Condemned by the Works of the Law

Transcript

GR 2092
07/09/2017
Condemned by the Works of the Law
Galatians 3:10-14
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Galatians and we as adult believers have to have a firm unshakeable grasp on the truth of the Word of God that we can model before the coming generation, godliness, commitment to truth, unwavering commitment to truth. Paul is addressing these issues in the letter to the Galatians. We have looked at maps of the Galatian region, churches he started on his first missionary journey and now he has to write to them, sadly, a very strong letter because the drift has begun.

We are in chapter 3 of Galatians so we have had something of a feel as he presented his own personal defense of his apostleship and the message he preached and now has moved on to deal with the doctrinal issues that are under attack. You know sometimes we study a book like Galatians and it seems like it is a little removed from us. We are not having to deal with Jews who are attempting to infiltrate the congregation and entice us to become followers of the Mosaic Law but the principles that are set down here are here for the church down through history because they are relevant and we need to understand the place of the Mosaic Law as much of the Old Testament from the book of Exodus around 14……1500 B.C. down to the time of Christ, Mosaic Law was in effect. How does that relate? We have groups today that think the law ought to be operative and we ought to at least obey parts of it. Many people are confused, friends you might have. You may have thought that way at one time. Well, I try to keep the Ten Commandments and so that was a way of being righteous before God.

So Paul is setting these matters in order; nothing more important than how can we be righteous in the sight of a holy God. That is the issue that Paul is dealing with, the basic issue of salvation by grace through faith. So he opened up chapter 3 with a rebuke on the Galatians that we have observed. He calls them foolish, mindless, unthinking and acting like they have come under a spell, you have been bewitched. I taught you clearly but you have drifted. How did you get the Law? How did you get the Spirit, not through the Law! You received Him by faith, verse 2: I want to find out. “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or the hearing with faith?” And that contrast is going to come down through the section we are looking at. The contrast of by the works of the Law, by the hearing with faith, by the works of the Law, by the hearing with faith. They stand opposed to one another. It can’t be both!

So that question sort of runs through the section we have been looking at. He used Abraham as the example. This would particularly impact the Jews who were trying to promote this kind of teaching. And again as we have talked about, you see how God expects His children to become familiar with the Scripture. These are Gentile churches in Gentile regions of the world but he keeps going back to the Old Testament even though each of them didn’t have their own copy of the Bible, they were expected to become familiar with these truths, have them built into their lives so they could evaluate what was being taught to them.

“Abraham was justified by faith,” the end of verse 5. “He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you. Did he do it by the works of the Law, by the hearing with faith?” You see that contrast again. “So Abraham believed God.” Let’s go back even before the Law. “Abraham believed God, it was reckoned to him as righteousness” so he didn’t receive righteousness by keeping the Law because there wasn’t even a law yet. Abraham is around 500 years before the Law was ever given and yet he is declared righteous because he believed. We have noted Abraham was circumcised according to the instructions of God but even that was years after he was declared righteous by God, 14 or 15 years after he is declared righteous by faith. Then circumcision is the sign of the covenant God established was given.

So these matters that are important to the Jews and connected to the Law can’t be a part of salvation. We looked back into the book of Romans which we noted is very similar to the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians of course being much shorter but there Paul made the point in Romans chapter 3 and 4. There is only one God so there can only be one way of salvation and he used Abraham as the example as he came out of chapter 3 into chapter 4 of Romans and he used the very portion of Scripture that we have been looking at, verse 6 quoting from Genesis chapter 15. “Abraham believed God. God credited it to him as righteousness.”

So verse 7: “Be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham” true descendants of Abraham. Well the key is righteousness before God, righteousness from God, righteousness in the sight of God. To be declared righteous by God is to have Him declare us not guilty. Our penalty has been paid in full. So our account is wiped clean if you will.

Well, all those who are descendants of faith are descendants of Abraham. We noted this does not confuse the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jews with Gentiles but the truth is the physical descendants of Abraham who are going to inherit the promise have to have the faith of Abraham and Gentiles who have the faith of Abraham also receive the blessings that God promised would come to the nations, the non-physical descendants. We have been talking about this in our study of Revelation as well as in our study of Galatians.

