Galatians 3:10-14
10 For 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.” 11 Now it is
evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous
shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The
one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ 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”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the
blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the
promised Spirit through faith.
So, one of the colleges that I went to was pretty strict.
There were rules about a lot of things: you had to make your bed in the
morning, you had to be in dorms at a certain time, a guy and a girl couldn't go
off campus by themselves alone, all kinds of rules and one of those was that we
were not allowed to walk on the grass if we were walking between buildings.
There were walkways and paths and they wanted you to use those. The grass
wasn't sacred, so if you were gonna set up a blanket and try to impress some
poor girl with a cheesy picnic and 3 chords on your guitar you were allowed to
go on the grass, but not if you were walking from one building to another… use
the sidewalk.
Fast forward a bunch of years and I’m at the exact same
school with a bunch of high school students doing a missions trip. We go
walking to the dining room from our dorm and some kids start running across the
grass. Naturally, I stopped them. I am a law abiding citizen… kind
of. I make them take the long way and walk on the pavement and not
on the grass. They think I’m silly but they humor me. I am only
following the rules so they were ok with that.
Next day we are walking with a student or a staff member
from that same school and he leads the to cut across the grass… one of the
kids calls him out on it but he says “oh, thats not a rule anymore”. See,
the rule had changed and I did not know about it.
I still followed that rule, in fact I still do when I go up
there now, I walk on the pavement and not the grass or in the path and not the
grass… sure it’s better for the grass, but I do it because it was a
rule and for some reason I still submit myself to it. It takes me longer to get
to places but I still make myself follow that rule.
What if you had your license and you started out with that “Cinderella
license” and you got older but you never changed your license. You are
like 30 years old and you only drive in the car when the sun is out and you
can’t ever drive with another person… the law doesn’t apply to you any
more but you are choosing to live under it anyway. That would be
crazy - right?
That is what God is talking about in this section of
Galatians. There were Jews that were choosing to live under these laws that
they used to live by to justify themselves, but now that they have Jesus they
don’t need to live by those laws… but they still do. And it’s
crazy! But it doesn’t stop there, it wasn't just the
Jews. We do this same thing now too! Maybe we don’t force
ourselves to live under the laws but we do try to show other people how
spiritual we are by the things that we do and the things that we do not do. We
think we can impress God because we follow his laws, but the reality is that we
are cursed by those Laws and Jesus died to set us free from that curse. Are you
still walking around the grass?
1. Name a law that used to effect you but does not effect
you anymore.
2. Why did Christ have to become a curse for us?
3. Christ ___________
us from the curse of the law by becoming a _________ for us “
4. Take a moment and journal about this.
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Written by Jeff Harkins
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