Redeemed From the Curse

Good morning Cities Church. Great to be here with you. I love Sundays. I love being with you. Sundays are the greatest day of the week. I love worshipping God along side others that love the same God I love. It’s great to be with you.

Over the last few weeks we have been traveling through the book of Galatians, the first few chapters. And we have seen that the Galatians had defected away from the gospel preached by Paul. Paul had preached the true gospel, the truth that Jesus Christ died for our sins, he rose from the dead, and we can be saved through faith in him! Paul had made it clear to them that there is only pathway to heaven. That’s the only way into God’s family, and that’s through faith in Christ.

But the Galatians were seemingly convinced that if they could just obey God’s law good enough, if they could just behave properly, then they would earn their way into heaven. But Paul knows this is nonsense. And here in Galatians 3, Paul launches into an explanation as to why their approach was so dangerous. Let’s pray and we’ll dive into the passage.

Father in heaven, Thank you for allowing us to gather here this morning. Thank you for this letter, the letter to the Galatians. This letter is so rich. God, would you be pleased this morning to use this time to sanctify us and mold us to be more like your son Jesus Christ. God, there are many across this room that love you, but I want to love you more, would you please use these truths in Galatians to cause us to love you more, I ask. Amen!

If you have your bibles, grab them, or turn them on, whatever your preference might be, and flip over to Galatians 3. Look at chapter 3, verse 10:

“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse…”

Woah, that is a big statement. These Galatians had chosen to rely on works of the law, and Paul says, “Ya’ll Galatians, you are under a curse!” And his basis for saying this is the law itself. He quotes from Deuteronomy. Look at the second half of verse 10. He says:

“…for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them…’”

Any person who does not abide by all of the things written in the law will be cursed. If you embrace the law, if you decide that the law is the way you’re going to make it to God, you better be ready to obey every single thing written in the law. And it’s not just circumcision, not just a few dietary laws, not just the Ten Commandments. No! If you’re going to rely on the law, well, you better be ready to obey every single command and exhortation given to the nation of Israel, all 613 of them! If you are not capable of following every single one of them perfectly, then you will be cursed.

The book of Deuteronomy describes this curse, quite frankly, it’s scary thought to be subjected to this curse. In Deuteronomy 28, we see that God says, whoever is under this curse, their entire lives are cursed. In Dt. 28:20, it says that every undertaking will be cursed. It says that God will send “confusion” and “frustration.” Yikes!

In vv. 21-27 it says that God will send pestilence, drought, defeat at the hands of enemies, and being eaten by wild beasts. The prophet Ezekiel later refers to these as the four “dreadful judgements.” In v. 28 it tells us that God will send “madness” and “blindness” and “confusion.” And then in vv. 29-68 it describes all of the horrors of entering into captivity, it describes what it will be like to have an enemy conqueror you and to drag you away into exile as slaves, which eventually is exactly what happened to the Jewish people.

Deuteronomy 28 is 68 verses long, and the bulk of it is describing the curse of the law. And, quite frankly, it’s hard to read. I don’t think it’s possible to read Deuteronomy 28 without a lump in your throat. If you say “yes” to relying on the law to save you, then you’re saying, “yes, I will follow every command of the Old Testament perfectly and if I don’t, then I know I’ll be cursed.”

This is what the Galatians were signing up for. As I’ve studied this passage this week, I’ve asked myself, did they know what they were getting themselves into? Did they? Were they ignorant of the curses of Deuteronomy? Maybe. The more likely possibility is that they arrogantly believed that they could pull it off. They seemingly believed that they could muster up enough self-control, and just “get-er-done.”

But, here’s the thing, when you say “yes” to the law, honestly, you’re saying “yes” to the curses. Why? Because you’re signing up for an impossible task. Perfectly obeying the Old Testament law is impossible for us.

But that’s not a shock because that was one of the primary purposes of the law. One of the primary purposes of the law was to help us see our own sin and, ultimately, to help us see our own need for a savior. Pastor Jonathan will cover this more next week, God willing, so I won’t spend a bunch of time on this today, but in order for this passage to really make sense, we need to examine it a bit.

There are several things about the law we could highlight. The law had several purposes. The law teaches us about the character and nature of God. In the law we see the attributes of God, we see his wrath and his grace and his mercy, his kindness. The law reveals universal moral truths. And gives us wisdom of how to navigate various difficult situations. And the law gives us a picture of justice and righteousness. God’s law is good and it had several good purposes.

But the primary thing the law does for us… it shows us that we are more sinful than we realized and it shows us we need a savior.

Some people think the law was given as a means of salvation. As if God was saying, “Hey, here’s all the rules—more than 600 of them—and if you can follow all of them, if you can muster up enough self-control and discipline to obey all of these laws, then that’ll be your ticket into the family of God, that’s your ticket to heaven.

But that’s not why the law was given. The law was not given to give us a pathway to heaven, the law was given, ultimately, to point us to Jesus.

