WHO ARE THE BLESSED?

GALATIANS 3:3-9 NKJ 
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— 6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. 

OBSERVATION: 

Paul is still on his spiritual rant regarding faith versus works. And really, it's not a rant. Paul is decisively laying out his, actually God's, case for faith.   

He asks the Galatians if they are being perfected by the flesh. They received Christ by faith. So how can works of the flesh make them any better in God's sight? 

Receiving Christ is not a philosophy. It is a new start, a spiritual rebirth. So, what has happened to us as believers is internal. And we will not change that by external good deeds. 

Then Paul qualifies who are the blessed. The Jews held onto their physical bloodline through Abraham. But Paul counters with the truth that Abraham was blessed because he believed. Abraham had faith in God hundreds of years before Jewish law ever existed. Abraham believed in God, and God credited his faith to him for righteousness. 

So now, those of us who are of faith. Those who come to God not on the basis of their own goodness but through faith in Christ. Now we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. And we are blessed with believing Abraham.   

APPLICATION: 

The more this great truth dawns on our hearts, the freer we become.   

Now we are the chosen people. We are the special set-apart ones in God's sight. No longer are the blessings of God dependent on bloodlines. Now we who believe are blessed. And this blessing is available to anyone anywhere.   

The more we realize this, the greater our expectations increase. We are no longer looking to other people thinking they have a spiritual advantage. We are no longer disqualifying ourselves from God's best due to a sense of inferiority. We are not wishing one day we will be blessed. We are blessed now.   

We accepted Jesus by faith and received salvation and the new birth. We accept every other blessing in Christ the same way, by faith. And as we do, we join with the multitudes of God's people, rejoicing in what God has done.   

PRAYER: 

Thank You, Lord, that I am blessed with believing Abraham. Thank You for what Jesus had done for me. I receive the blessing.