David Smith,
I want to address your point about Abraham losing faith:
Greetings Barry,
You wrote: “Abraham heard from God that 'You are righteous'”. I don’t know of any passage that says that but I could be wrong. You also wrote: “Abraham was righteous and KNEW he was righteous.” If that was true it was a momentary knowledge because shortly after this Abraham lost faith that God would carry through on His promise and took things into his own hands and went into unto Hagar to product his own heir.
Yes, you are correct that Abraham did leave off from faith when he went to Hagar to have Ishmael. But this we are told by Paul was part of God's plan to instruct us in faith vs. works of the Law because Paul says this act on Abraham's part is meant to be as an allegory.
Galatians 4:
21. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
22. For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
25. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
30. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
31. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
We learn from this that if we are under the Law we are still in bondage and can not free our self. But if we receive God's promise and allow it place in our life then we are of the miracle of Isaac who was not born by a fleshly means of Abraham's doing with the bond woman but was the result of Abraham believing God's promise to give him a son from his own wife Sarah in spite of her barrenness and his old age.
The meaning is that in the natural what God is offering is impossible, for us to be righteous but with God all things are possible and because of what Jesus did we can now be declared righteous.
David, if your issue is that you work with drug/alcohol abuse victims who have become Christians and you are afraid to allow them any excuse to slip back into temptations of their addictions that is understandable. But to fight in the flesh a spiritual battle is not productive.
Galatians 3:2
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3. Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Galatians 5
1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
4. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
5. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
I would urge you to obtain a CD teaching by Mark Virkler called "Prayers that Heal the Heart" and it will help these people to become free of all that binds them using the power of God's Spirit rather than human will power. http://www.cwgministries.org/store/prayers-heal-heart-package