Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20080629.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Galatians: Defending The Truthfulness Of Paul's Teaching On God's Grace
Part VII: God's Use Of Scriptures Under The Law To Verify His Truth On Grace
(Galatians 3:10-14)
  1. Introduction
    1. Besides showing that Christian experience and the life of Old Testament Abraham revealed one was justified by faith alone, Paul needed to add that even the Mosaic Law itself to which many Hebrews clung in hope of gaining righteousness made it impossible for a man to be justified by God by trying to keep it!
    2. Since various groups even in Christendom teach the observance of parts or all of the Mosaic Law for salvation or for holiness, this Galatians 3:10-14 argument is critically important (as follows):
  2. God's Use Of Scriptures Under The Law To Verify His Truth On Grace.
    1. Paul noted that one who submitted to the rule of the Mosaic Law put himself under a curse, Gal. 3:10a.
    2. His argument arose from a simple application of Scriptures under the Law as stated in Galatians 3:10b-12:
      1. In Galatians 3:10b, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26 that stated that anyone who did not continue to heed all of the dictates of the Mosaic Law were under a divine curse! [This is a critically important statement for today, for some in Christendom hold believers are under the Ten Commandments though they are not under the rest of the Law (Seventh-day Adventists Believe . . ., 1988, p. 244)! However, Deuteronomy 27:26 reveals failure to keep any part of the Law brings him under God's curse! Thus, groups that teach one must keep a part of the Law inadvertently bring themselves under a divine curse!]
      2. However, no one could keep all of the Law all of the time: Habakkuk 2:4 in the dispensation of the Law that Paul cited in Galatians 3:11 said the just would live by faith, a function opposite the works of the Law, implying no one could keep all the Law as it necessitated God's use of faith to save, Gal. 3:12.
      3. [Note how this conclusion is supported by Peter's confession in Acts 15:10: in the context of the first Church Council that had met to discern if one needed to be circumcised in accord with the Law in addition to trusting in Christ to be justified, Peter admitted that neither his generation nor the Hebrew fathers had been able to keep the Mosaic Law!]
    3. Not content to leave people under a divine curse, the Apostle Paul continued, revealing the blessed solution to the divine curse of the Law in the work of Christ on the cross, cf. Galatians 3:13-14:
      1. Since the Mosaic Law could only put man under a divine curse in that no one was always able to keep all of the details of that Law (Galatians 3:10-12), Paul relaxed the tension of this condemnation, announcing that Christ had redeemed us from the curse of the Law, Galatians 3:13a.
      2. He revealed that Jesus did this by being made a Substitutionary Curse in our place, Galatians 3:13b.
      3. Specifically, Christ was made this curse by being hanged on a tree in accord with Deuteronomy 21:23 in the Law that stated that anyone who hung on a tree was put under a divine curse, cf. Galatians 3:13.
      4. In being placed on a wooden cross, Christ became that curse, and the sins of the world were placed on Him to bear in punishment before God in place of the world, cf. 1 Peter 2:24.
      5. Consequently, when anyone believes in Christ, substitutionally through Christ, he receives the blessing promised to Abraham in the Abramic Covenant of Genesis 12:3: he receives the promise of the Holy Spirit by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Galatians 3:14 with Ephesians 1:13-14.
      6. Accordingly, the believer is completely free from the jurisdiction of any and every part of the Mosaic Law itself! He lives under the jurisdiction of the law of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:3-4.
Lesson: Even Scriptures of the dispensation of the Mosaic Law made it impossible for one to be saved by keeping the Law, for (1) Deuteronomy 27:26 put a curse on anyone who did not always keep every part of the Law, (2) and Habakkuk 2:4 claimed one was justified by faith, a function that is opposite any work, implying that (3) no one could always keep all of the Law all of the time as seen by the fact that God moved to justify people in the era of the Law by grace through faith instead of by works!

Application: (1) May we AVOID SUBMITTING to ANY PART of the Mosaic Law for salvation or for sanctification, for doing so only puts us under a divine curse for failing to keep it all since none of us can always keep all of it. (2) Rather, may we trust in Christ for justification and live by faith in God.