Galatians 3:12-18 Bible Teaching

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Communion
Kathy Maggie for wine grape juice and unleavened bread.

We don’t normally do communion (unless it is requested) and it was – so here we go:

The elements
The setting
The reason

Okay . . .
I would be somehow remiss if I didn’t explain why we are not recognizing what the world calls Easter today.

Every year I do this on Easter Sunday so in an ironic sort of way it is becoming a tradition to resist tradition. (We can’t get away from it!!!!!)

In any case if you have heard this information before bear with me. And please understand that I love holidays like Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and even Halloween – for the family unity and the food. Right?

But Christianity is lived to its fullest (through Him) every day and so why would I choose to extract one day of the year to focus on something we benefit from hour to hour.

Quite frankly I greatly resent the attempts men have made to make these holiday traditions part of the Christian experience.

By going to our website at www.C-A-M-P-U-S.com you would read the following regarding “holy-days” or what we call holidays:

“We reject the need for holiday services which commemorate Christmas, Easter, Halloween, or individual birthdays. We are not against celebrating such occasions but refuse to let them have a place in the short Gatherings set aside for worshipping God in spirit and in truth.”

In the first chapter of Philippians Paul wrote something rather radical.

Talking about what motivates people for Christ, he said in Philippians 1:15-18:

15 “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16 The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”

It is with this attitude I believe all Christians ought to approach religiously observed holydays – Christ is preached, right?

So why the hard line on refusing to give time (as an organized gathering) to today’s holiday?

For starters, it’s the Word itself. Let me explain. The word Easter is used once in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 12.

It no more belongs in the Bible than the word Halloween – but it’s there and I think it may be one of the worst word-translations in the entire text (at least in the King James).

The reason is because the word “Easter” is an Anglo-Saxon word derived from “Eostre” who is a Pagan goddess of spring and renewal.

Scandinavians call her “Ostra” and Germans “Ostern,” the Phoenicians called her “Astarte,” and the Assyrians and the Babylonians called her Ishtar (which if you think about it sounds a lot like our Easter).

But no matter the name they are all the same pagan goddess who symbolizes spring and fertility and who is honored on the vernal (or spring equinox) in almost every culture on earth.

From “Estra” we get “estrogen” which is obviously tied to females and reproduction. And for more than a thousand years prior to Jesus’ birth pagans celebrated spring under these different names.

Additionally, spring festivals always contained various sexual rituals which were held in honor of the sun’s welcoming and warming rays after the cold of winter with its short daylight hours. Not only do the rays of the sun bring the promise of longer and warmer days but also promise crops, flowers, (and the like) which were necessary to survive – these were all forms of “reproduction.”

The parallels to the resurrection of the Lord in “Spring time” are obvious and I think the early pagan cultures had tapped into the miracle of regeneration well before the ultimate regeneration of Christ occurred after his crucifixion.

But the question remains, how did we actually get the word Eostre in the Bible!
Here’s the story:

The pagan “Eostre festival” coincided with the Passover celebration of the Jews, which was actually a festival held in anticipation of the coming Messiah and a commemoration of the angel of death passing over them in Egypt.

Later the Jewish Passover coincided or was correlated with a meal observed by Christians in honor of the resurrection of the Lord.

Over the years, the word Passover (pascal) was occasionally replaced with the word “Eostre” for no other reason than they occurred at the same time and some people were used to that word.

Before we knew it, we had Bible translators inserting the anglo saxon term “Eostre” into the Word of God where it read pascha (for Passover).

Where Wycliffe uses the word paske, (i.e., Passover) in his translations of the Word, Tyndal and Coverdale used the word “Easter,” and this forever tied Christianity to the pagan ritual of Eostre,
greatly contributing to the word being the accepted term to represent Jesus overcoming the grave.

Then hand in hand with the word Eostre is that is came associated with the pagan practices which included icons of fertility (like eggs (called Oestra), chicks and rabbits, pastel colors, and outdoor rituals which flood out over church lawns everywhere.

And for this very reason, Christianity (in its many forms) is holding Easter-egg hunts today – in Jesus name.

But . . . as Paul wrote, so long as Jesus is preached, we can rejoice.

Okay we left off last week at verse 11 – so let’s re-read that and then on down to verse 18.

Galatians 3:12-18
April 21st 2019
Milk
Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

Alright. Lots to cover. Let’s get to it by going back to Galatians 3:11 where Paul has said:

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

“It is impossible that a man should be justified by the law, because God has appointed another way of justification.”

Now think about this a minute – what this is saying is that there cannot be two ways of obtaining life eternal.

And since God has appointed faith as the condition on which men shall live in the Kingdom, he has tacitly precluded from them the possibility of obtaining entrance into it through any other mode.

Interestingly, the line, “The just shall live by faith,” is cited from Habukkuk 2:4 – which is in the Old Testament and illustrates clearly that faith has ALWAYS been desired by God from Man.

It was desired in Adam when God said, “trust me – if you eat of that tree you will die,” and a quick review of Hebrew 11 shows that it was faith that moved and lead the justified all through the former covenant.

