Gal 3:10–14 — The Curse of the Law

Paul’s Argument

So we have been following the logic of Paul’s argument here in the doctrinal section of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The first two chapters, Paul is describing his own apostolic call, the Apostle of Gospel Liberty was my title for it. Then in chapters three and four, we have the doctrine of Gospel Liberty. And at the end in chapters five and six, we will look at the life of Gospel Liberty, how we should live as those who have been redeemed from the law. But here we are in the second major section of the letter, the doctrine of gospel liberty, and we are following the argument of the Apostle Paul here, against the Judaizers, or maybe even more accurately than that, he is not arguing only against the Judaizers, he is appealing to the Galatian Christians not to listen to the Judaizers.

Who has bewitched you? Who has come along and persuaded you with this false doctrine? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Do you not remember, maybe a year or two ago, it was not that long ago, when I first came among you and preached the gospel? And what did I do when I preached the gospel? Did I preach to you the law and how you need to keep the law to be right with God? No, I simply proclaimed Christ. And I preached Christ and Him crucified so vividly, it is like I painted a picture before your eyes of Christ crucified.

If you began by the Spirit, why would you think that you could be perfected by the works of the flesh, by the efforts of your flesh? Did you suffer, it says in the ESV, or experience, I think is a better translation. Did you experience all of these things in vain, this experience of hearing the gospel and receiving the Spirit by faith? Did you experience all these things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

The answer is obvious. Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And here in verse six, Paul launches into a discussion of the Old Testament that is going to continue all the way down to the end of chapter four. And in his analysis, in his survey of the story of the Bible, of the story of the Old Testament, he highlights Abraham and the promises that God gave to Abraham. He will explain why God gave the law as but he is trying to reverse their emphasis. They are putting all the spotlight and all the emphasis as they read the Old Testament on the law.

And of course that is not completely out of the question to do that. It is not completely a strange idea because the Old Testament does have considerably to say about the law. The Pentateuch itself does spend quite a bit of time in the book of Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy talking about the law.

But they are placing all the spotlight on that and saying that is what you need to do. Focus upon the giving of the law, the importance of circumcision, and keeping the law. And Paul is saying, yes, we will get to that. We will explain how the law fits into the narrative and why God gave it.

But he is trying to flip the emphasis and say, look, the real spotlight on the Old Testament should be upon God’s promises to Abraham and the fact that not only Abraham, but all of the Old Testament saints, that they believed God. And it was by believing in God’s promises that they were counted as righteous before God.

Paul not only emphasizes the story of Abraham and how Abraham clearly was not justified by works, he did not even have the law yet, he simply believed God’s promises and it was counted to him as righteousness. He not only looks at Abraham as an example, but as we will see in our text in a moment, in Galatians chapter three and verse 11, He quotes from a passage in the prophetical books, that is, in the book of Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets. And he talks about the example of Habakkuk and the godly remnant that was associated with him, and how they too lived by faith, just like Abraham. They too were counted as righteous before God by faith and not by keeping the law. And so Paul now is launching into this discussion in the doctrinal section of his letter to explain redemptive history, to explain the narrative of scripture and to focus upon the giving of the promises to God’s people and how God’s people from Abraham all the way to Habakkuk were righteous before God simply by believing in and trusting in God’s promises. And so in verse seven, he says, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Those who are of faith, those who are characterized by faith, those who are living a life of faith, as opposed to those who are of the law. And he is going to use that same language in the law sense in verse 10, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. It is not immediately obvious, but in Greek, those two phrases are antithetical to one another. Those who are of faith versus those who are of the works of the law. Those whose lives are characterized by faith in God’s promises and receiving the blessing simply by faith versus those who are characterized by a life of attempting to receive God’s blessing by works.

