I’ve been spending time in Galatians again. I’ve loved this book for 20 years. In fact, this book has been the foundation of my new covenant understanding since I first realized that Jesus fulfilled the law and kept the terms of the Old Covenant with His Father.
Recently, though, I decided to take a deeper look at my old favorite epistle. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it is yielding new treasures. It’s alive, after all! In fact, Hebrews 4:12 calls Scripture “living and active…discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” and Peter said we are born again of “imperishable” seed “through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23).
Last week I saw something in chapter 3 that surprised me. It wasn’t exactly new—I’d read these sentences before—but I suddenly “saw” the shocking claims Paul makes about the law and faith. Let me quote Galatians 3:10–14 before I explain what I see him saying:
For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Paul has already told the story of his publicly opposing Peter “because he stood condemned” (Gal. 2: 11.) Peter had stopped eating with the gentile believers because he feared the Judaizer’s criticisms, and Paul told him in front of everyone that he had no business asking the gentiles to “live like Jews” (2:14). Among believers there was not to be any issue of clean and unclean foods or of any other ceremonies, observances, or rituals from the Jewish law (which included the the seventh-day Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, by the way).
Then Paul called the Galatian new believers “foolish” twice (3:1, 3), and asked them if God had given them the Holy Spirit “by the works of the law or by hearing with faith” (3:4). After all, they had believed the gospel by faith and had been born of the Spirit without ever keeping the Sabbath—and without ever giving up their ham sandwiches! Now here they were, being intimidated into placing themselves under the restrictions of the law AFTER being born again!
Paul was not just discouraged; he was upset—both with the Judaizers who had come to Antioch and tried to confuse them, and with Peter, who should have known better, going along with them! After all, Peter is the one who had the vision of the sheet filled with unclean animals which God commanded him to “Kill and eat” (Acts 10:10–16).
Paul then proceeded to take them back to the story of Abraham and reminded them that Scripture had foreseen “that God would justify the Gentiles by faith” (3:8), and that God had promised that, just as Abraham had been credited with righteousness when he believed God, so all who are “of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer” (3:9).
Old Testament teaches new covenant truth
It was at verse 10 that I began to see that Paul was explaining the new covenant reality with a depth and clarity I had missed before. He was not just tossing out an explanation for moving past the laws of sacrifices and rituals. Even more, he was not expounding a “new truth” that reinterpreted the Old Testament. On the contrary, Paul explains in chapter 3 that the Old Testament teaches that faith and the law are at odds.
He shows that even the Old Testament taught that law-keeping would only bring failure, never righteousness. Faith, on the other hand would mark those who were righteous in God’s eyes. Even more shockingly, Paul explains that one cannot try to keep the law and also have true faith. They are opposed to each other.
Let’s look at verse 10 first. Paul begins with an unequivocal statement: “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse.” In other words, anyone who decides he is going to honor the demands of the law—demands such as seventh-day Sabbath keeping, the rules of clean and unclean foods, the Jewish feast days, or any of the specific requirements found in the Mosaic law including not murdering and not committing adultery—that person is under a curse.
As shocking as this statement sounds, Jesus Himself taught this truth. In fact, in Matthew 5 our Lord stated that the REAL issue behind the law’s moral requirements was not behavior. He said that even if we never kill or commit adultery, we was guilty of breaking the law if we ever lusted or hated another human. Who can say they are innocent of ever having these internal sins? Jesus clearly showed that even those dedicated to the demands of the law cannot escape being cursed because no human can escape his own sinful heart. Our sincere obedience to the law will never deliver us from being cursed.
Both Jesus and Paul have condemned us all. Even if we are filled with cringing guilt over our unclean hearts and vow to honor God’s law, we are condemned. Righteous deeds will not make us righteous (Phil. 3:8, 9).
In the second part of Galatians 3:10, Paul supports this death sentence by quoting from the fifth book of the Law, Deuteronomy. The context of Paul’s quote was when Moses gave the second wilderness generation his reiteration of the Law just before he died. He repeated the terms of the Mosaic covenant, including the Ten Commandments. Then, in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, he charged the people of Israel with a summary of all the curses they would experience if they broke the covenant, and with a statement of the blessings they would receive if they kept the covenant.
Paul quotes the last statement of cursing which Moses delivered to Israel: “Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them” (Deut. 27:26).
In other words, Paul uses Moses’ words from the book of the law to show that anyone who is under the works of the law is also under a curse. No one, whether Jew or gentile, can take on the requirements of the law without also taking on its curse. The two are inseparable.
It is this fact that Paul explains to those gentile believers. The Judaizers are teaching that they need to adopt requirements from the law in order to be true Christians, and Paul says NO! If we place ourselves under any of the works the law requires, we are under a curse—and he uses the law itself to prove that the law will condemn us!
Contrasting law and faith
In verses 11 and 12 Paul continues with a startling contrast between keeping the law and having faith. These two verses were the source of my new “Ah-ha!” moment.
Adventism—and frankly, many Christians as well—teach that living by faith and keeping the law go together. In fact, Adventism will say that we show that we have faith in Jesus by keeping the law. This argument is at the core of their insistence that true believers will ultimately keep the seventh-day holy.
Paul, however, destroys this argument by stating that one cannot live by faith while living by the law.
Let’s first look at verse 11: “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith.” Paul states that keeping the Law will not justify a person before God.
Most Adventists would not argue with this statement. “Oh, we do not have to keep the law—or the Sabbath—to be saved,” they would say. “We are saved by faith in Christ. We just keep the law to prove we love God.”