It was codified in the phrases:

“Be still and know that I am God.”
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.”

And it is what caused Moses to write of Abraham in Genesis 15:6:

“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

This principle, since the Law was nailed to the cross of Jesus remains, continues forward with all who believe in the Lord Jesus having such faith counted to them for righteousness.

Paul goes on and says something important. He says:

12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Listen, the LAW demands complete obedience – whether you believe or not, it is based on human compliance and like pregnancy or virginity or innocence or guilt, under the law you either are justified or you are not – there is zero middle ground.

And while it may SEEM like obeying the Law requires faith, that we believe and have so much faith in God we obey the law, in the end this is not so.

Because the Law requires action no matter what the motive. And in that action, we are saying: I do not trust that God will do what he claims he will do UNLESS I do this or that – and by including our efforts into the mix we are attempting to put God in our debt – faith stripped of the Law prohibits this.

Paul adds:

“but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.”

Or in other words, the Man who chooses to live in the elements of the Law will live by those elements – perfectly, or not at all. And in the end, which is what I discovered as a Latter-day Saint, the Law becomes a curse because under it there is no reprieve. Its relentless demands never ever end, and in the end a man will be found guilty – if she is honest. If she’s not she will be deluded or a liar.

All of this translates to the Law, when placed on the backs of the human race, as as a curse. So, Paul says at verse 13

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law . . . (diminished voice . . . ) being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

Let’s go to the board for a minute (ADD ONLY 1 THE LAW and 2 CHRIST):

1 3 2
THE LAW RELIGION CHRIST

SIN PAID
CURSE REDEEMED
DEATH OVERCAME
CULTURE ALL CULTURES
OBEDIENCE LOVE
TRADITIONS HE IS TRADITION
TIME, MONEY, DEVOTION ALL PAID
NO THINKING – DOING FROM THE HEART

Do you notice anything about this?

In between the Law and Christ men today insert something:

We call it religion! (ADD #3)
And LOOK at what it does! (EXPLAIN)

So, Paul has written:

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law (religion which makes laws) being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

This reference Paul appeals to comes from Deuteronomy 21:22-23 which says:

22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

So, Paul said:

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

We are talking about true expiation, true propitiation, and true reconciliation – for the sins of the world.

Redeeming us from “the curse of the law” (guilt, sin, death) by “being made a curse for us.”

This is really important expression because it is so easily misunderstood!

First of all, it does not mean,

That God was displeased with Him. That view is incongruent with God and His just character. He always approved of all that Jesus was and did so the passages cannot be misconstrued to suggest that God was displeased with him.

This leads to the fact that Jesus was not worthy of blame. He had done no wrong, he was holy, harmless, undefiled. No crime charged upon him was proved; and there is no clearer doctrine in the Bible than that, in all his character and work, the Lord Jesus was perfectly holy and pure.

Therefore HE was not guilty, in any sense of the word. The word guilty means, properly, to deserve punishment for crime. Guilt and guilty always imply a crime. When we say that a man is guilty, we instinctively think of his having committed a crime, or having done something wrong. When a jury finds a man guilty, it implies that the man has committed a crime, and ought to be punished. But in this sense, and in no conceivable sense, where the word is properly used, was the Lord Jesus guilty.

Neither can we suggest that Jesus bore all the results of guilt and sin before the Law. Let me explain.

His suffering was in the place of the penalty but not the entire penalty itself. His suffering was a vicarious substitution for the penalty but were not identical to all the suffering the guilty party endures.

For instance, there would be no justifiable reason Jesus would endure or experience remorse of conscience, nor to repent himself, nor suffer an eternity of alienation from God for sins which otherwise would produce such alienation.

Jesus was not sinful, or a sinner, in any sense in and through becoming a curse on our behalf. He took our shame in the outward suffering that all of us deserve for the sins we commit but in the process never was guilty himself.

I say this because even Luther, who loved the Lord and loved the Word, contributed to this notion that Christ was a guilty sinner.

I want to site come examples from his exegesis on Galatians:

He says

“And this, no doubt, all the prophets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, and blasphemer, THAT EVER WAS OR COULD BE IN THE WORLD. For he, being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, is not now an innocent person, and without sins; is not now the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; but a sinner which hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor; of Peter, which denied Christ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murderer, and caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord; and, briefly, which hath and beareth all the sins of all men in his body: not that he himself committed them, but for that he received them, being committed or done of us, and laid them upon his own body, that he might make satisfaction for them with his own blood.”

AND

“When the law, therefore, found him among thieves, it condemned and killed him as a thief.”

“If thou wilt deny him to be a sinner and accursed, deny also that he was crucified and dead.”

“But if it be not absurd to confess and believe that Christ was crucified between two thieves, then it is not absurd to say that he was accursed, and OF ALL SINNERS THE GREATEST.”

“God, our most merciful Father, sent his only Son into the world, and laid upon him all the sins of all men, saying, be thou Peter, that denier; Paul, that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor; David, that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the apple in paradise; that thief which hanged upon the cross; and briefly, be thou the person which hath committed the sins of all men: see, therefore, that thou pay and satisfy for them.”
(From, Luther on the Galatians, chap. iii. 13, (pp. 213–215; Edit. Loud., 1838.)

