Cursed by the Law, Blessed by Faith
Gal 3:11-14
Paul pointed us to Abraham as a positive example of
what it means to live by faith. Abraham
had a promise-believing faith. And when
we live by faith, we show ourselves to be children of Abraham, and as his
children, we are heirs of his inheritance.
Today, Paul points the other direction: what happens
when we live by the law.
I have two tasks: to open up the Scriptures, to help
you hear what its saying. And, then I
hope to show it what it looks like in action, to help you apply it.
1.
Those who rely on works of the law are
under a curse (vv. 10-12)
We need to evaluate whether we “rely on observing
works of the law.”
In some ways, the thoughts are going to sound very familiar. In another sense, I want to point out that we
haven’t thought through this question deeply enough, that is really is in fact unfamiliar to our lives. I would go so far as to say that most of us
are living our Christian lives by works not by faith. If that’s true, then this passage says we’re cursed. This is serious, it’s a big deal.
There is a road of blessing and road of curses. In Dt 27, Moses is giving the Israelites instructions
about what do when they enter the Promised Land. They’re to go to these two mountains. Some tribes are to stand on Mt Gerizim to
pronounce blessings, some tribes are to stand on
At the end of the list of curses, comes this verse,
“Cursed is the man who do not uphold the words of this
law by carrying them out.” There are two
mountains, two roads.
For the Galatians, they started well. They started with faith, but then they turned
away from faith and grace and began to live by effort, by works, by law.
Paul is addressing these believers inside the church,
if you live by works you are under a curse.
This is not directly to nonChristians.
Paul is writing to Christians.
This warning is for us.
Two
reasons the law is a curse:
A. Cursed for not completely obeying
the law (v. 10)
If you’re going to go the road of the law, then you
have to go all the way. If you fail,
then that very law that you’re trying to live by condemns you.
If you’re going to go with the payment plan with God,
then you have to make all the payments.
Making only half the payments doesn’t do you any good.
If you think spending time in God’s word is helps you
gain favor with God, then consider that we’re to meditate on God’s word day and
night, hide it in our hearts, it is to be sweet as honey to our soul. If you think a 20 minutes QT a few times a
week is going to score points, you’re terribly mistaken. You are condemned by the law.
If you think that helping your friend, being a nice
neighbor makes you a good person, makes you acceptable to God, then consider
that we’re to love our enemies. We’re
not just to do good to those who do good to us. We’re to do good to
those hate us. We’re to forgive them, pray
for them, and bless them. If you think
caring for your friends makes you a good person and scores points, you’re
terribly mistaken. You are condemned.
At the beginning of our study of Galatians we said
that we are hopelessly incapable of fulfilling the law. It’s a joke.
It’s absurd. We often water down
the law to make it keepable. We reduce
to a few rules that we can manage. We
fail to understand God’s holiness and righteousness.
To even try to keep God’s law is the legalism Paul condemns, which
takes us to the second reason.
There are two very different roads, law and
faith. And the road that God considers
righteous is the road of faith, “The righteous will live by faith.” [law
vs. faith chart]
As we’ve been saying, these are two different
operating systems, two mutually exclusive roads. The law is not based on faith, quotes Lev
18:5 “The man who obeys [the law] lives by [the law]” (
Paul dies to the law so that he can live to God (
To be precise, the issue is on relying on the works of the law.
The law itself is not a bad thing. God’s commandments are good.
The problem is when we think our law-keeping gains us
something with God. The problem is
thinking because of our good works, our deeds, we can earn something, we
deserve something. Karma: we believe our
good makes up for our bad, and that good things happen when we do good
things. The problem is thinking monopoly money has value with God.
More fundamentally, it is a spirit of self-reliance. It is thinking that we can do something. If we just try hard enough, we can be good. The curse in vs. 10 is not because you fail to do the works of the law. It is because you do them, and think you have something.
But we can’t keep the law. Without faith, without the Spirit, without
becoming a new creation, all efforts to obey the law would simply be legalistic
striving of the flesh.
Living by the law is putting confidence in
ourselves thinking that we can earn something with God.
What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue
righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but
Let
me ask, Do we pursue a righteousness by works, or a
righteousness by faith?
Has
it been, “I’ll try,” “I’ll try harder.” Or, “Yes, I believe,” “Yes, I trust Him.”
Would
you describe your Christianity as a journey of trying, striving or of believing,
trusting?
“Good,”
moral, religious people who come to church every week, who give their money,
help the poor, lead small groups, go on missions, but do so because they just
try hard—they are under a curse. They
are not living by faith.
So
what might it look like to live by faith, not by works.
We’re trying to sell our house, and it’s not been a
good market for sellers. We had a couple
people come by this week to look at our house, and so Janette and I were pretty
diligent about cleaning the house and trying to make it look as attractive as
possible.
Some might think: I’ll try to go to church this week,
maybe God will bless me. I’ll try to do
my QT, I’ll try to pray a little extra for those
missionaries, I’ll give a little extra in the offering plate. I’ll make a deal that if God sells the house,
I’ll give % of the money.
