By Barnabas Piper
One of the most foundational truths of the gospel, of being a Christian, is that we are unable to save ourselves because we are sinners. In our nature, we are rebellious against God and cannot make ourselves righteous and good enough to enter his perfect, holy presence. Yet somehow, some way, we convince ourselves that good works will save us and that following a moral code will gain us justification in God’s eyes. It is an easy thing to believe: do good and earn rewards. In this way we are like the Galatians.
What Paul said is something much stronger than “this is incorrect” or “make some adjustments to your thinking.” He said that “all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse….it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law” (Galatians 3:10–11). Not only was the Galatians’ focus on law-keeping failing to save, it was keeping them under a curse of judgment by God. By depending on the law, they were condemning themselves to hell.
Thank God the passage does not stop there (nor does the gospel). Paul did not leave us with bad news but reminded us that Jesus has wiped away the curse of the law, calling us to look to Him in faith: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming the curse for us” (v.13). First Peter 2:24 says he “bore our sins in his body on the tree,” and Isaiah 53 is rich with hope because Jesus carried our curse and stepped in to take our punishment. The curse of the law was broken by the sacrifice of Jesus.
Paul pointed out that the promise was not to multiple offsprings of Abraham, but to one. The whole world is blessed through Jesus. This is a promise for the nations, a fulfillment of God’s covenant to Abraham. In Genesis 12:1–7 God called Abraham out of paganism to follow him and promised to make Abraham into a great nation. This blessing was not Abraham’s ego or world domination; it was a promise to bring hope to the world through Abraham’s offspring. “I will make your name great and you will be a blessing….and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2,3). The law, which came centuries later than this promise, doesn’t change it. The law served a different purpose altogether. Salvation is through Jesus alone, and all who have faith in Jesus are members of the promise God made to Abraham, both blessed and commissioned to spread the blessing of Christ to our world.
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