Galatians 3:9
So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Truth to Learn
God’s eulogy for us will depend on what we believe, not on what we do.
Behind the Words
We saw in the previous verse that God promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed in him. The word in the previous verse which is translated as “nations” is the Greek word “ethnē” which refers to “a group of people as distinguished by their race or familiar characteristics.” This is the word, however, that Jews used to refer to all who are not Jewish; hence it is often translated as “Gentiles.” God’s message to Abraham, however, was that all nations, including both Jews and Gentiles, would be blessed in him, therefore it is best to translate this word as “nations” in this instance.
In the current verse, the word translated “blessed” is “eulogountai” which is a compound word made up of “eu” meaning “good” or “well” and a form of “logos” meaning “word.” Hence, it literally means “good words.” It is what we get our English word eulogy from and anyone who has been to a funeral knows that the eulogy is where good things are said about the deceased.
Meaning Explained
Paul’s point is that all nations are blessed (spoken well of by God) because of Abraham’s seed, that is, Jesus Christ. But, actually it’s even more than that. The ones who are blessed are the ones whom God justifies, that is, those who believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. It is because God has declared them as righteous (justified) that He can speak well of them. But those who reject Christ are not blessed, in fact, not only will God not speak well of them, they will receive God’s wrath for rejecting His Son.
And Paul ties this in with the major point that he has been making all along, that God’s blessing, salvation, comes from faith in Jesus Christ, Abraham’s seed, not believing this plus doing good works. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t do good works, for we clearly should. It’s just that our good works should be a result of our salvation, not a source of our salvation.
Application
Are you a believer in God’s promise that you will be saved if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If not, God will not have good words for you when you appear before Him at the end of your earthly life. If, on the other hand, you have humbled yourself before Him, accepting the blood of Jesus to pay the penalty for your sins, then God has good words waiting for you. What do you want to hear?
If you wait until you appear before Him, it will be too late. The time to believe is now. Don’t put it off any longer! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2007 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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