Redeemed from the Curse of the Law | Galatians 3:6-14
Brian Hedges | October 8, 2017
The story of redemption is the story of a curse removed and blessing restored, and that motif of blessing and curse is a motif that runs all the way through Scripture. You remember that in Genesis one, when God created the world, Genesis one and two, in that early part of the creation narrative, three times God blesses something; he blesses the human beings he has created, he blesses the seventh day and makes it holy. But you remember that the curse is hard on its heels, so that in Genesis chapter three, when the man and the woman rebel against God, when they disobey God, they plunge the world into darkness and death, and God curses the ground because of them.
[In Genesis chapter 12] there are hints that the blessing will be restored, when God makes his promise to Abraham. There’s a fivefold blessing in Genesis chapter 12, verses two and three. You see the same thing in the history of the children of Israel. In the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 27, there’s this even where the whole nation is gathered and they are set on two mountains, six tribes on one mountain, six tribes on the other, and they read the law and these blessings and curses, this antiphonal ceremony where God’s blessing is promised for obedience and his curse pronounced on disobedience. In fact, the word “curse” occurs no less than 28 times in Deuteronomy chapters 27 through 30.
You find the same theme running through the prophets, and then again in the ministry of Jesus. Do you remember that Jesus came in the Beatitudes pronouncing blessing? “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He also pronounced woes on the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees, and then when Jesus describes the final judgment, the dividing of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, he says that “in that day the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you blessed by my Father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,’ and he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
In the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, we read in verse three that “nothing that is accursed will enter into the holy city, that new Jerusalem, the city of God,” and in verse 14, “Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and they may enter the city by the gates.”
The story of the world is the story of God’s gracious work of rescuing and restoring his blessing to a cursed world, a cursed people.
Isaac Watts said it well in that hymn we sing every Christmas, “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” That motif, that theme of blessing and curse, is the unifying thread in the passage we’re going to read and study together this morning in Galatians chapter three.
Galatians chapter three; we’re looking at verses six through 14. It begins with blessing, and then Paul begins to describe the curse, the curse of the law, and how Christ has redeemed us from that curse in order to restore us to blessing, to bring the blessing promised to Abraham to the Gentiles.
So let’s read this passage, Galatians chapter three; I’m actually going to begin reading in verse five, just to get the complete thought of verses five and six, but the preaching passage is verses six through 14. Let’s read it. Galatians chapter three, beginning in verse five.
“Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’?
“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
“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.”
This is God’s Word.
Now, in this letter to the Galatians Paul is developing his argument; his argument for the gospel, his argument for justification by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. The first part of his argument we saw two weeks in Galatians chapter three, verses one through five; he appeals to the Galatians’ experience. He says that they received the Spirit not through works of the law but through hearing with faith, and having begun in that way they are not to be perfected by the flesh; they are to continue on in faith; they are to continue on in the Spirit.
Now Paul begins to argue from the Old Testament Scriptures for his understanding of the gospel, and he appeals, first of all, to Abraham, the father of the faithful, the father of faith, the first one here who believes this promise that was made to him, and he uses Abraham as a case in point that the only way to be blessed, the only way to be justified, is through faith; through trusting God’s promise. And then, corresponding to that, there is the negative illustration of the Old Testament, that those who are under the law are under the curse. So this contrast between blessing to those who are of faith and curse to those who are of the law.
Now the way I want to organize this message is to talk about the curse of the law first, then secondly redemption from the curse, and then thirdly the blessings of redemption. So we will bring in the bit about Abraham in verses six through nine in the third point.
I. The Curse of the Law
But let’s begin by looking at verses ten through 12 and consider the curse of the law. The curse of the law. Paul says, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, ‘Cursed by everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.’” Let’s consider three things here about the law.
(1) First of all, what the law requires. Paul explains the requirements of the law in verse ten by quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 26. Essentially, Paul says that the law requires three things. It requires personal obedience. Notice he says, “Cursed by everyone—” everyone “—who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law.” The law requires personal obedience. It requires the obedience of each individual to God.
