Galatians 3:9

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) They which be of faith.—The same phrase as in Galatians 3:7 above.

With faithful Abraham—i.e., in company with Abraham. The same idea is presented in two different forms. Abraham’s spiritual descendants are blessed “in him;” they are also blessed “with him.” He is the head of a great company, in which they all are included.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:6-14 The apostle proves the doctrine he had blamed the Galatians for rejecting; namely, that of justification by faith without the works of the law. This he does from the example of Abraham, whose faith fastened upon the word and promise of God, and upon his believing he was owned and accepted of God as a righteous man. The Scripture is said to foresee, because the Holy Spirit that indited the Scripture did foresee. Through faith in the promise of God he was blessed; and it is only in the same way that others obtain this privilege. Let us then study the object, nature, and effects of Abraham's faith; for who can in any other way escape the curse of the holy law? The curse is against all sinners, therefore against all men; for all have sinned, and are become guilty before God: and if, as transgressors of the law, we are under its curse, it must be vain to look for justification by it. Those only are just or righteous who are freed from death and wrath, and restored into a state of life in the favour of God; and it is only through faith that persons become righteous. Thus we see that justification by faith is no new doctrine, but was taught in the church of God, long before the times of the gospel. It is, in truth, the only way wherein any sinners ever were, or can be justified. Though deliverance is not to be expected from the law, there is a way open to escape the curse, and regain the favour of God, namely, through faith in Christ. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law; being made sin, or a sin-offering, for us, he was made a curse for us; not separated from God, but laid for a time under the Divine punishment. The heavy sufferings of the Son of God, more loudly warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, than all the curses of the law; for how can God spare any man who remains under sin, seeing that he spared not his own Son, when our sins were charged upon him? Yet at the same time, Christ, as from the cross, freely invites sinners to take refuge in him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So then they which be of faith - They whose leading characteristic it is that they believe. This was the leading trait in the character of Abraham, and this is the leading thing required of those who embrace the gospel, and in the character of a true Christian.

Are blessed with faithful Abraham - In the same manner they are interested in the promises made to him, and they will be treated as he was. They are justified in the same manner, and admitted to the same privileges on earth and in heaven.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. they—and they alone.

of faith—(See on [2341]Ga 3:7, beginning).

with—together with.

faithful—implying what it is in which they are "blessed together with him," namely, faith, the prominent feature of his character, and of which the result to all who like him have it, is justification.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Those that believe in Jesus Christ with such a faith as the gospel doth require, they, and they alone, are blessed with spiritual blessings, justified from the guilt of sin,

with Abraham; that is, in the same manner that Abraham, the father of the faithful, and who himself was a believer, was justified; which was not (as was before said) by his circumcision, or by any works that he did, but by imputation upon his believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, exhibited and held forth in the promise made to him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So then they which be of faith,.... This is the apostle's conclusion upon the whole, from the instance of Abraham, and, the promise made to him; and is an explanation of the preceding clause, and shows that it must be taken in a limited sense, and understood not of every individual; only of those who are of the same faith with Abraham, are believers in Christ, and seek for justification by faith in him, and not by the works of the law:

these are blessed with faithful Abraham; in his seed Christ; they are blessed with a justifying righteousness in Christ as he was, and will be blessed with eternal life as he is; they shall sit with him, and with Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The character of "faithful" given to him, respects not his uprightness and integrity among men, but his faith in God; and does not suppose that he was blessed for his faith, but that it was through faith that he received the blessing of justification, and not by the works of the law; and that in the same way, all that believe enjoy the same favour, for to them it is limited and restrained: nor can the Jews of all men find fault with this interpretation of the apostle's, since they themselves interpret the above clause of some particular persons of the nations of the world, and say in so many words, that

"the meaning is, not that all the men of the world should be blessed, but that every family that is in the world, , "that comes to the obedience and faith of him" (God,) to it shall adhere the blessing and providence. (o)''

(o) Abarbinel in Pentateuch, fol. 54. 1, 2. Vid. R. Isaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 1. c. 13. p. 135.

Geneva Study Bible

{9} So then they which be of faith are blessed {g} with faithful Abraham.

(9) The conclusion of the fifth argument: therefore as Abraham is blessed by faith, so are all his children (that is to say, all the Gentiles that believe) blessed, that is to say, freely justified.

