Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Galatians · About this commentary
Abraham Believed God
Galatians 3:6-9
6 Even so, Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” · WEB
The argument moves to the man the opponents claimed, and the verse chosen about him records a crediting that happened before there was any law to keep.
Paul quotes the one sentence that decides it: Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness Genesis 15:6. The verb counted is a bookkeeping word — something entered on a ledger as though it were there.
The choice of witness is strategic. Anyone urging circumcision was appealing to Abraham, since Abraham is where circumcision begins. Paul takes the same figure and points at the moment before it. Righteousness was credited on believing, and the sign came afterward — so whatever circumcision was, it did not make Abraham right with God. The ledger entry was already made.
Verse 7 draws the inference about descent: those who are of faith are children of Abraham. Sonship is redefined by the thing Abraham himself did.
Then verse 8, and it is the boldest move in the paragraph. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham — and quotes the promise that in him all the nations will be blessed Genesis 12:3. Paul calls that promise a preaching of the gospel, delivered to Abraham, centuries early. The inclusion of gentiles is not a later concession to be regulated; it was the content of the original promise.
Verse 9 states the result, and the adjective attached to Abraham is worth noticing. Those of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham — the patriarch is named not for what he achieved but for the quality the whole argument turns on.
settled What this mark means