Second argument—the case of Abraham.
The natural answer to the previous question is "through the hearing of faith," and this as naturally suggests the case of "faithful Abraham." The Jews boasted of their relationship to Abraham, and therefore an example taken from his history would have special force.
I. THE JUSTIFICATION OF ABRAHAM WAS NOT THROUGH CIRCUMCISION, BUT BY FAITH. "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." No exception could be made to these words, for they were the very words of Moses (Genesis 15:6). The apostle dwells longer on the old Testament, because the Judaists would naturally appeal to it.
1. Abraham was not accepted for his virtues or his piety, or his circumcision, but because "he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness'' (see homily on Galatians 2:16). His faith was accepted as righteousness, not as an act, for it had no merit in itself, but as a fact, for it was not by works, but by faith, he was accepted. His faith was the mere instrument of his justification, not the ground of it; for Scripture always represents it as being "through" faith or "of" faith, never on account of it.
2. The transaction here referred to occurred hundreds of years before the Law was given on Sisal, and even some time before circumcision was appointed as a "seal of righteousness." If he, therefore, could be justified without circumcision, and prior to it, how then could the Judaists insist on its necessity? Abraham was not circumcised in order to be justified, but circumcised because he was justified.
3. The doctrine of the apostle was not, therefore, in any sense a novelty, as the Judaists might think. It was at least as old as Abraham.
II. THE TRUE CONCEPTION OF ABRAHAMIC SONSHIP. "Know ye therefore that they who are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham."
1. It is not Abraham's blood, but Abraham's faith, which establishes the connection between the patriarch and his descendants. The Jews might say, "We have Abraham to our father;" and they might ask in surprise, "What profit, then, is there in circumcision?" They would imitate his circumcision rather than his faith. But the apostle says emphatically that the true sons are "they of faith," whose fundamental principle is faith.
2. It is Christ who makes the nexus between Abraham and us. We believe in Christ, who is Abraham's seed; therefore we are sons of Abraham.
3. There is but one Church in the two dispensations. Some modern sects hold that the Church is a New Testament organization, and that Old Testament saints have no part in it. How can this be, if we believers "are blessed with"—not apart from—"faithful Abraham" (Galatians 3:9)? The apostle shows how Abraham has the heirship, the sonship, the kingdom, the glory, on the ground of the promise. He did not, therefore, receive the promise only for his children. Take the promise of the Spirit from Abraham; we take it from ourselves. Is the father of the family to be excluded, and only the children to gain admission to the kingdom?
III. THE PROOF FROM SCRIPTURE. "Moreover, the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the heathen through faith, announced the good news beforehand to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."
1. The exact import of the promise.
2. God had purposes of mercy toward the heathen. These purposes included their justification on the same grounds as those which secured the acceptance of the Jews. The Jewish dispensation was particularistic, and was so far temporary and preparatory to a dispensation universalistic in its character. In Christ there was to be henceforth "neither Jew nor Gentile."
3. The way of salvation is the same in both dispensations. Old Testament saints were saved exactly like New Testament saints, by faith in "the Lamb slain frorn the foundation of the world." The Levitical system was in itself an evangelical representation of the true method of salvation.
4. We see here the value of Scripture for proof, for confirmation, for comfort, through all ages.
IV. COMMUNITY WELL AS UNITY IS THE BLESSING. "So then they which be of faith are blessed together with the faithful Abraham."
1. The blessing. It is the manifestation of Divine favour. The blessing and justification are regarded in the context as correlative terms.
2. The community between Abraham and his seed.
(a) his self-expatriation;
(b) his readiness to sacrifice Isaac;
(c) his warlike courage;
(d) his self-abnegation in the case of Lot.
3. The ground of this community. It is the promise of God, "In thee shall the nations of the earth be blessed," realized in course of time in the common faith of all who, whether Jew or Gentile, trust in one Redeemer, and find in him their true inheritance as joint-heirs with him.