But he says, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. The Judaizers are saying, you want to be a son of Abraham? You want to get in on the blessings that God made to Abraham and the promises that God made to Abraham? You need to be circumcised. And circumcision, in their view, meant committing yourself to keeping the law. And Paul is saying, no, it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Now you might say, wait a minute, I do not quite see where the gospel itself is being preached. In fact, the phrase here that Paul quotes from in verse eight, he says, “‘The gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham,’ saying, “‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’” that is from Genesis 12, verse three. You might say, I do not see how that is the gospel. I see how that is looking forward to the idea that, Abraham’s going to have many offspring, the nation of Israel, and that maybe eventually through that, the gospel will come to the world through Christ. But where is the gospel itself being preached to Abraham in that statement?

the answer is that you have to compare Genesis 12, verse 3, with Genesis 22, 18. Because in Genesis 22, 18, that is the story after Abraham almost offered his son Isaac on the altar, God promised him that in your seed, in your offspring, shall all the nations be blessed.

And so Paul is connecting those two verses together. You can tell that he is connecting those two verses together because of the fact that he uses the word nations. In Genesis 12, three, it just says the families of the earth. But in Genesis 22, 18, when God repeats the same phrase, He changes families of the earth to the nations, meaning Gentiles. And so Paul is linking those two verses together, and therefore, that is his understanding of how the gospel is preached to Abraham.

When God said, in your offspring, that is the offspring who is like Isaac, who is offered, and who is the picture of the sacrifice of Christ. Remember, Isaac was Abraham’s beloved son, his only son. Yes, he did have Ishmael, but Ishmael was not a legitimate son. Isaac was his only precious son, just as the Father offered up his only begotten son on the cross for us.

And so the Apostle Paul here sees the gospel being preached to Abraham, not merely in those words in Genesis 12.3, that through Abraham the nations would be blessed, but specifically through the preaching of the gospel to Abraham in Genesis 22, concerning the offspring to come, who is like Isaac, who would be offered on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.

And Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He believed in that coming offspring. He believed in the One who was to come, so that the Gentiles themselves might also be blessed. So then, Those who are of faith, there is that same phrase again, those whose lives are characterized by being of faith as opposed to being of the works of the law, they are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Abraham’s whole life was a life of faith. It was not merely when he first heard the call to go out from Ur of the Chaldeans into the land that God had promised him. It was his whole life was a life of faith. Even when he offered up his son in obedience to the Lord, he kept responding to the promises of God and believing in them. And so we too are blessed along with Abraham if we are people who are characterized by faith.

Now, when he uses this word blessed there, which he got, of course, from Genesis, and you shall all the nations be blessed, and then he says, so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. That word blessing calls to mind the opposite of blessing, which is the curse.

Exposition

Remember, the argument going back in the beginning of chapter three was, how did you receive the blessing of the Spirit? Was it by works of the law or by hearing the gospel and believing it? Was it by works or by faith?

Under the Curse

And so now, having brought up this issue of blessing, he then says, for, verse 10, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, which is the opposite of blessing. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.” The law, according to the Apostle Paul, cannot justify you. It cannot be the means by which you receive the blessing, by which you receive the Spirit, by which you receive the inheritance, by which the promises of God are fulfilled.

Because the law requires continuous and perfect obedience. Both of those things are true. Both continuous and perfect obedience. You see the continuous idea where it says, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by or continue in all things written in the book of the law, and do them. And it requires perfect obedience. We see that in the phrase all. Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.

Cursed be the man who makes a carved image. And all the people shall answer and say amen. Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother, and all the people shall say amen. And it concludes in verse 26 with the verse that Paul quotes. Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, and all the people shall say amen. That is the verse that Paul is quoting from. Now you might be wondering, Hold on a second, Paul.

In Galatians, when you quote it, you have the word all there. You say, cursed to be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. And you are clearly placing significant emphasis on that word all, because you are saying that the law requires perfect obedience. But if I go back to Deuteronomy 27, 26, I do not see that word there. It just says, cursed to be anyone who does not confirm the words. Of this law, does not say all the words of this law. Where do you get that word all from, Paul? Are you messing with scripture to try to make a point? No, he is not. He gets the word all from the very next verse, that is chapter 28, verse one.

