Abraham purely with worship of that God. That has a valuable lesson contained within it. Now we might just expand on this word worship. Worship in its broadest sense involves every act of life. We tend to think of worship in terms of coming to services on the Sabbath, and that certainly is included because at that time we very definitely have a fellowship with God. We are in His presence, and we lift up prayers to Him and He speaks to us through His Word. There is a communication there.
But in its broadest sense worship includes all of the acts of life: what we do at home, and what we do on the job, while we are shopping, and while we are driving an automobile. Everything in our fellowship with God is contained within the scope of our worship of Him. This has something to do with the lesson that is involved here. How is God going to picture something to you and me in which this lesson is contained? He did it through a very ingenious method, and that is by requiring Abram to do something that we could very easily relate to as being an act of worship.
Now everybody here understands that when an Israelite worshipped, he made a sacrifice. That was the individual Israelite’s supreme act of worship. Under normal circumstances it was to make a sacrifice.
Here comes the answer to his question: make a sacrifice. Abraham’s question at first glance appears like a contradiction to verse 6. On one hand he believed, and on the other hand he is asking for proof. No, he is not asking for proof, that is why God accounted it as righteousness. Abraham believed, he took God at His word, and he knew it was going to happen. What we have a little trouble with is this, “How shall I know?” What he is asking for is how or through what experience the promise will be fulfilled. He believed it was going to occur, but he wanted to know the means through which it was going to occur. Now you and I are wondering about that and asking that about God all the time. We ask, “I know you’re going to do this, but how are you going to do it.” That is exactly what Abraham did.
We too may believe. Abraham believed, you see, but God’s answer is sacrifice. Now what kind of an answer is that? What He is telling Abram is this: That understanding God’s will comes when we offer ourselves as a burnt offering. Do you remember the sermons I gave on the offerings of Leviticus? We went through the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.
All the aspects of the burnt offering (Leviticus 1), the sin offering (Leviticus 4), and the trespass offering (Leviticus 5), are contained here. In the animals that were offered, you remember the type because I went through them, we see service, sin bearing, and innocence. The bull, the sin bearing of the ram and goat, and the innocence of the turtle dove. These aspects cover our … . . .
I want to tell you where I am headed because I think it is important to understand, i.e., in God's mind. I have to put it this way because God looks at things differently than we do. Much of conversion is coming to the mind of God in things and looking at things, looking at life the way God does. It is as we gain this perspective of "let this mind be in you" whether it is in terms of attitude, or the day of worship, or the holy days. These things become the reason why we act as we do.
In God's mind, true living faith and obedience, what we might call our works, though they are specifically different are virtually synonymous from God's point of view. I am going to prove this to you. Faith and obedience are interchangeable even though they are specifically not the same things. This is not at all uncommon in the Bible. Do you remember the series of sermons on the Holy Spirit where mind, heart, and spirit are so interconnected, they cannot really be separated even though they are specifically not the same things? So true, living faith and obedience, our works, though specifically different, are virtually synonymous from God's perspective.
It says here that Abraham believed in the LORD and He counted to him for righteousness. Let us go back to the book of Romans, which Paul wrote. We are going to look at this because Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 here. If you have a title or subtitle at the beginning of chapter four as my Bible does, it says, "Abraham's Justification." Now remember what we just read in Genesis 15.
That is the same as saying that, because Abraham believed he was justified. He was legally righteous before God. This verse becomes the basis for Paul's argument that justification is by faith, not works. He does that on the basis of the fact of what this occasion in Genesis 15 shows. One of the things that Paul does not mention is that Genesis 15:6 occurred fourteen years before Abraham was circumcised. Paul's conclusion on this then is that because of what it says in Genesis 15:6, Abraham was justified by faith. The work of circumcision did not come for fourteen years later. The circumcision did not justify him, the faith did.
A very strong argument.
