Redeemed from the Curse

a) Last week Paul reminded the Galatians we don’t begin the Christian life by faith in Jesus & then depend on our own works. As Paul asked the Galatians in 3:3: “Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?” And to prove this reality, Paul pointed them back to the OT.

b) He pointed back to Abraham, the man of faith. Abraham was declared or counted righteous by God. Not b/c of his works, but b/c of his faith in God. Abraham was declared righteous by God not b/c of his ancestry or ethnicity, but b/c of his faith in God’s promises & God’s work.     

c) And last week’s passage ended w/ Paul saying in v9: “So then, those who are of faith are blessed along w/ Abraham.” But now in v10-14 we see another way to live, & it was the way being taught by the false teachers in Galatia. And this way to live does not bring God’s blessing, but His curse.

d) Here’s our 2 points for today: 1st in v10-12 we see the result of relying on works of the law. Then in v13-14 we see the result of relying on Christ’s work for us.

Here’s our 1stpoint in v10-12: The result of relying on works of the law.

a) Last week, Paul pointed the fooled & bewitched Galatians back to Abraham. But perhaps Paul knew the false teachers might say: “Well of course Abraham was a man of faith, God had not yet given the law.” So, Paul now points them to Moses who received God’s law & delivered it to Israel

b) Look at v10: “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, & do them’.” Now that word “for” at the beginning of v10 connects back to what Paul just said in v9.

c) He said those who are of faith are blessed along w/ Abraham. But now here in v10, Paul looks at the opposite side of the coin: those who rely on something else besides faith to relate to God. Paul says: “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.” The opposite of blessing is cursing.

d) Now Paul does something interesting here. He’s going to make a statement, & then he’s going to prove that statement by quoting the OT. 4x in these 5 verses Paul quotes the OT. And here’s what Paul’s doing. He’s refuting the false teachers who were pointing the Galatians back to the OT law.

e) Paul wants to show the Galatians the law was never meant, nor able, to bring us into God’s promised blessing. So Paul’s 1st OT quote in v10 is Moses’ words from Dt. 27:26. “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law & do them.”

f) Now the law isn’t bad or wrong. The law actually reflects God’s own character. As Rom. 7:12 says: “the law is holy & righteous & good.” We should rightly want to obey His commands & pursue righteousness, justice & holiness. The problem isn’t w/ the law, nor a desire to obey the law

g) The problem as Paul says in v10 is when we “rely on works of the law.” It’s when we look to or depend on or put our hope in our works of the law. Paul says this religious approach does not work & does not bring God’s blessing. Paul says: “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.”

h) Why? B/c we can’t keep the law. Most people see God’s law as a moral code we should strive to

live by. And if we try our best, if the good outweighs the bad, God will overlook our shortcomings.

i) Now notice what that belief says. We know we can’t keep God’s law perfectly. We know we can’t love God w/ all our heart, all our soul, all our strength & all our mind. We know we can’t always love our neighbor as we love ourselves, which is how Jesus summarized the whole law.

j) As the OT verse Paul quotes from Dt. 27:26 says: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the…law & do them.” In the NT, James 2:10 says it this way: “For whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in 1 point has become guilty of all of it.”

k) In other words, to break 1 of God’s commands is to be guilty of breaking the whole law. See, good behavior in 1 area doesn’t cancel out law-breaking in another area. If it did, imagine how much less crowded our prisons would be. Imagine a convicted murderer telling the judge before sentencing:  

l) “But I don’t speed. And I pay my taxes!” See, if we are going to rely on works of the law to be accepted by God, or to stay accepted by God, perfect obedience is necessary. There can be no blemishes or shortcomings. Why? B/c the law demands perfection.

m) Here’s what we must understand. God did not just give the law to His people. He also gave them sacrifices. Why? B/c they couldn’t keep His law perfectly. 1 of the functions of the law was to be like a spiritual MRI. A MRI machine has now power to heal you or to help you.

n) It only serves to reveal there is something wrong inside of you. And it was through the law God’s people realized how far short they fell from God’s character & ways & image they were called to reflect. But, God didn’t just give Israel the law, God also gave them sacrifices.

o) And of course, we know from the book of Hebrews, the blood of the OT animal sacrifices were never sufficient to take away sin. The outward action of bringing an animal to the priest to sacrifice meant nothing if it was not combined w/ repentance & faith in God’s word & His promises.