But as we went to bed, we prayed, “God you have been
so faithful in providing for our family.
You are our good Heavenly Father.
You promised that as we seek you first, you’ll supply all our
needs. We ask you to incline the hearts
of these people to want to buy our house, but we trust you’ll provide the right
buyer at the right time. I don’t need to
worry—I believe You’ll take care of us.”
Christianity isn’t about doing good works; it’s about
believing God and His promises. That’s
the battle, to trust in God and His promises, to believe that He takes care of
us and is faithful. It is a battle/fight
to rest, trust, relax, be comforted and free.
More personally, over the years people come to see
more of my many weaknesses. And
sometimes people will express their desire for me to be better, better at
leadership, better at shepherding.
People want me to have a greater heart for various values. And the truth is that I do lack in many
things. And the things that people are
asking for are good things. In prior
years, my response was more, “I’ll try.
I agree that those are good things, and I’ll try harder to be better.” I don’t want them to think I’m not a good
pastor. I want to be the best pastor I
can be. So, I’ll try harder.
But more recently, my internal response is a little
more, “God, you have been my Shepherd and my Guide for many years. You have called me, equipped me, shaped me,
and even use me. You know that I lack in
many things, but I see how you’ve been teaching and growing me in the past and
how you’re teaching and growing me even today.
You are working for my good. You
are my Good Shepherd leading me. I trust
in You.”
“I also see how You love your
church. This is your Bride. You are the Head, the Great Shepherd, the Good Father. I
don’t have to feel like it’s all up to me.
You are faithful to your people, with or without me. I trust in You.”
The
battle for me is not the battle to fix my weaknesses. The real battle is for me to trust God. The battle is not a battle of works but a
battle of faith.
A note to parents: are we teaching our children to
just try harder? Or are we teaching them
about faith? Do we point to how we should do more, or do we point to what God does for us?
I’ve
been really intentional about the Bible bedtime stories. There are so many stories teaching children
to be kind, forgiving, to share, to not argue.
But
I’ve been telling Elijah and Caleb, Jesus is a real superhero, and we don’t
have to be afraid, because Jesus says He’ll take care of us. The boys have been sick recently, but I say,
Superhero Jesus will take care of us.
That’s why He came: to hear us, in our hearts and in our bodies.
I
told a story about a king who made a promise to his son, and even though the
son was disobedient, the king kept his promise.
For all of us: do we encourage one another, pray for
one another, to have the strength to do
and try harder, or do we encourage
and pray that we would have faith to believe,
to live in assurance and rest?
2.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law (v. 13)
If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body
is hung on a tree, 23 you must not leave
his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because
anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the
land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Dt. 21:22-23)
We
were cursed, but Christ became a curse for us.
It’s
called substitutionary atonement. He took our punishment. He took our place.
On
the cross, Jesus didn’t just suffer physical torture and an agonizing
death. He suffered the wrath of
God. All the wrath of all humanity was
poured upon him.
Do
you believe that? Do you believe that He
took all of God’s wrath, there’s nothing left to be
poured out on you? Do you believe that,
despite our anger, jealous, laziness, and lust, that there is no condemnation
for those of us who are in Christ Jesus?
There is no more wrath left, the bowl is empty!
Let
me weave this together with some of what we’ve been saying.
He didn’t just die for your bad works. He died for your self-reliant good works.
He
didn’t just die for your hatred. He died
for your self-generated kindness.
He didn’t just die for the things you’re ashamed
of. He died for the things your proud
of, the things you boast in.
He didn’t just die for your lust. He died for you thinking that your purity
made you more pleasing to God.
“All
our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Isa 64:6
A
side note to parents. Maybe we don’t
discipline our kids properly.
We correct them for their bad works, but do we correct
them for their self-reliant good works?
Do we teaching them, if you try harder, you can
be good. Or do we teach them, it is only in Christ that we can be good.
We correct them for shameful things, but we do correct
them for boasting in their good things?
Do we teach them, the good things make you acceptable. Or do we teach them that we are accepted
because of unconditional love, not our good works?
Are we teaching our children the gospel? How powerful it would be if we could learn
all this from our childhood, if this is how we are raised!
For all of us: when we hold one another accountable,
do we just look at the bad things they might do, or do we look at the
sinfulness in their “good” things, their self-reliance, their sense of having
earned something?
One
brother who knows me pretty well recognizes my
productivity-idolatry/workaholism and my faith journey. And so when I tell him about how I can work
less, be less worried about getting things done, “the race is over,” he really
applauds, encourages. He sees some of
the sinfulness in my diligence and celebrates the faith it takes for me to
really rest.
As
I mentioned in the beginning, although this sounds so familiar, there’s a lot
we don’t understand about the gospel and how to live in the gospel. It is a completely different paradigm, a
different religion. Effort vs. Faith,
these are completely different roads.