The Only Cure

Introduction

One of the most significant figures in ancient history was the Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang [“Chin Shrr Hwang”], who lived from 259 B.C. until 210 B.C. He is considered by historians to be the first emperor of Unified China—he consolidated his power over the entire country after what was known as the “Warring States Period”. One of his greatest accomplishments—the Great Wall of China—still stands today, and the famous Teracotta Army (thousands of clay statues of soldiers, chariots, horses and weapons) was created to guard him in the afterlife

And Qin had reason to want that many soldiers around him—during his reign he survived three separate assassination attempts, and as he got older he became obsessed with achieving immortality. He set his best scholars and alchemists to finding the secret of eternal life--and even had a few of them put to death to test their theories!

Finally his alchemists discovered what they believed to be the elixir of life - a pill made of arsenic and mercury. Emperor Qin eagerly took it—and promptly died of arsenic and mercury poisoning! Amazingly, though, Qin wasn’t the only one to meet his end this way—several Chinese emperors and high officials also died from taking the same concoction—trying to attain eternal life by swallowing a poison pill!

Here in our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul is warning the Galatian Christians that if they were going to try to achieve eternal life with God by following the Law of Moses, they were taking a “cure” that would actually kill them rather than save them. Look at verse 10:

Galatians 3:10 ESV

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.”

The false teachers who had infiltrated their churches were telling them that they could not have a right standing before God unless they kept the Law of Moses—that they had to work to achieve God’s favor.

But to Paul, this was the equivalent of trying to live forever by taking an arsenic-mercury pill! What he is going to argue here in this passage is that

Working to make yourself right with God cannot save you; it will kill you.

The Galatians were being deceived into thinking that they had to keep certain aspects of Moses’ Law in order to be right before God—specifically, that they had to keep the dietary rules of “clean” and “unclean” foods, and that they had to be circumcised. But what Paul goes on to show in this passage is that the Law has nothing to do with making a person right in God’s sight—in fact, the only thing the Law could do is condemn them!

And that same belief still holds with a lot of people today—that you have to keep the Law of Moses in order to be acceptable to God. But these days it’s not so much that they need to keep kosher or be circumcised—in our day, the part of Moses’ Law that people try to keep is the Ten Commandments. There are a lot of people who really believe that “keeping” the Ten Commandments—do not lie, do not steal, do not murder, do not commit adultery—then God will accept you.

If you are going that route today—if you have a list of behaviors in your head that you believe you need to follow in order for God to accept you, then you need to see what Paul is saying here. Because if you’re intent on justifying yourself before God apart from faith in Jesus Christ, the first thing he says is that you are a fool:

Galatians 3:1 ESV

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

The word translated “foolish” here (and in verse 3) literally means “empty-headed” or “thoughtless”—we might say “brainless”. If you think you can meet God’s standards of righteousness by your own efforts, you’re an idiot! Paul tells the Galatians that “it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified”—they heard the Gospel in Paul’s preaching and saw Jesus’ sacrifice in the way Paul sacrificed for them (in Acts 14:19-23 we read that Paul was stoned and left for dead outside the Galatian city of Iconium). Paul says, “You heard the Gospel from me, and you saw me suffer and bleed for preaching that Gospel to you, you saw me survive a stoning that no one should have walked away from, but somehow you’ve come to the conclusion that faith in Jesus Christ isn’t enough??” That you have to follow the Law in order for God to accept you?

In verses 2-9, Paul shows his readers that

I. The Law Wasn’t Involved in Saving You (Gal. 3:2-9)

Look at verses 2-5:

Galatians 3:2–5 ESV

2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 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 says, “Look at your lives—did God miraculously deliver you from the penalty and power of your sin because you were good enough?” If you think about it for a few minutes, you’ll realize that’s impossible. No one who calls themselves a Christian at all can point to a time before they were saved when they were “good enough” for God to save them. In the book of Ephesians Chapter 2, Paul writes:

Ephesians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

You see, the Bible tells us that

We weren’t just bad people that God decided to save—we were dead people that He decided to raise!

We had no more ability to decide to be saved than a dead person has the ability to go out for a milkshake at Dairy Queen! Paul reminds the Galatians that they weren’t saved because all the good things they had done impressed God—they were saved because God was merciful to raise them from their spiritual death! Paul is reminding the Galatians that it was God alone who saved them—they had no ability to save themselves, because they were spiritually dead.