And the law points us to Jesus in several way, but one of the biggest ways it points us to Jesus is by exposing our own depravity.

[School zone sign illustration]

When we see the sign, we realize that we are far more criminal than we knew. Like, I knew I was going fast, but wow… I’m way worse than I previously realized. In the same way, when we look at God’s law, we see that we are far more sinful than we realized. We may be aware of some of our flaws, but when you realized what it actually takes to obey the law, to obey more than 600 commands with absolute perfection, then you realize, I don’t have what it takes to obey the law. The law helps me see that I’m worse than I thought.

So, you can imagine Paul’s astonishment. He’s looking at the Galatians and he’s thinking, “How could you possibly think that the law is a pathway to salvation!” That’s insanity. It’s impossible to earn your salvation by obeying the law, and Paul thinks that’s obvious.

Look back at Galatians 3:11:

“Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law…”

Paul’s like, this is obvious! It’s evident. You should be able to see this.

Side Note: Paul here uses the term “justified.” Two weeks ago, Pastor Jonathan unpacked that word a bit. Pastor Jonathan said to be “saved” and to be “justified” refer to the same thing; they’re getting at the same idea, but they are distinct metaphors.

Being “saved” refers to being rescued from something bad. Being “justified” is a legal term. According to dictionary.com—a very scholarly source—the English word “justified” means “to declare innocent or to acquit.”

The idea is imagine you’re on trial, the jury has examined the evidence and they declared you not guilty, you do not have to suffer the punishment for that crime. That’s what it means to be justified. You could also say that being justified is synonymous with being declared righteous. Pastor Ryan unpacked the term “righteous” back in the 2nd week of this series and Max mentioned this last week as well (if you missed those sermons, you can get them at our website or in the app).

Using the courtroom metaphor again, imagine you’re on trial and the state or the prosecutor is saying you’ve committed this crime, and he is saying, you are not in right-standing with us, in the eyes of the prosecutor you’re unrighteous. The prosecutor is saying, you’ve done something bad, you deserve to be punishment and we see you as the villain.

But then the jury says, “Not guilty!” What they are saying is, “actually, you are in right-standing with the government, you are righteous… which alludes to right standing. The jury says, “We see no reason to say that you’re not in right standing with the government.” When they say “not guilty,” they are declaring that you are righteous, you’re all good to-go, there’s no reason to hold these charges against you.

To be justified and to be declared righteous go hand-in-hand. Well, here in this passage, Paul is saying, the law is clearly not going to get you justified. The law is not going to help you get declared righteous.

In fact, it’s the opposite, the law is going to make it clear to everyone in the courtroom that you are guilty, that you are un-righteous. And Paul is saying, this is evident. He’s saying, “Hey Galatians, this is obvious. The law won’t save you!”

Very important side note: It’s not just the law breakers that are condemned. Even if you never read the law and you are not familiar with the law, you are still condemned right along side those who did break the law.

Can you imagine going 90mph in a school zone, there’s kids all around, but for some reason the sign got knocked over or is missing. So you’re cruising through the school zone and a cop sees you and pulls you over. He comes up to your car door and says, “Hey, you were speeding in a school zone.” Can you imagine saying, “Well, I didn’t see a sign?”

The cop is going to say, “Bro, you didn’t need to see the sign to know what you were doing was bad. It should have been obvious.” You don’t need a school zone sign to know that going 90mph in a school zone is bad. There would be enough evidence for you to know that you were doing something wrong.

This is exactly the argument that the apostle Paul makes in Romans chapter one. He says that all people, even those who have never had the law, all people are “without excuse” because the “invisible attributes” of God have been “clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.”

In Romans 3:10, he says that the “whole world” is accountable to the law.

In Romans 3:23, Paul says “all have fallen short of the glory of God.”

In Romans 5 we see that we were enemies of God.

Later in Romans 5, and also 1 Cor. 15, we see Paul explaining that we all were in Adam when he sinned and therefore the guilt of Adam is now on us. Adam’s poisoned blood runs through our veins.

In Ephesians 1, it says that we were dead in our trespasses.

In Colossians, it says that we were hostile toward God.

We are all sinners… by nature and by choice. And whether we have ever read the law or not, we are condemned because we all have enough evidence to know there’s a God. The wrath of God is set against us… all of us… whether you’ve ever read the law or not.

But, the law is immensely helpful because it helps me to see the depth of my sin, and it points to me the savior. When I examine the law, I don’t think that I need a coach to teach me how to obey the law, no! When I examine the law I realize that I’m guilty… I’M GUILTY!!! And I desperately need an advocate who will beg the court for mercy.

Here’s the good news church… we have an advocate!

WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE!!!

Hebrews 7:25: Jesus is our High Priest, he “makes intercession” for us.

1 Timothy 2:5: Jesus is our meditator; he’s the only mediator between God and man.

1 John 2:1: Jesus is our “advocate with the Father.”

Church, we have an advocate. Praise be to God!!!

