Joel M Bradshaw

26“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’–Deuteronomy 27

Imagine you are watching a movie where all the heroes are trapped. And one by one they try to escape the trap. Some try valiantly, but fail. Others almost make it, but also fall short. By the end of the movie, all are dead. Nobody escaped.

That would be a depressing movie, wouldn’t it? If one person made it out, there would be hope. It might even make the movie re-watchable. But if all died? No thanks.

But you see? Nobody escapes Deuteronomy 27:26. In the Mosaic covenant, God expected full obedience to the law. Break one part and it’s like you broke it all. For if you break the law in any way you are under the very curse you are trying to avoid. All you have to do is be perfect.

Now that’s impossible. Even the best of us have broken God’s law. We call that sin. And sin comes with a curse called death. Each of us has sinned and fallen short of Deuteronomy 27:26. Nobody escapes that verse.

This was the dilemma with the Galatian church. The church was full of Gentile converts who had trusted Jesus for their salvation. And another influential group had swarmed in while Paul was away and had preached another Gospel that said that you had to also had to keep the Law of Moses. Faith wasn’t enough, but works were also required.

Paul spent the whole letter of Galatians arguing about the great either/or. You are either relying upon your works for salvation or you are relying in faith upon the redeeming work of Jesus. In his argument, Paul dropped in our verse today. Galatians 3…

10For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Either they were relying upon their works or upon their faith in Jesus and his work. And if they relied upon themselves, they were like my hypothetical movie. There is no hope for you if you rely upon your own works and expect God to consider you righteous. Only Jesus was righteous by those standards, for he did not sin.

The power of the law is that it reveals you are a lawbreaker. That’s the best it can do. It also reveals your total inability to do anything ultimately about your condition. You can’t escape. You have no hope on your own. Your works are not able to lead to the righteous standing before God. Only trusting in Jesus who bore our very curse on the cross. He died the death that we deserved. He was the only one who didn’t deserve to die for sins.

Christians are not perfect people. We struggle with sin. We couldn’t escape Deuteronomy 27:26 either. But on the cross Jesus took that curse in our place. And in doing so bought us out or redeemed us from the slavery to that very law we couldn’t escape from.

So the great either/or remains. You are either trusting in your work or the work of Jesus. Your hope is either based upon human efforts or upon faith. The Gentile Galatians didn’t need to add Moses to their salvation ‘expansion pack.’ Through faith in the work of Jesus, they received the blessing of Abraham.

Obeying God’s law is great, but remember you never can obey it enough. At some point the law will condemn you and leave you with no escape. Your good will never outweigh your bad on those imaginary cosmic scales. Your only hope is to trust in Jesus, the one who died in your place and freed you from the law’s curse. Only faith in Jesus leads to salvation, never your works. Bible believing Christians are quick to point out that nobody is saved by works. The reality is that you actually are saved by works. They just aren’t your works. This is why we trust in Jesus alone. For nobody escapes Deuteronomy 27:26. We are thankful for Jesus, our curse-breaker.–JMB