Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”- Galatians 3:6
Among the Galatian Christians, the push towards a works-based relationship with God came from other Christians who were born as Jews and who claimed Abraham as their spiritual ancestor. Therefore, Paul used Abraham as an example of being right before God by faith and not by faith plus works. It mattered a great deal to the apostle that God saves people by grace, not on the grounds of their human achievement, and he found Abraham an excellent example of that truth.
Paul quoted Genesis 15:6. It simply shows that righteousness was accounted to Abraham because he believed God. It was not because he performed some work and certainly not because he was circumcised, because the covenant of circumcision had not yet been given. Genesis 15:1-6 shows that when Abraham put his trust in God, specifically in God’s promise to give him children that would eventually bring forth the Messiah, God credited this belief to Abraham’s account as righteousness. “Abraham was not justified merely because he believed that God would multiply his seed, but because he embraced the grace of God, trusting to the promised Mediator,” is how the great theologian John Calvin described it.
There are essentially two types of righteousness: righteousness we accomplish by our own efforts and righteousness accounted to us by the work of God when we believe. Since none of us can be good enough to accomplish perfect righteousness, we must have God’s righteousness accounted to us by doing just what Abram did: Abraham believed God.
Believed, of course, means more than that he accepted what God said as true (though, of course, he did that); it means that he trusted God. God told Abraham he would be a father after decades of failed conception. Abraham was told by God he would lead a great nation as large as the sands in the sea. These were not easy things for Abraham to “process.” Yet, he trusted God.
God has told us many miraculous things through His son Jesus Christ. These are just some of the promises God makes to us through Christ:
-eternal life with NO PAIN
-current, physical life with no consequence of death
-the gifts of the spirit patience, kindness, love, joy, etc.)
Do you trust that God is bringing these promises to fruition? I believe what God told us through Jesus is far greater than what he told Abraham, but it will take trust. Trust is only cultivated through time together. If you find yourself not trusting God, you probably need some time with him. So crack open your bible, grab a coffee, and spend 30 minutes with him everyday. Build the most important trust their is.