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tures themselves. It was to the Old Tes tament Scriptures, o f course, that the Juda izers appealed, and now Paul appeals to them and shows from their own Scriptures, upon which he laid the emphasis, that his position is right and theirs wrong. He dwells upon this proof at considerable length—to the end o f chapter 4. This Bible argument of Paul’s has several parts. First, he shows the Galatians that the way in which they had received the Holy Spirit and had had the Spirit supplied to them, i. e., “by the hearing o f faith,” was pre cisely the way in which Abraham himself, the very man in whom the Judaizers made their boast, had been justified (v. 6 ). “Abra ham believed God,” that was all: he was not as yet “ circumcised” ; “and it -( i. e., his simply believing God) was reckoned unto him for rightoeusness” (cf. Gen. 15:4; Rom. 4:3 ). No verse in the Bible makes the way in which we can obtain justifica tion more plain and simple than this. All we have to do is just to believe God and God takes our simply believing Him (as Abraham simply believed Him when he made a promise to him that seemed incred ible), as “righteousness,” puts it to our account as “righteousness.” The one thing, and the only thing God requires o f men is that they believe His Word. O f course, that involves everything else that is neces sary, but that is the one thing God demands. Abraham believed God’s word about Isaac, and God put that to Abraham’s account as righteousness, though he was as yet very far from a perfect man. The Word o f God we have to believe in order to be justified i is God’s word about Jesus Christ (1 John 5:9-13; John 5:24), and, as soon as we do believe God’s testimony about Jesus Christ, God puts our believing His word about Jesus Christ to our account as righteous ness, that is to say, He justifies us, reck ons us righteous, even though as yet we are very imperfect men (John 5 :24) : our faith is “reckoned for righteousness” (cf. Rom. 4:5, R. V .). . God has but one way o f justification and salvation for all men under all dispensations, that way is by
faith, by simply believing what He says. God reckons faith for righteousness. Friday, April 26 . Gal. 3 : 7 - 9 . Since God reckons the simple believing o f His own word for righteousness, there fore the. “sons o f Abraham” are not those who keep the law, but those who do the thing that Abraham did by which he was justified, i. e., believe God: “ They which be o f (out o f) faith, the same (literally, these) are sons o f Abraham” (cf. verses 26-29). It is to be noted that Paul does not say that these are merely "children" of Abraham, but “these are sons (i. e., full grown children) o f Abraham” (cf. ch. 4 : 1 - 7). The essential fact about Abraham was not that he was circumcised, but that he believed God. His circumcision was not reckoned to him for righeousness, but his faith, and circumcision was simply the seal o f the righteousness which he had already obtained by faith while still being in uncir cumcision (cf. Rom. 4:9-11). This argu ment o f Paul’s is masterly, indeed it is unanswerable. The Scripture foresaw how God would justify the Gentiles, that He would do it “by faith” (literally, out o f faith), therefore the Old Testament Scrip ture “preached the gospel (i. e., the gospel in its germ and essence) before hand.” It was unto Abraham” that the Scripture “preached the gospel before hand.” ’ It did this by saying “In thee shall all the nations be blessed. ’ The word translated nations in this passage is the word w'hich is used for Gentile nations ,1 The common word for the Jews is the word often trans lated “people.” ' It is in Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18 that the Scriptures preached the gos pel before hand unto Abraham. Thus Paul proves to the Judaizers from their own highly revered Scripture that Gentiles were included in God’s plan o f salvation, and that too in Abraham {“in thee"). The way in which the Gentiles were to be blessed in Abraham was: ( 1 ) by his example, as one who was justified by faith while still uncircumcised; ( 2 ) by his being the Father o f the Christ, the Saviour. The
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