Galatians (10)

Introduction: Today, we are going to be focusing on Galatians 3:11-14 We are going to discover a beautiful reality about the gospel of Christ. It is that Jesus is our redeemer. We have some ground to cover to get to the heart of this truth but I want to begin by sharing some words of an Issac Watts hymn entitled “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed.”

Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?

At the cross, at the cross where

I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day!

Was it for sins that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide, And shut His glories in, When Christ, the mighty Maker, died For man, His creature’s sin.

Transition: pray and read Galatians 3:10-14.

Transition: After establishing the difference between the curse of the law and the blessing of faith in 3:10, Paul continues to uncover the roots of the gospel in 3:11-14.

In verses 3:11-12 the explanation is given that no one is right with God by the law because the Scripture says that the, “Righteous shall live by faith.” This is a quote from Hab 2:4.

Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Point: This means that faith is the conduit in which a person is declared to be in a right relationship with God. What is faith?

Faith = Resting in Christ with no regard to human effort.

Paul goes on to further emphasize that no person is justified by the law. He says in verse 12 that “the law is not of faith.” How does he support such a statement? He quotes Lev 18:5.

Leviticus 18:5 ESV

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

What is the point? What is it exactly that Paul is explaining concerning the gospel?

Point: A person is made right with God through faith in Christ Jesus, not works of the law. The law is not of faith and cannot give life. No person has been able to achieve life through the law because no person has kept the whole law. Which is what he was explaining in 3:10. However, now Paul continues to explain by quoting Leviticus which maintains that the standard or expectation of the law is that a person must keep it in order to have life. The result is that the whole law reveals that the whole of humanity are totally unable to meet God’s standards by our human effort.

Example: An example of this truth is observed in an encounter that Jesus had with a lawyer. That conversation in recorded in Luke 10:25-37. Turn there and follow along as we read.

Luke 10:25–37 ESV

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Point: Any person relying on the law to inherit eternal life will fall into the trap of self-justification. Why? Because to live by the law means you die by the law. Jesus wasn’t using the law as a means to bring life. Rather, He used the law as it was intended, to reveal death. To show the human inability to meet the standard. To point this lawyer, and you and I, to Himself as the Redeemer of the curse of the law. Frankly, the reality of everyone of us is that we most identify with the man who fell among thieves. We are left for dead in our trespasses and sins, and had it not been for Christ Jesus we would remain in that condition. (Which takes us back to Galatians 3:13.

Transition: What hope does anyone have of being justified by faith? How can anyone gain eternal life when God’s standard is perfect obedience to His law? How will we ever escape the curse of the law? The answer to these questions are found in the crescendo of 3:13-14. Follow along as we notice each phrase...

Christ redeemed us...

a. The promised messiah , purchased with His own life, the pardon that we needed n order to be right with God. He delivered us. He paid the price for our transgressions. We were held in slavery to sin and death, and Christ paid the full price for our ransom and freedom from those chains.

Transition: What did He redeem us from?

from the curse of the law...

a. The payment that Jesus gave with His life was for the penalty of death. The consequence of sin. The curse of the law is death. Not simply physical death as we discovered last week, but eternal death and wrath from the judgment of God. Being eternally separated from God and suffering the just consequences of rebelling against Him. The curse that Jesus has redeemed us from is the damnation of hell.

b. How did Christ accomplish this redemption?

by becoming a curse for us…

a. Jesus did what we could not do. He met the requirements of the law. Even though innocent and sinless He became a curse in our place.

b. This is the same emphasis Paul had alluded to in Gal 1:4

c. This is the same emphasis made in Gal 2:20 “gave Himself for me”

d. The curse we deserved , Jesus became. The consequence of sin that we were guilty of, Jesus payed for in full.

Transition: On what basis did He accomplish this redemption?

For it is written…

a. The authority for the gospel of redemption is the same word of God that is the standard of righteousness. Notice the quote is from Deut 21:23

Deuteronomy 21:23 ESV

his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Transition:Why did Christ endure this curse? Why did He suffer the wrath of God, and even though innocent and without sin become sin? Why did He become a curse for us? Verse 14 answers those questions.

So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles

a. The phrase “in Christ Jesus” is repeated constantly through out Paul’s letters. It means that only in the anointed and promised redeemer Christ Jesus , can a person have the blessing of being in a right relationship with God. All that Christ is, and all that He is done and will do is applied to the one who is redeemed in Him.

b. This is the blessing exemplified in Abraham and extended to the Gentiles.

Transition: Why is it important to understand that it is only in Christ that the blessing of Abraham comes?

so that we might receive the promised Spirit by faith.

a. The promised Holy Spirit is a the key point of Paul’s thesis from the beginning of chapter 3:2-5.

b. It is God the Holy Spirit who places a person in Christ and gives the gift of faith to those who believe. He ignites spiritual life in a person by regenerating a spiritual dead heart and He sustains that life through faith.

Summary point: No person gains a right relationship with God through works of the law. Rather, Jesus Christ redeems those under the curse of the law because as the only one who ever obeyed the law perfectly He purchased sinners from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Because of His death, those who belong to Christ receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Closing slide: From Ephesians 1:7

Ephesians 1:7 ESV

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

The sufficiency of Christ’s redeeming death in regard to resisting temptation. His response to Satan in the desert, “Not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from mouth of God.” And He did so in our place, on our behalf. And in doing so delivered us from the curse of sin. So when we are tempted to appeal to the flesh we can rest by faith in the sufficient and completed work of Christ in keeping every word of God and dying for the curse of our sin as the means to take the way of escape provided in every temptation.