Sons of Abraham

Part 15

Text: Galatians 3:10-14

June 20, 2010

Review/Introduction:

How is a man justified?

How does a man come to stand in a right relationship with God?

How does one come into and remain under God’s favor and goodwill?

I.       The OT Scriptures teach that the Law issues a sentence of cursing rather than blessing (3:10).

II.       The OT Scriptures clearly reveal that no one is justified by works of the Law (v. 11).

III.       The OT Scriptures (Lev. 18:5) teach that the law and faith are wholly incompatible in regard to justification (v. 12).

Lesson:

IV.       The OT Scriptures teach that the curse of God’s law has been removed by Christ’s work on the cross (vv. 13-14).

“The price or ransom paid for us was nothing else but the personal Redeemer, the Son of God condescending to be made a curse for us; a thought so vast and unfathomable, that though our minds grow familiar with the phraseology, we are for ever incapable of comprehending or fully surveying it,” (George Smeaton, The Apostle’s Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 246).

What does God’s justice look like?

“It (i.e., curse) consisted especially in the privation of God, and in the desertion, which extorted from Him many agonizing complaints; for the worst ingredient of the curse is the loss of God, or the absence and complete withdrawal of God from a human soul, made to be His habitation,” (George Smeaton, The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 248).

“The cross was the supreme circumcision. When Jesus took the curse on Himself and so identified with our sin that He became a curse, God cut Him off, and justly so. At the moment when Christ took on Himself the sin of the world, His figure on the cross was the most grotesque, most obscene mass of concentrated sin in the history of the world. God is too holy to look on iniquity, so when Christ hung on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned His back. He averted His face and He cut off His Son. Jesus, Who, touching His human nature, had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout His ministry, now bore the sin of God’s people, and so He was forsaken by God,” (R.C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross, p. 134).

Reflection:

“³ No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. ⁴ They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads,” (Rev. 22:3-4).

“… do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Matt. 10:28).

“¹⁰ Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” (Lk. 2:10-11).

“Come to Him, by owning that you cannot come of yourself. Come to Him, by believing that you are cursed, wretched, and undone without Him, and that you shall be blessed and happy in Him. Come to Him, by believing that you have no righteousness but guilt, no strength but weakness; and that in the Lord only you have righteousness and strength. Come to Him, by believing that you have nothing, and that He hath all; and that you can do nothing, and He can do all for you…Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely,” (The Works of Ralph Erskine, vol. 2, pp. 371-372).

© John Fonville

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