Are you under the curse?

Read the Text

Paul is essentially asking the question to the people of Galatia? Are you cursed. A question that would not be on a lot of peoples minds in Galatia. But in the text that we are going to unpack today; Paul puts the people of Galatia and us in a situation asking if we are under the curse? through this text today we can clearly and confidently answer the question of are we under the curse?

Paul in verse 10 begins to unpack this question, and he quickly lets you know something pretty important. For all who rely on on works of the law are under a curse. This is another powerful statement, because of the context that people of Galatia are in. If you have been with us you know that the Judaizers had been doing all they could to get the people of Galatia to buy into the idea that they had to add works in order to be saved. AND PAUL Again is refuting that idea.

He makes it clear all those who rely on works of the law are under the curse. ( This is a big statement fort Paul to say ) We have stressed over and over again the past several weeks this idea that you cannot be saved by works of the law, but Paul makes clear that you if you rely on works of the law you are under the curse.

Now the curse that Paul is referring to essentially means to under divine condemnation. They would not be saved for believing they could be saved buy works, because as I will talk about more in this sermon they missed the mark on what it meant to actually be saved by works.

We must understand that Faith, and works cannot compete with one another for justification. And this is what the Judaizers was teaching, and sometimes you will even hear a stranger, your neighbor, or someone else, the idea that you can be saved by your own works, and the message is clear if you rely on works of the law you are cursed.

Paul is probably quoting two verses in the Old Testament when he is referring to this curse. The first is Deuteronomy 28:25 which says, ““But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you”. ( notice the language be careful to do all his commandments ) This is key because God calls us to follow him perfectly, and if we dont we are under that curse.

One other verse, Deuteronomy 27:26 says, “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ Again the language says all, ( all people who do not confirm the words of this law and do them shall be cursed)

Let that soak in for a moment, the people of Galatia that bought into the lie that you could add to salvation were in fact cursing themselves. Because they took something like grace and added to it. You cannot add to grace, because then it isn’t grace.

What happened was the Judaizers created their own system of what they deemed to be lawful, and worthy to them, and created this system of lies that in their own mind made them good with God, and Paul is so clear in this text that if you dont abide and do all the things of the law then you are accursed. Thats not good news for anyone listening, because Scripture is clear that we all fall short, and the Judaizers missed this, so many people miss this. ( you have to follow God perfectly )

Other religions talk about certain steps that one must do in order to be saved. For example in the Muslim faith you have this idea that you will go before God, and he will judge you based on your works, and see if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, and they have so many little things in between.

Some Christian denominations elevate certain things, saying you must do these to be saved. This can be baptism, speaking in tongues, or other verity of different things.

But if those Christians say that you must add these things plus faith then they do are in fact under the curse. Let me say thing again if other professing Christians say they need to add something to the finished work of Christ then they are in fact under the curse. Because they are elevating things that dont need to be elevated, they are buying into this idea of faith plus works even if they dont think they are.

Paul makes it clear if you rely on works of the law and do not do all those works then you are in fact cursed.

Living a life striving to do the right things isn't wrong, but depending on those for salvation is.

Paul continues. Now it is evident that that no-one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

The term evident is important here, because evident means that its plain or obvious, clearly seen or understood.

The people of Galatia should know deep down that salvation only comes by faith in Christ. Just one example from a few weeks ago made it so clear in Galatians 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Paul has made it so clear to the people of Galatia, and everyone who reads this letter that we are not justified by anything other than faith in Christ, and with what we see in the text today we must understand if you dont believe this, and have somehow bought into the idea that you can be justified by something other than faith in Christ, than you are in fact under the curse.

As if Paul needed anymore arguments for his position he quotes Lev 18:5 which says, “ You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules, If a person does them, he shall live them: I am the Lord.

One commentator says Paul quotes this because Justification by faith and justification by keeping the law are mutually exclusive.

This means that they are incompatible. They dont work along side one another. They can’t because one system demands perfection, and the other, the correct system demands faith.

Paul is saying you can’t buy into the idea that you can come to Jesus by works of the law, in addition to faith, Paul has said it so clear over and over again. The righteous shall live by faith.

While we are to live by faith, what about this curse that comes from not following the law? Paul made it clear that all those who rely on works of the law are under a curse if they dont follow them?

Paul wants to remind the people of Galatia that Christ redeemed them 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.

Paul is telling the people of Galatia that you have been redeemed, and in this particular text it means they had been bought, bought away from the curse of not following the law. They had been set free to live without this curse, and to live by faith. Not because they followed the law, but because Christ did.

Christ took the penalty upon himself on the cross. Listen to a few scriptures…

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus Christ the perfect man who never sinned, beared that burdon on the cross for us. He took on sin of all those who were his, and all those who would ever believe in him and that took that punishment so we could come become righteous and the children of God.

Hebrews 9:28 says, “so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

The cross was a one time event in which Christ died to bear the sins of those who would believe in him.

1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed”

The cross is not just some little symbol that we have on the top of our building, it was a real place that Jesus himself died on. And because he did we can be saved.

That is the good news of the cross, but why was it a curse? Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21:22-23 which says, “22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 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.”

A hanged man is cursed by God. Listen to the words of Matthew Henry. “The statement that “accursed by God is a hanged man” (v 23) is taken up by Paul in reference to the death of Jesus Christ (Gal 3:13), who has “redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.”

