Galatians 3:10-14 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.” 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.
The Apostle wants us to
understand his relationship to the gospel. First, Paul affirms that he received
his message from Christ himself. He was not subject to any other man or any
organization only to Christ. He also wanted us to grasp the concept that the
gospel was not just a New Testament thing. The gospel came long before the law.
His moving away from the Mosaic law was a valid spiritual step. Paul needed to
remind the Galatians that their turning back to the rules of Moses was
completely invalid. In fact, the gospel has set us free from the bondage to sin
and gives us victory over the flesh.
The entire letter to the
Galatians is an exhortation to come back to the gospel. Since the Galatian
church had begun to return to the law of Moses…
Paul
saw the Galatians as “foolish”! Look back to Galatians 3:1. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your
eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
I realize that Jesus
instructed us not to call a person a fool. However,
even people who are protected from being called a fool sometimes do foolish
things. No one is exempt from having taken the foolish route at some point in
their life. The problem was that the Galatians, in their foolishness, were
moving away from the simple gospel that had been presented to them.
Even though they would not
have been present when Jesus was crucified Paul reminds them that, in his
preaching, they had seen the banner spread before their eyes that said, “Jesus
came into the world, lived a perfect life, and took our sins to the cross”.
That is the simple truth of the gospel. Jesus, born of a virgin, lived without
sin, took our punishment, died in our place, defeated death and came back to
life to give us life. The Galatians needed to respond to the question…
How
did they begin their faith life? Let’s read in Galatians 3:2. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of
the law or by hearing with faith?
How were they born again? Was
it by obeying the law of Moses or by believing in Jesus Christ God’s son and
our Savior! When we believed — leading to confessing with our mouth that Jesus
is Lord — the Holy Spirit came to give us life! In fact, that was the very
reason that Jesus came into the world. Satan came to steal, kill and destroy
everything spiritually good in us while Jesus came to give us life abundantly!
When the Galatians, or anyone else, came to salvation in Christ they/we
received that spiritual life by hearing the word of God and believing the
truth.
You see, faith is not a leap
in the dark! It is not believing against all reasonable truth. Faith is
trusting in God and depending on God because we believe what he has said in his
word.
When a person is converted
they turn from sin to Christ. This is done because we have come to believe what
God says about sin. Saving faith is more than mere knowledge. It is necessary we
have some knowledge of who Christ is and
what he has done. But knowledge of the
facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us is not enough. People can
know facts but rebel against them or even dislike them. Many people know God’s
laws but rebel against them. Even the demons believe that God exists but they
remain demons. Saving faith is not believing
about Christ but instead, it is
depending on Christ for my spiritual life. Saving faith is trust in Jesus
Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God!
This is not just a New
Testament concept along with Paul…
We
look back to Abraham. Let’s turn to Genesis 12:1-3. Now
the Lord said to Abram, “Go from
your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will
show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you and make your name great, so
that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless
you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
As you read this amazing
statement by God we need to realize several things. First, Abram — who would
later be called Abraham — did not have any written Bible that we know of.
Second, he did not grow up in a family that worshiped Yahweh. Third, he had
spent much of his life (so far as we know) without an awareness of Yahweh. But
when the right time came God spoke to him and directed him to repent, turning
away from his past, and respond to God’s directions for him. And God promised
that he would bless Abraham and make his name great. God promised that Abraham
would be a blessing. God promised that he would bless those who blessed
Abraham! And he also promised that he would curse those who dishonored Abraham.
But of greatest importance to us, God promised Abraham that
all the families of the earth would be blessed because of Abraham’s faith.
