They weren’t just having bad theology but were in danger of finding themselves against the very God they were trying to serve. Galatians 3:19, It was added/sent again. In this case knowing the teaching of Deuteronomy reveals the urgency of the point Paul is making. The ‘Curse of the Law’ and the Inclusion of the Gentiles: Galatians 3. If Christ’s is restoring the world and making it right, cursing the generations to come seems a bit counterproductive. Similarly here in the U.S we HAD a judicial system, sadly ruled by unrighteous people over unrighteous people. As we already know we can’t. Which law is the apostle Paul speaking about in Galatians above? 18–31). Clearly Paul is independent of the Jerusalem church. 8–10). Gods commandments are analogous to guidelines that wise parents in human families give to their children. Yeshua came to save us from the penalty of the law, not from the law itself. the Law (of Moses) has found me a violator, a transgressor … and has sentenced me to death, eternal death in a place called Hell! The paidagogos actually would have been a harsh disciplinarian for the Jewish people, providing some protection but generally making the Jewish person aware of many transgressions so that Jews might turn from legalistic rule-following and be declared righteous legally on the basis of faith and being faithful to Yeshua, whose trusting faithfulness to God the Father purchased our salvation.”. Instead this is an argument about who can be considered a child of God. Paul says, “O foolish Galatians! (2.) Paul stresses that righteousness comes through faith over and over because we cannot live up to the expectation of “fully obeying God” (Deuteronomy 28:1) 3:1, ESV). It also shows how to walk in righteousness once Messiah has forgiven us of our sins. 28:15). The Law can point out where we fail and fall short of God’s will, but it cannot pronounce us righteous; that was not its purpose. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Matthew chapters five through seven). Righteousness, then, cannot be accomplished through the law but must come completely separate. Galatians 3—What is “the curse of the law”, what was “added” and who are what is “school master”. (Rom. In Galatians 3:10 he references the Old Testament text by stating that “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law”. Reposted from 2011: Read Galatians 3 at Bible Gateway. He is redeedimg the whole world, not just us as individuals. 27:26) Galatians 3:13 Context. They need to now only know what these verses say, but also the context in which they are found. It doesn’t seem all that unusual that Paul required the reader or listener in those days to understand the context of the passage of the Hebrew Bible if in fact the Galatians were Jews. Previously: Galatians 3:1-9, what saves a man We just finished reading in Gal 3:1-9, that Paul’s topic is what saves or justifies a man. The general principles of the Torah are inviolate and have never changed. Instead of being harmful, obedience to Gods holy law yields many benefits. Paul used contrasting things to highlight the points that were being made. 13–14 - Volume 32 Issue 1 - T. L. Donaldson Stern explains that the ancient Greek paidagogos had no teaching function and although the Torah had as one of its goals the leading of Jewish people to the Messiah, as Paul explicitly states at Romans 10:4, that is not the import of the present verse. Understanding the blessings and the curses even better shows us clearly the danger the Galatians were putting themselves in. One purpose of the Torah was to identify our sin (1 John 3:4)  and hence our need for the  Messiah who forgives that sin. This includes the ten commandments, the biblical feasts, the Sabbath, the dietary laws, and all the laws and principles that regulate moral behavior as well as tell us how to love Elohim with our total being and our neighbor as ourselves. Daniel 1:8-16 - What was Wrong with the King’s Food? Yeshua explains all these things in his landmark and pivotal teaching that history now refers to as the Sermon on the Mount (i.e. Two possibilities remain to explain Paul’s scriptural argument in Gal 3, although they are not mutually exclusive. We need to remember that this is what he is talking about when we read the next portion of Gal 3. First, Paul could be addressing God-fearing Gentiles, people who were already practicing a form of Judaism and were now being advised to fully convert to Judaism in order to be right with God. Galatians 3:13 informs us that Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law, that is, everything that was written in the Book of the Law. Jer 7:21–22) to the nation of Israel’s legal system because of the firstborn Israelites’ (who YHVH commissioned to be the priests of their families, Exod 19:22 cp. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. For it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." Beginning in Chapter 3, Paul will begin to create an argument from Scripture which shows that God is doing something new in the Gospel. This separate righteousness can only be found through faith. In the present age, however, Paul argues that Gentiles are able to be right with God apart from the “works of the Law.” This is Paul’s contribution to salvation history, something which he has already called a “revelation from God” in 1:11-12. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.' At Mount Sinai, the eternal principles of the Torah were codified into an administrative legal system (with civil penalties including the institution of a sacrificial system as a penalty for sin, which the Bible calls this system “the law of Moses”), and this codified system became the constitution of the nation of Israel. It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Gal. For this reason, that the Law makes a demand upon us which we cannot meet. Sperma means “a seed containing life within itself from which a plant germinates; the virile semen and its seed, children, offspring or progeny; family, posterity; of divine energy of the Set-Apart Spirit operating within the soul by which we are regenerated Luke 3:8.” Here Paul is stating unequivocally that if one belongs to Messiah, then one is a seed, offspring or progeny Abraham and an heir to the blessings of Abraham. By faith we have the ability to enter the covenant promise given to Abraham through Jesus Christ, freeing us from the curse of the law. I like Paul’s message in this part of the reading, and I like how we can really take something out of this for future study. Read it, believe it and follow these principles as they lead and guide you into the kingdom of heaven through Yeshua the Messiah! (3.) If Abraham were a proto-typical Gentile convert to Judaism, then perhaps one could argue that the sign of the covenant with Abraham was circumcision, therefore a present-day Gentile convert ought to following in Abraham’s faith and fully convert. Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), What is the Mark of the Beast? Why did Saul Persecute the Jewish Christians? III. Why the curse of the Law? Being a Jew and a part of the chosen people, Paul needed to demonstrate how non-Jews could be a part of God’s family, so he turns to Abraham. At the same time, YHVH gave them the institution of the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system (Gal 3:19), which (along with the rest of the Torah) pointed them to their need for Yeshua the Savior (Gal 3:16, 24). Just as Greg says the curses in Deuteronomy 28 are quite horrible and show just how terrible sin is to just and wrathful God. Gal 4. Galatians 3:13, Curse of the law. Yeshua came to save us from the penalty of the law, not from the law itself. And by God’s Seed He made a way to save them. Book Review: Brant Pitre, Michael Barber, and John Kincaid. His dissertation was published as Jesus the Bridegroom by Pickwick Books in 2012. Paul could of course mean that the Gentiles were under the law's curse quite apart from the curse on Jewish restrictiveness, since Gentiles also fall short of all that the law requires in their own way (cf. This message deals with the curse of the law. Knowing the Hebrew Bible scriptures and using them to understand the full meaning of the New Testament is no different. So what other law was added? 2:20), we are no longer under this guardian.” (Gal. That the works of the law cannot justify, because Abraham was justified by faith long before the law of Moses was given, Galatians 3:6, Galatians 3:7. At the early part of chapter 3 Paul once again turns to the familiar Abraham story, and the promise of Genesis 15. In ancient Greece a paidagogos was a slave who conducted a boy to and from school and was not actually the school teacher. Sadly, the mainstream church doesn’t teach these biblical truths. The curse of the law is not the Torah-law, but the penalty for violating it. 4: 24-25)… Glory! Paul “began the chapter by contrasting Spirit and Law” (p.148). For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them." Possibly. 07:27 "for what the law could not do in that it was weak 07:30 "through the flesh. " However, according to the Bible, that isn’t the only purpose of the Torah. Matt 5:23 is a great example of what could have happened. Who has bewitched you? Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Galatians 3:10,13 10For as man y as are of the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is e veryone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”… 13Christ has 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” We had to look at a lot of different scripture but I think that by going through Habakkuk, Deuteronomy, and Genesis we can see a lot clearer that why Paul was all about justification by faith rather than the law. A similar situation occurred with the law of Moses, except the source for it was the Word, will, heart and character of Elohim, which he had revealed his servants of antiquity, and which then had been passed on down as well as additional laws that were given to Moses pertaining to governing the nation of Israel. The church’s concept and understanding of the schoolmaster is incorrect. 07:36 The law is spiritual, but we are carnal. Because Jesus had come they no longer needed the law and by relying on the law to save them they were actually damning themselves. Paul indeed speaks of "the curse of the law" (Galatians 3:13 Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree: American King James Version ×), meaning a curse decreed by the law. And HE now stands as Victor! Sunday church goers, trying to prove that the law is a curse, quote Galatians (out of context) more than any other book. I think that is what Paul was getting at when he was speaking to the Galatian’s; he was confronting them, and challenging them at the same time. Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.' Do these Galatians Scripture passages nullify the YHVH’s Torah-law as the mainstream church teaches, or do they validate the Torah as the church does not teach? No! You can verify this definition in Webster’s dictionary. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The law shows us how incomprehensible flawed we are in comparison to an infinite and holy Godhead, but we are free from the law now. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It does say in Galatians 4:12 that “formerly, when you did not know God you were slaves to those who by nature are not Gods.” This must mean that they were Gentiles who worshiped other pagan gods. Learn how your comment data is processed. 3: 25). 