Verse 8 puts it together: “The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, ‘all the nations of the earth will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of the faith of Abraham are blessed with Abraham the believer.” Within the Abrahamic Covenant and we were looking at this in our earlier study today. We won’t go back there. Most of you were here for that. Part of the Abraham Covenant repeated we saw as we looked at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” That is in addition to the promises given to the physical descendants of Abraham but the key, the blessings for the physical descendants of Abraham and the blessings for nations outside of the physical descendants of Abraham all get their blessing through having the faith of Abraham, the man who believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

So in verses 6-9 he presented the positive argument for justification by faith, Abraham being the example. So verses 10-14 now are going to look at it from the negative side and show that it is impossible to be justified by works of the Law. So the positive side is we are justified by faith. The negative side, you cannot be justified by works of the Law so that you can put it all together. In fact he is going to say not only can you not be justified by keeping the Law, you are condemned by the Law, not justified by the Law.

So let’s pick up with verse 10: “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse so that for (connects it to what he has said, verse 9 pulling together what he has talked about in those verses) so then those who were on faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.” You note that emphasis. Abraham, the only one who has faith. Not Abraham the one who kept the Law, not Abraham the one who was circumcised, Abraham the believer.

Obviously the Mosaic Law as I have mentioned was 4 or 500 years down the road after Abraham even though circumcision was instituted with Abraham, it was years after he was declared righteous.

So you have Abraham the believer “For (now we go to the negative) as many as are of the works of the law or are under a curse.” That is the contrast. What I mentioned in verse 2, the contrast between the works of the Law, the hearing with faith. Verse 5, the end of the verse: “By the works of the Law or by the hearing with faith.”

So verse 7: “It is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” These Judaizers, Jews infiltrating the church at Galatia claiming to be believers in Christ but also saying you have to keep the Law aren’t in the line of Abraham. So they are not Jews, physical descendants of Abraham in line to receive the promises given to Abraham because they don’t have the faith of Abraham.

Down in verse 9, which we just read: “Those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse.” The curse stands in stark contrast with being declared righteous, being blessed. Instead of being blessed with Abraham, verse 9, you are being cursed if you are trying to be righteous before God by keeping the Law. You are not a true descendant of Abraham in any way. You don’t have a spiritual connection to Abraham.

So these Jews can claim a physical connection to Abraham but they have no spiritual connection to him. Without a spiritual connection to him you are not righteous in the sight of God because you can only become righteous the way Abraham did, so those who are trying to be righteous by keeping the Law. No one can do that. “Those who are under the Law are under a curse.” Then he quotes from the Old Testament.

These Jews come remember with a seeming authority. Now we have had a chance to work through these things and yet still many people are confused after years of having the Scriptures completed and so on still don’t understand the relationship of the Law and salvation by grace through faith, trying some kind of mixture. They say, “Oh yes, I believe in Christ.” Protestants and Catholics claim that. Of course I believe in Christ. I am a Protestant. I wouldn’t be a Protestant if I didn’t believe in Christ. What do you think I am, a Muslim or a Hindu or some…., no, I believe in Christ. Then you say, “Well what are you going to say to God if He would ask you ‘Why should I allow you into heaven?’” Well, I try to keep the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the Law and the Roman system has a whole set of rules and regulations and laws, a whole system modeled by their own admission after the priestly system of the Mosaic Law. So these things are very pertinent.

The Old Testament itself declares, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law to perform them.” That is a quote from Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 26 and you will remember the anticipation of going into the land. Six of the tribes were to be at Mount Ebal and six of the tribes at Mount Gerizim and then the Levites are in the middle there and they are like for example, calling out the curse and then these tribes say, “Amen.” And then they will announce the blessings and what is said there at the end of Deuteronomy 27 is what is quoted here, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law to perform them.”