Secondly, the law requires perpetual obedience. The word “abide” here is the word that means to remain or to continue or to persevere in. Paul says, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide in all things written in the book of the law,” or continue in them. The idea here is perpetual, ongoing obedience. The verb is in the present active indicative; it means an ongoing, continual obedience to the law of God; constancy in obeying the law.
And then perfect obedience is also required. Paul says, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all things written in the book of the law and do them.” That “all things” includes not only the ceremonial aspects of the law, like circumcision, but also all of God’s moral commands. So think of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments must be obeyed. Or, as the rabbis broke down the whole Mosaic law, there were 242 positive commands along with 365 prohibitions. All that God required.
But Jesus boiled it all down to two commands: “Love the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” In fact, when someone came to him and said, “How can I receive eternal life?” Jesus first pointed him to the law. He wants to show this man his need. He says, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” This young man answers in this way; he answers with this twofold love, love for God and love for neighbor. Jesus says, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live,” Jesus quoting there Leviticus 18, verse five, which Paul also quotes here in Galatians three, in verse 12.
The idea here is that every person must continue to perfectly obey the law if they want life. It is only through doing the law that life comes, and any infraction of the law means the law is broken. You remember how James says, in James chapter two, verse ten, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all.”
You might think of a chain. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and if one link in the chain breaks the whole chain is broken; in the same way, to break one of the Ten Commandments is to break the law. Think of a glass of water. The water is pure, but drop just one drop of cyanide in the water, the whole is polluted; the whole is poisoned. In the same way, even the smallest infractions of the law are breaking the law. This is what God’s law requires: perfect, perpetual obedience of every person, of every individual.
Now, we might ask the question, “Was this required only of the Jews, or was it required of the Gentiles as well?” And of course, the Mosaic law itself was given to the Jews; it was given to the Jewish people.
But several theologians have made a good argument that the essence of the moral law in that Mosaic covenant was a republication of God’s original covenant with Adam. John Owen makes that argument in his book On the dDominion of Sin and Grace, and others have as well. So the law is implicit for all human beings, given specifically, revealed specifically, to the children of Israel, but even in Romans two Paul says that the moral law is written on the hearts, even, of Gentiles, so that they are either approving or condemning themselves on the basis of that law.
So, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that all people are required to obey God as their Creator, that we are all required to obey the moral demands of God. This is what the law requires.
(2) But notice what relying upon the law brings. You see this, again, in verse ten: “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse.” To rely upon the law is to bring a curse, and I think the reason is pretty clear. It’s because no one actually, fully, perpetually, perfectly obeys the law.
Calvin in his commentary spells out the syllogism in Paul’s thought. Major premise: “Whoever has come short of any part of the law is cursed.” Minor premise: “All are held chargeable of this guilt.” Conclusion: “Therefore all are cursed.” We’re all guilty, because we’ve all broken the law! If we’ve not lived up to the law, if we’ve not obeyed the law fully in all of its demands, then we are under that curse, just as Adam and his whole posterity came under the condemnation of God. Through one man’s disobedience sin entered the world, and death through sin. So we’ve all sinned; we’ve all disobeyed; we are all under the condemnation of God, we’re all under the curse of the law.
So Paul is spelling this out. He’s showing that those who rely on the law for their justification, those who rely on the law for salvation, cannot be saved in that way, because they can’t fully obey the law; they only bring about the curse.
(3) And there is, then, this contrast running through this passage between the gospel and the law. This is the third thing to notice: a contrast between the gospel and the law.
You see this in verses ten through 12. I’ve already read verse ten, but 11 talks about the gospel, the way of faith, in contrast to the law, and in verse 12 the way of law. Look at verse 11: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for,” quoting Habakkuk chapter two, verse four, “‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
We’re familiar with that phrase because Paul also uses it in Romans chapter one, verse 17. In fact, this is the sentence that was so crucial for Martin Luther’s conversion. This is what he wrestled with: what is this justice of God? What does it mean that the righteous shall live by faith or the just shall live by faith? When he understood this he says he was born again and the doors of paradise were thrown open, that this righteousness is a gift from God; not only his demand, but what God himself gives to us.