(g) With faithful Abraham, and not by faithful Abraham, to show us that the blessing comes not from Abraham, but from him by whom Abraham and all his posterity is blessed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Galatians 3:9. Ὥστε] The general result from Galatians 3:7-8. If, namely, believers are sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:7), and if the Scripture, in its promise of blessing to Abraham, has had in view faith as the source of divine justification for the Gentiles, believers accordingly are those who are blessed with believing Abraham, ὥστε is used in its common acceptation of the actual consequence, and is therefore not to be explained in the sense of οὕτως νῦν, to which Hofmann’s view comes.

οἱ ἐκ πίστεως] has the whole emphasis, as in Galatians 3:7.

σὺν τῷ πιστῷ Ἀβρ.] Paul does not repeat ἐν, but writes σύν, because he looks from the present time of εὐλογοῦνται into the past, in which Abraham stands forth as the blessed one, with whom those who become blessed are now placed on a like footing, σύν is not, however, equivalent to καθώς, a view on behalf of which appeal ought not to be made to Romans 8:32 (Koppe and others); but it expresses fellowship, for believers, inasmuch as they are blessed (justified), share with believing Abraham the same divine benefit which began in his person and is extended to believers as the υἱούς homogeneous with him. The predicate πιστῷ is added to Ἀβρ., in order to denote the similarity of the ethical character, which necessarily accompanies the similarity of the result.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Galatians 3:9. οἱ ἐκ πίστεως. See note on Galatians 3:7.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. faithful] The original word, like its English equivalent, may mean either trustworthy or trusting, deserving confidence or exercising it. In the former sense it occurs 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 4:2. In the latter (which is the sense here), John 20:27, where it is rendered ‘believing’. The context will determine which meaning is to be assigned to it. A similar ambiguity attaches to such English words as pitiful, mournful, hopeful.

Bengel's Gnomen

Galatians 3:9. Οἱ ἐκ πίστεως) they who are of faith, all, and they alone; as is evident from its opposite in the following verse.—σὺν τῷ πιστῷ, with the faithful) The blessing was conferred on Abraham himself by faith; with whom those, who believe, are blessed. Observe, he says now, σὺν, with, not ἐν, in. In thee was said before Christ was born of the seed of Abraham; subsequently to that event, with, nay even previously; compare the heirs with him, Hebrews 11:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham (ὥστε οἱ ἐκ πίστεως εὐλογοῦνται σὺν τῷ πιστῷ Ἀβραάμ) "Are blessed;" are objects of benediction. The apostle gathers from the words cited in ver. 8 the two particulars, that there are who get to be blessed like Abraham and with him, and that it is by faith like Abraham's, without works of the Law, that they do so. He seems to have an eye to the sense of Divine benediction which the Galatians had themselves experienced, when upon their simply believing in Christ the Spirit's gifts had been poured forth upon them. The word "faithful" (πιστῷ) is inserted, ex abundanti almost, to mark the more explicitly and emphatically, the condition on which both Abraham and therefore others in him gain the blessing. This being "in Abraham," which is here predicated of all who gain justification and God's benediction, is analogous to the image of Gentiles, being by faith "grafted," and by faith abiding, in the "olive tree," which we have in Romans 11:17, 20. The verbal πιστὸς is generally passive, "one to be believed or trusted in," and so a man "of fidelity;" but it is also at times active, in the sense of "one who believes," as John 20:27; Acts 10:45; 2 Corinthians 6:15; Ephesians 1:1; 1 Timothy 4:10; 1 Timothy 5:16; 1 Timothy 6:2 (so in ἄπιστος, John 20:27; ὀλιγόπιστος, Matthew 6:30). In consequence of this use of the term in Scripture, both fidelis in ecclesiastical Latin and "faithful" in English have often this signification. Galatians 3:9

Vincent's Word Studies

With (σὺν)

Not equals like or as, but in fellowship with. Believers are regarded as homogeneous with Abraham, and as thus sharing the blessing which began in him.

Faithful (πιστῷ)

Or believing, as Acts 16:1; 2 Corinthians 11:15; 1 Timothy 5:16. Those who are of the faith are one in blessing with him whose characteristic was faith.