Though Moses used the words in reference to the ignominious treatment of an executed criminal, he said more than he knew. As Bishop Patrick observed long ago, “this passage is applied to the death of Christ, not only because he bare our sins and was exposed to shame, as these malefactors were that were accursed of God, but because he was in the evening taken down from the accursed tree and buried, (and that by the particular care of the Jews, with an eye to this law, John 19:31) in token that now, the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as it was when the malefactor had hanged till sunset; it demanded no more.

Then he ceased to be a curse, and those that are his. And as the land of Israel was pure and clean, when the dead body was buried, so the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which thus Christ made”

It was a serious thing for someone to be hanged, in Rome it was reserved for the greatest criminals, and the kind of death that it produced was one of the most brutal deaths one could ever imagine, and Christ died that death. And he died that death is such a way that the law was fulfilled.

Incredible to see the work of the Lord thousands of years before Christ would die one time for all of those who would ever believe.

Christ the only innocent man to ever live treated as a Criminal, and died as a cursed man full-filling the law. He was put to death on the cross, takin down that evening, buried in what scripture says a rich mans tomb, but he didn’t stay dead, he rose 3 days later. Proving that he had dominion of sin and death.

Proving that he could break that curse.

The curse that was meant for us, because we sinned greatly he took it. He bore. he paid the price, and because he paid that price and took that curse for us we can have eternal life, not by works, but by faith alone.

The curse of not following the law is clear, but the so is the gospel. Paul is so clear to the people of Galatia and everyone else. You are either under the curse or your not.

Write this down. There is only two options you are under the curse if you rely on works of the law, the second option is you are not under the curse if you rely on faith.

Verse 14 proves the second option to be true. Read. Last week we talked about Abraham the father of faith, and how the promise God made to him would result in a blessing for the gentiles as numerous as the stars. and part of that promise is that those who have faith in Christ will receive through faith in him the Spirit of God.

I love what Charles Spurgion says, “Wherever the Spirit of God dwells, the covenant is fulfilled. You have in the Spirit the foretaste of the promised rest; you have the initial stages of the promised perfection; you have the dawn of the promised glory. The Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance till the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Not only are believers in Christ those who are in him spared from the curse that comes from not following the law, believers have the promised Holy Spirit that as we have learned is God living in us, guiding us, perfecting us, and sealing us for the day of redemption, and we only get that promise by faith in Christ, and because of his work.

Church, and whoever else may be listening this is a time where we get serious about our faith. Anyone who is listening to this message I want you to have a serious response to what I am about to say. Are you living in such a way where you have either created your own set of rules about what you believe to be good enough to be saved, or are you trying your best to keep everything God has told you and think that your good will outweigh your bad?

Don’t just brush over that question either. Because I can’t tell you how many people I have talked to that say I believe I am good with God because my good outweighs my bad. That does not cut it. That does not cut it.

Dont buy into that lie, because as you seen in the text today all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. You dont climb your way up to heaven, you dont have a scale that you can go before God and say let me show you all the good I have ever done, and it outweighs the bad. Thats not how it works, because if you think this is how it works you are under the curse, because you cant tell me that you have done everything under the law perfectly.

I am saying these things, because like Paul I love you and care for you I dont want you to buy into the lie that you can save yourself. That burdon is to heavy, and you cant carry it.

BUT if you today say that Jesus Paid the price for me you can be set free. As the song says, who the son sets free is free indeed. This only comes though if you believe in Christ alone for salvation, nothing else, dont come to him thinking its me and my works plus faith in Christ because its not, Paul wanted the people of Galatia to be confident that their own salvation was only found in Christ alone. Dont leave here today without answering the question are you under the curse?

If the answer is yes, than know this you can have eternal life in him if you repent and believe in Christ alone for salvation. Its as simple as that, you can leave here knowing that amazing truth. Knowing that the promise to Abraham is for you, and that in believing you have not only been saved, and set free, but you now have the Holy Spirit.

If you answered no. I am not under the curse thats wonderful, I would urge you to not follow down the road that so many people in Galatia did, and so many in the church do as well. Live by faith as it says in verse 14.

I quoting Spurgion again but its so good, Faith enriches the soil of the heart. Faith fills our treasuries with the choicest gold and loads our tables with the daintiest food for our souls. Faith in Jesus, the Savior, faith in the heavenly Father, faith in the Holy Spirit—this we must have, or we perish like foam upon the waters.

A simple faith in Christ will enable you to remain calm even when your feelings are the reverse of happy, to remain confident when your emotions are far from ecstatic. If, indeed, we are saved by Jesus Christ, then the foundation of our salvation does not lie within us, but in that crucified Man who now reigns in glory. When He changes, then what changes must happen to us! But since He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why do we need to be so soon removed from our steadfastness? Believe in Jesus when you cannot find a spark of grace within yourself. Cast yourself as a sinner into the Savior’s arms when you cannot think a good thought or uplift a good desire. Have confident faith in Jesus at all times, for if you believe in Him you are saved and cannot be condemned. However good or bad your state, this shall not affect the question. You believe; therefore, you will be saved.

Hold fast church, if you are in him the curse if lifted the chains have fallen off, the place you were meant to perish is not a place for you anymore. Justified by God through faith in him, what a glorious truth we must never get tired of hearing. Live your life full of faith in the savior who has set you free. You are not under the curse if you believe in Christ alone for salvation.

Let us pray ask the question demand a response.