Then verse 12 shows the basic principle of the law, “But the law is not of faith,” Paul says, “rather,” quoting Leviticus 18, verse five, “‘The one who does them shall live by them.” So, we could summarize it pretty simply in this way: the gospel involves believing, which leads to blessing and justification, but the way of the law involves doing, which leads to curse, and implicit there, condemnation. So here are the two ways to live: you either live by doing, and if you don’t do the law perfectly it leads to condemnation, or you live by believing, by trusting in what someone else has done for you, and that leads to blessing; that leads to justification.
So the curse of the law. We’re all under the curse; this is the big problem, isn’t it? This is the problem in our own hearts and in our own minds. We all know in our conscience we have broken the law. Our conscience whispers in our ears that we are violators, that we are transgressors, that we have disobeyed God. What then is the answer? How can we be justified? How can we be set free from the curse? Paul answers in verse 13.
II. Redemption from the Curse
So the second point, redemption from the curse; look at verse 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.’” Notice what Christ did, how he did it, and why he did it.
(1) Here’s what Christ did: he redeemed us. This word redeemed is a word from the marketplace. It was a word that was used to liberate a slave. Here’s a slave on the oxen block, and someone buys the slave and sets them free: the slave has been redeemed. The idea is to set someone free through the payment of a ransom, and it echoes the story of the exodus.
In fact, in Exodus chapter six, verse six, God told Moses to go to the people of Israel and tell them, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.” So, the exodus is the quintessential redemptive event in the Old Testament.
And of course, the New Testament picks up this language, that Christ has redeemed us; he has set us free by paying the ransom, through his own blood. So he has set us free from the penalty and from the slavery of sin. You remember how Peter says in First Peter one, verse 18, “You were not ransomed with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.” Christ’s blood is the ransom. Remember how Jesus said in Mark chapter ten, verse 45, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This is what Christ did. He redeemed us. He ransomed us.
(2) So how did he do it? Paul says “by becoming a curse for us.” By becoming a curse for us. “For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Paul is here quoting, again, from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 21, verse 23. Anyone who is punished by death and their bodies then hung out on a tree was under a curse. A hanged man is cursed by God, the text says, and the New Testament writers picked up on this passage of Scripture, and they see the cross; they see the crucifixion of Christ in terms of the curse. “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” That word “tree,” the word zulon (ζυλον) in Greek, is used I think about five times in the New Testament for the cross of Christ.
Peter, in Acts chapter five and in Acts chapter ten, talks about how Christ was crucified, how he was killed by being hanged on a tree. It’s interesting that Paul himself, in his first missionary journey, in Antioch of Pisidia, one of the churches to which the Galatian letter was probably addressed, in his first sermon to the people in Antioch of Pisidia Paul describes Christ as being hung on the tree and then taken down from the tree and laid in a tomb.
The other clearest example is again from Peter, First Peter two, verse 24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.” So Christ on this tree of crucifixion was made a curse for us. That’s what Paul says. He was made a curse. This is why Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Because in that moment, as Jesus dies on the cross, he’s not only burying our curse, but he is becoming a curse on our behalf.
The 19th-century Scottish professor John Duncan one day was talking to his students and he’s talking about this moment when the Father turns his face away from the Son, when Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And this Scottish professor says, “Aye, aye, do you know what it was? Dying on the cross, forsaken by his Father, do you know what it was? It was damnation!” he says, and he took it lovingly. That’s what Paul means. Jesus was damned on the cross. He took our condemnation upon himself. He took our sin and he took the penalty that that sin deserved.
