One of the most impactful movie theater experiences I ever had was in Lander, Wyoming, when I went with some of my friends who are into rock climbing and mountain climbing to go see a documentary. It's not even a real movie with the script. It's uh reality. The movie was called Free Solo. Do you remember this thing? It boggled my mind. It's about the most stressed I've ever been watching a movie. It was like I was driving a four-wheeler over a really bumpy road. I was just puckered the whole time. Because this kid decides that he's going to go and climb whatever that mountain is in Yosemite National Park, Half Dome, El Capitan. I don't know. I sound like an idiot right now. I don't know my California geography very well. Ask me about mountains in Yellowstone or Colorado. I'll do a little bit better. Whatever, that great big lava dome is there that people climb. He decides to climb it, but with no gear. This thing is sheer. It's straight up. There's no way, no way on my fittest day that I could climb that with gear and assistance. And I mean, you know, I'm not a horrible athlete. In my prime, I was a function. I don't know. Most things, even at this point in life, I see people do it and I go, yeah, you know, on my best day, I might be able to do that or compete. Not this movie. I watched this movie and thought that is out of my league, that is impossible. I can't do that. I don't know how any human would do it with ropes. This guy's gonna do it without ropes. And it's one of the most stressful things that I've ever seen in my life. But I got to thinking about that example and thinking about the places where my friends would go, rock climbing and mountain climbing, and places I'm more familiar with. And there were a few of these places where it's an incredibly sheer cliff, maybe not quite as dramatic as Yosemite, but you could get to the top of some of those popular climbing routes with like, you know, a van just for free. You didn't even have to pay for gas because people were just driving up there. You could just stick your thumb out and they would take you with. Sometimes you didn't even have to stick your thumb out in some of those places. You could just stand there and they'd be like, Well, where else are you going? They're on the side of the road. Clearly, you're going to the top of the thing. Here, just hop in and it's free. And you go to the top, never die or fall off or anything. There's pretty much no risk. You just kind of depend on somebody else for the free gift of the ride right on up there. But if you were to choose to free solo that climb that you could also just drive to the top of, you're allowed exactly zero mistakes. Because if you don't nail every decision and make every proper choice, dead. There is an analogy here. If you've been hanging out with me as we've been working through the book of Galatians, you're like, I get it. Okay, I get it. You started saying that like 30 seconds into this whole thing. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Just get to it. I know that you gotta keep the whole law 100% perfect, or you die. And the other way to get right standing with God is to receive the free gift of God. Just believe. Yep, you nailed it. That is exactly it, but I'm going to spell it out anyway. Paul in Galatians 3 10 draws on some stuff from the D part of the law in the Old Testament from the book of Deuteronomy, and he quotes it saying, Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. When contrasted with other ancient codes of law, this is really hard and really demanding. It is the free solo of the ancient books of the law. No room for mistake, no latitude here. You either keep the whole thing or you fall to your grisly death. But the entire book of Galatians and the teachings of Jesus and the whole New Testament and the Old Testament even anticipates this as well, points to this righteousness that is apart from the law, another way, or really the only way to have right standing with God. Now, metaphorically, the Galatian Christians, these Gentile Christians who might have been descended from the ancient French people, the Gauls who were living in modern day Turkey and had been there for about the amount of time that the United States had existed, this weird group of people with a weird, mysterious background, people who are the farthest thing from Jews, they heard this message in the middle of the first century A.D. from Paul, and they were like, huh, that makes sense. We believe what we have heard. And then the Holy Spirit showed up, and they became a part of the family of faith, sons, daughters, heirs, agents of the kingdom of God, fully in, confirmed miraculously by the work of the Holy Spirit. I mean, it's just wild. They didn't do anything. Metaphorically, they caught the van ride to the top of the cliff. But then along came some free solo types who are like, no, no, no, no, no. You did not earn the ride to the top of the cliff, Galatian Gentiles. You're doing it all wrong. No, you got a free solo your way all the way to the top of the cliff, or it doesn't count, it's not the