Galatians chapter 3. We're reading verses 10 to 14. Verse 14 is helpful in bringing us back to the language of blessings. It reminds us both of the verses that come before this section and anticipates what will come after. And so in many ways it's a linking verse, not one that will have a primary focus for us this morning. We might call verses 10 to 13 a very important parentheses. It's a little bit of, it's certainly related, verse 14 links it, but it's a little bit different than what comes before and after. And that's what we'll be working through, essentially each verse 10 through 13 being one point. So people of God, let us read Galatians chapter three, verses 10 through 14. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now, It is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. 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. so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, do you Want to be accepted by your friends, by your parents? Do you want to have a good relationship with others, to be seen in a positive light, to be seen in a good way by others? Most of us want to be seen in a good way by others. Sometimes we may try even too hard to fulfill this desire and it may get us into trouble. And the point here is that we are all aware, that we are not alone in this world. We're aware of all kinds of relationships, family relationships, friend relationships, and we have a desire that we would be seen in a certain way within those relationships. And this passage before us is about how we are seen in terms of our relationship with God. What is our standing with the one eternal God? Is it a relationship of the blessings, a promise first to Abraham and then to all the nations? The blessings spoken of in verse 14, the blessings spoken of in the beginning of this chapter, the blessings which we'll speak more of as we continue on. Is it one of those blessings or is it a relationship of curses? Curses is of course that which contrasts with blessings. Is it a relationship of justification, to take a word from verse 10, or a relationship of condemnation, which is the opposite of justification? Is it a relationship of life or of death? And so thinking of this central relationship that we have with God, and we have this relationship one way or the other, may we indeed know that there is only, this is our theme this morning, there is only one path to our being free from the curse of eternal death. And so, working verse by verse, death through the law, life and the faithful, life and the law, death for the faithful. Our first point then, the law and death. Notice that the first thing the apostle does in our text this morning is to establish the reality that there is a curse. One might say that there's no curse at all because God does not exist or God does not care about what people do. Forgetting what the Apostle John said, that lawlessness is sin. They are intimately linked together. One might say that the way to be free from the curse of death, the way to live, the way to find heaven and peace, is to simply follow their own made-up law or the made-up law of a certain community or individual. One might say that the way to be free from the curse of death is to follow God's laws. And that last option might sound like it's different from the others. After all, at least the one who's saying this is looking to the laws that are actually God's. But in the end, it's not that different. There's really only two options, the option of faith and every other option, because even to rely on the works of the law, even to rely on the works of the law of God is a path to death. This was the option the false teachers were giving. We might call it the best of the worst, but that still makes it part of the worst. It is really no better at all. It is, yes, seeking to live by God's law rather than man's law, but it is still fruitless because we cannot follow that law and everyone who does not abide by all things written is cursed. James says it this way, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point is guilty of all. Now, there's a quotation in 10 through 13, each one of these verses takes a quote from the Old Testament. Here it's taken from Deuteronomy 27, verse 26. And if we turn to Deuteronomy 27, verse 26, and I hope we do this sometimes in our personal devotions, and we see, you know, perhaps a footnote, and it says, look, this is the Old Testament verse that it's coming from, and I hope that sometimes we are slowing down and we're even going back and seeing these kinds of things. And if we would turn to Deuteronomy 27, 26 in our personal devotions, we would see that it there does not say all things written in the book of the law, but it says this law. So in Deuteronomy 27 verse 26, it's singular. And I even remember when I was younger, some of the first times I started doing devotions in that way, I would read things like this, because the apostle does this often. Sometimes he quotes exactly, but quite often he does not quote exactly. And it would kind of throw me off, you know. And then you're going through high school and you learn about, you know, APA or Chicago-style citation and you're like, I get in big trouble if I don't quote exactly. Isn't this how the Apostle should be doing it? What's going on here? Why are things slightly different? It doesn't look like the Apostle would even ace my high school literature class. What's going on? Well, a couple of things. First of all, the Apostle is not in your high school literature class. He is one who is quoting the essence of the law. And another thing is, This is another time when it's good to remember that chapter and verse are not in the first writings of the biblical books. And so the apostle does not think of this as Deuteronomy 27 verse 26. The apostle and all of the Israelites think of this as one of the verses in that section at the end of the scroll of Deuteronomy that talks about curse, curse, curse, curse. It's known as the section about curses. And so they would also know that the very next verse, what we call verse, does speak with all-encompassing language. And so the apostle is certainly quoting the essence of this. And they would know that it's a curse about what we might call minor laws. It's a curse about what we might call more major laws. It's just curse, curse, curse. Then maybe you have 15 verses talking about blessings. Then you have 50 more verses talking about curses. Then you have some verses about repentance and life and death. Does that sound like something that touches on our passage here? Then you have a few, a little section about Joshua taking over for Moses. And then you have another 30 verses about curses. It's curse, curse, curse, curse. Blessing, curse, curse, curse. That's the section from the end of the scroll of the book of Deuteronomy. that the Apostle is taking one verse from. So, when we pull that together and we bring it back upon ourselves, we say this, well, if I was a skeptic and I was just looking for a reason to not trust the Bible, I might say, oh, see, Paul's not quoting exactly word for word the way we would usually do today. But if instead of seeing it with the eyes of a skeptic, we look with the eyes of faith, we see The essence here of what the Apostle is taking from and quoting from and directing us to is to know, I am cursed. I am. I cannot fulfill all these things. And reading 50 verses and then having a little break and then reading 30 more verses about curses and God's judgment against those who sin, It impresses upon me the reality that I am justly condemned to eternal death. I am cursed, cursed, cursed. And we can use the word 50 more times and we still wouldn't be using that word as much as Deuteronomy 27 to 32 uses it. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. I am cursed, you are cursed. We are all cursed. We all must confess our sins and be looking outside of ourselves. And that takes us to our second point, looking outside of ourselves. For since we are cursed, how can we find life then? In verses 6 through 9, the argument was going back to Genesis and showing that Abraham also was saved by faith. Here it is, here the quotation is taken from the middle of the book of Habakkuk, from Habakkuk 2 verse 4. And these are the words, people of God, this passage from the middle of Habakkuk is quoted three times in the New Testament. And these are the words that helped to shake the world. It is these words as they were quoted in Romans chapter one. that shattered the false view of what faith and righteousness really was that had been slowly building up in the Roman Catholic Church. It was this verse that helped to break through for a monk named Martin Luther and then shook the world. This is the word about life. that life is by faith and it's clear in Habakkuk that we're not talking about physical life because the context in Habakkuk is it's the middle of the prophet asking God about Well, how can we live then? What's going to happen to the righteous when these ruthless Chaldeans come, ruthless Babylonians come and destroy us? What's going to happen to the faithful? I understand you're going to judge the wicked, but what's going to happen to those who rely upon you? And the Lord says, write it on a stone, run out the message and tell them, the just shall live by faith. It doesn't mean they're gonna be saved from the coming disaster and so that leads to the song at the end of Habakkuk. Though there be no fruit on the trees, though there'll be no cattle in the stalls, still I will praise the Lord. It's a word about spiritual life. It's a word about life in the midst of being conquered. It's a word about life when surrounded by death. And so it is true that whether it's the message giving hope to the conquered Israelite or the message giving hope to the cursed American, here is the message of the power of salvation. And so that is the very way that the apostle speaks of it in Romans 1, where Luther read long ago these words, Romans 1, 16 to 17, for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation. The power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Do you see the power? The power of believing, the power of faith is that which is over and against the curse of death because it is a faith which is looking to rooted in God and what God does. This is what This is the power that takes us from curse to blessing. This is the power that takes us from condemned to justified. This is the power that takes us from death to life. Let's come then now to our third point, the law and life. And notice here, we might think because the word law is being used again, that verse 12 is closely related to verse 10. But notice that the Apostle is very intentionally linking verse 11 with verse 12. Remember I said the Apostle doesn't always quote everything exactly? Well, here he changes the wording just slightly of what he's quoting, and he does so to make the quotation from Habakkuk 2.4, and the quotation, that's the one at the end of verse 11, And the quotation from Leviticus 18 verse 5 at the end of verse 12, he changes them just slightly to make them parallel to one another. He makes 11 and 12 go together. And this is preserved for us in the English. Looking at those two quotes, the one at the end of verse 11, the one at the end of verse 12, it's the fill in the blank shall live by fill in the blank. And so in 11, it's the righteous shall live by faith. In verse 12, it's the one who does them shall live by them. And the them is the law, the one who does the works of the law, that often repeated phrase here in Galatians, the one who relies on the works of the law shall live by them, the law. This is then the contrast. There is the way of believing against the way of doing. How could the law ever give life? Well, the law could give life theoretically through doing. But the law has nothing to do with believing. It is contrasted with that. And of course, as it says at the beginning of verse 11, introducing this two verse section 11 and 12 closely linked together, it's clear that no one can be justified before God by the law. In other words, as Calvin summarized this, the law really does promise life. It really does. In that sense, it is different from following man-made rules, but that promise is, quote, made of none effect because of our corruption and sin. The law of God really does hold life out there, but it's a life of doing, not believing, and we can't do the doing. And so it's only theoretical, we can't reach it, we can't attain it, not ourselves. We can't get to it. Now this, the quotation in verse 12 from Leviticus 18.5, it's interesting, this is another often quoted verse. It's often quoted later in the Old Testament. Now, when Nehemiah and Ezekiel quote from it, Are they saying, you know, are they saying the righteous, the end of verse 12, are they saying that the one who does them shall live by them? Are they saying that that's a good thing? No, if we turn to Nehemiah 9, we would see that this phrase from Leviticus 18 is quoted, but it's in the context of, yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey my commandments. They sinned against your rules. which if a person does, he shall live by them. But they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. When it comes to doing and not believing, we are not able to do. And then the same thing in Ezekiel 20. Verses 11 to 13. Again, this verse from Leviticus, which was written long before Ezekiel, comes up. But the prophet says it this way, I gave them my statutes, and made known to them my laws, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, but the house of Israel rebelled against me. In other words, it's always been true that when we have this law of doing to live, we can't do it. We can't do it. We have to look for a way of living by faith, not a way of living by doing. That then makes us say, all right, faith directed where? Not merely faith looking to God in the Habakkuk 2 sense, but now we can be more specific. And now verse 11 will bring back the language of curse from verse 10. Verse 13, 11 and 12 are closely linked. 