And he goes on to ask them about the miraculous ways God’s Spirit had worked in their lives since they came to Christ:

Galatians 3:5 ESV

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 asks them: “Do you really think that God worked His miraculous power to answer prayer in your life, growing you in faith and knowledge of Him, bonding you together with other believers in a loving family—did He do all that because you eat kosher??” Is God really some kind of cosmic vending machine to you? That if you put in just the right combination of prayer, holiness and hard work that He’ll dispense some equivalent package of blessing? Paul says that if that’s what you believe about God, then you’re a fool.

Paul shows that the Law wasn’t involved in saving us, and he goes on in verses 6-9 to prove his point further by reminding his readers that

God saved Abraham before the Law even existed

Galatians 3:6–9 ESV

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 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.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

The false teachers were forcing the Galatians to follow the Mosaic Law because they insisted that a person had to be a Jew before they could be a Christian. But Paul goes back to Genesis itself to prove that Abraham—the father of the Jewish people—was saved before the Mosaic Law even existed! Abraham was declared righteous by God 430 years before Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Law that the false teachers insisted was essential for salvation! So how in the world could keeping the Law be necessary for salvation?

Paul says that Abraham was not made righteous because he kept the Ten Commandments or ate only clean foods, but that he “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness!” When we read the story of God making His covenant with Abraham in Genesis, we see in fact that Abraham was powerless to achieve any of the terms of the covenant on his own! God promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation, and bless him and make his name great, and that through his offspring all of the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3). But the only problem was that Abraham was in his nineties at the time—way beyond the age to become a father! And so in Genesis 15, Abraham brings that fact up to God:

Genesis 15:2–6 ESV

2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

When Abraham believed that God would keep His promise to him, and that God would do everything He said, God counted Abraham as righteous. And Paul tells the Galatians, “When you simply believe that Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross was enough to save you from the punishment of your sins, you are declared righteous!” And when you believe God like Abraham did, you receive the same promise Abraham did! So when the false teachers come around and tell you “You have to be a Jew first by keeping Moses’ Law”, you can say, “I’m already a child of Abraham because I believe in God the same way he did—no Law necessary!”

Paul wants the Galatians to understand that the Law wasn’t involved in saving us. And he goes on in the following verses to demonstrate that in fact

II. The Law Can Only Condemn Your Failures (Gal. 3:10-12, 21-22)

Look at verses 10-12:

Galatians 3:10–12 ESV

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.”

And further down in verses 21-22:

Galatians 3:21–22 ESV

21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Paul wants the Galatian Christians to see that they already have God’s promise that they are righteous before Him when they believe Him the way Abraham did—

Trying to keep the Law can only demonstrate our sinfulness, not our righteousness.

Paul warns the Galatians that if they try to make themselves righteous by keeping the Law, all they will do is prove their sinfulness. He says that God put the Law of Moses in place 430 years after His promise to Abraham “because of transgressions” (v. 19). God put the Law in place to remind us that we could never deserve the promise He gave under Abraham. He quotes from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (27:26), where Moses lists all of the curses that would fall on the people if they did not keep all of the commandments!

Now, there are 613 distinct commandments in the Law of Moses, and Paul says that if you do not perfectly keep every last one of them, you are cursed! Now, just for a moment, let’s carry out a little thought experiment here. Let’s say that God were to speak to you out of Heaven and say that He is going to suspend the entire Law for you, except for one commandment of your choosing. In other words, God will take 612 commandments off the table, and will judge your righteousness based on the way you keep only one commandment!

So which would you choose? You’d probably go for something easy, right? Like “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). There you go—as long as you can get through your life without sleeping with someone else’s spouse, you’re good, right? Just “keep your hands to yourself” and you’ll be considered righteous in God’s eyes!

But then Jesus tells you in Matthew 5:

Matthew 5:27–28 ESV

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

That one lingering glance when you were at the beach this summer? That’s adultery. So maybe there’s another commandment easier to keep—how about “Thou shalt not murder”? Just avoid committing homicide your whole life and you’re golden, right? But then Jesus says

Matthew 5:21–22a ESV

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

One drive home in heavy traffic, and you’ve committed murder in your heart a half-dozen times, haven’t you?

And the problem is that

Once you’ve broken the Law, there is no way to go back and un-break it!

Imagine a child playing in his grandmother’s house who throws a baseball and accidentally smashes an antique bone-china teapot that his great-grandmother brought over from the Old Country. It’s lying in pieces on the rug, and he’s absolutely mortified. There are a lot of things he can do to try to “make it right”, aren’t there? He can promise never to throw a baseball indoors again, he can offer to pay for the teapot, he can try to glue it back together, he can try to go on eBay and find a replacement—he can do all of those things, but the one thing he cannot do is un-break the teapot! There is no “work” that he can do that can ever un-do what he did!

