Christ Alone: The Divine Curse-Bearer

Good morning, church. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those and turn with me to Galatians chapter 3.

Grace Abounding Illustration

One of my favorite Christian figures in church history is John Bunyan.

Bunyan is most known for his work the Pilgrim’s Progress but wrote a lot of different books. Most of those were written from the Bedford Jail in the 17th century in England. Thirteen years he spent in jail for preaching the gospel without being licensed to preach by the state church.

One of my favorite books that he wrote was his autobiography. He called it Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. It was his story of how he met Christ.

And in that book Bunyan describes years — not days, not weeks, but years — of living under what he could only describe as the weight of his sin and the sentence of God against it. Like his character Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress who was burdened by sin.

Bunyan felt the weight of his sin. He didn’t shrug it off or minimize it. He felt it the way you feel something pressing down on your chest that you cannot lift.

And then one day — he writes that he was just walking through a field — still carrying that weight, still not sure, still with what he called "dashes on his conscience" — and out of nowhere a sentence just dropped into his soul.

Thy righteousness is in heaven.

And Bunyan looked up with the eyes of faith and saw Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. And it hit him. His righteousness wasn't his feelings. It wasn't how well he had been doing lately. It wasn't whether he had a good quiet time that morning or whether he had messed up the day before.

It was Christ. Fixed. Unmovable. In heaven.

It was as if Bunyan had been standing in a courtroom for years — waiting for the verdict. And then it came. Not guilty. And he realized something. That verdict wasn't going to get better on the days he felt close to God. And it wasn't going to get worse on the days he didn't. The verdict was the verdict. Settled. In Christ. At the right hand of God.

And that's exactly where Paul is taking us this morning. Not just how we get saved — but what we get saved into. A righteousness that is complete. Finished. Not inside of us — but in Christ alone.

My prayer is that by the time we walk out of here this morning that truth would be more real to you than it's ever been.

Galatians Recap

Before we get into Galatians chapter three, let me just remind you of what we have gone over so far.

Paul is writing this letter to the churches in the region of South Galatia. The occasion for this letter is rebuke. He is rebuking the Christians there for succumbing to the false teaching that faith in Christ was not enough. That if you really wanted to be fully included in the people of God you needed to be circumcised and take on the works of the law.

We've seen Paul spend the first two chapters establishing that his gospel didn't come from men — it came from Christ. He went toe to toe with the Jerusalem apostles and didn't blink. He even confronted Peter to his face at Antioch when Peter started acting like the Judaizers were right.

And now in chapter 3 Paul shifts gears. He's done defending himself. Now he's going to make the argument. He's going to show us from experience and from Scripture why faith in Christ alone is sufficient. Why nothing needs to be added. Why nothing can be added.

Chapter 3 is where Paul really opens things up. And I think you're going to love what he shows us.

This morning we have three points. First we'll see that the sufficiency of Christ is proved by our own experience. Second we'll see that Scripture established this long before Paul ever wrote it. And third we'll see what Christ actually did to make it all possible to bring us into covenant with God.

So if you are taking notes this morning, this will be point 1,

Experienced By Grace (vv. 1–5)

If you have your Bibles opened to Galatians chapter 3, let’s begin reading in verse 1,

Galatians 3:1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”

Paul is essentially saying here that when he was with them in their churches, he preached Christ so clearly… so vividly, that it was as if they were present at the crucifixion. Paul is saying that the Galatian believers had fallen under the spell by these false teaches that were coming in.

Verse 2,

Galatians 3:2 “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?”

Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

The evidence that we have truly believed the gospel is that God gave us his Spirit. Not because we earned his indwelling. Not because we kept enough rules or were good enough. But because we heard and believed the gospel. The Spirit showing up was God's own confirmation that we were in.

This is exactly what Peter experienced in Acts 10 when the Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household. And it's what the Jerusalem council settled in Acts 15. The Spirit's arrival was God's own verdict — these people are in. Full stop. No circumcision required. No law-keeping required. Faith was sufficient then and it is sufficient now.

Verse 4,

Galatians 3:4 “Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?”

