Day 4

Lisa Sheffler, author

If you were blindly following someone off the edge of a cliff, you’d want someone else to try and stop you. You probably wouldn’t even be upset if they screamed your name or grabbed you and jerked you back. After all, they would be saving your life.

Paul has been a little rough on the Galatians. He’s called them foolish and said that those they’ve been listening to deserve God’s curse. He’s not taking it easy on them, but for Paul the stakes were just too high not to be direct. He felt like he needed to grab the Galatian Christians and pull them back from the edge.

Yet Paul is not just waving his arms and yelling “stop!” By the power of the Spirit, he is carefully walking the Galatian believers through an argument that will not only draw them away from false teaching, but draw them closer to God and to greater faith in Jesus.

Read

Galatians 3:10-14

¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”  ¹¹ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”  ¹² The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”  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 hung on a pole.”  ¹⁴ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

How is Paul continuing the train of thought he began in the passage we read yesterday, Galatians 3:7–9? Think about how Abraham was justified and what was “credited to him as righteousness.”

Reflect

The Jews took pride in their heritage. They considered themselves children of Abraham, and therefore, heirs of all the promises God had made to their forefather. To be included into God’s covenant community, you had to be a descendant of Abraham who accepted the sign of covenant, circumcision, and who lived according to the law of Moses. Or you had to be a convert to Judaism who did the same.

Yet, and this is key, Abraham himself was uncircumcised when God bound himself to this covenant agreement. Circumcision couldn’t be a requirement to be right with God, because then Abraham wouldn’t have been righteous. What’s more, the law hadn’t even come yet. Therefore, it had to be Abraham’s faith that justified him, not circumcision, or works of the law.

Paul is addressing a misconception that his opponents were promoting. For many Jews across the centuries, the sign of circumcision became more important than what it represented. But it wasn’t circumcision that made you part of God’s family. Also, following the Mosaic law sometimes became more important than the one who created it. But it wasn’t adherence to the law that made you right with God either. God bound himself to his people, and the goodness, grace, and faithfulness of God sustained the covenant through all of Israel’s sin and rebellion. It was faith in God and his promises that made you a part of the covenant community, fueled your obedience, and tethered you to God’s people.

But now, Jesus, the Messiah had come. His life, death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension completed the work that had to be done to defeat evil and death, and allow sinful humans to dwell with a holy God. What’s more, the Spirit had come to correct, guide, and transform. The law had served its purpose, but was no longer needed. In fact, committing oneself to the law brought curse, not blessing, because the law can’t save. Why? Because it can’t be kept flawlessly. The Jews knew this, that’s why they participated in the sacrificial system and Day of Atonement. So committing to the law now, after Jesus had completed his work and the Spirit had come to do his, made no sense.

Jesus took on the curse that every rebel against God deserved. He redeems anyone who puts their faith in him, Jew or Gentile. He rescues them from slavery to sin and the law, and grants them all the blessings of Abraham, so that they might live by the Spirit, not the flesh.

Respond

Our faith in Christ saves us, not our ethnic and national identity (what the Jews relied on) not our status or honor among people (as the Romans assumed). It’s Jesus on whom we rely. By faith we have a relationship with our heavenly Father are transformed by the power of the Spirit. We have so much to rejoice in! Spend time with your Father today!