The Law requires not that you try your best. The Law requires a person to abide by all things in the Law. The Law is viewed as an entity. Now again, so many people are confused on basics. They say “Well, we break up the Law. We have the moral, the ceremonial and the civil parts of the Law.” But as talked about earlier in our study, the Jews never recognize such a distinction and break down although we can see there are different areas in the Law but the Law is a unit. So you can’t be righteous by deciding I will try to keep this portion of the Law. The person who does not keep all the Law, in all its provisions as it is normally recognized, 613 commandments and you have to abide by all of them all the time. You can’t select portions. You can’t say, “I did pretty good today. I kept 600 of the 613. I keep a check list and at the end of the day I say you did good. Now I just have to get to sleep before I blow it.” Every day, you can’t do that. Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 20 “There is not a righteous man on the earth who continually does good and never sins.” We are aware of that.

Turn back to the book of James. We are going to James chapter 2. And James is addressing Jewish believers. He started out this letter in verse 1. He is writing to the 12 tribes of the diaspora and we have seen that. Peter does the same thing, the elect sojourners of the diaspora as Peter puts it. The diaspora, as we are aware, are the Jews scattered outside the land of Palestine. He is writing to believers in the 12 tribes of Judaism scattered in other places. Remember James is centered in Jerusalem. So you come into chapter 2 and see issues over the Law again. Remember these Jews were raised from birth in Judaism and to realize now things have changed. So you come down into verse 10. Verse 9 for example he is giving examples of breakdown in keeping the Law. You have to love your neighbor, verse 9, “If you show partiality you are committing sin. You are convicted by the Law as a transgressor. For whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles in one point he has become guilty of all.” So you see that argument. The Law is a unit. You say, “Well I only broke a little bit of the law.” When you broke the Law, you broke the Law, because what? That was an act of disobedience and rebellion against God. “For whoever keeps the whole Law stumbles in one point is become guilty of all.” Why? “For he who said, ‘do not commit adultery also said do not commit murder. If you commit adultery but don’t commit murder you have become a transgressor of the Law.’” That is true and that is what he was talking about, showing partiality, you broke the Law; these examples here. So the point being there nobody could ever be righteous by keeping the Law because nobody ever kept the Law perfectly and the Old Testament makes that clear.

Come back to Romans 3. I could take you back to passages like Psalm 14 but we will just go to the book Romans where some of these quotes from the Old Testament are strung together. In verse 9 of Romans 3, we come here often Paul says, “We have charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” He has demonstrated basically from chapter 1, verse 17 down to this point dealing first with Gentiles and then with Jews showing they are all guilty sinners. So now he is summarizing it and pulling it all together. Jews and Greek are all under sin as it is written and then you can see by the way it is printed out. From verse 10 down to verse 17 are all quotes from the Old Testament basically from the Psalms showing what? “There is none righteous not even one. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless,” verse 12. “There is none who does good, not even one.” So it comes down to verse 19. Whatever the Law says then is quoting this from the Old Testament and using the Old Testament Scriptures which are all basically from the giving of the Law and the Exodus under the oversight of the Law. This is sort of Israel’s constitution. Whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law. So for sure these quotes from the Jewish Scriptures show no Jews kept the Law. No Jews became righteous under the Law.

This becomes an issue. This is written to the church in Rome because this constant issue, do we have to add keeping the Mosaic Law to faith in Christ to be saved? That is foolish. What could the Mosaic Law add? “Whatever the Law says it says to those who are under the Law.” Who was under the Law, the Jews? In chapter 2 of this letter to the Romans they distinguish between the Gentiles who did not have the Mosaic Law but they are still guilty before God. The Jews thought since they had the Law they were okay. There in chapter 2 Paul made the point – it is not those who have the Law, it is those who keep the Law. But he has made the point nobody keeps the Law perfectly so no one is righteous by the Law. So in that sense Jews would have admitted, well of course the Gentiles, they are sinners. We don’t even eat with them remember because they are so sinful we don’t want to be defiled but we Jews have the Law. That is nice but there has never been a Jew who perfectly kept the Law, Jesus Christ being the exception.