Galatians 3:5 “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—”

Paul is pressing even further. You suffered for this faith. You saw God work miracles among you. Did all of that happen because you kept the law? Or because you believed?

Paul is now putting these Galatians on the witness stand and he is saying to them, "think back to when you first received the Spirit. Now, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law? Or by faith in Christ?"

And the answer is obvious. They know the answer. They were there. The Spirit didn't show up because they had kept enough rules. The Spirit didn't arrive because they had earned it. They heard the gospel. They believed. And God gave them his Spirit.

And Paul is saying — don't you remember that? How did you forget something so fundamental to your own story?

And I want to ask you the same question this morning. Think back to when you came to faith. Think back to that moment. Was it because you had finally done enough? Was it because you had cleaned yourself up sufficiently? Or did God give you something you could never have produced on your own?

The answer is grace. It was always grace. You were there. You know what happened.

Application

Here is what the false gospel was actually saying: Christ started the work — but you have to finish it. By what you do. Your good works.

Isn't that exactly what we tend to do?

This false gospel that the Judaizers are preaching is still around today. It may not look like Torah observance and circumcision, but we can certainly live our lives like we have to complete the work that Christ started.

It looks like waking up on a Monday morning and feeling like God is disappointed in you because you didn't have your quiet time over the weekend.

It looks like promising God you'll do better in exchange for his help — like your obedience is the currency that purchases his favor rather than the fruit of a favor already freely given.

It looks like coming to church on Sunday to get right with God after a week of feeling far from him — like worship earns you back into good standing rather than being the response of someone who never lost it.

Do you ever feel like that?

This is exactly why Paul takes them back to the beginning. If that is you this morning, ask yourself this:

What is it that made Christ accept me to begin with?

Ask yourself that question. What made Christ accept me to begin with? Sit with that for a second.

It wasn’t your good works. It wasn’t how you felt at the time.

It was all grace through faith.

That is how we came to Christ. Through faith. And he accepted us through grace.

And guess what? We don’t maintain our standing with God through our good works. We do good works because we love God and we have new hearts and his Spirit within us, shaping us to look more like Christ.

But that is not us maintaining our righteous status with God. That is still grace.

You experienced grace at the beginning. And you are experiencing grace right now. It has always been grace.

And this is exactly what Paul did in chapter 2 — he used his own story as proof that it is all grace.

You too have a story of meeting Christ through faith and being changed by him.

But our experience is not the only proof of our justification by faith.

This is also a truth that is rooted in Scripture. And that is exactly what Paul says next.

If you are taking notes, this will be the second point. And the second point is this,

Grounded in Scripture (vv. 6–9)

In these next verses, Paul makes an important point. And that point is:

The gospel was always justification by faith alone.

Even before Christ came and died, sinners were only justified by faith.

Look at verse 6,

Galatians 3:6 “just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?”

Right here, Paul uses the example of Abraham.

Who was Abraham?

Abraham is the one God covenanted with in Genesis. God promised that he would bless the nations through Abraham’s offspring. And as Paul will say later in Galatians, that offspring is Christ.

Paul is quoting Genesis 15:6 — the moment God made this promise to Abraham. An old man. No children. No visible reason to hope. And yet he believed.

Abraham believed the word of God and because he believed God, God counted him as righteousness.

That is the doctrine of Justification right there. We’ve talked about Justification in this series but I really want you to understand what that word means because it affects you as a Christian.

That term counted is an accounting term. It means that God looked at Abraham and declared that he is righteous. Not based on anything in him. Not because he was good enough.

But because he had faith. He believed God.

And because he believed God, he was counted righteous by God.

That is exactly how you and I are saved. We accepted by God, not because there is anything within us worth saving. We are accepted by God because of his grace.

And just like Abraham, when you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are counted righteous before God.

And this is exactly why the Judaizers were so concerned with these Gentiles becoming Jews. Because they have to be connected to Abraham.

Listen to what Paul says in verse 7,

Galatians 3:7 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”

Through faith, not works, we are sons of Abraham. Why? Because we have the same faith as Abraham. A faith that believes God can do the impossible. And what is more impossible than the salvation of sinners?

