Galatians 3:10-14

I was listening to a friend of mine talk about her grown kids and she made a statement which really struck me as odd.  In fact while we were together her kids called her a couple of times about their car not starting.  She told us several other things that had happened to them recently and she said twice in a relatively short conversation that her boys were unlucky.  Unlucky, that statement kind of bothered me.  I never thought about any of my kids as ever being unlucky.  To me that statement reflects an odd theology.  Are some people really under a black cloud and they get their share and somebody else’s of bad luck.  During the conversation Tanya leaned over and sang a little Buck Owens, “If it weren’t for bad luck… I’d have no luck at all.”  Are there people who live like Buck Owens?  

Then I came to our passage this morning in Galatians 3 and I was reminded of what I had heard about being unlucky. I thought well maybe she was right.  Maybe Buck Owens was right.  What they call bad luck, Paul called a curse.  This is the first and only time in Paul’s writing that he used the word curse. Now, I am not sure what the difference is between a curse and bad luck, but they kind of sound like the same thing.  Galatians 3:10-14 talks about people living under a curse. 

And what is fascinating is Paul used another word in our five verses for the first time.  Let’s have some fun and do some Greek.  My Good Time Bible Hour kids already know these words, so you don’t help your parents.  Here are three Greek words:
aggelos = means angel or messenger.
euaggelion = means eu; good like eulogy and angel; good news
epaggelia  = is epi: over or  top angel?  Promise

Paul uses the word curse and the word promise for the first times in our passage this morning.  Obviously, then I have to ask, “Which do you want, curse or promise?”  The question for this morning is Curse or Promise? Do you want to be Buck Owens or do you want to be… Blood, Sweat and Tears?  (Play part of God Bless the Child) 
“Mama may have, papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own.”

In our paragraph from Galatians Paul tells us about the curse.  He tells us about the promise and he tells us how we get out from one and into the other.  How do we get from Buck Owens, curse and unlucky to Blood Sweat and Tears, promise and blessed? “I want to know that!”

Before we find out how, we have to do some work.  Aw man!  We have to do some work in the Old Testament.  In our short passage Paul quotes four Old Testament passages. Paul packs a bunch of exegesis into Galatians 3:10-14.  He quotes two passages about curses; one about promise and one about how.  Let’s get to work

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Let’s begin in Deuteronomy; the 5th book of the OT.  The people are preparing to enter the promise land and Moses doesn’t want them to forget the commandments of God.  The Levites are going to quote a bunch of the commands of God and then in a loud voice and the people are going to say amen.  Let’s do it that way.

Deuteronomy 27:15-26  
"Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol-- a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of the craftsman's hands-- and sets it up in secret." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" 
"Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" 
"Cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" 
"Cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the road." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" 
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
(There are six more of them we are going to skip and go to the last one which Paul quotes in our Galatians’ passage)
"Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

Notice you have just agreed to be cursed if you don’t keep all the laws.  Maybe you should have thought a second before saying amen. What we need to get from this passage is, those who don’t keep the laws get cursed! Scary!

Now we go back a couple of books to Leviticus. 

Leviticus 18:1-5  The LORD said to Moses,  "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God.  You must not do as they do in Egypt, where  you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.’”

Those who were under the Law of Moses had to live up to the Law of Moses.  The man who keeps the decrees was to live by them. It was all about doing and not doing or being punished. 

Now let’s go to the other side, and read a verse about living with a promise.  The prophet Habakkuk complained to God about how bad life really was and that things were not fair.  In one of God’s answers, God contrasts the righteous with the wicked, and how the righteous live. 

Habakkuk 2:4-6   “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright-- but the righteous will live by his faith--  indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.  Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion!”

Notice the woes to those who trust in their stuff to save them in times of disaster. And in contrast notice the righteous will survive because of their faith.  The people who trust in stuff are woed.  Those who live in trust, according to their faith, will be blessed. 

One more quote that Paul is going to use about the how.  This is hard work. 

Deuteronomy 21:22-23  If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Here is the curse thing again.  There was a curse on all who died on a tree.  Ancient Israel was prohibited from leaving a dead person to hang for more than a day.  Other common practices of the time would leave a person hanging until the rotting corpse fell off the tree. 

I told you this would be work. All four of these verses had something to do with curses or blessings. Now that we have a handle on those four references let’s find out how Paul uses them and who he says is Buck Owens and who is Blood Sweat and Tears and how we get from one to the other. 

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Galatians 3:10-12  All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."  (Deuteronomy 27:26) Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."  (Habakkuk 2:4) The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." (Leviticus 18:5)   

Let’s begin with the Curse.  The curse is upon all who rely upon the law to be made right with God. The Law is a curse for those attempting to live under it for at least five reasons:
1) No one has ever successfully accomplished it; except Jesus.  You can’t live a perfect life.  Have you ever really tried to make sure every word you said was completely true, no fudging, no hyperbolizing?  The curse part is fail once and you have failed.  You have to get a 100% to pass. Wow, that is a curse.  I have to be perfect or I get the curse.  
2) Laws beget Laws. One law has to be explained by more laws.  10 commandments turn into hundreds of Laws to explain the laws, to explain the laws, to explain the laws.  Even we have to send our smartest people to school for a bunch of years just to keep our Laws straight. 
3) It makes you mean.  Have you noticed this?  Those who are trying the hardest to live by all the laws end up being people you don’t want to be around.  I’m not sure why? Perhaps it is part of the curse.
4) It makes you come out in silly places.  Have you ever attempted to get anything done with the county?  We had a sewer problem?  But it wasn’t the county’s problem because it wasn’t on their side of main… It took them longer to confirm it wasn’t there problem then it would have done to fix it.  There is one of those hyperbolize things which is a lie.  I can’t even get through a sermon without being cursed. 
5) It is a hard place to live because we just can’t do it!

Living by the law is the curse.

In contrast to attempting to live up to a law system, Paul tells us the righteous have been made alive not because of doing, but by faith.  Wow, that is amazing. I can have faith.  I can believe in the promise of God.  I put my trust in the words God has spoken!  Faith is doable.  Those who have faith can be righteous.  That’s where I want to live. Not under the curse of the law but under the righteousness of faith! But how to I get there?  How do I move out from curse and into righteousness?  “Hey, what about the promise thing you said?” I getting there.

Galatians 3:13-14  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Deuteronomy 21:22)   He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Here is where all this comes together and makes an amazing argument and shows how we move from curse to promise. Here is the logic:
1) Anyone who dies on a tree is cursed. That is what Deuteronomy said.
2) Jesus died on a tree.  He was cursed.
3) The Law is a curse.
4) Jesus became the curse for us
5) When we have faith in his death on the tree, we get the promised blessing.

Christ became the curse. He redeemed us so that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles.  Remember Abraham last week?  God promised him that through him all the peoples of the earth would be blessed.  It happened in Christ becoming the curse!

I learned a new word English recently; Antistrophe.  Anyone know it? It began as a music word about moving back and forth while singing.  As an English word it means: The repetition of words in an inverse order; like, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”  It is reversing the words and reversing the meaning.

Christ is the ultimate antistrophe!   Christ assumes the human situation so humans can assume Christ’s situation. Jesus the only perfect human, the only one to live under the law and do it; should have been the one with the promise.  Instead he went to the tree to become the curse which turned gave all of us who should be cursed because we can’t do the law, the epaggenlion, the promise!   

So, Buck Owens or Blood, Sweat and Tears?  Cursed or Promised?  Unlucky or Blessed?  Jesus became the antistrophe, so by faith, we can choose.

Los Alamos Church of Christ
March 15, 2009