The Curse of the Law - Gospel Freedom in Galatians - November 2 Readings: Galatians 3:10-14

 

 

Gospel Freedom in Galatians  

Background: What was the key issue in the early church? Race. Culture. Issues that are still with us today. The church at its inception on Pentecost was essentially 100% Jewish and the Apostles and the church in Jerusalem seemed content to keep it that way. Then God called a Pharisee named Saul to salvation and set him aside as an Apostle to the Gentiles. Over the next 30 years, the church became primarily Gentile with a Jewish minority, and many Jews fought it. 

Galatians was Paul's first letter, written at the end of his first missionary journey when Gentiles began to come to Christ in droves. A group, sometimes called Judaizers and sometimes the circumcision party, opposed the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. If they were to be part of the church, they needed to become Jewish - follow the law and Jewish rituals. Paul fought them tooth and nail his entire ministry. The gospel was for the whole world. 

Galatians is a powerful argument for a gospel free from the works of the law. 

As often as time allows, the reader is encouraged to read the entire book - it will not take more than a few minutes. Each day we will work our way through the book passage by passage. 

Today's Reading:  Galatians 1-6  Focus Passage - Galatians 3:10-14 

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. 11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Through the Bible Readings: Ezekiel 11-12, 1 Timothy 6:3–21, Psalm 119:105–108, Proverbs 26:25–26

 

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: The Curse of the Law     

It seems a strange statement when you realize that God himself inscribed the Ten Commandments on a stone tablet. They were not a human creation but divine revelation. How, then, can Paul look at the Law of God and call it a curse?

 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.  Galatians 3:10

The Law of God, written by God's finger, becomes a curse to those who rely on it and live their lives by it - the words of God are a curse to those who hear them. Strange and strange.

Fortunately, Paul explains exactly what he means by this statement, in the second half of verse 10.

“Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed” 

There is no flaw in the Law - it reveals the character of God and his commands for how human beings ought to live. If you want to earn the favor of God and work for a ticket to heaven, all you have to do is follow the law. Verse 12 says, "the one who does them shall live by them." The Law presented a path to human salvation by works. Follow the Law and you can earn heaven.

But that is the curse! You can't do it and neither can I. If you do not continue on a daily basis to do everything that is written in the book of the law, that which was a path of life becomes a source of condemnation.

Imagine that I have a million dollars (it will take some imagining!) and I offer that million to you. All you have to do is walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope like that guy did a while back. If you can walk across without falling, you get the million. One of you takes off and only makes it about 3 or 4 steps. Splat. Another walks 50 feet. Thunk. A third person walks a quarter of a mile. Plop. A fourth person walks all the way across the canyon until he is within 25 feet of the other side before he loses his balance. Is he any better off than the others? He made it farther but his fate is still sealed. Unless you can walk ALL THE WAY across the canyon, it doesn't much matter just how far across you can go.

You may be a better person than I and keep the law more carefully. But unless you can make it all the way, unless you can keep the law perfectly all of your life, the law is a curse. It condemns you not because it is wrong but because it reveals your sin and shows that you do, in fact, fall short of the glory of God.

But there is a reason for praise today, not despair. None of us stacks up against the Law, but "the righteous live by faith." God devised a plan in which we could receive salvation by grace and not by works. In fact, Paul makes it clear that not only are we saved by God's grace, but we live by it daily. Look back at verse 3.

Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 

The same God who saves us by grace through faith helps us to live daily by his grace through faith, by the power of the Spirit who dwells within.

That is the goodness of our God. He knew we couldn't make it across the Canyon, so he sent his perfect Son to walk across for us and give us grace - grace to live by now and forevermore.

Father, thank you for grace that saves me when my flesh failed. The law was a curse because of my sin, but you, through Christ, destroyed the curse and gave me life. praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Think and Pray:

Do you seek to please God in the flesh, in your own power, or do you rely on the power of Christ?
Thank God today that you have been freed from the curse of the law and been given life through the work of Christ on the cross.