The Righteous shall live by faith

Good Morning,

Today we will be in Galatians 3:10-14.

Before we get there let’s open with a word of Prayer. 3+

I want to ask you a question. It is in your bulletin, but the question is, “What is the opposite of faith?” If you google this question you will see a variety of answers. If we look at Merriam-Webster a couple of the answers are doubt, disbelief or unbelief, atheism. Tony Evans in a twitter post said the opposite of faith is disobedience. In her book, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott says, “I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.” In an article written for Columbia Theological Seminary, Israel Galindo wrote that, “the opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certitude.” John Piper once said that covetousness is the exact opposite of Faith.

I do not necessarily endorse all of these, but I did want to look at some of the some of the different views on the answer to this question. There are a couple of areas where these touch on the answer to the question, like Tony Evans, the idea of disobedience touches on what the opposite of faith is, but it doesn’t completely speak to it. Covetousness touches on part of the definition but again it doesn’t complete it. Before we get into our passage, turn with me to Hebrews 11:1-12.

Hebrews 11:1–6 “1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Hebrews 11:7–12 “7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

Here we read that faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It does include certainty so certainty cannot be it’s opposite like Ms. Lamott says. We see through faith there is obedience, but like in the case of Sarah, faith is more than obedience since obedience cannot conceive a child, when you are beyond the age of conception. So through this we can see that the opposite of faith cannot be disobedience. We see in verse 7, that faith includes reverent fear and if faith includes fear, fear cannot be it’s opposite either. We can also discount some of the Merriam-Webster words, like doubt, disbelief, and unbelief, because many of those listed here in Hebrews suffered from one or all of these at different times and yet they are said to be men and women of faith.

Now I will say that this question is a bit more complicated that we first thought. It seems like such a simple question, what is the opposite of faith? Turn with me one chapter over to Hebrews 12. Remember as we read these couple of verses that this is immediately following the hall of faith, or the list of the Old Testament people who where looking to the hope of God. All they did and wrote about, pointed to a future hope, their faith was the same hope that we have now and is fully realized. But Hebrews 12:1–2 “1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 11:1 told us that Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen; then in 12:2 the author writes looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the hope of our faith, and he is the conviction of our faith. Now turn with me to our passage today. We are in Galatians 3:10-14 and as we read this keep this question in mind, what is the opposite of faith.

Galatians 3:10–14 “10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

The opposite of Faith is...

Paul seems to answer this question here in this passage. He offers two ways of life on by faith and the other by the law. Now the Law is not the opposite of faith at least not directly, it was the goal of the Judaizers to add the law back into grace and Paul writes this letter to combat that, so we might think that the Law is the opposite. This, however, misses the mark, Romans 7:12, tells us “12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” Both faith and the law are good and come from God and both have the same purpose, to point us to Christ. The law shows us our need for Christ and faith is our dependence on Him and his accomplishments. But if the law shows us our need and faith is our dependence on him, the opposite of this would be pride.

Pride Opposes Faith

Pride tells us we can do it on our own. Pride says that in order for you to come to God you must be like us. In our passage today Paul quotes the Old Testament several times. Those who were trying to bring back the law were likely doing the same thing to the Galatians, and they likely would have known the verses that Paul quotes, and they would have used them in a positive light. Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them, comes from the reading Marc did. Deuteronomy was the second telling of the law, the word Deuteronomy literally means second law. The Judaizers were likely leaning back into this very verse to add the law back in.

Turn with me to Deuteronomy 27:15–20 “15 “ ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ 16 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 17 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 18 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 19 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 20 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s nakedness.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”

Deuteronomy 27:21–26 “21 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 22 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 23 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 24 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 25 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 26 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”

Up to this point in Deuteronomy, Moses had been repeating all of the law and here Moses give the nation of Israel curses for several things that many would consider especially horrendous but the last one includes all of the Law. Equating anyone who does not keep the law with all of these other acts and the Judaizers understood this and were likely motivated by this idea. The idea being that if they were not going to keep the law they would be under a curse. The Sadducees with pride thought they were able to do this perfectly. They with pride rejected Jesus who came to save men from sin. Judaizers thought that to be Christian was to be made into the image of the Jew, through the keeping of the mosaic law and circumcision. We see the pride in this.

However, Paul turns this way of thinking on it’s side. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:10 “10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”” Paul tells them that all who rely on the law are already under a curse. Everyone who relies on their own works and accomplishments, in their own ability to fulfill all that the law contained, who are proud of what they can do, are already under this curse, because everyone who does not abide by all of them is cursed. If we just look at the first commandment we see that the Law was never about our own actions. Deuteronomy 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

When we look at this command alone we know we have all failed. Paul uses the curse to show us that the law was meant to point us to God, to show us how it was never by what we could accomplish. The law shows us the best we could accomplish was condemnation. Paul continues though to use the Old Testament to counter the Judaizer’s addition of the law. He goes on in verses 11-12

Galatians 3:11–12 “11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”” Paul next quotes Habakkuk 2:4

Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Turn with me to Habakkuk 2 and I am going to read verses 2-4.

Paul then shows that trying to keep the law is really living to a completely different worldview than that of faith and the two ways of living are not compatible with one another. We saw that everyone who rely on the law are under a curse, but the righteous shall live by faith. Here Paul again uses the old testament to show his readers that if one chooses to live by the law, they must live by them. He uses this more like a here is the consequences of you choices. We have seen here and as we have done this study that none of us are capable of keeping the whole of the Law perfectly. This is echoed in Revelation 20:12–13 “12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.”

We see here that if we don’t come to faith we choose to live by the law and our works will be judged according to what we have done, but Galatians 2:16 “16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” Paul is using this verse to point to this coming judgement, telling his readers that if they choose the law, if we choose the law, we will have to live by that choice and we will be judged by that choice.

Paul continues to use the old testament here to show the freedom offered in Christ. Galatians 3:13–14 “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Christ took on the curse for us and by hanging on the cross redeemed us from the curse of the law. This quote comes again from Deuteronomy this time in verse 21:23. Deuteronomy 21:23 “23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.” Jesus took our curse upon himself. Turn with me to mark 15

Mark 15:6–15 “6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”

The cross that Jesus was crucified on belonged to another, it belonged to this criminal Barabbas. He was in prison for murder during an insurrection. He deserved the punishment that was coming and yet God offered him new life. Jesus took his place on the cross that day taking the wrath of God upon himself. I wish we knew what came of Barabbas, but we are not told what he did with his new life. But we have a choice to make, what are we going to live by? Are we going to try to live by our own might in our own power or are we going to place our faith in Jesus and live in his righteousness? Jesus took on the curse so that the blessing of Abraham might come on us the gentiles. So we might receive the promised spirit through faith. The pride that stops us takes on many forms. One says I can do this on my own the other says my sin it too great for Jesus to forgive, but these are all built on our pride.

Let us close with prayer.