Galatians 3:10-14 - redeemed by grace.

Curses and Blessings: The Path of Faith

Bible Passage: Galatians 3:10–14

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.,

11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith., 1

2 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them.,

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.,

14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Summary: In Galatians 3:10-14, Paul contrasts the curse of the law with the blessing of faith in Christ, emphasizing that righteousness comes through faith, not adherence to the law.

Application: This passage can help Christians understand the futility of trying to earn God's favor through works, reminding them that salvation comes solely through faith in Christ. It encourages believers to remain steadfast in their faith, especially in moments of doubt or legalism.

Big Idea: True blessing comes not from our obedience to the law but from our faith in Jesus Christ, who redeems us from the curse and grants us the promise of the Spirit.

1. The law bring a curse upon humanity.

What is a curse? A curse is in invocation of words that brings harm to an individual.

To understand what it means that the law brings a curse, you have to first understand the law and it’s purpose.

In the beginning, man was created in absolute perfection. Adam and Eve were created with no imperfections. Everything they did and everything that they thought was perfection and was a reflection of God in every way.

But one day, man entertained the thought of being more than what God created him to be (eat this fruit and you will be JUST LIKE GOD, knowing between good and evil (we were created to only know good, to only know of God and his goodness).

when this happened, man understood what evil is (evil is anything that goes against the holy nature of God).

Understand again that God is soverign. As the divine creator of everything, who merely spoke all of the known and unknown universe and everything else into existence and the FACT that everything exists through and by the power of his will and intelligent (if God wills it to not exist, it will cease to exist, even the very memory of something will be forever erased if God so wills such).

God does in fact have the divine right to determine what is and what is not good and what is and what is not evil. God is the standard (despite what liberals want to believe).

THEREFORE, when man awoke from his life and desired to be something different from what God stated and created and willed, sin was created within mankind.

man decided to DISOBEY God by partaking of a fruit they were told to never eat. The fruit did not have magical properties, it was the act of disobedience that brought about the curse of sin.

and sin does come with a curse. In Genesis 3 we read of God pronouncing the curse of sin upon the entire world.

The ground was cursed. Labor and delivery became painful. Man began to age (death came upon the world). work would become a labor (where it was nothing but pure delight and joy). Man lost his dominion as king of the world (until Jesus would come again and redeem that title back, one reason why Jesus took upon the flesh of humanity was to redeem man’s rightful place as king of all the dominion of creation, Jesus is our king of kings).

It is my personal belief that the curse was not pronounced by God as a result of his burning anger (at least not alone) but God’s prouncement of the curse was the result of man’s sinful actions (ever action has a consequence, whether good or evil).

the entire REST of the book of Genesis outlines how man adopts sin as his driving faith OVER God. At one point (Genesis 7) man adopts sin so greatly that God must destroy humanity, for man completely abadons God and continually seeks sin.

Prior to Genesis 8, man is judged by his conscience (the God-instilled knowledge of right and wrong and the God-instilled conviction when wrong is done). The Bible teaches that conscience can be seared (1 Timothy 4:2) and prior to the flood, man was able to completely ignore conscience as if it did not exist (which will happen again during the tribulation period).

AFTER Genesis 8, God instituted the law, which he gave to Noah after the flood and he gave the promise that the earth would no longer be cursed to all mankind (and set his rainbow in the sky as a testament… rainfall became a blessing upon the earth).

the law in Noah’s day was basically the institution of obedience to governmental law. The government was instituted to order law and obedience (to which it does to this day… to a degree).

eventually, God would call a nation through the descendants of Abraham and give them the Law of Moses, the complete set of God’s law of moral right and wrong (through this law always existed within that conscience of man and was always upheld through government enforcement).

In the beginning, God only had one spoken law, do not eat of the fruit in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

man broke that law. The purpose of the law is to show us that we cannot be holy and cannot be fully obedient. We are sinful by instinct. The law (the Ten Commandments, all other commands are explanations for how to worship, how to sacrifice, or further expand upon those ten).

God is righteous and holy. He cannot ignore sin. Sin is rebellion against him and is a direct violation and contradiction of holiness. Sin MUST be judged.

sin brings a curse. The curse is death. Not just the fact that we age, become sick, and eventually die. The wage of sin is death to an eternity of hell (the judgment for sin).

And notice that verse 10 says everyone who does not do EVERYTHING in God’s law is cursed. James 2 comesto play when it teaches that if you keep all of the law faithfully but break just one small commandment, you are guilty as if you broke every single command.

obedience is total. You cannot be a good and faithful employee if you steal from the register or curse out customers. You cannnot be an honest citizen when you lie or cheat or steal. You cannot be honest if you lie.

you cannot be righteous if you commit even one sin. Sin brings death.

the law reveals that we are sinners in the same way that a yardstick reveals height and length. The law is a measuring stick that we must measure up to. One sin means we fall short (Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come SHORT of God’s expectations and glory).

2. Contradiction of Law and Faith

Galatians 3:11-12

The Bible teaches in verses 11-12 that no one is righteous through obeying the law, for it measures and reveals the level of our sinfulness.

no one can be justified by the law for that reason. The law reveals where we fail in obedience and righteousness.

you cannot find saving faith through obedience to the law.

faith means trust, we cannot trust in the law to be our salvation, it is our condemnation. That’s like trusting your life to the prosecuting attorney (the one who has vowed to prosecute you to imprisonment).

those who live according to the law in hopes of salvation through that law are condemned.

rather, the law does not save us. What saves man is FAITH in what the law teaches concerning another way (the way of Jesus).

Jesus fulfilled the law. He came to earth as a full human (but still fully God, he was not some mytihical half man half god, he was and is God fully in the flesh of humanity).

that man Jesus lived a life that fully followed the law (the only man ever to do that). In doing so he alone pleased God through faithfulness and obedience.

from birth, to death, to resurrection, to beyond, Jesus is the model of perfection who does not sin in any way, not even in thought.

Jesus became the one who would die for man’s sin. His death paid the price. All man is sinful and his death cannot atone for anything, for he cannot even atone for his own sinfulness, even with death.

the blood of sacrificial animals could not atone for sin for even though they are innocent (they are not under that law that man is under) … they are still part of this sin-cursed world. Their blood is tainted by being part of the sin curse.

only Jesus (who is not of this world) was both obedient AND not part of the sin curse. Only his blood could atone for ALL SIN.

Jesus became sin for us (verse 13). He took upon himself the brunt force of all of God’s wrath and endured death for the wage of sin (the innocent died for the guilty). God accepted this payment and thus Jesus brought freedom through fulfillment of demand.

he became the object of cursing so that the curse could be lifted off of us.

faith is trusting in that promise of God’s wrath being fulfilled and satisfied through this one sacrifice.

Belief is committing your heart to accepting this covenant agreement (die to self, live to Jesus