Passage: Galatians 3:10-14

The Big Idea

God blessed Abraham by faith, before the Law ever existed. But the Law brings a curse, because it requires perfect, continual obedience, and no one can give it. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us on the cross, so that the blessing of Abraham, righteousness and the promised Spirit, would come to us through faith.

Under the Curse (Galatians 3:10)

All who rely on works of the Law are under a curse, because Scripture pronounces a curse on everyone who doesn’t keep on doing everything written in the book of the Law (Deuteronomy 27:26).

We saw that God blessed Abraham by faith, and Abraham lived before the Law.
Now we see that the Law brings a curse.
The Jewish-background believers who thought Christians should still live under the Law of Moses believed it was a path to blessing.
To be “under” something is to be inside a system of belief, like being under a yoke or burden.
They believed “works of the Law” were the right system for pleasing God. But in reality it brings a curse.
They were on the wrong side of the war! They thought they were fighting for God, but they were actually fighting against His ways and for human reasoning and effort.

Notice the key words:

“All things.” That requires perfect obedience.
“Continue.” That requires continual obedience.
“Do.” If God is going to approve you on the basis of the Law, you have to do it. Not just know it, love it, teach it or want it. You have to do it.
And you have to do it all. Not some of it. Not just after you turn eighteen or forty. Not just more good than bad.

No one gives that kind of obedience.

Whatever the Law says, it says to those under it, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. No one will be justified in His sight by works of the Law, because through the Law comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19-20).

Martin Luther said hypocritical doers of the Law try to get righteousness by mechanically performing good works while their hearts are far from God. They’re like a foolish carpenter who starts building a house with the roof.

The Curse

Paul’s point is heavy. It weighs us down with a curse. If you’re under the works of the Law, the only way to stand approved before God is to do it, and do all of it. If you don’t, you’re cursed.

John Calvin wrote that the Law holds everyone under its curse, so it’s useless to look to the Law for a blessing.

The Just Shall Live by Faith (Galatians 3:11)

Clearly no one is justified before God by the Law, because “the righteous will live by faith.”

Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2:4, a verse quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).
He’s reinforcing his argument that all of salvation flows from a life of faith, a life of trusting Jesus.
Not just “the righteous will get saved by faith,” but “the righteous will live by faith.”

The Law Is Not of Faith (Galatians 3:12)

But the Law isn’t based on faith. Instead, “the one who does these things will live by them” (Leviticus 18:5).

The Old Testament itself says approval by the Law must be earned by actually living in obedience to it, not just by trying.
Someone might say, “I’ll do my best under the Law and let faith cover the rest. God will see my effort and good intentions and credit me as righteous. The important thing is that I’m really trying.”
Paul proves from the Old Testament that this isn’t good enough. The path of approval by law and the path of faith don’t run together, because the Law isn’t of faith.

It’s like building a house in two places at once: the foundation in one state, the roof two thousand miles away in another, while you live somewhere in between. Neither one does you any good!

It’s faith or nothing with God. We have to abandon works, legalism and self-effort, and start trusting His power and resources in an abiding relationship with Jesus.

So the curse is the natural result of not keeping the whole Law.

The Good News: The Curse Destroyed (Galatians 3:13-14)

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” (Deuteronomy 21:23). He did this so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Redeemed

It isn’t just rescuing; it’s paying a price to rescue. Jesus bought us out from under the curse of the Law. Redemption points to a price paid that sets sinners free.

The idea comes from ancient warfare. After a battle, the victors often captured some of the defeated. The poorer captives were usually sold as slaves, but the wealthy and important ones were held for ransom. When their people back home raised the price, they paid it, and the captives were set free. That process was called redemption, and the price was the ransom.

How did Jesus redeem us?
Why was He the only one who could?
He made Himself the curse for us, the curse of the Law.

We remember the crowd hurling insults at Him as He was crucified. But those don’t compare with the curse Jesus bore from the Father. He allowed Himself to be cursed for us.

Luther on the curse

Martin Luther wrote powerfully about this:

He said that when Christ took the sins of the whole world on Himself, He was treated as the greatest sinner who ever lived: burdened with the sins of Paul the blasphemer, Peter who denied Him, David who committed adultery and murder. Christ was charged with the sins of all people, so He could pay for them with His own blood. The curse struck Him.
To those who said it was wicked to call the Son of God a cursed sinner, Luther answered that if you deny He was condemned as a sinner, you’d have to deny that He died. It’s no more outrageous to say the Son of God was made sin than to say the Son of God died.
And he said that whatever sins we have committed or will commit become Christ’s sins, as if He had committed them Himself. Our sins have to be Christ’s sins, or we will perish forever.

The one hung on a tree was cursed by God. Jesus was cursed by God, fulfilling Scripture, paying for us. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The blessing of Abraham

The blessing of Abraham is righteousness, and the Spirit: being made spiritual people.
The promise is received, not earned.
It’s a restoration of what was lost in the Garden of Eden.

The life of disobedience, the flesh, carries terrible curses. Read Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and look at what we deserved. Then look at what Jesus became for us, in His very life and His very body.

Grace Takeaway

The Law can only curse, because it demands perfect, continual obedience that none of us can give. But Jesus paid the ransom. He became the curse in your place, so you could receive Abraham’s blessing: righteousness and the Spirit, by faith. Stop trying to build half a house. Trust the One who bore the curse for you.

← Faith, Not Genetics | All Galatians notes | Never-Ending Promise →

The Cursing Law