And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you above all the nations of the earth. And he continues on to expound the blessings. Remember, six of the tribes are pronouncing the blessings if they obey, and the other six are pronouncing the curse if they disobey. So in chapter 28, verses one through 14, is a description of the blessing, and it does depend on doing all that the Lord had commanded. And then in verse 15, he shifts to the curse, and again, we see the word all used there.

Deuteronomy 28, 15. But not obey the voice of the Lord your God, or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you. And then if you are still not convinced and you are saying, it is a different passage, it is using the word all commandments, not words, well then keep reading in Deuteronomy 28 and verse 58. As he is wrapping up the curses. Notice this, Deuteronomy 28 verse 58. If you are not careful to do all the words of this law, there is the exact phrase? All the words of this law that are written in this book.

So you can see then that in Galatians 3.10, Paul is actually combining together these two verses, just like he combined together Genesis 12 verse three with Genesis 22.18 to explain the offspring. So also here in his quotation of Deuteronomy 27 verse 26, he combines it with Deuteronomy 28 verse 58. And so you see the combined quote, cursed be everyone, now quoting from Paul’s language, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. That whole phrase, the things written in the book of the law, is from Deuteronomy 28, 58. And he is using that to shed light on the curse at the end of chapter 27. So what is Paul’s argument here? Paul’s argument is very simply this. He is saying this.

First of all, only those who perfectly and continuously keep the law have any hope of escaping its curse. But, no one can perfectly keep the law. That part of it, that is an implied premise, is not stated, but it is implied in the context. Only those who perfectly keep the law will escape the curse. No one can perfectly keep the law. Therefore, everyone who relies on the law is under a curse.”

So he is clearly setting up these two columns. And I am tempted to say on the right and the left, but then of course it is different for you. Anyway, on the right and the left you have these two columns? You have The promise of the Gospel. The response of faith. And then you have the blessing that is given to those who respond in faith to the promise. And that is true for us as well as for Abraham. On the other side of the column you have the opposite. You have the Law. You have the response to the law, which is the works of the law, that is being obedient to it. And then you have the curse that results from the failure to be obedient. So you can have these two columns and the two things across, gospel versus law, the response, faith versus works, and then the result, which is blessing and curse.

Only those who perfectly keep the law will escape the curse. But no one can do it. No one can perfectly keep the law. And therefore, if you try to place yourself under that other column, if you try to take yourself out from the Abraham column of promise, faith, blessing, and put yourself in the column of law, works, and curse, then you are under a curse. Everyone who is of the law, who is characterized by attempting to be saved by the law, is under a curse.

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

Paul says, furthermore, not only do we have the law itself telling us and spelling out for us this requirement of perfect obedience and the necessity of keeping all the things written in the book of the law, just quote from Deuteronomy, it is right there in the text. Not only do we have the law itself telling us that it requires perfect obedience, but he goes on to say, It is evident in verse 11 that no one is righteous before God is counted as righteous in God’s sight by the law. Why? For, as it says in Habakkuk chapter two, verse four, the righteous shall live by faith. He could have said, for, as it is written in Genesis 15, six, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Somewhat of history about Habakkuk. Habakkuk, we do not know much about him because he does not give us much detail in his book. It is a brief three chapter book. But we do have one little key clue to the context of Habakkuk’s life and when he was ministering as a prophet.

And that is in Habakkuk chapter one, verse six, when God says that he is raising up the Chaldeans Who are the Chaldeans? That is just another biblical term for the Babylonians. And who are the Babylonians? That is obvious? The Babylonians are the ones that God raised up to bring the judgment, to bring the curse of the law upon national Israel for their apostasy.

And in the year 605, King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians, invaded the land of Judah. This is mentioned in 2 Kings 24. He invaded the land of Judah. This is before the final exile, which is going to happen later on in 586. But in 605, this is around the time of Habakkuk, he invaded Judah and he made King Jehoiakim his vassal. And so it is clear that the handwriting is on the wall.