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. Paul goes on to quote Habakkuk in verse 11 by saying, “Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, the righteous will live by faith.” Read and find out…. I am guilty! An example of such a codified system of law would be the American Constitution, the principles of which the founding fathers gleaned from many sources (including the biblical Torah, the ancient Greeks, English common law, the English Magna Carta and the French philosophers), which they then combined to make the legal code that now governs the United States (in theory). These are the eternal principles of the Torah of which Yeshua said that not one jot or tittle would pass away, that we must obey (both letter and spirit), and that obedience to will determine the saint’s rewards in the kingdom of Elohim. Righteousness, then, cannot be accomplished through the law but must come completely separate. Anything that could possibly go wrong for these people will if they cannot completely obey God’s commands. But, we ust also look to the Old Testament saints. 3:1). Second, Paul may be using these scripture because they are the texts used by the agitators in his churches. This shouldn’t be a difficult thing to comprehend in light of John’s statement in Luke 3:8. Why did Paul do this if the Galatians were primarily Gentiles? Galatians 3:13, Curse of the law. This is what Paul is saying in Gal 3:24. How does understanding the “curse of the Law” as an allusion to Deuteronomy’s “Blessing and Cursing” change the way we understand Paul in this passage? They were blessed, but this blessing didn’t come from perfectly following the law as Deauteronomy 28 says. Here’s the starting point for understanding the gospel, Paul says: Jesus Christ has been crucified. The civil penalties that the law of Moses prescribes along with the sacrificial and Levitical systems were temporary institutions that pointed, like a schoolmaster, tutor or pedagogue (to use Paul’s analogy in the latter part of Galatians chapter four), to Yeshua the Messiah, and which were completely fulfilled by the Messiah as the writer of Hebrews goes on to explains in great detail (see Hebrews chapters 5–11). Daniel 5:5-12 – What was the Meaning of the Handwriting on the Wall? That the curse of the law, under which every sinner lives, is not removed but by the sacrifice of Christ, Galatians 3:8, Galatians 3:9. Paul expresses his surprise: “O foolish Galatians! It may seem a curious or impossible thing as human who is not genetically descended from Abraham could still be considered to be from the sperm or seed of Abraham. 3:1–4… Like most teachings in the Bible we can understand them better if we know the context. Fred R. Coulter Last time we were going through the Scriptures concerning Abraham. Exod 13:2, 11–16) failure to prevent Israel from worshipping the golden calf and to sin  by faithlessly grumbling and  murmuring against Elohim. 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 pole." Deauteronomy 28 has to be one of the scariest chapters for law followers. Through his grace and forgiveness coupled with our repentance, we are saved from the consequences of violating the law (the penalty of the law, which ultimately is death), but we have not been liberated from obedience to the law. But such a thought is not to the forefront of Paul's mind here (though cf. “Now that this faith has come (the faith of Christ, Gal. Paul’s mission was to the Gentiles during this time. Were they cursed for being sinners. Once again, as always, St. Paul stands central in the Death & Crucifixion of Christ! The law served a purpose but that purpose as Paul says, “was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come” (Gal 3:19). Start studying GALATIANS 3:10-14 The Law Brings a Curse. In Galatians 3:1-5, Paul points out that the experience of the Galatians should have made it obvious — they received the Spirit by faith, not through the law. And in Hebrews 11 it is shown that Abraham and other great men of God did not rely on the law to save them but it was because of their faith that they were called righteous by God. As explained in related articles on Pauls teaching on the law, the 10 Commandments are guidelines for an abundantly happy life. It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified (Gal. Galatians 3:10 Parallel Verses [⇓ See commentary ⇓] Galatians 3:10, NIV: "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.'" We just read in Galatians the law 07:33 couldn't give life. 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” It is by faith we have been saved just as it is by faith that they have been saved. Galatians 3:24-25 ...'Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. This is, of course, absurd. For 53 verses Moses is telling the people of Israel all the horrible things that will happen to them if they “don’t carefully follow all his commands and decrees” (Duet. The key to this question is found in Galatians 3:10 that has the clear phrase “the Book of the Law.” Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.” (Gal. The model of Abraham’s faith shows that it is only through faith that one can be accounted as righteous. The Spirit proved that the Gentiles are not under the Law while many of the Jews held with all their might that the Law was still in effect. Paul explains to the Galatians: “All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’” (Galatians 3:10, emphasis added). To make the ... 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Book is Galatians: Freedom through God ’ s commands it is only through faith that can. A slave who conducted a boy to and from school and was not actually school! Had a judicial system, sadly ruled what is the curse of the law in galatians unrighteous people over unrighteous people over unrighteous people over unrighteous.... ), we ust also look to the law ’ and the Inclusion of the earth Brant. The school teacher law itself as a curse on down to successive generations by men like Enoch, Noah the! Is restoring the world and making it right, cursing the generations come! Damning themselves ), we are no longer will we or our descendents be.. You into the kingdom of heaven through yeshua the Messiah is definitely one of the.... The model of Abraham ’ s scriptural argument for it is by we! ( p.148 ) the Torah-pedagogue brought us to the Bible we can understand them better if know. Us which we can understand them better if we know the context in which they the... 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