阅读经文 

我偶尔会花时间研究我的祖先。我们很容易沉浸于寻找一个人的信息，接着再寻找下一个。到目前为止，我已经能够将我的族谱追溯到一七六零年出生的一位祖先。

犹太人声称他们的血统可以追溯到亚伯拉罕，大约在公元前二千年。神给了亚伯拉罕割礼的标志，作为神与他立约的象征，（参创 17）所以割礼成了犹太人律法的一部分。

在加拉太，一些狂热的犹太人一直教导说，如果人们想成为基督的信徒，他们必须对所有的男性行割礼。他们说，这样人们就会顺从神的律法，活在义中。

但是，保罗恰当地教导说，他们不需要行割礼，因为神在给亚伯拉罕割礼的标志之前，早就称他为义了。正如创世记十五章六节所说，亚伯拉罕“信耶和华，耶和华就以此为他的义”。因此，亚伯拉罕不是因为遵守律法而称义，而是因为信神而称义。保罗说，称义是因着信。这就是他向加拉太人所传讲的，也正是他们所需要的。因此，他补充说，所有以信为本的人都是“亚伯拉罕的子孙”。

如果你信耶稣，你就是亚伯拉罕的子孙。而你的家谱可以追溯到四千年前，那个大有信心、而不是大有作为的人。赞美神！

Now and then I will spend time studying my ancestry. It is easy to get caught up in finding information on one person, and then another. So far, I have been able to trace my family line back to an ancestor born in 1760.

The Jewish people claim their lineage back to Abraham, from around 2000 B.C. God had given Abraham the sign of circumcision as a symbol of his covenant with him (Genesis 17), so circumcision became part of the Jewish law.

In Galatia, some zealous Jews had been teaching that if people wanted to be Christ-followers, they had to have all of their males circumcised. Then the people would be obedient to God's law and they could live in righteousness, they said.

But Paul had rightly taught that circumcision was not needed because God had credited Abraham with righteousness long before giving him the sign of circumcision. As Genesis 15:6 says, Abraham "believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." So Abraham was not righteous by obeying the law but by believing God. Righteousness is by faith, said Paul. That was what he had preached to the Galatians, and that was all they needed. So, he added, all who have faith are "children of Abraham."

If you have faith in Jesus, you are a child of Abraham. And your genealogy goes back 4,000 years to a person of faith, not works. Praise God!