Listen as Spurgeon explains. “The curse of the law was not easily taken away. In fact, there was but one way whereby it could be removed. The lightnings were in God’s hand, they must be launched; he said they must. The sword was unsheathed, divine justice must be satisfied; God vowed that it must. Vengeance was ready, vengeance must fall; God had said that it must. How then was the sinner to be saved? The only answer was this: the Son of God appears and he says, ‘Father, launch thy thunderbolts at me. Here is my breast. Plunge the sword of justice in here; here are my shoulders. Let the lash of vengeance on them.’ Thus Christ, our substitute, came forth and stood for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
What amazing grace! What amazing love, that the Father would send his Son and that the Son would take our curse, would take our sin. It’s the same idea we’ve already seen this morning in Second Corinthians chapter five, that Christ, “he who knew no sin for our sake became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Do you know what that means? It means that when Jesus hung on the cross God treated Jesus as if he was a sinner, so that he could treat you as if you were not a sinner! That’s the great exchange! He exchanges his obedience and righteousness for our sin; he takes our sin, he takes our punishment, we get his obedience, we get his perfect record! God treats Jesus as if he lived my life, so he could treat me as if I had lived the perfect, obedient life of Jesus Christ, the only one who fully, perpetually, perfectly, personally obeyed the law.
Martin Luther understood this point, and in his commentary on Galatians 3:13 this is what he says: “All the prophets did foresee in spirit that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer, et cetera that ever was or could be in all the world, for he, being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, is not now an innocent person and without sins, but a sinner. Our most merciful Father sent his only Son into the world and laid upon him the sins of all men, saying, ‘Be thou, Peter, that denier; Paul, that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor; David, that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the apple in paradise, that thief which hanged on the cross, and briefly, be thou the person which hath committed the sins of all men. See, therefore, that thou pay and satisfy for them.’ Here now comes the law and sayeth, ‘I find him a sinner, therefore let him die upon the cross,’ and so he setteth upon him and killeth him. By this means the whole world is purged and cleansed from all sins.”
When God sent Jesus to die on the cross and Jesus took his place there, God looked at Jesus and he saw your sins. He saw you! And he was made a curse on your behalf, so that you could be redeemed. That’s the gospel, folks. That’s the gospel. That’s how we’re redeemed. We’re redeemed by Christ paying our ransom, taking our sin, taking our curse.
Remember that old hymn by Philip Bliss?
“I will sing of my Redeemer,
And his wondrous love to me.
On the cruel cross he suffered,
From the curse to set me free.
Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With his blood he purchased me!
On the cross he sealed my pardon,
Paid my debt, and made me free.”
Praise God! We’re redeemed from the curse of the law.
(3) Now, why did he do it? Notice that verse 14 begins with “so that.” “He redeemed us from the curse of the law so that” he could do something.
III. The Blessings of the Redemption
And that leads us right into the third and final point, so that the blessings of redemption might be ours. The blessings of redemption. I want you to see what this blessing includes and then how receive it.
(1) First of all, what it includes. It includes righteousness. Now here’s where the example of Abraham comes in in verse six: “Just as Abraham believed God and it was ‘counted to him as righteousness,’” quoting Genesis 15:6. Then look again at verse eight: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’” Abraham received righteousness, his faith credited to him as righteousness, and the gospel was preached to Abraham in this promise, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” The blessing, it seems pretty clear, is the blessing of justification.
Now what is justification? I’ve defined it many times before, but here’s what it is essentially; it means that God declares us righteous in the sight of his law. Paul’s whole point here is that Abraham was justified in the same way the Gentiles are now justified. He was justified by faith! He was justified before he was circumcised, he was justified before the giving of the law, and he was justified before he obeyed God! He was justified, declared righteous, because he believed. He believed. He trusted God’s promise, and in trusting God’s promise God credited righteousness to him.
Now there is perhaps, here, a hint of Paul’s doctrine of imputation, the imputation of righteousness, that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. Paul does not develop it here in Galatians as he does in Romans, but he does quote Genesis 15:6 again in Romans chapter four, verse three; I want to read verses three through five. Paul says, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due, and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
When you read that in light of what Paul also says in Romans chapter five, that through the obedience of one man the many were made righteous, that one man being Christ. Christ’s obedience leads to righteousness, justification, and life for all who receive the gift of righteousness. You put all those things together, and it seems pretty clear that Paul’s point here is that faith is the instrumental cause of our justification, faith is what lays hold of righteousness, and it’s Christ’s obedience that is the meritorious cause of our justification, the basis upon which we are justified.
