Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Powerful as is the effect of these words when we read them in their first untarnished freshness, they gain immensely in their original language, to which neither Greek nor German, much less Latin or English, can furnish any full equivalent. "He supported himself, he built himself up, he reposed as a child in his mother's arms" (such seems to be the force of the Hebrew) in the strength of God, in God whom he did not see, more than in the giant empires of earth, and the bright lights of heaven, or the charms of tribe and kindred, which were always before him. It was counted to him for "righteousness." It "was counted to him," and his history seals and ratifies the result. His faith transpires not in any out. ward profession, but precisely in that which far more nearly concerns him and every one of us, in his prayers, his actions, in the righteousness, uprightness, moral elevation of soul and spirit which sent him on his way straightforward, without turning to the right hand or to the left. (Dean Stanley.)He was justified by faith when his faith was mighty in effect, when he trusted in God, when he believed the promises, when he expected a resurrection of the dead, when he was strong in faith, when he gave glory to God, when, against hope, lie believed in hope; and when all this passed into an act of a most glorious obedience, even denying his greatest desires, contradicting his most passionate affections, offering to God the best thing he had, and exposing to death his beloved Isaac at the command of God. "By this faith he was justified," saith St. Paul; "by these works," saith St. James, i.e., by this faith working this obedience. (Jeremy Taylor.) Parallel Verses KJV: Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.WEB: Even as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." |
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