I am not a big rule follower. I like to know what the rules are so I can decide which ones I think are okay to break. This includes traffic laws. I used to enjoy speeding. Way before Danica Patrick, I thought I was meant to be a racecar driver. I loved to zip in and out of traffic, getting ahead of everyone as if to say, “see ya later, suckahs!” If you can picture this, you can also imagine I didn’t stop completely at stop signs and drove too closely to the car in front of me, not to mention thinking I was in a drag race with the car next to me at red lights. If you think this behavior was modified by the time I became a mother, you would be wrong. I did tone it down when children were in the car, but my own still experienced some of the thrill of riding with mom.
When Drew was 15 and starting to learn how to drive, I told him his dad was going to teach him how to drive. To which he replied, “Mom, 15 years of your modeling cannot be negated by 1 year of dad’s instruction.” Ouch! Eric had been modeling good driving, but it was true the boys rode with me most of the time. Which resulted in Drew driving like me, only better.
As I got older and less cute, I had to start paying consequences for this behavior. Traffic violations and increases in insurance premiums are costly. I have tried to curb my desire, but sometimes the racecar driver in me still comes out.
As hard as I try to be good, I cannot stop sinning by myself. Even when I want to, even when the pleasure of sin no longer satisfies, I cannot seem to help myself. It’s because by nature, I am cursed.
God is Holy.
Continuing in Galatians 3, God gave Abraham a promise. When he was a pagan sinner, God called him out and told him what he was going to do. Abraham did nothing. It was all God. Then because man couldn’t stop sinning, God gave them the Law summarized in the Ten Commandments through Moses. It was intended to show man how sinful he is and to put some boundaries around him so he would stop sinning. However, anyone who is not able to keep every aspect of the Law is cursed.1 That’s pretty much all of us. It should be evident that no one can stand before a Holy God by trying to keep the Law. It can’t be done. That’s why there was a need for a Savior.
Jesus became the curse.
Jesus Christ is that Savior that was first promised in the Garden of Eden after the first sin and was then reiterated to Abraham when God called him out. Christ purchased our freedom from being cursed and doomed to destruction by becoming the curse Himself!
“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree and is crucified.”2
My response.
I am completely undone by this act. God is holy. He can have nothing to do with sin. It is not just that He doesn’t want to have nothing to do with it. It’s that He can’t. He is not able to go against His own holy character. The problem we have is that we cannot stop sinning. But because God wanted to be in a relationship with us, in His love God gave His one and only Son to do what we couldn’t. The Son was submissive to His Father’s will to the point of completely absorbing the wrath of His Father because of sin. This satisfied God’s character but made His Son a curse. So at the very moment Jesus Christ was being crucified, not because of anything He did, but because of our sin, His Father had to turn His back on Him. No wonder Jesus cried out in an agonizing voice,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”3
Wow! This is both humbling and wholly gratifying at the same time. It leaves me in a puddle of tears that my Lord had to become a curse for me. But if He didn’t, I would still be trying to earn my way to God by keeping rules. If rule-keeping could evolve into living by faith, then Christ would not have had to die.5 But He did die so I could live. I don’t ever want to get over it!
What now?
But wait, there’s more! In Christ, through faith alone, the blessing of justification promised to Abraham is threefold.4
Forgiveness of sin
Coming of the Holy Spirit
Eternal Life
At one point in time, Christ’s death abolished the need to keep offering sacrifices because He was the perfect sacrifice. Since then, every person who believes by faith will receive the Holy Spirit the moment they are justified. The Holy Spirit then compels the believer to do good things, not because they are keeping rules, but out of love and out of a heart of devotion and gratitude for what it cost to purchase their freedom from the curse.
Our eternal life began the moment we believed and received. We get glimpses of heaven now as we wait for the complete fulfillment of the promise when Christ returns. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
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.”[a]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[b] through faith.
This is good, good, good – three fold 🙂
One of my favorite parts is: “If rule-keeping could evolve into living by faith, then Christ would not have had to die.5 But He did die so I could live. “
This is good, good, good – three fold 🙂
One of my favorite parts is: “If rule-keeping could evolve into living by faith, then Christ would not have had to die.5 But He did die so I could live. “
Thank you my friend.
Thank you for sharing.
It’s my pleasure. Thank you for the encouragement!