Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Galatians 3:6

"Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." — Galatians 3:6 (ASV)

Paul begins his argument by linking his OT example to the Galatians’ spiritual experience, showing that what they had known to be true in their own lives (salvation by faith alone) was also true for others and is confirmed by Scripture.

To appeal to Abraham is more than to appeal to just any historical example, because Abraham was the acknowledged father and prototype of Israel. He was the man God started with. He had come from a pagan ancestry beyond the river Euphrates (Joshua 24:1–2), but God had called him and had made a covenant with him. From Abraham the Jewish people came, and all Jews looked back to him as their spiritual father and example. How, then, did Abraham receive God’s blessing? How was he justified? Paul answers by a quotation of Ge 15:6, noting that Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” What does Paul mean by faith being imputed to Abraham as “righteousness” (GK 1466)? The answer depends on the definition of “righteousness.” This may be either a forensic term (denoting a right standing before the law) or aterm denoting a right relationship (in this case to God). If the latter definition is taken, Paul’s point is that Abraham’s trusting attitude toward God was accepted by God as righteousness. But if the forensic use predominates, then it must be God’s own personal righteousness that was imputed to Abraham in place of his own, which was inadequate. If there were nothing else to go on than Ge 15:6, the second of these two uses might be preferable. But in view of Paul’s development of the doctrine elsewhere, the first must be adopted. It is only by thinking of God’s righteousness actually being credited to our account that Paul can say (2 Corinthians 5:21): “God made him [Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” These two views are not in opposition, of course, for justification does bring one into a right relationship with God out of which ethical changes follow. The changes result from one’s being placed “in Christ,” as Paul has shown (2:20).