This defense sounds good on the surface, but it doesn’t hold up upon closer scrutiny. To support his statement that no one is justified by law-keeping, Paul quotes Habakuk 2:4: “The righteous man shall live by faith.” With this quotation, Paul has just argued that, on the evidence in the Old Testament, keeping the law justifies no one. In fact, in this verse Paul explicitly states that a righteous man lives by faith, not by works of the law. In other words, one cannot even argue that law-keeping is an evidence of faith; on the contrary, true faith is the evidence that law-keeping has nothing at all to do with being righteous before God.
Paul doesn’t end here. In verse 12, he takes his argument a step further and explains that the law is actually CONTRARY to faith! He states, “However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, ‘He who practices them shall live by them.’”
Paul’s quotation in this verse is from Leviticus 18:5. The context is God’s instruction to Moses to warn Israel that they are not to practice the things done in Egypt where they lived or in Canaan where they are going. Instead, they are to obey His statutes and judgments. After instructing Moses to tell Israel, “So you shall keep My statues and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord,” God articulates His laws about immoral relations.
The significant thing about Paul’s statement in verse 12, though, is that he spells out the contrast between a true new covenant believer and someone who is holding onto the law. After saying that the law is not of faith but is actually contrary to faith, he quotes this verse from Leviticus which states that a person who practices the Old Testament laws will “live by them”.
Notice the contrast between the law-keeper and the righteous man described in sere 11. The righteous man isn’t trying to please God by observing the law; he lives by faith. The one who practices the law—any parts of it—is not living by faith; he is living by the law!
In other words, a righteous man cannot live by the law, because the law is not of faith. On the other hand, a man who practices the law cannot live by faith, because the law is not of faith.
The law-observer lives by the law which places him under a curse. The righteous man, by contrast, lives by faith. He is not under a curse.
These verses tear apart Adventism’s argument that faith in Jesus leads one to the law where he finds the character of God. This teaching is utter blasphemy! Paul could not be more clear: the law is contrary to faith, and the righteous man lives by faith in the Lord, not holding onto works of the law!
Redeemed from the curse
Finally Paul concludes his contrast between faith and law-keeping by stating that Jesus has reversed our natural state of being cursed by the law. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—“
Here Paul quotes Moses again. In Deuteronomy 21:22, 23, God told Moses this:
If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely buy him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
Paul takes this passage from the Law and uses it to show that by being hung on a tree when He was crucified, Jesus took God’s curse which the Law decreed would come to anyone hung on a tree. In other words, Jesus took into Himself God’s curse on human sinners. He shed His sinless blood and took God’s curse for sin by being publicly hung on the cross. This curse was decreed in the Old Testament, and the sinless, incarnate God the Son took that curse and removed it from all who believe.
Verse 14 pulls the argument together:
In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Here Paul explains that because Jesus took the curse the Law decreed would come to anyone hung on a tree, when a persons trusts Jesus he receives the blessing promised to Abraham. Not just Jews, but even Gentiles who have never kept the law receive that promised blessing when they are in Christ Jesus.
When we are in Christ, we receive “the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Paul’s including “the promise of the Spirit” seems like new information in this argument. Where was the promise of the Spirit?
Surprisingly, the Old Testament even promised the indwelling Holy Spirit!
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you…” (Ez. 36:26, 27).
“I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord (Ez. 37:14).
“I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God (Ez. 39:39).
Paul wraps up his argument that faith, not law-keeping, brings righteousness by explaining that because Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law, those who are in Christ through faith in His work of atonement will not only receive the blessing promised to Abraham but also the promise of God’s Spirit through faith!
Last questions
I know the questions that some may be asking: if living by faith doesn’t mean keeping the law, are we free to cheat, murder, steal, and commit adultery? And why are Christians around the world convinced they have to keep nine of the ten commandments but not the Sabbath?
Living by faith means being counted righteous before God and being given a new heart and a new spirit. It also means being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Our righteous God lives in us and causes us to hate our sin. He gives us new desires and new love for all that is holy. His indwelling Spirit convicts us of sin far more effectively than the law ever could. He even gives us eternal rest in Christ that surpasses and exposes the ceremonial seventh-day Sabbath for the shadow that it was (Col 2:16, 17; Hebrews 4:1–9). In fact, this tiny book of Galatians will end with a discussion of what it means to live by the fruit of the Spirit and to fulfill the law of Christ. Born-again believers are not lawless; rather, they have the Author of the law living in them, teaching and applying His word to their lives as they live by faith.
In conclusion, Paul has shown in this short passage that even the Old Testament teaches that living by the law is contrary to living by faith. In the new covenant, living by faith in Christ means letting go of the law as a rule of faith and practice. The two cannot mix.
Paul is not developing a new gospel; rather, he is explaining the mystery of the new covenant which had been previously un-revealed. In Ephesians 3:9 Paul explains that God’s grace to him is the responsibility of explaining “the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.”
In other words, God’s assignment for Paul was to explain how the new covenant “works”. This administration was not a new development; it had always been the plan of God. In fact, it had been foreshadowed and foretold in the Old Testament. Its details, however, had been kept hidden in God until the Lord Jesus came at the right time, redeemed us from the curse of the law by hanging on a cross, and opened up Abraham’s promised blessing to the world.
In Jesus, all believers are counted righteous by faith in Him. All believers are released from the demands and the curse of the law, and all believers receive the promised Holy Spirit who holds them accountable to God with every breath they breathe. In Christ they are made alive and given the mind of Christ, and He is the one who sanctifies them by His entire word as they continue living exactly as they were saved: by faith in Christ alone!
Truly the book of Galatians is alive. It never fails to deliver! †
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