real thing. And so Paul is coming along and he's trying to straighten that out in the book of Galatians, saying, Look, the only way to the top of the cliff is the metaphorical van ride, and you guys got that right in the first place. This free solo thing, it seems like it might be an option, you know, one that would be gritty and filled with hard work and really rewarding along the way, but it's not an option at all because you would have an easier time, big time paraphrases mine here. You would have an easier time free soloing, half-town or El Capitan or whatever it's called, than you would keeping every bit of God's perfect holy law from the Old Testament. It can't be kept, and cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Now, where did Paul get this opinion that you have to get every single thing right that's written in the book of the law in order to fully satisfy what the book of the law says? Well, he got that from the very book of the law that is in question, Deuteronomy 27, 26. Now look, I get it. This is where the metaphor breaks down a little bit. Someone can free solo that mountain in Yosemite National Park, because I saw it, it's been done, that has happened. It is theoretically achievable if you are super, super, super ultra elite. Almost no one can, but someone can. And also, it is very rewarding to do something like that, even if you're not rock climbing, to climb to the top of a 14er in Colorado. I've done that. That's really rewarding, and it's about the journey, and it's about being tested and pushed and digging deep into your own character and digging deep into your reserves and learning things about yourself. The metaphor super breaks down here. Keeping the law is not like a really, really, really, really, really hard mountain climb. Keeping the law according to the Bible is impossible. Not super, super difficult. Impossible. Keeping the law perfectly according to the Bible is not the kind of thing that will test your character and draw some good things out of you, but in the end, you'll look back and be like, I did it and it was worth it. Trying to keep the law according to the Bible as a way to get right standing with God leads to death, spiritual death, and eternal separation from God. It is not an avenue to ultimate, final, and complete right standing with God. It doesn't work. Is the law good for other things? Yes, it is, and we're going to talk about that more as we get further into Galatians chapter three. But according to Paul and everything else we're seeing in the Bible, this is a one or zero proposition. It is a zero sum game. If you try to free climb Mount Law, you are allowed zero mistakes. And the first time you make one, you will plummet to your death. It isn't going to work. There is no life on the other end of this thing, no right standing with God, and you will make a mistake. It's far too treacherous. It's impossible to climb. However, there is a metaphorical van ride to the top made freely available by the work of Christ. And in this metaphor I'm going with, just getting to the top and having right standing with God is the point, not really the journey along the way. And I understand that's kind of the weakness of the whole metaphor that I'm drawing on here. So when Paul says, quoting Deuteronomy 27, 26, when he says, cursed is everyone who doesn't continue to do everything written in the book of the law, he is stressing, you don't get any misses. Zero, none. So then he just says the obvious next thing. Clearly, no one is justified before God by the law. Why is he saying that? Because he knows what his audience knows, which is it's just too hard a climb. You're going to make a mistake. Some of you might get further into the climb before you make your inevitable mistake, but you're gonna make the mistake. You're not getting to the top free solo style. It ain't happening. And the results of depending on that route to the top are calamitous for you. Clearly, no one is justified before God by the law because quote, the righteous will live by faith. Now that phrase, the righteous will live by faith, is another quote from the Old Testament, much later on in the Old Testament, after more time has gone by and after more characters have come and gone in the course of the Old Testament story who have tried to free solo the thing. After more generations of people have tried to keep the law and failed, later on in the Bible we get this quote: the righteous will live by faith. And clearly Paul is making a contrast between the avenues presented in these two Old Testament quotes. Option one, the free solo route, which is no option really at all, is cursed as everyone who does not continue to do everything written in this book of the law. Option two, which is really the only option that exists, which is the metaphorical free van ride to the top, says the righteous will live by faith. We're gonna hang out with the oft-forgotten Old Testament prophet Habakkuk tomorrow and unpack that a little bit more. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon, and we're not gonna be able to do this.