So the point is, the end of verse 19, That “every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified (declared righteous) in His sight.” What the Law does is make you aware of sin. The Law does not enable you to become righteous. So then he goes on as we have looked at in previous studies to talk about the righteous of God is provided in the finished work of Christ and through faith in Him.

While you are here, verse 22: “The righteous of God through faith in Jesus Christ for those who believe” and we have gone through and noted the repeated uses of the noun and the verb, ‘faith’ and to ‘believe’ in the rest of chapter 3 all the way through chapter 4, down into the beginning of chapter 5 where he begins chapter 5 “We have been justified by faith. We have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.” So permeates.

Isn’t it amazing? Most Protestants and Catholics think they are going to be saved by their works in addition of course to believing in Christ. You can do that.

Come over to Romans 11 while we are here. I was going to bring you back here later but since you are here we will just pick it up. Salvation by faith is salvation by grace. You note what he says in verse 6: “If it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace is no longer grace.” So those who want to mix works and the Law with the message of faith in Christ cancel out grace. It can’t be both. It is either on the basis of your works or it is on the basis of God’s grace which is through faith.

Come back to Galatians chapter 3. Look at verse 11: “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident.” And that is all that matters. We can look more righteous in the sight of other people by certain conduct and the Jews prided themselves in being righteous because you know, we keep the Law. Gentiles don’t. That involved what they ate, what they didn’t eat and all of that. We were through that with Peter in chapter 2 when he sort of slipped back into the old ways when Jews from Jerusalem came to visit. He went back and wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles. Why? Because the Gentiles were unclean and they ate foods that were unclean. “No one is justified by the Law before God that is evident.” Why? Another quote from the Old Testament: “The righteous man shall live by faith.” Well now we have moved on. Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 4, well Habakkuk is around 600 years before Christ. The Mosaic Law was given 1,400 to 1,500 B.C. the exodus being around 1,446. Well you see and Abraham was around 2,000 years before Christ. Try to round these numbers off a little bit so we can see. So Abraham say 4 or 500 years before the Law, Habakkuk, 8 or 900 years after the Law, same point. Genesis 15, “Abraham believed God. It was credited to him as righteousness.” Other things happen in between.

You get down to Habakkuk, 600 years before Christ, the Law has been in effect for a long time but what does it say? “The righteous man shall live by faith.” Well I thought they had the Law and they had to be righteous by keeping the Law. No one ever became righteous by keeping the Law. That is the whole argument. How do people get confused? They get confused because they drift. That is why he started out saying, “We have to hold fast.” You here Sunday night. You have to be at the core, hold fast these truths, understand them. We think well we are above them, we would never drift like that.

I shared with you the quote of a man who spoke here on occasion. Every church drifts. Every Christian school drifts. It is the relentless tide to move us away from the truth. We begin to hold things more loosely. Then we don’t have a good grasp on them. Then we let some things go and pretty soon we are just adrift with no anchor. “The righteous man shall live by faith,” Habakkuk 2:4.

You have to come back to Romans chapter 1. I could have picked this up but then we had to get it from Galatians first, Romans chapter 1. What does Paul say in verse 16: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation (now note this) to everyone who believes.” Not to everyone who believes and keeps the Law. It is to everyone who believes. It is the power of God for salvation. That is why the salvation we have is by grace. Only God’s power could bring salvation to our sinful hearts; “To everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Salvation was as we moved through the book of Acts we are to chapter 10 before salvation was brought to the Gentiles.

