Galatians 3:10-11. 10For 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.” 11Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The Judaizers believed that a person started with faith but then graduated to law. They said that the Gentiles were saved by faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, but now they must learn how to keep the law in order to receive the blessings of the Messiah. This is the essence of all religion—trusting God to help you keep his law, and thus proving your faith. Paul, however, will double down on his argument that trust in God’s Son and law-keeping are two totally different ways to live. And only one of them brings blessing, while the other brings the curse.
At any given moment, we are all living in one of two ways. We are either “relying on works of the law,” or we are trusting in Christ. The foundational question we must constantly be asking ourselves is, “What am I relying on today to justify me? To give me purpose? What, if I lost it, would make my life meaningless?” If your answer to these kinds of questions is anything other than Christ alone, then you are living by the works of the law, and you are cursed.
Cursed? Yes, cursed. Because the law is “all or nothing”—“Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them”—trying to obtain justification through law observance (even your own self-made law) is impossible. Yes, you can gain forgiveness and eternal life if you can obey “all things” in God’s law (good luck). But only Christ could ever successfully do that. The rest of us are cursed failures in our relationship to God’s law. We are both objectively cursed to hell as lawbreakers, and we are subjectively cursed by all the shame, anxiety, and insecurity that a life of law-keeping produces within us.
Sure, on the surface, “relying on works of the law” is super enticing. The law will always offer us a sense of control. If I do A, I get B. Simple. If I’m good, I will be blessed (and let’s not talk about the “curse” side of this equation). But living from this formula is itself a curse. What seems to offer us control controls us. How? By accusing and condemning us when we fall short (which we always do). And so we double down—try harder, do more, recommit. Or, sadly, we begin to doubt our own salvation or our beloved Savior. All in all, the law-life is the cursed life.
You: In what ways do you use law-keeping to gain a sense of control? Can you see how living this way has been a curse?
You in Christ: How does union with Christ free us from relying on works of the law for our meaning and purpose?
Christ in you: How does Christ in you allow you to “live by faith”?
Pray: Father, I want to live by faith, but I confess that law-keeping sneaks back in over and over again. Let Jesus bring me back out into the life of faith today. Amen.