Now if Habakkuk is writing right at that time, or maybe just before it, Either way, it is clear that Habakkuk is aware that God is about to raise up these evil Babylonians through their king Nebuchadnezzar to come and to judge the people. It is in this context that Habakkuk writes this prophecy, the oracle of Habakkuk the prophet. And he is having a dialogue with God. He is wrestling with God.

He is saying, God, why would you use these wicked people, the Babylonians, and bring them against us to judge us? Yes, I know that we are not that great, we have sinned too, but we are not as wicked as they are. These are absolutely evil Babylonian idolaters. Why would you allow them to judge us?

And it is in this context that we have this statement that Paul himself quotes. It is somewhat giving somewhat of background there. In Habakkuk chapter two, the Lord answered Habakkuk. Habakkuk was crying out to God and saying, God, why are you doing this? You are holy, you are righteous. Why would you allow the Babylonians to do this to us? And in Habakkuk two, verse two, the Lord answered me.

Write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that he who runs may read it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, and here is the quotation, behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. This is the central key verse in the book of Habakkuk. The righteous shall live by faith. What is faith? It is trusting in God. Trusting in God to be faithful to keep His promise to deliver His people. In Habakkuk chapter 3, God goes on to speak about the coming deliverance of the nation. Habakkuk has this prayer where he is rejoicing in the Lord because of this promise that God is going to come.

And just as he judged Pharaoh and the Egyptians all the way back at the beginning of the history of God’s people, when he delivered them from bondage in Egypt and brought them through the waters of the Red Sea and redeemed them and made them his own people, so also God is promising to deliver them again. The righteous remnant that lives within Israel, within Judah, they will be delivered one day. It may take some time, and God says, if it seems slow, wait for it, but it will come. Surely it will come.

And so in this context that we have this amazing statement of faith which is trust in God’s promise to judge Babylon and to accomplish a new exodus in the future. Even though for the moment Habakkuk and the godly remnant must pass through a severe trial as the nation as a whole is sent into exile. Habakkuk even expresses his trust in God at the very end of the letter, or the end of the prophecy in Habakkuk chapter 3, verses 17 and following. These famous verses, you have probably heard these quoted before.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fields yield no fruit. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. All of those things are the curse of the law? Going back to Deuteronomy 28. All the curses that would come upon the people if they disobeyed God.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, though the fruit not be on the vines, though the produce of the olive fail, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk trusts in the Lord, even in the midst of this severe trial that the nation is about to go through, because he is looking ahead to the promise. God is promising to do a new exodus, to restore the people, to make a new covenant.

Of course, we know this will be fulfilled with the coming of Christ, the offspring who was promised all the way back in the beginning. Takes that quotation, that one verse, in context, in Habakkuk 2.4, and just like his quotation of Genesis 15.6 concerning Abraham’s faith, he applies it here and says, now it is evident that no one is declared righteous before God by the law, for the Old Testament is replete from Abraham all the way to Habakkuk, in saying that, how are people righteous before God? By faith. They are righteous before God by faith, not by works of the law. Justification is not based on human effort, that is the works of the law, but on faith in the promises of God. The law reveals our inability to achieve righteousness on our own, thus driving us to Christ.

But the previous part of it talks about the one whose soul is not right. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him. I think that is referring to the Babylonians? Like Nebuchadnezzar. He thinks he is so great. All the nations that resisted him have fallen before his armies. Remember how he would mock them and say your gods could not stand against my gods. He even mocked Israel and said your God is nothing your temple is going to be destroyed, too So there is this pride that you see in the king of Babylon Lifting up his soul. His soul is not upright within him, but that is the opposite of that the godly remnant like Habakkuk, who are simply trusting in God’s promise, who are righteous not by their pride and by their own might, but righteous by trusting in God and the promises of the gospel. The proud of Habakkuk’s time, that is Babylon and the king of Babylon, seem to also, I think, in some way have an echo of the Judaizers in Paul’s day?

He views the Judaizers who are saying, you must keep the law, he views them as also having that same Babylonian pride and thinking that they can do it, thinking that they are able to keep the law, whereas they do not realize, as Paul clearly teaches in Galatians 3.10, that the law requires perfect and continuous obedience.