It begins with the Jews in chapter 2. It is to the Jews first and also to the non-Jews. Note verse 17: “For in it (in the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” It is a matter of faith only. “As it is written,” this is the way it has always been, “the righteousness man shall live by faith.” Do you know what that is quoting, Habakkuk 2:4. That is the way it was for people living under the Mosaic Law. But they could never be saved by keeping the Mosaic Law and they shouldn’t have been confused by that. It was the Jews who made the Law a way of salvation. God didn’t make that a way of salvation like people who have made baptism a necessary portion of salvation. You can’t be saved by being baptized and you are not partially saved if you are not baptized yet. That doesn’t mean there is not a place for baptism but you can’t add that to faith. You can’t add anything. “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Come back to the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted three times in the New Testament, our verse in Galatians, the verse we just read in Romans 1 and then in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. And in Hebrews chapter 10 they are under pressure, these Jewish believers. It is written to Jewish believers, the book of Hebrews. And under pressure some of them are thinking they could relieve the pressure by going back to the Mosaic Law. I mean can it do damage if we say “Look, we have placed our faith in Christ. We believe He is the Messiah. We believe He died on the cross, was raised from the dead.” What would be the problem? We say now it is also necessary to keep the Mosaic Law and sometimes we get confused on this. We think as long as they believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ we can accept them as believers. No we can’t. This became the issue in evangelicals and Catholics together. We are no closer together than Paul was with the Judaizers. It is not enough that they would agree with us. We have been through this with the Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15 and that. They believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ but you also have to keep the Law. Paul says “Anyone that preaches that is accursed, condemned to hell.”

So here these Jewish believers are wondering whether they could go back to the Law or trust the Law. The writer to the Hebrews, maybe Paul, maybe not, look at verse 32: “Remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of suffering and they endured reproach, persecutions, tribulations and not only them personally but they also were willing to step up and be identified with believers who were suffering, being imprisoned.” They had lost their possessions in their persecutions, verse 34, “You showed sympathy to the prisoners. You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property.”

I mean what a privilege to suffer for Christ, to suffer in identification with Christ but you know over time trials and difficulty and opposition can wear us down and that initial joy and thrill, I would give up everything for Christ, I don’t mind that people say these things about me. It is a privilege to suffer for Christ. I would give up everything I have but you know, years go by and the relentless pressure and pretty soon you say, “You know it is not as exciting as it once was in those early days.” And one of the characteristics of the devil is his relentlessness. You know you just start to wear down and wear out it seems. And that is when we start to drift over and try to keep doing it in our own strength. That is way I say we have to have a grip on the truth and God’s enabling power comes to us through our holding on to the truth.

So note what he says in verse 35: “Do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance.” Well I have endured. I have endured a lot and I have endured for a long time. Well as Paul had to write in one of his other letters, “Yes, maybe you have but you haven’t yet endured to the shedding of blood.” And he tells them that here.

Don’t give up. “You have need of endurance.” Well don’t say that. I suffered the loss of my possessions. I was ridiculed and reproached and I lost my job and I have struggled. Don’t tell me about endurance but I have to tell you about endurance. It is not enough to endure for a while. I must endure to the end. So that is where he is going. “You have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while He who is coming will come and not delay.” That tells me when I have endured enough, when Christ comes. When He comes to call me at death or He comes as we know in the rapture. Well what does He say? “But my righteous ones shall live by faith.” There is Habakkuk 2:4.

We don’t quit. We entered into life through faith in Christ but that is not something that happened there and now we get on with our life. We live a life of faith. It begins. It has a beginning point but it doesn’t have an end point. Now if you have been a believer for 50 years, praise the Lord. Just remember, you need to endure. If you have been a believer for a week you know that. That is what I say, “We adults want to model for the coming generation.” We hold the course, we hold fast to the faith and there is a warning. “If he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in Him.” There is no alternative. This is what we call the perseverance of the saints. True believers endure.

Verse 39: “We are not of those who shrink back.” What is the alternative? I quit trusting, I quit enduring, “shrink back to destruction. We are of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” That doesn’t mean a believer can never stumble.

I have shared an account of a man I met many years ago in China who was a pastor. And under the pressure you know this meant losing family, losing kids, everything, he relented, signed a confession. I was reading a book about him here recently saying, “Yes, everything, he was wrong.” He got home. He couldn’t live with that. He went back told them “that confession was a lie. That is not true.” So he went to prison for 25 years. So that doesn’t mean we can’t stumble, we can’t fall but it is a warning if you can go back.

How many people, key leaders in evangelicalism perhaps under the Protestant Evangelicals saved out of Catholicism and after all that leadership he resigned, “I am going back to Roman Catholicism.” And he has become attached to all the things that go with that. Where else do you put a person like that? We don’t want to be like that.

