THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – CHAPTER 3:13-14 - MESSAGE 8 – PRAISE THE LORD – WE HAVE BEEN PURCHASED FROM THE STRONG PRISON OF THE ENEMY CALLED “CURSE”. WE ARE FREE!
I guess this is a good time to recap so far. Paul preached the gospel through Galatia and there were a lot of believers in a number of different churches. He taught those churches well but after he left, the Judiasers came in to corrupt the gospel. They claimed that the Galatians had to add something extra to their faith, and that extra was the keeping of the Law. They were a bit like a similar group today who enter churches once established, bringing their Sabbath keeping and Law keeping in.
Paul was angry that the gospel was so abused and made worthless by the devil’s agents. He wrote to combat all that with a number of arguments. He was showing that faith and Law can not consist together. He was so upset about this evil teaching of keeping the Law that he had to say this – {{Galatians 1:8-9 “Even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.”}} We are going to continue this from where we left off.
[1]. FROM ABRAHAM TO THE GENTILES BUT ONLY THROUGH CHRIST AND BY FAITH
That heading means that the blessings of Abraham can be claimed by Gentiles through faith but only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us have a look at these two verses.
{{Galatians 3:13 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” - Galatians 3:14 in order that in Christ Jesus THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM MIGHT COME TO THE GENTILES, so that we might receive THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT THROUGH FAITH.}}
(a). THE LAW, DEATH, AND THE CURSE
Let us dissect these verses. Paul begins very decisively with a true statement that Christ redeemed US from THE curse of the Law. Straight away we can ask, “Who is the US Paul mentions?” In an earlier message on Galatians I mentioned that Gentiles were never under the Law. The Law of Moses was given to Israel right back about 1450 BC and the Law is for Jews. Gentiles were not bound by the Law but by conscience according to Romans 1. The conclusion here is that these Galatian churches must have been largely Jewish or Paul would never have used the word “US”. Gentiles would have been inclusive in the argument.
Let us talk about this CURSE mentioned by Paul. It is associated with condemnation. We already know the Law is perfect and therein lays the problem. It is the standard of God but it had to be kept to perfection. When it was kept to perfection, the Law declared a person righteous in God’s eyes, but who ever could keep the Law to perfection? To keep 99.99% of the Law but offend that tiny bit is a failure in the Law and then you are condemned by the Law’s penalties as if you had broken the whole Law. The breaker of the Law stands condemned. James deals with that.
There are penalties for condemnation. The penalties are severe. The soul that sins shall surely die. The breaking of the Law brings death. That is the curse. The curse of the Law is what it pays the attempting keeper. It curses all because no one can keep the Law. It will bring death.
Man did not face eternal death because of the Law. He faced death because he sins. The Law only highlighted what sin is. All are under a curse; the Jew, because he can not keep what is in the Law; and the Gentile because he sins. {{Romans 2:12 “for all who have sinned WITHOUT THE LAW will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned UNDER THE LAW will be judged by the Law.”}}
(b). CHRIST REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE
Having looked at this truth that the Law brings a curse, we move on to the next point which is Christ redeemed us from the curse. Again remember the “US” in that statement is Jewish, not Gentile for Gentiles were never under the Law. In a broader sense everyone is under the curse of sin so we will keep to that for now. Paul was being inclusive of the whole body of believers.
It says Christ redeemed us, not saved us or reconciled us or released us. Why does it use the word “redeemed”? This word means to buy back, to pay the price for a new ownership. What it infers here is that the Law owned us, but more to the point, the curse owned us. It locked us away in its own prison, kept captive by the curse with no hope of escape. Then One came along, stronger than the curse, and released us from that prison. There was a release price to pay and He did that.
What was the price to be paid? The verse does not answer that but elsewhere it does – {{1Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were not REDEEMED with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, BUT WITH PRECIOUS BLOOD, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless - THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.”}}
Redemption is at high cost which is why no one else or any other thing could have released us from curse’s clutches. Only the blood of the Lamb could do that. There is the lovely story of Ruth in the book of that name where Ruth was a Gentile, one under the curse as a pagan foreign Moabite. An honourable man called Boaz paid the redemption price for Ruth – {{Ruth 4:6 The closest relative said, “I cannot redeem it for myself lest I jeopardise my own inheritance. REDEEM IT FOR YOURSELF. You may have my right of redemption for I cannot redeem it.”}}
We were strangers and pilgrims from the promises of God. We were like rejects, like Ruth who was a Moabite. Yet the glorious fact is spelled out in these verses – {{Ephesians 2:12-13 “remember that you were at that time SEPARATE FROM CHRIST, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and STRANGERS TO THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, having no hope and WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD, but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST,”}}. We were alienated from God but we were redeemed and brought near to God by the redemption of blood in Christ. Can we understand that? It is so wonderful that we Gentiles, foreigners to all that is of God and of Israel, have been redeemed. We were redeemed from the curse of sin.
(c). CHRIST BECAME OUR CURSE
This is yet again another substitution. There are many examples of this where Christ took our place on the cross. We should have been hanging there for our sin, not the Lord. He became sin for us. One key part of our study verse today is this – “having become a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”. There are two aspects there and the first is that the Lord took our place becoming a curse for us, and the second is that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. In the first aspect this matches up with the well known verse - 2Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin ON OUR BEHALF, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,”}}
We are going to look at the second aspect. Paul is relying on the verse found here – {{Deuteronomy 21:22 “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, Deuteronomy 21:23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury 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 omitted “of God” from verse 23 and also “accursed” because Christ was not accursed. He bore the curse for us. It was a substitution. Sin brought the curse upon the human race and therefore the curse of sin which is death. Christ by His death, removed the curse and brought everlasting life.
