Galatians 3: Living Only for JesusSample

There are only two ways by which we can ever be accepted by God and be considered by Him to be righteous:

1. perfectly obey His laws and so never sin. (We would then be a ‘righteous’ person. We would be a perfect person)
2. by faith trust that God has provided a way by which He can make us righteous

Can you work out from this passage what is wrong with trying to be accepted by God the first way? What happens to a person who tries to be accepted the first way?

Look at the text. Paul says that anyone who depends on obeying the law as the way of being accepted by God is actually under a curse if he does not perfectly obey it. (You’ll find that in Deuteronomy 27:26.) 

The trouble is, none of us can perfectly obey! We’re all sinners. We’re all failures. And that can mean only one thing. No person will ever be able to be accepted by God by the first way—by keeping the law. Acceptance by God law-way is impossible for a sinner.

Can you see that there can only be one conclusion to this: Every one of us is under God’s curse. Therefore we can only ever be accepted by Him faith-way.

Verse 13 tells us that when Jesus died on that cross, He became what we are—someone who is cursed. He became a curse for us. The curse of God which was on us fell on Him. By dying in our place, He took God’s curse on Himself. It was the terrible curse of God against sin.

Just stop for a moment and think about this. Have you ever considered that you are under God’s curse so long as you are a sinner trying to live your life your way, doing your own thing, and ignoring His solution of the cross? Can you begin to understand what a dreadful thing it was for God to have had to make His own Son a curse for you? 

Can you see how terribly serious sin is? Can you see that God had to do something unbelievably drastic in order to deal with your sin? He had to put your sin on His Son, so that He would suffer the curse for you.

If you look up Deuteronomy 21:23, you will also discover that under Jewish law God’s curse was on anyone who was hanged. Paul quotes that verse here, and shows that it applied to Jesus when He was on the cross. When Jesus hung on that cross, it was a sign that He was a cursed man. 

This tells us that we should never, ever treat sin lightly. It’s very dangerous to joke about sin. It’s a very serious error to make fun of what happened to Jesus on the cross. It’s even more serious to ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t matter and not respond to it.

Do you remember that in the last study we talked about Abraham? I said that the real descendants of Abraham are those who have faith, as he did. Well, Paul comes back to that in verse 14 (read the verse again).

God promised Abraham a great blessing. Though we are not Jews, that blessing comes upon us when we have faith in God, as Abraham had. We receive it by faith in Jesus Christ.

What do you think that blessing is? What does it mean to be ‘blessed’?

Whatever this blessing is, we have seen enough in our studies to know by now that we cannot earn it, or work for it, or bribe God for it, or receive it by being ‘good’. We receive it by faith. It comes to us faith-way, not law-way!

In fact you have already been told what the blessing is! The clue lies in Galatians 2:20. The blessing is Christ Himself. He comes to us as God’s gift of true life. He not only does something about our sin and guilt, but He comes by His Spirit and enters into us to dwell within us. 

He comes to us through faith, and begins to live His life in us. By faith we receive the promise of the Spirit, and we begin to know the life of God working in us and through us. That’s the great blessing God has showered upon us!