Beloved, that is what Paul is telling us here in this passage—that no matter what kind of work you do to keep the Law of God, you can never make up for the Law you’ve broken! You can promise God that you’ll never do it again, you can try to clean up the mess your sin has caused, you can offer to pay for your sin—but the one thing you cannot do is “un-break” His command!

And the penalty for breaking that commandment—even one time—is eternal suffering away from God’s presence in Hell. That is what trying to “keep the Law” gets you: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, and do them!” Working to make yourself right with God cannot save you; it will kill you. It is a poison pill—trying to achieve eternal life with God by keeping the Ten Commandments will result in your eternal death in Hell.

What are you trusting in this morning? Your church attendance? Your Bible reading? Your clean language? Your charitable contributions? Your volunteerism? Your participation in ministry here? Are you counting on impressing God with how much you’ve done for other people? There’s an old Rich Mullins tune, “I don’t cheat on my taxes, I don’t cheat on my girl / I’ve got values that would make the White House jealous”—is that your attitude today?

Are you satisfied that when you stand before the Judgment Seat of God someday, and every single moment of your life is laid out before Him, that He will not find one single moment where you have told a lie, or fantasized about having sex with someone you had no business looking at, or have been angry enough to kill someone, or lied through your teeth to your boss, or kept the extra dollar you got in change at the grocery store? Do you think you’re just going to “talk your way out of it”? I tell you the truth, you will have no excuse on that Day, no way to lift the curse that you have put yourself under by relying on your own efforts.

But here is the Good News, beloved!

III. Jesus Frees You From The Curse of The Law (Gal. 3:13-14)

Galatians 3:13–14 ESV

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.

When you stood cursed by your failure to keep the Law, Jesus Christ—who kept that Law perfectly—took on your curse! No matter what you try to do to “make up for” your sin, you can never “un-break” the Law—but

Jesus fulfilled the Law for you (Matt. 5:17)

You can’t keep the Law—but He did. He tells you in Matthew 5:17 that He came to fulfill the Law—to complete it, to keep it perfectly:

Matthew 5:17 ESV

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

And when you come to Him in faith and trust only in Him, He counts His perfect obedience to you, and He takes on the penalty for your Law-breaking! 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He took on your lusts, your lies, your hatred and bitterness and slothfulness and gluttony and outbursts of temper—all of the ways that you broke His Laws and ignored His commands and insulted His holiness—Jesus took all of it to the Cross, and He hung on that Tree under the curse that you earned—becoming a curse for you—so that you could be free of it!

And this is the wonderful Good News for you this morning—Jesus Christ promises you that you can be righteous in His sight the same way Abraham did—by just believing His promise! Not only did He fulfill the Law for you,

Jesus keeps God’s promise for you (Gal. 3:14)

He came and suffered the curse of the Law

Galatians 3:14 ESV

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.

Here is the promise for you this morning—the promise that God made to Abraham, the promise that Jesus secured for you by His death on the Cross—that you can be righteous in God’s sight when you simply believe His promise to save you! Look again at verse 6, only this time, put your name there instead of Abraham: “Steve believed God, and God credited it to him as righteousness...” “Crystal believed God, and God credited it to her as righteousness...”

Beloved, that is the only cure for your sin before God—not your attempts to make up for it, not your own ability to be good enough, not your personal discipline or moral code—those things are just a poison pill that will damn you for your failure. The only cure for your sin is simply to believe that God will keep His promise to save you through Jesus Christ! Don’t try to do it on your own, don’t try to keep some kind of moral code that you think will impress God. He has already done everything necessary for you to be saved—to have that eternal life with Him forever in heaven (and a new birth of holiness and peace and happiness here on earth!) Won’t you make this the day when you know for sure that you belong to Him, when you call out to Him in faith, when you believe Him? Quit trying to do it on your own, quit running from His invitation. Do it today: Come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

Benediction

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Questions for Reflection:

What are some ways that we look to “The Law”—rules, regulations, habits—to produce the kind of behavior that only the Gospel can bring about in us? What are some ways that you are tempted to believe that you need to be “good enough” for God in your Christian life?

The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:1-17. Take some time and read them this week, and evaluate your life in light of them. What do the Ten Commandments teach you about your ability to be righteous in God’s sight? Will you be able to rely on your record of keeping them when you stand before God?

The only righteousness that you can depend on to make you right with God comes to you when you believe that Jesus Christ alone can save you from the punishment you deserve for breaking God’s Law. Have you placed your faith in Him alone?