How can sinful humans become righteous?
Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness (Galatians 3:6).
Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 and, in so doing, directly attacks the religious conception of faith and works. The Rabbinic interpretation of Genesis 15:6 in post-exilic Jewish theology argued that faith had merit with God. Faith actually had value with God so God could exchange the merits of faith for the righteousness of God. This verse proved the merits of Father Abraham to the Rabbis (TDNT, 4:290). Paul, in Galatians, treats faith and works as opposites and incompatible with one another. Faith is not a meritorious work of humans that earns the favor of God.
How then does Paul use the faith of Abraham to prove his point? Paul has been consistently juxtaposing as opposites "works of law" and "hearing of faith" (Gal. 3:5; 2:16). Then he uses Abraham as his supreme example of the superiority of faith over works to produce righteousness. The quotation is a set of parallelisms describing a currency exchange.
Abraham believed ---- it was counted
in God ------------------ to him
for righteousness.
THE EXCHANGE
The verb "it was counted" (ἐλογίσθη) means to calculate or take into account. It was a commercial term meaning to count something to someone as something of value (BAGD, 476). The verb was used for charging a debt. When the preposition "to" or "for" (είς) is used, as it is in this verse, then it indicates the currency being used in the transaction (TDNT, 4:284). The currency in this verse is righteousness (είς δικαιοσύνην). The verb is passive. God is making the calculations in this exchange. God calculates that He will exchange righteousness for faith.
Religious people point to this exchange as proving that faith is meritorious. Faith earns righteousness. The Septuagint (LXX) uses the same expression to describe the zeal of Phineas in stopping the plague on Israel (Numbers 25:10-12). The psalmist says his zealous work was credited to him for righteousness (Psalm 106:31). So, Philo, the Jewish philosopher, interprets Abraham's faith as achieving merit with God. But Paul does not. He is more precise with his understanding, and it goes to the heart of his argument in Galatians (Bruce, Galatians, 153). We must understand the nature of faith to see that faith is not meritorious. God's calculation of righteousness in response to faith is an act of grace and not based on merit.
THE CURRENCY
Faith and righteousness are the currencies being exchanged. Abraham believed (ἐπίστευσεν) God and God exchanged His righteousness for Abraham's faith. What is faith? Faith is a total reliance on and complete confidence in God. So faith in God, by definition, is the opposite of all human achievements. Faith is the negation of any work that we might do to gain the righteousness that God gives (TDNT, 6:219-220). Faith is a confidence in God that repudiates any confidence in self. Therefore, faith is not meritorious.
Martin Luther, commenting on Galatians 3:6, writes that Paul "maketh of faith in God the chiefest worship, the chiefest duty, the chiefest obedience, the chiefest sacrifice. ... Now, to give glory to God, is to believe in Him, to count Him ... to be the author and giver of all goodness" (Luther, Galatians, 125). Luther goes on to say that faith kills all human reason and human achievement. Righteousness consists of two things, "faith, which giveth glory unto God, and God's imputation" of Christ's righteousness to us which is solely a gift of grace (Luther, Galatians, 130). John Calvin defined faith as a knowledge of God's goodness and "a sure persuasion of its truth" (Calvin, Institutes, 3.2.12 and 2.3.6).
Paul expands his thought in Romans, where he quotes and explains Genesis 15:6. If faith is a work, then there is no grace, and righteousness only comes by faith in God's grace (Rom. 4:4-5, 9-11). Whenever one works, "his wage is not credited (λογίζεται) according to grace (κατὰ χάριν) but according to what is due (κατὰ ὀφείλημα)." However, the one who does not work but believes "his faith is credited (λογίζεται) for righteousness" (είς δικαιοσύνην). God imputes righteousness. We do not earn it. Imputation is attributing Christ's goodness to us as we rely on God alone for His goodness.
The strength of our faith does not determine the amount of our righteousness. Heaven's exchange rate is built on grace. Even a weak faith in a strong God is exchanged for perfect righteousness on Christ's account. Therefore, trade your self-reliance for God-reliance and exchange your self-righteousness for Christ's righteousness!