p) And it was through these repeated sacrifices that God’s people were pointed forward to their need for a perfect substitute & sacrifice that could truly remove their sin. See, apart from Christ, the law requires behavior from us that is contrary to our sin nature. It demands we do what we can’t do.

q) The law demands the opposite of our sinful desires. And since none of us can keep God’s law perfectly, to rely on our works of the law to be accepted by God or to stay accepted by God only results in God’s curse. In God’s judgment & wrath & penalty all law-breakers deserve.

r) And that’s why Paul makes his 2nd statement in v11: “Now it is evident that no 1 is justified before God by the law.” And then Paul quotes a 2nd OT passage. He quotes Hab. 2:4: “The righteous shall live by faith.” Paul’s saying, “The false teachers are saying it’s Jesus + relying on law-keeping.”

s) But the OT itself reveals that God’s people have always been called to live by faith. It’s not about striving in the flesh to be accepted or stay accepted by God through works of the law. It’s always been about trusting God & hoping in God. Faith is what secures God’s promised blessing of life.

t) As Paul says in v12, “But the law is not of faith.” The law doesn’t say believe, the law says do. The law doesn’t say receive, the law says earn. Paul then quotes a 3rd OT passage from Lev. 18:5: “The one who does them shall live by them.” To live by something means to rely on it.

u) It means to put your hope & confidence & identity in it. Paul’s saying: “OK you foolish Galatians, if you want to be accepted by God or stay accepted by God through works of the law, then you must perfectly keep the law to be blessed by God. What was the blessing God gave Abraham?

v) He was declared or counted righteous by God. God declared Abraham to be something he was not by nature. God declared or counted Abraham fully loved, fully accepted, fully forgiven. Not b/c of his work. Not b/c of his obedience. But b/c of Abraham’s faith in God & His promises & His work.

w) Here’s what we must understand. All the gospel requires is repentance & faith. That’s it. Nothing else. Now someone might say what about obedience? But friends, the gospel doesn’t require obedience, the gospel producesobedience. The way in is the way on.

x) To be a person of faith like Abraham brings blessing. But if we rely on works of the law, it only results in being cursed by God. So then, how can sinners like us escape this curse?

That brings us to our 2nd & final point in v13-14: the result of relying on Christ’s work for us.    

a) Look at v13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Friends, that is the good news of the gospel. That is what we are called to proclaim & announce. God has provided a solution to our problem. Christ has set us free from the curse by becoming a curse for us

b) To prove this, Paul once again quotes from the OT. Now he quotes Dt. 21:23: “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” See, in the OT, if someone was hung on a tree, it was b/c they were guilty of breaking the law. They would have been stoned by the community & then hung on a tree.

c) It was a sign to the whole community of the penalty & punishment for breaking God’s law. It was a sign of being rejected & cursed by God. And here, Paul draws a connection to Christ’s work for us. He too was executed & hung on a tree & experienced the curse of divine rejection. And why?

d) It wasn’t b/c Jesus broke the law or b/c He was a wicked imposter who deserved to die. It was b/c He was sent & He came as our substitute. He came to bear our sin & the penalty for our sin. On the cross, He took our place & took God’s judgment & wrath that should’ve been poured out on us.

e) He became a curse for us. Our curse was reckoned as His. In Num. 6 the Lord told Aaron & his sons how to bless the people. “The Lord bless you & keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you & be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you & give you peace.”

f) That’s 1 of the best descriptions of blessing that we find in the OT. So to be cursed by God is the opposite reality: “The Lord curse you & reject you. The Lord make his face frown upon you & be angry w/ you. The Lord turn his back upon you & give you His wrath.”

g) Friends, that was the experience of Christ on the cross. He was treated as if He were the rebellious law breaker. He was treated as if He didn’t love His father in heaven perfectly & didn’t love His neighbor as Himself. Our curse: our judgment & penalty & wrath was poured out on Him.

h) 2 Cor. 5:21 says: “For our sake He (the Father) made Him (the eternal Son who became like us) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

i) He became a curse for us. Isa. 53:4-6 says it this way: “Surely he has borne ourgriefs & carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, & afflicted. But he was wounded for ourtransgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, & w/ His stripes weare healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; wehave turned every 1 to his own way & the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

j) Our Lord was cut off from the blessing & fellowship of His Father in heaven so we would never have to be. He bore His Father’s curse so we wouldn’t have to. This was real forsakenness & abandonment & agony. That’s why He cried out:“My God my God why have you forsaken me?”