This is how it has always worked. God has always showed grace to those who had faith in the gospel. Even those saints in the Old Testament.

This is what Baptists have historically believed. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith says,

The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in Modern English XI Justification

11:6 In all these ways, the justification of believers under the Old Testament was exactly the same as the justification of believers under the New Testament.18

In other words — Abraham wasn't saved by a different gospel. He was saved by the same gospel we are. Abraham didn't have the cross yet. He saw it coming from a long way off. But it was the same Christ. The same promise. The same faith.

See what Paul says at verse 8?

Galatians 3:8 “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.””

This gospel that we believe is not new. It has been the vehicle that God has used to save sinners since the beginning.

And do you see what Paul says God revealed to Abraham? The Gentile inclusion. God tells Abraham, “through you the nations will be blessed.”

And notice what is completely absent from this promise. Works. Law-keeping. Circumcision. Human effort of any kind. It is all by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Scriptures alone and it is all for the glory of God alone.

And these words of God were fulfilled at the coming of Christ when he established the New Covenant in his blood. So that anyone who believes, Jew or Gentile, will be blessed along with Abraham.

Verse 9,

Galatians 3:9 “So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

What this means for us is:

You are not a late arrival to something Jewish. You are not an outsider who got lucky. When God told Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through his seed — he had you in mind. Jacksonville, Florida was always part of the plan.

And this is why we do missions. We're not inventing something new when we share the gospel with our neighbors or support missionaries across the world. We are fulfilling a promise that God made to an old man thousands of years ago. The nations will be blessed. God said so. And we get to be part of how that happens.

So Paul has made two arguments for your standing with God. First — the evidence is his Spirit within you. Second — it has always been this way, rooted in Scripture, established with Abraham long before the law ever came.

This third point has a phrase in it you may not have heard before. The curse-bearer. Stay with me — because by the time we're done you're going to understand exactly what that means. And it is going to make you love Christ more than you did when you walked in here this morning.

And this is the third point in your notes,

Secured by the curse-bearer (vv. 10–14)

Verse 10,

Galatians 3:10 “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.””

What Paul is quoting here is Deuteronomy 27 — the curse sanctions of the Mosaic covenant. God told Israel at Sinai — if you break this covenant, if you fail to keep everything written in it, the curse falls on you. And the standard is total obedience. Not mostly obedience. Not trying your best. Everything. All of it. All the time.

But there is a problem, no one can keep God’s Law perfectly. And because of this, no one can be justified through law-keeping. Instead, humanity left to themselves are under a curse.

Here is what the curse means. It means that apart from Christ every single person who has ever lived stands before God already condemned. Not maybe condemned. Not at risk of condemnation. Already under it. The sentence is already written. And there is nothing you can do to remove it. You cannot be good enough. You cannot try hard enough. You cannot religious enough. The curse stands.

It has to be faith.

Verse 11,

Galatians 3:11 “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.””

Galatians 3:12 “But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.””

And no one can perfectly. But here is the good news of the gospel,

Verse 13,

Galatians 3:13 “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”—”

Each and everyone one of us were under a curse.

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But that is exactly why Christ came.

To take on the curse for you.

And that was you. Before Christ — that sentence was written over your life. Not because you were uniquely terrible. But because you were human. Born into a broken world. Born in sin. Incapable of the perfect obedience the law required. The curse wasn't headed toward you. It was already on you. And where it leads is condemnation — eternal separation from God.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Think about what that means. The one person in human history who deserved none of the curse — the only one who had perfectly obeyed — God placed the full weight of human sin and its curse on him. So that the verdict over your life could be — not guilty. Righteous. Blessed.

Here is what happened at the cross. Jesus had no sin. He had kept the law perfectly. He had never once fallen short of what God required. He deserved none of the curse. And yet God placed him under it — for you. Your condemnation became his. His righteousness became yours. That is the great exchange. That is what Paul means when he says Christ became a curse for us.

But why did Christ come to be a curse for us?

