Galatians – Week 4 – Day 5

READ 

Galatians 3:5-7 

5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. 6 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. 

Paul continued to contrast good works with faith. The Galatian believers had not received the Holy Spirit by doing the works of the law; they received Him by faith as they trusted in Jesus for salvation. Paul cited their patriarch Abraham as an example. He was not made right with God because of his good works but because of his faith in God.  

REFLECT 

Is this helping you to see that the Christian life is really a life of faith? 

RESPOND 

Visit with another believer to talk more about Abraham. The Old Testament Scripture Paul was citing was Genesis 15:6. In that context, God was referring to the physical descendants of Abraham. In Galatians 3:6-7 Paul referred to the spiritual descendants of Abraham who believed God the same way Abraham had done.