This type of language has followed many an Evangelical for the past 600 years – but I think we want truth and need to be careful in echoing these sentiments.

So, what does the language Paul uses here when he says that:

He was “made a curse for us?”

Let’s look at the origin of the passage Paul uses, when it says in Deuteronomy
21:23:

“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

We note that it occurs in a law respecting one who was hanged for a “sin worthy of death,” and the law was, that he should be buried the same day, and that the body should not remain suspended over the night; and it is added, as a reason for this, that “he that is hanged is accursed of God;” or, as it is in the margin, “the curse of God.”

The meaning is, that when one was executed for crime in this manner, he was the object of the Divine displeasure. Regarded as such, there was a propriety that the man who was executed for crime should be buried as soon as possible and that the offensive person should be hidden from the view.

But NOTE: When Paul cites this passage, he leaves out the words “of God,” and simply says, that the one who was hanged on a tree was held accursed.

The sense of the passage before us is, therefore, that Jesus was subjected to what was regarded as “an accursed death.”

That he was treated in his death AS IF he had been a criminal. He was put to death in the same manner as he would have been if he had himself been guilty of the violation of the law.

Had he been a thief or a murderer, had he committed the grossest and the blackest crimes this would have been the punishment to which he would have been subjected as this was the mode of punishment adapted to those crimes, and he was treated as if all these had been committed by him.

But as we have already maintained, just because he was treated as one who HAD committed the crimes it does not mean that he was guilty of them, nor that he was not the object of God and His love.

So, while His death was the same that would have been if he had been the vilest sinner, and that that death was regarded by the law as accursed, HE HIMSELF was a substitute and NOT the guilty party.

By the way, the punishment of the cross was unknown to the Hebrews in the time of Moses as it appears to be a Roman invention.

So that passage in Deuteronomy 21:23 did not refer originally to that. Nor is a historical fact that that hanging criminals alive was practiced among the Hebrews.

Frankly, those who were guilty of great crimes were first stoned (or otherwise put to death in some manner) and then their bodies were suspended for a few hours on what is called a gibbet which is a structure for exhibiting dead bodies.

In many cases, however, merely the head was suspended after it had been severed from the body (we know that from Genesis 40:17-19; and Numbers 25:4,5).

Anyway, crucifixion was not known in the time of the giving of the law; but the Jews gave such liberty to the Law in the area of execution it appears to have been included in their culture by Roman times.

The force of the argument here then, as used by the apostle Paul, is, that if to be suspended on a tree or gibbet (after having been put to death) was regarded as a curse, the same rules were to be applied to a body suspended on a cross.

If this is the proper interpretation of the passage, I think we make a mistake to ever think that Christ himself was cursed.

I believe that throughout everything He was an object of Divine love and God never loved him more, or approved what he did more, than when he gave himself to death on the cross.

Had he been displeased with him; had the Redeemer been properly an object of his wrath; had he in any sense deserved those sorrows, there would have been no merit in his sufferings; there would have been no atonement.

I mean, what merit is there when someone suffers only what he or she deserves?

What made the atonement so wonderful, so glorious, so benevolent, what made it an atonement at all, was, that innocence was treated for our guilt in that the most pure, and holy, and benevolent, and lovely Being on earth consented to taking on the punishment for our sin.

In this His only Son, out of love, allowed himself to be treated by man as IF he were the most vile and ill-deserving. And herein lies the mystery of the atonement as it shows the wonders of the Divine benevolence in the face of the most selfless, loving act on behalf of the world He so loved!

So, having said:

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

He adds

14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Let’s work through these words . . .

That the blessing of Abraham (which is the the justification by faith) . . .

Might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ (since he has been made a curse for all).

To receive what? Paul adds:

“That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Where we read “promise of the Spirit” here in the King James it can also be read as “the promised spirit” or “the Spirit of Promise” – all three having slightly different meanings.

But it seems to me that Paul was generally saying that

That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we (the Gentiles) might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” and that
phrase signifies the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all who are His.

What does that power of the Holy Spirit mean to us? It includes all the influences it bears in renewing heart, in sanctifying souls, in illuminating minds, and in comforting the people of God amidst their trials.

All of which influences are obtained by virtue of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus in our place as sinners, and these influences are the sum of all the blessings promised by the prophets.

Last week I drew an OX that represented the import of Faith in the Christian life.

Behind the OX I drew a cart to represent the fruits of love believers produce. I neglected to tie the two together – much to the chagrin of our agriculturally astute fellows who wanted me too draw a tongue on the cart for the Ox to pull the cart by.

Perhaps the importance of the Holy Spirit can now be added to the illustration through a tongue that allows the OX to pull the cart full of the spiritual fruits of love.

In other words, FAITH allows us to trust in the promises and words of God.

When we listen to the influence of the Spirit, which produces the fruit of love, our faith is connected to acts of love, and moves us to bearing forward genuine love for God and others.

We will stop there.

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