Believing And Trusting- Part 7
October 9, 2026 – 3:24 amTo walk in the Abrahamic Covenant, faith is required!
When Abraham encountered GOD, he believed and trusted in GOD’S Word, he expressed faith.
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 3:
1 What has happened to you foolish Galatians? Who has put you under an evil spell? Did God not open your eyes to see the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion? Was He not revealed to you as the crucified One?
2 So answer me this: Did the Holy Spirit come to you as a reward for keeping Jewish laws? No, you received Him as a gift because you believed in the Messiah.
3 Your new life began when the Holy Spirit gave you a new birth. Why then would you so foolishly turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own works?
4 Have you endured so many trials and persecutions for nothing?
5 Let me ask you again: What does the lavish supply of the Holy Spirit in your life and the miracles of God’s tremendous power have to do with you keeping religious laws? The Holy Spirit is poured out upon us through the revelation and power of faith!
6 Abraham, our father of faith, believed God, and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him.
7 So the true children of Abraham have the same faith as their father!
8 And the Scripture prophesied that on the basis of faith God would declare gentiles to be righteous. God announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: “Through your example of faith, all the nations will be blessed!”
9 And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too!
Paul asks one central question: How does a person receive God’s Spirit and belong to Abraham’s family—by keeping the law, or by hearing and trusting God’s promise? Paul’s answer is by faith.
In verses 1–2, Paul reminds them how they began. Paul calls the Galatians “foolish” and asks who has “bewitched” them. He is speaking sharply because they have lost sight of the crucified Christ, whom Paul had clearly proclaimed to them.
He asks: “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearng with faith?” They had already received the Spirit when they believed the Ggospel. They did not first earn Him by observing the law of Moses.
Jesus must be the central message at all times!
Paul presses the question: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Here, “flesh” points to reliance on human ability to secure what God gives through His Spirit. Paul is not saying obedience is unimportant. He is saying that rule keeping cannot become the basis of their standing with God or the power that completes their spiritual life.
He also asks whether God supplies the Spirit and works among them because they perform “works of the law,” or because they hear with faith. His repeated questions point back to their own experience of God’s grace.
Abraham is Paul’s example. Paul quotes Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Abraham trusted God’s promise. Paul then says that “those of faith” are Abraham’s sons.
Jesus expressed the same example in John 8:39. Jesus challenged people who relied on being Abraham’s physical descendants while rejecting the Truth.
Paul explains that people share in Abraham’s blessing through the kind of faith Abraham showed.
Finally, Paul recalls God’s promise that “in you shall all the nations be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). God’s purpose always reached beyond Abraham’s physical descendants. Paul says the blessing comes to the nations through faith, just as Abraham believed.
The Galatians received the Spirit through faith in Christ. Paul urges them to keep trusting God’s promise instead of treating obedience to the law as the way to earn or complete their acceptance by God.
That faith is meant to bear fruit in a changed life; Paul later describes that fruit in chapter 5:22–23.
We are to walk in active faith as we are led by The Holy Spirit. Faith without corresponding works is dead. “Works” here means actions that express faith, such as helping a person in need. James is not saying we can earn God’s acceptance by doing enough good deeds. Is faith that produces no response is living faith at all? Works are the visible expression of living faith, not its purchase price.
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