10 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.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 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”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10–14, ESV)

From Curse to Blessing

How can someone enjoy and experience God? How can we become fully human as God intended? How can we be released from paralyzing guilt and shame? How can we attain abundant life? How can we be free?

Our passage sets out two paths. One is the way of blessing, and the other is described as cursed. One path gets to God by trusting him and his gospel of grace, and the other by keeping a righteous standard without error.

What we will learn in this text is that when it comes to God's righteous standard, even one disobedience breaks God's law, rendering us cursed. Paul makes this point in the opening verse of our passage today by quoting from Deuteronomy. He said:

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.” (Galatians 3:10)

God has a law. And if all things in his law are abided by at all times, then we would be righteous. But by breaking just one law, like Adam and Eve, we become guilty and put under a curse. The book of James makes the same point when it says, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it" (James 2:10).

Imagine a cargo container dangling from a large chain attached to a crane. If one ring on that chain fails, the container will plummet. Every link of that chain must hold its own, or else the chain is no good. This is how it is with God's law. If even one part of it is broken at one point, perfection is lost, and another route to God must be found. As the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory," (Romans 3:23) …unless we embrace the other path to becoming acceptable in God's sight—the gospel.

Through Christ, we can escape the curse of being barred from God's kingdom, a kingdom filled with goodness, joy, love, peace, selflessness, and forgiveness. It cannot be enjoyed on the merit of our good works, and Paul deploys four passages in the Old Testament (two from Deuteronomy and one from Habakkuk and Leviticus) to prove it. These were likely some of the same verses Paul used when he preached about Jesus in synagogues throughout the Roman Empire.

The logic of this passage is simple. The righteous standard of the law promises a blessing to all who keep it. But no one keeps it, so anyone who relies on keeping the righteous standard as a way to God is doomed. We must instead put our faith in the promise of the cross of Christ because, on the cross, Jesus became cursed—doomed—in our place. And if we trust in him, we become blessed like Abraham, recipients of the Holy Spirit.

To summarize this passage, it is through the gospel of grace that we are no longer cursed but blessed. How so? How does the gospel bless us?

It Promotes the Way of Faith (11-12)

The first reason the gospel transfers us from curse to blessing is that it promotes the way of faith. I have already alluded to this—there are two ways to be accepted by God, the works of the law or faith in the gospel. Perfection or the borrowed righteousness of Christ. Total obedience inside and out or confessing your need for another to rescue you. The law of God or the grace of God. And the gospel presents this better way of faith to us. It tells us to believe.

Paul used two passages from the Old Testament to make this point. In the first, he said:

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11)

Paul is quoting from the pinnacle of the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was a godly man who struggled with the evil he saw all around him in his home nation of Israel. God told him he saw it too and that he would judge it by sending the even more wicked Babylonians to attack them. Habakkuk objected. He was unable to understand God's process and logic. But then he waited, and God told him that the righteous live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4). They lean on God. They depend on him. They throw themselves upon him.

Paul used that text as further evidence that righteousness never came through the meticulous keeping of God's law: Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law (11). No one. But, as Habakkuk, Abraham, and many others in the Old Testament show, one in a right relationship with God can stand before him by faith.

Faith is a needy cry for God, while works try to impress God. Faith is a hand reaching out for help, while works insist that no help is needed. Faith trusts that God alone can accomplish salvation, while works smuggle in human effort and cooperation. —Thomas Schreiner [1]

Imagine a tall mountain that serves as a ski slope in the winter months. There is a tram—and that’s one way up—but there are also hiking trails that are revealed once the snow melts. You might think there are two ways up that mountain, by trail or by tram. But now imagine that every human on earth was struck by a condition that completely paralyzed them. Though there is a pathway up that mountain, no one would be able to climb it. We would all need the tram.

So it is with the pathways to God. The law is a way, but it does not work for anyone. It is a non-way because we have all been infected with sin. It has paralyzed us. But the tram of the gospel is there, ready for any who will enter its doors of grace.

The Law Is Not of Faith

Paul quoted another passage—this time from Leviticus—to make his point that the gospel promotes the way of faith. He said:

But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” (Galatians 3:12)

Some might have wondered if faith and works, the gospel of grace and law, were compatible. Perhaps we could emphasize justification by both faith and works? Paul said no, based on this quotation from Leviticus 18:5. The idea of this quote is that to affirm a part of the law is to be bound to the whole law. To do any of it in order to be acceptable to God is to be bound by all of it to become acceptable to God. And Paul is not only talking about Jewish people, either. In Romans, he said:

When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:14–16)

Paul presents every person on earth as having some sort of law to respond to, at least ones written on their hearts by nature and conscience. And when we follow those laws, we are demonstrating their existence and will be held accountable to them.

I recently came across an interesting story about college students in the Philippines. Colleges there have made a major anti-cheating push, and students there have taken it to heart, inventing all sorts of creative headgear to keep them from seeing other students' answers. I saw one guy wearing a motorcycle helmet. Another taped cardboard tubes to goggles so that all he could see was his own paper. Cheating is a form of lying because you are representing the answers as yours when they are not. Cheating is also a form of theft because you are stealing answers from someone else. And cheating is a form of covetousness because you are doing whatever you can to attain a grade (and the life that comes with it) that is not yours. [2]

When we admit that cheating is wrong by trying not to cheat, we must always live by that code if we are going to be justified by our works before God. So now—if those students are not justified because of faith in the gospel—they would have to never lie, steal, or covet if their works are their path to God's acceptance.

Paul used verses from Habakkuk and Leviticus to demonstrate that the gospel promotes another path to God, the way of faith. If no one can climb the mountain and if everyone has at least one law they are under, then the gospel of grace by faith is the only way. While we were under that curse or doom, it announced another way up the mountain, another way to pass the test. All that is required in that other way is to trust it.

The next verse shows us what we must believe, the second reason the gospel transfers us from curse to blessing, which we’ll look at next week.

[1] Schreiner, Thomas R. 2010. Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [2] FitzGerald, James. 2022. “Philippines: Student ‘anti-Cheating’ Exam Hats Go Viral.” BBC, October 23, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63363473.