Now why is this important? Well, number one, it’s the only way to salvation. This is how you’re saved. You’re not saved by understanding all this in detail, but you’re saved by trusting Christ and what he did for you. You trust Christ’s work on the cross, that it counts for you. That’s how you become a Christian, that’s how you’re saved, that’s how you’re justified. But it’s also the way to assurance. It’s the only way to really be assured that your sins are forgiven, is to look to Christ.
You remember that great allegory by John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Here’s Christian. He’s journeying from the city of Destruction to the Celestial City. Remember he has a burden on his back, and that burden represents the weight of his sin, this burden on his back. He wants to be relieved of his burden. How do I get rid of the burden?
He meets a man named Evangelist, and Evangelist tells him to go through the straight gate, make his way to the cross, make his way to Calvary, and there at the cross he’ll find relief for his burden. So Christian makes his way there, and along the road he meets another man named Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Mr. Worldly Wiseman says, “No, you don’t need to go through the straight gate. I’ll tell you where to go; go to a village, the village of Morality, and there’s a man in the village named Legality, and he will help you get off your burden.” But to go there you have to go by this high hill.
And so Christian takes a detour and he goes by this high hill, and the high hill proves to be a high mountain; it’s Mount Sinai. As Christian comes under the shadow of that mountain he’s afraid the mountain will fall on him and crush him. Lightning and fire is coming from the mountain, and Christian is paralyzed in his tracks, he’s despairing again of losing his burden, until Evangelist comes to him again and points him once again to the cross, that that’s the way, that’s the place. You can never be justified through the law, through Sinai! Don’t go to that mountain; go to the other mountain; go to Mount Calvary!
See, some of you this morning, it may be that all your life you’ve been trying to get your righteousness at Mount Sinai, and you’re at the wrong mountain. You will never be right with God by keeping the law. There’s only one mountain to go to, and it’s Mount Calvary, and it’s there that Christian loosed and that burden rolls off his back and down the hill and into an empty tomb. He finds that he is forgiven, that he is free.
I heard a story many years ago about a woman struggling with the assurance of her salvation; she just could not come to a settled assurance that she was saved and that she really was right with God. She would look at her life, she would look at her works, she would look at the things she did, and there was always reason to doubt, and finally a wise pastor said to her, “Until you are satisfied with what satisfies God, you’ll never be satisfied.”
Brothers and sisters, do you know what satisfies God? The blood of Christ. The righteousness of Christ; the cross of Christ. That’s what satisfies God. That’s where you find absolution! That’s where you find forgiveness, that’s where you find justification. You find it in the curse-bearing cross of Jesus Christ. We get righteousness through justification, through Christ’s redemptive work.
Secondly, we get sonship, or adoption. Verse seven, “It is those of faith who are sons of Abraham.” Now, why the focus here on the sons of Abraham? Well, because the issue in the Galatian churches is who belongs to the true people of God? These Judaizers believed that the true people of God are defined by circumcision, the mark of the covenant given to Abraham, and only if the Gentiles are circumcised and keep the law can they be a part of the family, they can be part of the true family of God.
Paul makes the point, “No, Abraham was justified in the same way. He was justified by faith, he was justified before circumcision, and he is the man of faith,” and it is those who are of faith, it’s those who believe, it’s those who trust the promise; they are the sons of Abraham. They are the children.
Paul will then develop this thought, the idea of sonship, and he uses the word sonship because in the Roman world sons were the legal heirs; the inheritance went to sons. But this is for men and women, sons and daughters; it’s for all who are in Christ. In fact, Paul will later say in Galatians three, “There is neither male nor female,” right? In Christ we all receive the blessings of sonship, we all receive the blessing of adoption.
In fact, in Galatians four, verse seven, he talks about the “spirit of adoption who comes into our hearts, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” So, sonship, adoption, and all the inheritance that belongs to us in Christ comes through Christ’s redemptive work. We sang it this morning, didn’t we? “The Father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen One bring many sons to glory.” Christ and his work on the cross brings us into our inheritance; he brings us sonship and all the benefits that belong to God’s family.