Verse 14,

Galatians 3:14 “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Remember what we saw in Point 2. God promised Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through his seed. That seed is Christ. And here at the cross that promise is being fulfilled. Christ became the curse so that the blessing could flow. The barrier between you and God — the curse, the condemnation, the sentence — Christ absorbed it completely. So that the blessing God promised to Abraham thousands of years ago could reach you. In Jacksonville, Florida. In 2026.

And notice the second thing Paul says. We receive the promised Spirit through faith. Remember Point 1? The Spirit's arrival was God's own confirmation that you were in. That you were his. That the verdict had been declared in your favor. The Spirit didn't come because you earned it. The Spirit came because Christ bore the curse so that the gift could be freely given.

Do you see what Paul is doing? He is tying the whole argument together at the cross. The blessing of Abraham — yours. The promised Spirit — yours. Not because of anything you did. But because Christ became the curse so you could receive the blessing. That is the gospel. That is what was always the plan. From Abraham to the cross to you.

Application

If you are in Christ this morning — the curse is gone. Not weakened. Not reduced. Gone. The sentence that was written against you has been executed. On Christ. At the cross. And what remains over your life is not condemnation. What remains is blessing. The blessing of Abraham. The same blessing God declared over a man standing in a field thousands of years ago looking up at the stars

Key Takeaways

The Spirit's arrival in your life is God's own confirmation that you are fully accepted in Christ.

Takeaway 1:"The Spirit's arrival in your life is God's own confirmation that you are fully accepted in Christ. You didn't earn his presence. You didn't work for it. The Spirit showing up was God's own verdict over your life — you are mine. That verdict hasn't changed. It doesn't change with your performance. It doesn't change with how you feel on a given day. The Spirit is still there. You are still his."

Justification by faith is not a New Testament innovation — it was God's plan from the beginning, established through Abraham.

Takeaway 2:"Justification by faith is not a New Testament innovation — it was God's plan from the beginning, established through Abraham. This is not something Paul invented. This is not something the Reformation invented. God announced it to an old man in a field thousands of years before Christ was born. It has always been the plan. Faith has always been the instrument. Grace has always been the basis."

Christ didn't just forgive your sin — he absorbed the full covenantal curse so the blessing of Abraham could reach you.

Takeaway 3:"Christ didn't just forgive your sin — he absorbed the full covenantal curse so the blessing of Abraham could reach you. He didn't just wipe your record clean. He stood in your place and took what you deserved. The curse fell on him so the blessing could fall on you. That is not a small thing. That is everything."

Conclusion

This should make us feel the weight of what we were under. And it should make us love Christ more than we did when we walked in here this morning.

Think about Bunyan walking through that field. He had felt the weight of his sin for years. He knew what he deserved. And then that sentence dropped into his soul —

Thy righteousness is in heaven.

And everything changed. Not because his sin got smaller. But because he finally understood what Christ had done about it.

That's what Paul has been showing us this morning. The curse was real. The sentence was written. And Christ bore it. Every last bit of it. So that the verdict over your life could be — not guilty. Righteous. Blessed.

That is you this morning. If you are in Christ — you are blessed along with Abraham. Same verdict. Same God. Same grace. That has been true since the moment you believed and it will be true forever.

No matter how long you have been following Christ, it is good to be reminded of what he has done. Christ bore your curse so that you could be counted righteous. That is the blessing of Abraham — and it is yours.

That is why we call him what we call him this morning. Christ alone. The divine curse-bearer. Not Christ plus your performance. Not Christ plus your consistency. Christ alone. He bore what you couldn't.

He paid what you owed.

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And he is enough.

Let’s stand and pray about it.

If you are in Christ this morning — rest in that. Let it sink in deeper than it has before. You are blessed along with Abraham. The curse is gone. Christ bore it.

And if you are not in Christ this morning — that same gospel is available to you right now. Christ became the curse so the blessing could reach you. All he asks is faith. Believe him. That's it. That's all Abraham did.

I’m going to pray and then we will sing one last song. After I pray, I and two of our elders will be standing at the front. If you would like information on what it means to follow Jesus or maybe you just need prayer. We would love to pray with you.

Let’s pray.