So Habakkuk 2:4 “My righteous ones shall live by faith.” I say we enter into this relationship with God by faith but that applies now. We are what, we can be identified. We are people of faith. That’s not just a doctrinal statement. We demonstrate it. We hold fast in the storm. We hold fast in the opposition. We stay true. Well, we could give here and there. That doesn’t mean we are going to get into the battle of incidental things that have sometimes come up. You know the truth of the Word is the truth of the Word. The Gospel cannot be compromised in anyway.

Evangelicals and Catholics together is a doctrine of the devil. We can’t be together any more than believers and Judaizers could be together. How do people get confused? How do we get confused? That is why we have to hold on to the truth.

Come back to Galatians. Now look at verse 11: “That no one is justified by the Law before God is evident. No one is declared righteous before God, by God in His court.” His is the only evaluation that matters. This is evident. It is manifest. You can’t be declared righteous by God by trying to keep the Law. There ought to be no confusion on this, it is evident. Why? You go back to the prophet Habakkuk, “The righteous man shall live by faith. However the Law is not of faith (verse 12). On the contrary, “he who practices them shall live by them.” Again we have the contrast by the Law, by works of the Law, by hearing with faith; by trying to keep the Law, by believing. It is just the contrast. The Law is not of faith. The Law is performance directed. “He who practices them shall live by them. If you are going to be righteous by the Law you have to live under the Law.” That is a quote from verse 12 in Leviticus chapter 18, verse 4 – 5.

The Law required obedience. Now Israel was supposed to be obedient to the Law but that wasn’t how they would be saved. Israel was to place their faith in the God of Israel and as a result of that faith their heart would be circumcised. They would become God’s child. Now God’s children desire to live in obedience to Him. We are not saying Israel had no responsibility to be obedient to the Law but the Law was never given as a way of salvation. It was to govern the life of Israel under God’s authority but Israel departed from believing God and decided trying to keep the Law was what I do. It is performance oriented. “He who practices them shall live by them,” verse 12. How do we live, by faith. Habakkuk 2, we looked at that in Hebrews. So we move from the Law which is performance oriented to obedience.

Come back to Romans chapter 10. We come to Romans a lot but remember I said Galatians is like a mini Romans in many ways. Some call it a rough outline of Romans. It is an abbreviated Romans in some ways. Chapter 10 Paul is continuing to develop a similar theme, same theme. Israel, chapter 1 opens up, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is their salvation.” We were reading this verse in connection with our study in Revelation 7 this morning. “I testify about them. They have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. Not knowing about God’s righteousness but seeking to establish their own they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness for everyone who believes. For Moses writes ‘For the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the Law shall live by that righteousness.’” In other words if you are going to try to be righteous by Law you are under the Law and you have to keep it perfectly because when you break it in one point, you broke the whole thing. Now what do you do? So that contrast, the righteous one shall live by faith but those under the Law have to live if they are using the Law as a way of salvation. The Law was never given as a way of salvation to the descendants of Abraham. They should not have gotten confused on this. They should have believed God who gave the Law and out of their faith in Him obedience. As soon as you try to make the Law a way of salvation, Israel wandered all over the map and soon were worshipping the other gods of Canaan. What a mess!

So verse 5, Moses writes “The man who practices the righteousness based on the Law shall live by that but the righteousness based on faith” and that is what he goes down through him, how you are to be saved. Verse 9: “Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. You confess with your mouth. With the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness.” When we confess that it is a testimony of our salvation.

Verse 11 the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed” from Isaiah 28. “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek because there is only one Lord, only one God.” So verse 13, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?” We are calling on the name of the Lord as a result of believing in our heart, Lord be merciful to me because I believed in my heart that I was a sinner. Christ died for me. That was just an expression of the faith if you will. “How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher (someone to tell them?) How will they preach unless they are sent?”