And if by that standard they were judged, then they would realize that they are under a curse. But Habakkuk and the righteous remnant, they know that they are not righteous on the basis of their works. They know that God’s judgment upon the nation is just because of the nation’s apostasy. And yet they are trusting God, they are trusting in the promises of the Messiah to come and the new covenant to be made in the future.

So too, the righteous in Galatia, the Christians in Galatia, must trust in God’s promises fulfilled in Christ and not be swayed by the Judaizers who are trying to get them to rely on the works of the law. He goes on to say then in verse 12, but the law is not of faith. It is not characterized by faith. Rather, the law focuses on doing. The law says the one who does them shall live by them. So again, going to our two columns? One column is focused on faith and trust. The other column focuses on works and doing. And he emphasizes that word does.

Law and Faith

The law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does the works of the law shall live by them. Promise, faith, blessing, law, faith. Doing and curse. And the curse comes because the doing is not up to the standard of perfection that the law requires. How wonderful it is, though, that in verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. That is the gospel. The curse of the law has been taken by Christ himself. He has absorbed that curse in himself. He even became a curse according to Paul’s strong language there.

Christ Became a Curse

It reminds me of his language in 2 Corinthians 5.21, that he who knew no sin became sin for us. Not literally, of course, Jesus is innocent, he is perfectly righteous, he is not a sinner, but he became so identified with our sin and so identified with our curse that we could even use that language, that he became sin, he became a curse for us when he hung upon the cross, taking away that curse for us, redeeming us from the curse of the law. So that in Christ Jesus, going on to verse 14, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Doctrine

There are two main doctrines that we need to look at. First of all, based on verse 10, We know that justification by works, being counted as righteous before God by our own works, is ruled out because the law demands continuous and perfect obedience. And none of us can keep the law perfectly. That is so important to understand. That is such a key thing to understand because if we do not understand that, if we do not believe that, that the law requires perfect and continuous obedience, then we will not see our need of Christ. We will not see our need of Christ to be the one who keeps the law in our place and who delivers us from the curse of the law. The Judaizers, you can see, have the wrong idea about what the law is, and whether it is something that we can do, and whether we can keep it.

Perfect Obedience Required

They think that it does not require perfect obedience. It requires only imperfect obedience? You just do the best that you can, and if you do that, then you can obtain eternal life. They have to lower the standard to make the law something that is keepable. But the law, according to Paul, requires continuous and perfect obedience.

It does not allow for any mistakes. It does not allow for any mulligans. Where you say, let us redo it and try again. It does not allow that. You make one mistake and you are in trouble. The law is not like this nice staircase with rails. All you do is walk up the staircase to get to the top and hit the golden buzzer and get the blessing. No, it is not like that at all. According to Paul, it is more like a tightrope across an ocean of alligators. You make one slip and you are dead. There is no second chance. You make one little mistake and you are in trouble. You are under the curse of the law.

The first doctrine then from our text is to truly understand why it is that we cannot be righteous before God on the basis of the law. It is because we need to understand the true standard of the law and what it requires of us. The second doctrine we should derive from this text is that after the fall, that is after Adam sinned, The only way of obtaining blessing and divine favor in eternal life is by faith in Christ.

Promise and Fulfillment

And I think it is just so beautiful and refreshing to see how the Apostle Paul speaks of that as being true all the way from immediately after the fall, meaning going all the way back to Genesis chapter three and the first promise of the gospel concerning the offspring to come, all the way from that point to Christ, and then even from Christ to us now on the other side of the cross. We could think of these two main segments of history as BC and AD? Before Christ and after Christ. BC is the people of God, whether it is Adam and Eve after the fall, or whether it is Abraham, or whether it is Habakkuk and the godly remnant. After the fall, the only way of obtaining blessing is by faith in Christ. Now before Christ came, their faith, the faith of the Old Testament believers, was faith in the promise of God concerning this offspring who was to come.