Salvation is never what you do, but what you are. All of us are utterly undone, exposed in the sight of a holy God with not one atom of any redeeming quality. Utterly useless we were, and failures polluted by sin. Your salvation is through grace, and grace alone. Christ took our curse, made it His, and reconciled us. Removing the curse forever.
There is a latent suggestion here of the serpent upon the pole. The brass snake represented the means of recovery for all who were bitten (everyone of us has been bitten by sin) and that recovery came through faith. If they did not look to the brass serpent they died. The snake upon the pole was a type of Christ.
[D]. BLESSING, ABRAHAM, PROMISE, THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND FAITH ALL IN ONE VERSE
We now turn our attention to the next verse – {{Galatians 3:14 in order that in Christ Jesus THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM MIGHT COME TO THE GENTILES, so that we might receive THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT THROUGH FAITH.}} Inheritance, reward, blessing, promise.
This verse follows straight on from Christ being made a curse for us and now follows the fruits of His sacrifice. The first of these is BLESSINGS that stem from Abraham and is now available for Gentiles. What God promised to Abraham as the blessings for his offspring passed to the Jews through Jacob and did not include Gentiles, but the cross has broken down that middle wall of partition so that all the blessing now apply to Jew and Gentile in Christ. (We are not speaking of the great national promises for restored Israel in the Millennium).
Most of the blessings given to Abraham were associated with the land but we speak here of spiritual blessings such as the approach to God, the acceptance by God and the closeness of the Lord. The book of Romans takes this up further. {{Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has BLESSED US WITH EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly places in Christ”}}
The second one we mention is INHERITANCE for Abraham was given an inheritance – {{Genesis 22:17-18 “indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as THE STARS OF THE HEAVENS, and as THE SAND WHICH IS ON THE SEASHORE, and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies, and in your seed ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED because you have obeyed My voice.”}}
You notice the seed of Abraham was twofold: the stars and the sand. The stars are heavenly and represent those of faith, the heavenly people of the Church through faith. The sand is earthly, the earthly people of God who are the Jews. Israel is away from the Lord right now but will return after the Church is raptured and at the Second Coming the Jews will inherit the land again from the Nile River to the Euphrates river, all that territory promised to Abraham and spelt out here – {{Genesis 15:18 “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I HAVE GIVEN THIS LAND from THE RIVER OF EGYPT as far as the great river, THE RIVER EUPHRATES:”}}. That will be part of their inheritance.
The stars have an inheritance as well – {{Acts 20:32 “and now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and TO GIVE YOU THE INHERITANCE among all those who are sanctified.” AND Ephesians 1:11 “also WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,” AND Ephesians 1:18 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of THE GLORY OF HIS INHERITANCE in the saints,”}}
The third of these fruits is REWARD. The blessings of Abraham have come to the Gentiles and reward is one of them. God spoke to Abraham – {{Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you. YOUR REWARD SHALL BE VERY GREAT.”}} Abraham was given a great reward and the rewards for the people of the Church are great also. {{1Corinthians 3:8 “Now he who plants and he who waters are one but EACH WILL RECEIVE HIS OWN REWARD according to his own labour,”}}
Indeed, there is something to think seriously about in this next portion – {{Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive THE REWARD OF THE INHERITANCE. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”}}
The fourth and last is PROMISE. Great promises were given to Abraham 4 000 years ago. Some of those promises have been fulfilled and some remain such as the land above. Because we are blessed in Abraham we also have promises. Personally, one of the great promises I hold onto is the coming of the Lord in the Rapture for His Church when we get the call to rise to the Lord in the air – {{Revelation 4:1 “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, “COME UP HERE, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”}}
HEAVEN’ S DOOR WILL OPEN TO US
Let the door of heaven open;
Let the Saviour’s voice be heard;
Let the trumpet sound its calling;
We are waiting for the word.
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“Come up here!” will be our summons.
“Come up here!” He calls the Bride.
“Come to ME My glorious one,
You for whom I wept and died!”
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Who can comprehend those gathered?
Who can contemplate such bliss?
The Lord will snatch up all His own;
Not one redeemed, will He miss.
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Hear the voice of the archangel!
Hear that trumpet call for you!
In an instant; in a moment -
There’s no waiting in a queue.
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Heaven’ glory bursts upon us;
Heaven’s centre is the Lamb.
Heaven’s beauty centres ‘round Him;
He the Lord, the Great I AM.
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Light and truth will be resplendent.
Light and Truth - that my Lord is.
Light illumines ev’ry facet,
Shows the splendour that is His.
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Praise resounds from ev’ry quarter.
Praise will rise from the redeemed.
Angels likewise see His glory
In the Church His blood has cleaned.
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Evermore rejoice in Jesus;
Evermore to share His love.
O, melt our hearts in gratitude,
And our thoughts transport above.
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28 March 2022 R E Ferguson
Elsewhere we have – {{2Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, HAVING THESE PROMISES, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”}}
{{Ephesians 1:13 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were SEALED in Him with THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE.”}} That is a lovely verse because it puts all our promises upon the Holy Spirit. He was promised to us and gives us the eternal hope of promises to come. We should think hard into these verses.
To close I will add one more – {{Hebrews 6:11-12 “We desire that each one of you shows the same DILIGENCE so as to realise the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may NOT BE SLUGGISH, but imitators of those who through faith AND PATIENCE INHERIT THE PROMISES.”}}. Those who inherit the promises ought not be slack, sluggish, lazy, but we must show diligence to the Lord.
Jesus kept the law. The righteous One was declared righteous. Through His death his righteousness is able to be appropriated to all those who believe in him so that the One cursed for our sins can share His righteousness with us. {{2Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”}}