Notice that it was not because of obedience to some kind of laws but it was a
matter of faith. After faith came Abraham made many positive decisions in
obedience to God. But those decisions he made did not save him! His faith was
counted to him as righteousness. We might assume that there were others all
over the world who came to faith in God in the same manner. For example,
Melchizedek was the king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. This great King appeared in a single incident in
Abraham’s life. Later, Moses would become the son-in-law of Jethro, the priest
of Midian. We cannot be positive that Jethro worshiped the Yahweh as Moses did
but there was no rejection of the idea that he could provide advice to Moses as
he led the people of Israel through the wilderness. Now let’s look back to
Galatians to see that…
Abraham
received the gospel. Let’s read Galatians
3:8-9. 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 gospel, Paul tells us, was
preached to Abraham. Now, what exactly
does that mean? Modern man tends to think that the “gospel” must include all the elements: all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), the wages of sin is
death (Romans 6:23), and yet God demonstrates his love for us by sending his
son to die on the cross (Romans 5:8), and, if we will confess with our mouth,
“Jesus is Lord” and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead we
will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). Such a comprehensive explanation would have
been an amazing idea to Abraham.
Instead, the gospel preached
to Abraham was simply, “In you shall all the nations be blessed” (Genesis
12:3). That gospel was all that was needed and in fact, is still all that is
needed! The blessing that came for all people everywhere is the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself! He came as a result of the promise. While Abraham walked on
this earth having in his genetic makeup the human body of Isaac, Jacob, Judah,
David, and after multiple generations, Jesus was born of Mary and descended
from David the king. The blessing is given
through Abraham’s faith counteracted…
The
curse on humanity. Let’s look back to Genesis 2:16-17. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You
may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall surely die.”
Adam walked and talked with God on a daily
basis and yet when tempted by Satan he ate of the tree that had been denied to
him. When Adam rebelled against God,
becoming the first sinner, as our representative God counted us guilty along
with him. Adam’s guilt belongs to us because God imputed Adam’s guilt to us. We
may not like being represented by Adam. But we should never hesitate to be
represented by Jesus! Our first representative sinned and God counted us
guilty. Christ, the representative of all who believe
in him, obeyed God perfectly and God counted us righteous. That is the way God
set up the human race to work. Let’s look ahead to Romans
6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Granted that we have all
sinned, we recognize that sin’s pay is death! Just as none can escape sin as
part of our lifestyle so we cannot escape death as its consequence! Adam and
Eve did not immediately die in the garden but they certainly began to die. God
had said that they would surely die and they surely did! However, “the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” We must be eternally grateful that…
Jesus
redeemed us. Let’s return to 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.” The curse
of the law is death — physical and spiritual. Jesus became a curse for us. Or,
as we see in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made Christ to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God! Peter supported this same concept. We are all under the curse! But
Jesus took the curse for us. Let’s see what Peter had to say in 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 blood of bulls and goats
that had been the payment for sin in the Old Testament really did not bring
forgiveness. All of those acts look forward to Jesus and his obedience to the
Father. Jesus died to sin once for all and when we place our faith in him the
guilt, bequeathed by Adam, is removed from the human race. We cannot free
ourselves from the curse. No matter how good we are we remain Adam’s heirs! But
Jesus act of righteousness enables us to die to sin and live to righteousness.
It is a very cheap thing to
attempt to appropriate Jesus’ death on the cross only for physical healing.
There was a much greater blessing that came to the human race through Jesus’
obedience. By his death on the cross, we receive
much more than most people imagine. Jesus died and rose again…
In
order that we might receive the blessing. Let’s read in 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.
Becoming the righteousness of
God, in Jesus, enables us to receive all the blessings in Scripture. By faith
in Christ we are able to be united to
Abraham the man of faith.
With grateful hearts, we should come to Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior. We should rejoice that he took our sins to the cross and
nailed them there. He took our sin to the
grave and left it there. He was raised from the dead in order to set us free.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and
goats to take away sins. Jesus came into the world to do the will of the
Father! In the garden of Gethsemane, he
gave up his rights to himself for us. Jesus prayed for the Father to take the
cup of suffering from him. Nevertheless, he would do the Father’s will and die
in our place. Have you accepted him as your Lord? Does your faith tell you to believe
that God raised him from the dead? They can be your day of salvation!
All scriptures quotes are
from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard
Bible Society.
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