Do you know what this means? It means this: that if you believe in Jesus, you’re in! You’re in the family. And listen: there are no stepchildren in God’s family. There are no second-rate children, there are no second-rate citizens, there are no favorites. We’re all equally accepted and loved as sons and daughters of our Father.
So justification, that’s a blessing of redemption, adoption or sonship is a blessing of redemption, and then thirdly, the promised Spirit. Look at verse 14. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse in our place,” verse 14, “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit by faith.”
Paul’s already said in Galatians 3:1-5 that they received the Spirit by hearing with faith, and now he brings it back again to the Holy Spirit. Listen, the Spirit is the mark of sonship. That’s how you know! The Spirit is the one who gives assurance. The Spirit is the one who comes into our hearts. The Spirit is part of our inheritance; he is the guarantee of our redemption. He’s the first installment, the deposit, the first installment of our inheritance. So Paul emphasises again here the Spirit, and again, this will become even more important as this letter unfolds. So these are the blessings of redemption: justification, adoption, and the Holy Spirit.
(2) Now, how do we receive the blessing? Final question and thought here. Paul answers in two ways in verse 14. First of all, we receive the blessing in Christ, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. In Christ Jesus! For those of you who are in the class we did downstairs this morning, it is solus Christus, in Christ alone. It is in Christ alone that the blessing comes. We only get it in Christ!
Calvin said, “Our salvation and all of its parts are found in Christ Jesus, so seek it in him and in no others, drink from this fountain and from no others.” It’s only in Christ that we find salvation, and it’s found in union with him. When we believe in him we become one with him. His history counts for our history, his past replaces our past. His obedience is our obedience, his righteousness our righteousness. The Spirit is given to us, and it all comes in Christ.
So that’s the first answer, and then here’s the second: it is in Christ Jesus, and it is through faith. Again, verse 14, “So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit by faith.” By faith. It comes through believing, not through doing. It comes through trusting, not through working. It comes through resting, not through performing. Faith is, in Calvin’s words, “the quiet assurance of a conscience that relies on God alone.”
Here’s the issue; this is really what it boils down to: you are either a person of faith or you’re a person of works. You are either a person who receives blessing by trusting, or you’re a person who is under the curse because of doing. It’s one way or the other, and if you trust in Christ, if you believe God’s promise, if you rest in him, if you rely upon him, then the promise of Scripture is that your sins are forgiven, you’re declared righteous in God’s sight, you’re welcomed into God’s family, Christ’s spirit is yours, and you are one with Christ. That’s faith. That’s what comes to faith, the blessing, the blessing of redemption.
I’ll close with these words from Augustus Toplady. This expresses well, I think, the heart of faith. So if you’re a believer this morning, echo these words in your heart; and if you’re not, if you’re not a Christian, if you’ve been depending on yourself, relying upon yourself and your works and your performance and not on Christ, then this morning why not declare spiritual bankruptcy and make these words your prayer?
“Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands.
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die!”
That’s the answer. It’s empty hands clinging to Christ and relying upon him. Let’s pray.
Gracious Father, we thank you so much for the gift of your Son. We thank you for the gift of his obedience and his righteousness. We thank you that there is an answer for the curse, that there is redemption from the curse, release from the curse. We thank you that that burden of sin can be removed from our shoulders and buried forever in the empty tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you that on the cross Christ bore our curse, that he bore our burden, and that in his resurrection you pronounced once and for all that you were satisfied with the work of your Son. Thank you that the words of Jesus ring true down through the centuries, “It is finished.”
And we declare this morning that we trust in Christ and in Christ alone. The impulse of our hearts now is we want to love you, we want to worship you, we want to obey you, but we love and we worship and obey not so that you will give us this blessing, but because you have blessed us in Christ. You’ve already graced us in Christ; you’ve given us the blessing; you’ve pronounced it through your Son.
And so now we pray that by the power of your Spirit we would live in glad adoration and in loving, trustful, simple obedience to you. We pray that you would work in our hearts now as we come to the table, and that even at the table we would remember that the table symbolizes for us this great exchange, Christ’s body and blood broken and shed for us so that we might take him and all that he is as ours. So draw near to us now; we pray it in Jesus’ name and for his sake, Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
