Paul is continuing to explain to the Galatians why keeping the law after being born again is a very bad idea! He says in Gal 3:10-14:
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 is asking “So! You Galatians have suddenly fallen head over heels for the Law! Have your eloquent legalistic buddies said what is really involved in commitment to law? Have they dared to mention Deuteronomy 27:26? Have they mentioned about the curse of the Law?”
A deafening silence.
“I didn’t think so”
Option 1: Back to the Law gets you back into the Curse!
Imagine being held to a standard where if you break just one rule, you’re essentially doomed. That’s what the Law demanded. There was no room for slip-ups or half-measures. If you strived to follow the Law perfectly—whether you managed it or not—you were constantly under the threat of a curse. And it was not that if you fail to keep it, a puppy dog dies somewhere, but there were a deluge of great and terrible curses of the Law that came after you, and comprehensive and far-reaching too. Deuteronomy 27 records a round dozen curses, and Deuteronomy 28 records a half dozen more, followed by a series of horrifying illustrations! So, Paul is asking “Do you realize what you signed up for?”
You’re kicking Christ on your way out
Everyone who lives by the law, really doesn’t believe in the fullness of what Christ has achieved in them. Like, if you tell them, you are not under the law even after you are born again, they refute it by saying that it causes lawlessness. They are missing out on the part that believers have had their hearts circumcised, have had had their body of flesh done away with, and the old has passed and the new has come. When you say that you need the law after that, you are saying that you really don’t believe in the transformation that God says has been achieved. This is why Paul says that the “law is not of faith”. You cannot stay in faith, and do the law. Like Paul says in Gal 3:4 you are making Christ’s death be in vain. You’re kicking Christ on your way out.
Option 2: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
The foundation here is grace and faith.
Righteous shall live by faith, not by the law. They shall not be worried about how many laws they are keeping, and how many they are breaking. Rather, they will live in faith– faith in the Son of God, faith in what He has done within us. All we have to do is to live in the Spirit, and we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.“The just shall live by faith.”
You are redeemed from the curse of the law. There is no curse on you at all.Why? Because Christ kept the law. And, in Christ, you have kept all the law. The results are rigged!
It was this very text that turned Martin Luther’s life upside down. How desperately he had labored, as a fervent and scrupulous monk, attempting to gather enough merit to secure his own salvation! He starved, prayed, and tortured himself until he was hardly more than a skeleton. He whipped his own back into a tapestry of cuts and sores. But it was faith in Jesus, and His finished work that finally redeemed him!
What will you choose?
The Law said, “This do, and thou shalt live.”
Do! Do! Do!
“The law is not of faith,” Paul says. It is of works. The emphasis is ever and always on the word do. “The man that doeth them shall live.…” That is why, when the young man came to Jesus, saying, “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” When the young man claimed to have kept these commandments always, Jesus proved to him that he never had kept them, nor could he, that he did not love his neighbor as he loved himself. Many of his neighbors were poor; he was rich, but he had no intention of giving his wealth to the poor (Matt. 19:16–22). He did not love his neighbor as he loved himself. He was a lawbreaker. He was under a curse!
The Law prompts us with, “Do!” but Grace reassures us with, “Done!” On the cross, Jesus tenderly declared, “It is finished!” All the striving has been completed. Through faith, we gently transition from death to life, from attempting to placing our trust, and from a demanding system that insists, “Do!” to the beautiful gift of salvation that whispers, “Done!”
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