Scripture Daily

Context No. 62 of 4322 · Galatians

Context · Reflection

Galatians 3:10-14: in context

10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.” 12The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.” 13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” 14that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Paul is writing to churches in Galatia where other teachers have arrived insisting his Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. This passage is the sharpest edge of his argument, and it is built almost entirely out of quotations from that same law.

He stacks four of them. Deuteronomy: cursed is everyone who does not keep everything written in the book of the law. Habakkuk: the righteous will live by faith. Leviticus: the man who does these things will live by them. His conclusion from the first is that a system requiring everything leaves anyone who has missed anything under a curse. Then the fourth quotation, and it is startling. Deuteronomy again: cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That line was written about the body of an executed criminal hung up for display, and Paul applies it to the crucifixion.

So Christ took the curse into himself, and the blessing promised to Abraham runs out to the Gentiles, who were never under the law to begin with. Paul is not attacking the law from outside. He is quoting it against a particular use of it. Which of the standards I hold myself to would fail on its own terms if I actually met it every time but one?

Sources