10 and 13 are closely linked. Because now we're going to read here in our fourth point, death for the faithful, about how the curse is removed. It is removed because Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us. redeemed, that beautiful word, it can make us think of being purchased, delivered, like a prisoner whose freedom is purchased by another, like a slave who is purchased out of slavery. Our curse is taken away because Christ took it upon himself. And so here now the Old Testament quotation is in Deuteronomy again, now Deuteronomy 21, And it's simply a word about how one who is hanged on a tree is one who is symbolically, visibly being shown as one who's under the curse of God. Those two little words in the middle of verse 13, for us, communicate the beautiful truth summarized in the bigger word, substitution. substitution. Jesus was cursed for us as our substitute. Now, Jesus himself is not cursed. There's actually another place in the writings of Paul where he says, basically, may we never say Jesus is accursed because Jesus himself is righteous. When we think about living by the law, who's the one person who is both God and man who actually could do that, who actually did live by the law? Well, it's Jesus. Jesus himself is not cursed, but for us, As a substitute, He takes our curse upon Himself. And then, all of what that curse means is taken out, not upon us, but upon Jesus Christ on the cross. That, then, takes us out of curses and into blessing, which takes us into verse 14 and anticipates what is coming next week, what we spoke about last week. He is our substitute. He died in our place. When we understand this word, substitution, We see that reality, our curse is taken away, it's put upon Jesus Christ. You see, this is something that reminds us that the reality of the curse is something which both unbelievers and believers should be well versed in and well aware of. You see, for an unbeliever, an awareness of the serious and the reality of sin and the curse the curse of death which is upon those who sin, may it drive the unbeliever to repent and look to Jesus and live. For the believer, may an awareness of the curse, of what is weighing down upon us, which is over us, May the knowledge that Jesus Christ took all of that upon himself drive us to all gratitude, to all service. May this truth pierce our hearts and minds like nails with an awareness of the nails that were pierced through the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, amen. You know, If someone is saved from death or slavery, picture this. Picture that you are a slave, you're living in the South. With the aid of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, you escape. And you escape all the way through the north. The slave catchers can't get you anymore. You're all the way into Canada. It's your first night in Canada. You are completely free. They can't get you anymore. You wake up the next morning. What do you think your first thought is going to be? You think you're going to be thinking about the fact that you were just saved from slavery? I think you'd probably be thinking about that. What if somebody came to you later in the day and said, how are you doing today? How was your day yesterday? Do you think that person would forget? They'd be like, I really can't remember what happened yesterday. No, it doesn't work that way. Our minds wouldn't even work that way. That's just unthinkable. Of course the person knows what happened yesterday. They'd say, I escaped from slavery yesterday. I was in my last bunkhouse in Michigan, and I was thinking, I'm so close, and now I made it all the way. I'm here in Canada. It's my first day in Canada. They set me up with a job already. I am so grateful to the Underground Railroad, to Harriet Tubman. I mean, that's the only thinkable response, isn't it? What have we been saved from? Let the nail be pierced into your heart and mind about what the nails pierced into the hands and feet of Jesus Christ have done. And may it be the first thought you have when you wake up. Is this ever the first thought you have when you wake up? Is this ever the first thing on your mind when you wake up in the morning? Is this ever the last thing you think about when you put your head on the pillow at night? Is this something that when someone asks you about your day in the middle of the day, this is gonna be one of the first things that comes to your mind? I'm a sinner saved by Jesus Christ who took the curse of death, the curse of the law, the curse that I was under, and he took it upon himself and he saved me. You see, maybe it wasn't yesterday. Maybe you weren't saved yesterday. But it's so much greater than that, right? Because we were saved from eternal death. And so we don't just think about it the next day, we think about it every day, right? This is something for both the believer and the unbeliever to know for different reasons. But it's something we all must know, know the depths of. know the truth of it. You know, sometimes we might use the phrase, it's a matter of life and death, right? You hear that phrase? You ever use that phrase? We almost never use that literally, right? Maybe, maybe you've once used that literally. Or we might say, well, that's just killing me, right? Well, These are basically figures of speech. We don't mean this literally. When I say that the curse, and the curse being on us or the curse being lifted from us because it was placed upon Jesus Christ instead, when I say that that's a matter of eternal life or death, this is no figure of speech. It is. Let the seriousness and the beauty of that curse being lifted be upon our hearts and minds. Jesus Christ, His death is the only path to life for those who believe in Him. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, amazing is your grace which has saved us cursed and wretched sinners. May we all believe and may we all think daily upon the beauty of the truth, the beautiful truth, that we are free because Christ died for us. So we pray in his name, in Jesus' precious name, amen. Let us, people of God, stand and sing together. 433, let's stand singing all the stanzas of amazing grace together. you