But, Jesus is not the advocate for every human being. No. There is one specific group that Jesus advocates for. Only one group. Paul explains this by quoting from the Old Testament, from the prophet Habakkuk. Look at the second half of verse 11:

Paul says… “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Faith is the key.

God does not declare all peoples righteous. No. It is those of faith that are declared righteous. It is those of faith that will be given everlasting life. One of the most famous verses in the Bible is John 3:16, where Jesus says:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And here, in Galatians, Paul is saying, “Hey, this idea of faith being the key, this is actually is not a new thing. “ He’s saying that faith is exactly how Abraham was saved too. We saw this last week, in Galatians 3:6, it says that:

“…Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’”

Paul’s like… “I’m not making this up… faith has always been the key!” When we believe, we are declared righteous. We are no longer under the curse. We are no longer condemned. We are no longer on God’s bad side. We are no longer on the naughty list. The charges have been dismissed. In Christ, we have been declared “not guilty!”

And how did Jesus do this? How did Jesus make it possible for us to be justified? Look at verse 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’…”

This verse is a quote from Deuteronomy 21. In Dt. 21 they are instructed to hang the bodies of executed men, if they executed a person for a certain crime, they would hang the body on a tree, but this wasn’t for just any person, but only of those criminals who had committed a crime that made them unworthy of burial, and they would call that man cursed.

So every person that walked by would look at the dead body hanging from that large piece of wood, and they would say, “That man was cursed.” He must have been charged with some very disgusting crimes. That man must have done some deplorable things. Paul is saying that’s what Jesus did. Jesus was hanged on a large piece of wood for all to see, so that all could look at him and say, that man is cursed, that man must have been charged with some very disgusting crimes.

And that would be a true statement, Jesus was indeed charged with some very disgusting crimes, Jesus was charged with the sins of the world.

He was charged with your crimes, he was charged with my crimes, and he stood there, condemned in my place.

It should have been you hanging on that cross. It should have been me! But Jesus did it! And because of what Jesus has done for us, there is a blessing waiting for us. Look at verse 14:

Paul says that, Jesus became a curse “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Through Jesus, we receive the blessing of Abraham, that is we get to be in Abraham’s family, we are “children of Abraham.” I’m in Abraham’s family and if you believe, so are you, and that just so happens to be the family that God has a covenant with.

God has promised to bless that family. I’m in that family. I’m in the family that God calls his own. What a privledge!!!

We may not be biological descendants of Abraham, but we are in the family, we have been adopted in.

In fact, being a biological descendant of Abraham does not guarantee you get to receive the blessing of Abraham.

In John 8, Jesus is speaking with a group of Jewish leaders and they claim that they are descended from Abraham and Jesus says, “No, if you were really the children of Abraham, you would follow his example…” and then later in that chapter, in John 8, Jesus says, “Abraham looked ahead to me.” Jesus is saying, do you know who are the real children of Abraham, not the ones that share his DNA, no! It’s the ones that believe in Jesus.

Jesus’ point in John 8 is the same as Paul’s point here in the letter to the Galatians, that being biologically Jewish does not guarantee you’re in the family of God, and following the Jewish law or customs doesn’t save you. You are saved AND you are invited to enter into Abraham’s family in the same way, through faith in Jesus.

And as Paul mentions here, that when a person enters into Abraham’s family, they receive the promised Holy Spirit. Once you are justified, once you are declared righteous, you are guaranteed a spot in Abraham’s family; and the true members of Abraham’s family are the ones who receive the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit comes upon us, he indwells us, he sanctifies us, he strengthens us, he guides us, he empowers us, and he comforts us, we never have to live this life alone. The Spirit is with us always.

Church, your obedience and behavior did not earn God’s acceptance, so your failures cannot undermine God’s acceptance of you. If you are a believer here this morning. Jesus became a curse for you, he did it for us!

Because, as we read in Galatians 2:20, because he loved us!

Jesus was hanged on a tree so that we could be redeemed, so that we could declared righteous, so that we could be justified, and so that we could receive the Holy Spirit.

Church, that is worth celebrating, and that’s why we come to this table.

The Table

Each and every week we come to this table to remember what Jesus did on our behalf. In just a moment, the pastors are going to come to serve you. Reminder, the outer rings are juice, the inner rings are wine. All the bread is glutton free. This meal is open to anyone here who is a follower of Jesus. If you have placed your trust in Christ, then we invite you to participate with us. However, if you are here this morning, and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, then we would ask for you not to participate in this meal, when the bread and the wine come by, just let it pass.

But don’t let the moment pass by you. If you are not a follower of Jesus, instead of taking part in this meal with us this morning, I implore, take Christ instead.

If you want to talk to anyone about what that means or what it looks like to follow Jesus, we would love to talk to you about that, just come on up after the service, we’d love to have a conversation with you about that.

Church, let’s remember what Jesus did for us. His body is the true bread. His blood is the true drink. Let us serve you!