Verse 17 “So faith comes from hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ,” the truth about Christ. Someone has to hear the message of Christ and believe it. That is the truth of God now. Back with Abraham he didn’t have that full understanding of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ but he believed what God said. That is the issue, believing God, believe God, what He has said. His Word now is Christ died for your sins on the cross, He was raised from the dead. It is through faith in Him. So faith comes through hearing. We see it is not of works. I hear, Christ died for my sin. I believe that. I am saved. I didn’t work. I didn’t do anything. I just responded believing what God said He had done. I believe God. That is the issue of salvation.

Come back to Galatians, back and forth. Verse 13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law having becoming a curse for us,” more Old Testament Scripture. “For it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” The curse of the Law was cursed is everyone who does not continue to obey all things in the Law. All the Law could do was condemn a person, remind them of their sin and that was part of what the Law was intended to do, to keep Israel on the track by reminding them with their sacrificial system and everything. They are sinners. They needed a Savior. Those sacrifices could never take away sin, those animal sacrifices but it kept them on track if you will. We will get to that later in Galatians till Christ would come. It kept before them the reality of their sin and guilt and the need of the cleansing from God and trust Him that He will do what He promised.

So the quote, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” from Deuteronomy 21. Christ became a curse for us. In the Old Testament the one who hung on a tree was usually hung after he had been executed but hung up as an indication he is accursed. He was specially a condemned person.

We don’t have time to go through the repeated emphasis that Christ was hung on the wood. Becomes especially focused on what He would do. He became the curse. So “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law having become a curse for us on our behalf.” The great preposition, huper, sometimes refers to the preposition for the atonement on our behalf. “He, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” in 2 Corinthians 5:21 so “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” that we might be made the righteous of God. God’s righteousness comes to us because Christ stepped in and since no one ever kept the Law, just manifested their sin and were sinners before the Law all the Law did was clarify and make more clear how sinful men really are and so they are under a curse, a condemnation. Christ stepped in, paid the penalty which is death, became the curse in my place, in your place so that God in His justice and remember this is Romans 3 beginning with verse 21, so God could justly declare the unjust just by having provided the required payment for our sin. Christ became a curse for us “In order that in Christ Jesus the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.” Verse 8: “That in Abraham all the nations will be blessed so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

That is what God was doing and it was what He was doing for the Jews but it also in the gracious plan of God was the provision for the Gentiles who were to experience blessings through Abraham and the covenant God made with Abraham and the descendants of Abraham. It in no way replaces Israel but it shows how the physical descendants of Abraham could experience the blessings God promised to Abraham, some of them unique to the physical descendants of Abraham. The salvation promise was also promised. “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” How beautiful. What are you trying to drag them back under the Law for? The Jews could never be made righteous by the Law, be righteous in the sight of God. Why would you want to drag the Gentiles under the Law? As Paul said earlier, “A burden that we couldn’t bear,” we Jews.

So it is through faith in Christ. There is no excuse for the church. We have the completed revelation of God with more clarity that believing is God’s way. “We are saved by grace through faith.” It doesn’t matter then what we do. Of course it does! Jesus said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” We want to be obedient to His Word. Not as a way of salvation but because we want to please the One who loved us, who died for us. God has made us His own. So as Ephesians 2:8 and 9 goes on to verse 10 and we want to carry out and live and do those things which God has prepared beforehand that we walk in but not as a way of salvation but the way we live as the result of our salvation.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. Again we are reminded of the greatness of Your grace. Lord how sad it is that the Galatian churches were confused and Lord it is much sadder, much more grievous that we who have the completed revelation of Your Word, we have no excuse for being confused. Lord how sad that such a precious salvation, purchased at such cost, paid in full with the death of the Savior who loved us and died for us. We would begin to hold that lightly, loosely, become open to the possibility that it is not too bad that others add things to the finished work of Christ. Lord may we be faithful. May these truths be held tightly, firmly because only in these truths concerning Christ and His finished work, faith in Him is there true salvation. Bless us in the week ahead. We pray for our testimony for Christ wherever we are. We pray for the preparation for the hearts of those who will hear the Gospel. In Your grace may these be days of salvation for some we pray in Christ’s name, amen.