Raise you up from the evil sleep, bear you on the bread of dawn. What's up? Chester ARP Church devotional podcast. Clint Davis, your host. Had a week off last week. Back at it this week. Galatians chapter three, beginning in verse 10. Catch a little bit of breeze in the microphone. I'm recording this on a beautiful sunny afternoon outside and what a blessing it is. Verse 10 of Galatians chapter three, Paul talking about how the righteous shall live by faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Curse 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 law, for, quote, the righteous shall live by faith, end quote. 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 curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So then Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. This is a great little section in the book of Galatians. Remember the context. Paul is writing to a church in Galatia that has been led to believe that works of the law were necessary to become true Christians. It's the idea of the Judaizers that would say that Gentiles must become Jews first, that circumcision of the flesh is essentially important for becoming a Christian. participating in some of the feast days of the Jewish faith, essentially important for becoming a true Christian. Paul's writing back and saying, are you crazy? What are you picking and choosing on some of these things? What are you picking and choosing some of these laws that you must follow versus others? Paul says basically here, if, right, you are going to be made right, justified, made right before God by works of the law, then you better fulfill every one of them. For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them." So the idea here is that if you're going to say circumcision is important, feast days are important, certain aspects of religious ceremonial law are important, then you now have opened yourself up to where you have to abide by every single aspect of that law. If you go back through the Old Testament, you got to go back through all the ceremonial laws of the Exodus and Leviticus and elsewhere in the Old Testament. If you're going to say you gotta do it by perfect adherence to the law, then you gotta be bound by every aspect of the Ten Commandments, the moral law of God. And you are bound by it. You must fulfill it in its perfection. You can't choose which parts you're going to fulfill if you are going to be justified, made right before God by works of the law. In other words, if you are going to say it's about how you do it, then you better do it all. You don't get to choose which parts of the law are important, which parts are not. So Paul says, you don't want to live that way. You want to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteous. And you want to be a son or a daughter of Abraham. Because the promise has been given to you that if you believe in God and the descendant of Abraham, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, then you yourself will be made right before the presence of God. Why? Because Jesus took on the curse of the law for you. Jesus fulfilled it perfectly. You didn't. So if you're going to add to Jesus, then you basically are saying Jesus's life, death, and resurrection are of no value, significant value to you, because you're still going to have to fulfill aspects of the law. But Jesus did it all. He was the one who was cursed on your behalf. He took on the curse of the law, which is death, because death, the law brings death into our lives because we cannot keep it to its perfect way, to the perfect measure. And Jesus took that upon himself. And so Paul says, to go and say, we got to bring the law back and to say that somehow we're saved by grace through, excuse me, saved by the law rather than grace through faith is, excuse me, is to violate the very teaching and truth that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he paid the price for you. Paul says you don't want to do that because you open yourself back up to curse because now it's dependent upon how you perform the law. Listen, folks, I want you to understand and know you've been saved by grace through faith in Christ. Don't go back to that law. Stand firm on the reality that Christ loved you, gave his life for you, and did it all on your behalf. Take care. God bless you. Catch you next time.