k) To be forsaken by God is to be cursed by God. Christ became a curse for us. And why? Not just to redeem us from the curse of the law, but Paul gives us 2 more purposes in v14. 1st: “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.”

l) The blessing of Abraham was to be counted or declared righteous by faith. It is this righteousness, being justified by God that brings us the blessing of eternal life. And we can be declared righteous not just b/c Christ died for us, but He lived for us. He fully & perfectly obeyed the law for us.

m) He secured God’s blessing for His people by perfectly keeping the law for us. God’s gift of eternal life isn’t suspended based on our best efforts. It’s freely given to us b/c Christ earned it by His life, death & resurrection. Does this mean Christ become a curse for every single person? No.

n) We must read v13-14 together: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…”. Then v14 says: “So that in Christ Jesus.” It was in Christ God acted to save & redeem us. It is only those in Christ who receive redemption & blessing.

o) We are accepted by God & stay accepted by God b/c we are in Christ. United to Him by faith, the curse of the law has been removed. The blessing of Abraham has been given to us. We rely & depend on Him & His finished works for us. We hope in Him & we live by faith in Him.

p) And by or through faith Paul gives us a 2nd purpose that Christ became a curse for us at the end of v14: “so that…we might receive the promised Spirit.” Now in the chapters to come Paul is going to unpack the blessings & benefits of receiving the promised HS. But let me just say this today.

q) The Spirit is the gift & blessing of eternal life now dwelling in us. The same Spirit that raised Christ to new & eternal life is now dwelling in us. The life of the age to come is now dwelling in us. United to Christ by faith through the Spirit, God’s promised blessing of Ez. 36 is now ours.  

r) The Lord said in Ezek. 36:26-27: “And I will give you a new heart, & a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh & give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, & cause you to walk in my statutes & be careful to obey my rules.”

s) Have you come to see yourself as a sinner? That is the work of the Spirit in you. Have you come to see the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? That is the work of the Spirit in you. Have you come to know the one true God & Jesus Christ whom He sent. That is the work of the Spirit in you.

t) Have you experienced God’s peace in your inner being? That is the work of the Spirit in you.

u) Is your hope & life rooted in Jesus? That is the work of the Spirit in you. Are you now being changed & sanctified to be more like Christ. That is the work of the Spirit in you. The HS fills us w/ hope & stirs our hunger for God & His word & to be w/ His people.

v) The HS turns our attention to the things of God & away from the lies of sin, Satan & our flesh. The HS seals us as God’s people. The HS keeps & guards us as God’s people. And the HS is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.

Let me try & summarize & wrap up this way.

a) Paul is pleading w/ the Galatian Christians not to be bewitched or fooled by the false teachers who want them to stop living by faith & to start living by their own efforts or works of the law. The major battle of every believer is the fight of faith. It’s the struggle of the everyday Christian life.

b) How do you keep your day to day activities from becoming works of law? How do you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you & gave himself for you & became a curse for you? Here’s the reality. Anything you do can be a work of law, or an act of obedience that flows from faith.

c) Sunday worship, Sunday School teaching, reading God’s word, prayer, abortion protests, feeding the homeless – all of these & everything can be done as a work of law, or as an act of obedience that flows from faith. To live by faith means to live in humble reliance on God.

w) On His grace. On His power. On His promise. On His work. The path of being cursed or blessed hangs not just on if you obey, but why & how you obey & who gets the credit & the glory. Religion says obey so God might love & accept you. But the gospel says something different.

x) The gospel says that in Christ, we obey b/c we are fully forgiven, fully loved & fully accepted. We obey b/c nothing can change. Our standing w/ God doesn’t depend on who we are or what we do – it depends on who Christ is & what He’s done. We obey b/c in Christ, the blessing of Abraham has already been given to us & no 1 & nothing can take that away from us.

y) We obey b/c God’s Spirit now dwells & works in us. And so we join Paul who wrote in Eph. 1:3: “Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ w/ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” To Him be the glory both now & forever.

Let’s pray.