Prophesied first in that first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3.15, when God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, And he, that is the woman’s offspring, will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. Pointing already to the sufferings of Christ as the means by which he would crush the serpent’s head.

So before Christ, in the BC phase, faith is the way, but it is faith in the promise of the offspring to come. And that promise of the offspring is expanded with Abraham. And even more information is given about who this offspring will be. He is going to be like this Isaac figure who is going to be offered for the sins of his people.

After Christ, in the A.D. segment of time, we as believers on this side of the cross, it is the same way of salvation, the same way of receiving divine favor and blessing, and that is by faith in the offspring, but faith in the offspring who has come in the fullness of time. And Paul says that in Galatians 4. Galatians 4 verse 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law.

When he says born of woman there, he is alluding back to the initial promise of the offspring in Genesis 3.15. It is faith in the promise, whether it is the promise of the offspring to come or faith in the promise of life and salvation in the offspring who has come in the fullness of time.

Application

The application is that this passage clarifies for us the nature of justifying faith. Faith must be understood in light of the contrast between the law and the gospel. The law demands perfect and continuous obedience.

The Empty Hand of Faith

Faith is not perfect and continuous obedience, but rather it is responding to the promise, whether it is the promise of the offspring to come or the promise of the gospel in that the offspring has come. The gospel is a promise that calls for faith, it calls for trust, just like Habakkuk and the godly remnant. Everything is falling apart around them, the Babylonians are coming, everything seems terrible, but God is promising to deliver his people in a new exodus in the future. And so even in the midst of that terrible tragedy, when the curses of the covenant are raining down upon them, they trust in God, trust that he will do what he promised to do.

So the application of this passage is that it clarifies for us the nature of justifying faith. What is it? It is not a doing. It is not works. It is an act of trusting in the promise of God. It is very easy to misunderstand what faith is and to turn it into something that we do. To turn it into a meritorious work. But that is not what faith is. Faith is looking away from yourself to Christ. Faith is trusting in Christ. He is the one that has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Going back to my analogy, I do not really like to use these somewhat analogies. Talking about alligators in a sermon is somewhat dumb? Essentially, you get the idea?

The way the Judaizers think of it is that they think that there is this wonderful staircase with rails and everything is fine and it is not that hard. You just climb up it and you can get the golden buzzer and get the blessing. If you make a small misstep on one step, that is fine. You can just get back up and just keep going and you can make it and you can do it.

The Apostle Paul says, you do not understand the situation. The game is actually over before it even started? Not only is it not a nice staircase with rails where it is easy to do it, it is actually this tightrope across this ocean of alligators. And not only that, you are not even at the beginning where you could even begin to step out on the tightrope. You have already fallen off. And you are already in the water, and you are already eaten alive, and you are already dead.

And Christ had to redeem us from the curse of the law. He had to dive into the water, rescue us, put us on his back, and he had to go across the tightrope for us. And thank the Lord he did that and he is the one that has hit the golden buzzer and all the blessings have come down for us because he has done it for us. The Judaizers do not realize that we have already fallen off and we are already dead. And the game is over even before it starts and that we need Christ and what He has done.

He is the one who has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us so that in Christ, And by faith in Him, and by trusting in Him, the blessing of Abraham, not the curse of the law, but the blessing of Abraham might come to us. What is the blessing of Abraham? It is the Spirit, the gift of the Spirit that He has promised for us in Christ. That is what faith is. Faith is recognizing the true situation. The Judaizers do not have faith.

Consider the law-gospel distinction that Paul so clearly sets forth here. The law requires doing—perfect and continuous doing—to escape the curse, whereas the gospel promises blessing through faith in the promises of God. This law gospel distinction is so important because it clarifies for us the nature of saving faith. It clarifies what faith is. Faith is not a work. It is not meritorious. It is not something you do. It is not just taking another step up those stairs. Faith is receiving the salvation that Christ has accomplished for us. He has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And so we simply receive that blessing because of what Christ has done with the empty hand of faith.