foolishness and faith

Good morning sisters and brothers,
In the last part of chapter 2 Paul argues that if following the law justifies us Christ died for nothing. Today he turns to the Galatians' own experience and gets more aggressive in his argument for faith. He asks them if they experienced God's presence through following the law or through believing in Jesus. Of course, this is a rhetorical question. Paul is probably the one who taught the Galatians about Jesus and who saw them received the Holy Spirit.

Paul also makes an argument based on Abraham, since Abraham is the ancestor of the Jewish people. He looks back to Genesis 15, to God's promise to make Abraham into a great nation. He reminds them that the promise was confirmed for Abraham after Abraham believed God. Later, Paul will discuss how the law came much later and so is clearly less important than Abraham's initial faith. It is that faith that God saw as righteousness; and that's why God tells Abraham that "through him the gentiles (nations) will be blessed. That blessing is the faith the gentiles in Galatia have experienced; for them and for us faith is how we stand before God.
God bless,
Sam

Galatians 3:1-9
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 4Did you experience so much for nothing? —if it really was for nothing. 5Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

6Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” 7so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” 9For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.