Cursed or Blessed? • Galatians 3:10-14
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Review & Overview
Review & Overview
1. Previous Study’s Review
1. Previous Study’s Review
Remember there are 3 sections: Preservation, Explanation, Application
In Ch. 1 & 2 we looked at a section called: The Preservation of the Gospel.
In that section we looked at several ways how Paul preserved the Gospel of Grace or how he defended the Gospel of Grace.
We are currently in Ch. 3 a section called: The Explanation of the Gospel of Grace
here in Ch. 3 Paul offers 5 questions or arguments regarding the Gospel of Grace.
And we saw the 1st question: Who Has Bewitched You?
Abraham example..
2. Current Study’s Overview
2. Current Study’s Overview
This brings us to Vs. 10-14 where we begin the 3rd section of the letter: The Explanation of the Gospel of Grace.
The Title of Today’s Message Is: Cursed or Blessed?
If you taking notes we want to look at 2 things regarding Paul’s 3rd Argument to Explain The Gospel of Grace.
1. The Problem of the Law Vs. 10-12
1. The Problem of the Law Vs. 10-12
1.1 The Law Brings a Curse Vs. 10a
1.1 The Law Brings a Curse Vs. 10a
Remember what is going on here: The Galatians were going to the OT Law so that they would become more righteous in the eyes of God.
And Paul dealt with this already…
16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
They thought by doing more (aka keeping the law) they would become more righteous in the eyes of God.
In other words, what they were saying was that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was not enough to make them righteous. It was not enough to bring them into the presence of God.
So they were so lost in believing these false teachers.
So, Paul is saying, what you’re really doing is putting a curse on yourselves.
You going to the Law doesn’t make you righteous, it makes you cursed.
Cursed Greek - kat-ar'-ah - It’s a compound word…
kat-ah' - Which is a preposition, literally simply means down.
ar-ah' - Literally means prayer
So this word could literally be translated to praying down.
You know, instead of us praying someone up and lifting people up to God.
Cursing is praying someone down.
The actual biblical definition for the word cursed is: To suffer various kinds of misfortune, sometimes to the extent of being cut off from one’s family or community, or suffering death.
Let’s talk about the concept of Curses in the Bible. If you taking notes there are blank regarding Curses…
1. Humans Can Curse Other Humans
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” 24 So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”
25 So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.
2. Human Beings are Forbidden to Curse Parents
17 “And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
3. Human beings are Forbidden to Curse God
15 “Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
4. Christians Are Exhorted to Bless Those Who Curse Them
27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.
And most importantly…
5. Curses Came Into Effect Because of Sin
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
APPLICATION: Understand, living a life of sin is like cursing ourselves, shackling our souls to the consequences of disobedience.
But equally, relying on the law to be more righteous, as if we could achieve righteousness by our own strength, is another form of self-inflicted curse.
It places an unbearable weight on our shoulders, reminding us constantly of our inability to fulfill God's perfect standard.
1.2 The Law Involves Obligation Vs. 10b & 12
1.2 The Law Involves Obligation Vs. 10b & 12
Vs. 10b - It is not enough to keep the law for a day, or a month, or a year.
One must continue to keep it. Obedience must be complete.
It is not enough to keep just the Ten Commandments. All 613 laws in the five books of Moses must be obeyed!
48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Vs. 12 - The law does not ask men to believe. It does not even ask men to try to keep the commandments.
It calls for strict, complete, and perfect obedience, as was so clearly taught in Leviticus. It is a contrary principle to faith.
The law says: “Do and live.” Faith says: “Believe and live.”
Paul’s argument then is this: The just person shall live by faith. A person under law does not live by faith.
So when Paul says: “The man who does them shall live by them,” he is stating a theoretical outcome one that is impossible to attain.
ILLUSTRATION: Imagine for a moment a pristine, white, snow-covered field. The snow is fresh, untouched, and flawless.
This snow is a picture of purity and perfection and what it means for us to be ”perfect."
Now, picture trying to walk across that field without leaving a single footprint. Every step we take makes an imprint on the flawless snow.
APPLICATION: So, in the same way every attempt we make to be perfect by our own strength, reveals our imperfections.
No matter how carefully we tread, we will always leave a mark. This is what it's like to rely on the law for righteousness – every misstep, every failure, is evident.
1.3 The Law Lacks Justification Vs. 11
1.3 The Law Lacks Justification Vs. 11
The false teachers are once again refuted from the OT.
Paul quotes the prophet Habakkuk to show that God has always justified men by faith and not by law.
The quotation in the original Greek word order reads: “The just (or righteous) by faith shall live.”
In other words, those who have been reckoned righteous by faith, not by works, shall have eternal life. The justified-by-faith-ones shall live.
Go through the 10 commandments to prove that no one is justified in the sight of God, it’s evident.
2. The Solution to the Law Vs. 13-14
2. The Solution to the Law Vs. 13-14
2.1 The Acquisition of Christ Vs. 13
2.1 The Acquisition of Christ Vs. 13
To redeem is to buy back, or to deliver by paying the price.
The curse of the law is death—which is the penalty for breaking its commandments.
Christ has delivered those under law from paying the penalty of death demanded by the law.
You see the Galatians thought that Jesus only half purchased them, and that they had to purchase the rest by their submission to circumcision and other Jewish rites and ceremonies.
Which explains their willingness to be led away by false teachers and to mix up Christianity and Judaism.
Christ redeemed or purchased men back by dying in their place, enduring the wrath of God against sins.
The curse of God fell on Him and became man’s Substitute. He did not become sinful in Himself, but man’s sins were placed upon Him.
And notice, Christ did not redeem men from the curse of the law by keeping the Ten Commandments perfectly during His lifetime.
Scripture does not teach that His perfect obedience to the law is given to us.
But that He delivered men from the law by bearing its dreadful curse in death. Apart from His death there could be no salvation.
The law taught that when condemned criminals were hanged on a tree, it was a sign of their being under the curse of God (Deut. 21:23).
23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
Here the Holy Spirit sees in that passage in the OT a prophecy showing us how Jesus would die to bear the curse for His creation.
He was hung between heaven and earth as though unworthy of either.
In His death by crucifixion, He is said to have been hanged on a tree (Acts 5:30; 1 Pet. 2:24).
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
2.2 The Salvation of Christ Vs. 14
2.2 The Salvation of Christ Vs. 14
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