So we see an application made by Paul for us, that we too are justified, cleared of guilt, have the sins wiped out of the way by the blood of Jesus Christ, because we believe. Paul's conclusion then is justification by faith. Now here comes the paradox. It does not stand alone. How do I know that? Because the book of James tells me in chapter two.
The paradox is beginning to dissolve. Not by faith only. Are you aware that Paul said almost the same thing? Two chapters before he said what he said in Romans 4, he said in Romans 2:
We are beginning to see something that is very important to understand. Living faith cannot be separated from works. It may seem like a paradox. It may even seem like an oxymoron. But faith and works go together and where there is living faith, there will always, always, always be works. If no works are produced there is no living faith.
In principle, what He did here, first of all, was remind him of the promise. Then the next step was to broaden Abraham’s scope, beyond the limits of flesh and blood. See, He made him look up into the heavens. He literally made him do that, in a sense, made him look away from the physical, looking away from flesh and blood, looking away from the earth and towards God’s throne, into an expanse that was so great.
Remember, Abram was probably an astronomer, a mathematician. He took Abraham right into his elements, and said in a sense, in a nice, kind way, “Look dummy, get your mind off the self, get on to heaven above, get your mind on the vast scope of the power of which you are dealing.” And Abraham believed. It means that he took God at His word and God immediately responded. He accounted it to him for righteousness. It was the right thing to do and God acknowledged it.
But now, the rest of the chapter. Abraham believed God. God is always the same. Faith, that belief, must be tested. Of all things, He tested Abraham purely with worship of that God. That has a valuable lesson contained within it. Now we might just expand on this word worship. Worship in its broadest sense involves every act of life. We tend to think of worship in terms of coming to services on the Sabbath, and that certainly is included because at that time we very definitely have a fellowship with God. We are in His presence, and we lift up prayers to Him and He speaks to us through His Word. There is a communication there.
Here comes the answer to his question: make a sacrifice. Abraham’s question at first glance appears like a contradiction to verse 6. On one hand he believed, and on the other hand he is asking for proof. No, he is not asking for proof, that is why God accounted it as righteousness. Abraham believed, he took God at His word, and he knew it was going to happen. What we have a little trouble with is this, “How shall I know?” What he is asking for is how or through what experience the promise will be fulfilled. He believed it was going to occur, but he wanted to know the means through which it was going to occur. Now you and I are wondering about that and asking that about God all the time. We ask, “I know you’re going to do this, but how are you going to do it.” That is exactly what Abraham did.
God is telling you and me that if we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, truth will be made manifest to us. Now why? What is the process? Sacrificing for God’s purposes, for the fulfilling of His will, forces us to live by faith. Living by faith pleases God, and His reward is to reveal more of Himself to us. It is a simple process, but not easy to do.
Abraham is experiencing these things in type to give us a lesson so that we understand the trials of our faith.
So sacrifice is a major key to understanding God’s will. The reason for that is because it forces a person to live by faith. Living by faith pleases God, and God’s reward or blessing is to reveal more of Himself.
This is not self-righteousness, which Isaiah calls filthy rags, but is “the imputed righteousness of God.” It says in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Let us turn to Romans 4, and we will look at this from the New Testament point of view.
It also says in Psalm 119:172 that all God's commandments are righteousness. So, righteousness has to do with obeying God—obeying God's law—living by and conforming to every word that proceeds from God.
So, when we believe in God, God counts it as righteousness.
We have a new thing added to it, here. When you believe in God, not only does He credit you with being righteous, but He counts you as a friend.
So here we see that Abraham because of his belief was made a father of many nations, righteousness was imputed to him, and it is also imputed to us if we believe.
So all seems pretty good here. God is promising to create many, many, many great grandchildren through Abraham. Abraham says, "I believe you." And then we go to the next chapter.
Now, in Genesis 17, we see that the faithful God would indeed fulfill His promise. He makes a promise, He is going to fulfill it. But they had to be patient.
