If you're listening to the 10 Minute Bible Hour podcast, it's Fast Hun Free Daily Deep Dive Bible. And right now we're talking about Galatians.
SPEAKER_01Do you have a place on your daily commute or on your most regular drive that you do where you come to a particular light? Maybe it's a very long stoplight. And you know that the fastest way to get to your destination, if the light is green, is just to go straight, and you're going to get there the quickest. But if that light turns red right as you get there, you know, oh, you got to slide into the right lane and do a right turn on red, and then you'll get there more quickly going that other way. Maybe you don't have a place like that. I have a place like that in Rabbit City, South Dakota, and we use that trick all the time at that intersection. It's kind of a fun family game we do where it's like, all right, kids, watch this light coming up. This is the nightmare light in town. I'm getting in the right lane. Are we gonna go through the light? Is it gonna stay green or are we gonna slide into the right-hand turn lane and turn right on red? And whichever the light dictates is the best call. Usually, because every now and then I'll do everything right, I'll position properly, we're all eyes up and paying attention, we make the right move, and then once you get around the corner, you realize, oh, there's a ton of traffic in front of me. Then you kind of peek back the other way, and you're like, well, there's a ton of traffic there too. All right, either way I was gonna lose, I could have put forth all the effort and strategy and planning I wanted to. This just isn't gonna get me home faster. Things are what things are. Likewise, in the book of Galatians, and particularly in the verse that I'm about to read you, Galatians 3.10, it seems like we're running into one of these situations where whether you turn right on red or you went straight on green, either way, you're gonna run into traffic and it's not gonna work. You're not gonna get home any quicker. It's gonna be totally effective. A catch 22, if you will, because Paul here is saying that anybody who relies on observing the law is under a curse. But the whole Old Testament seems to be saying, obey the law. That's obey God, do what God says. You get blessings if you obey God, and you get cursed if you disobey God. So if the Old Testament is saying that you're cursed if you disobey God, and here Paul is saying, well, it looks like he's almost saying that you're cursed if you obey God. Well, if that's the case, I could forgive somebody for reading this and being a little confused and getting that sense of give them the stick, don't give them the stick here. It's a little bit overwhelming. However, this apparent tension is completely parsable, and what Paul is saying is actually in keeping with what the Old Testament is saying, but admittedly, on its surface, it does feel like if you went straight through the green light or turned right, either way, you're just in traffic and things didn't work out. Obey the law, don't obey the law, rely on the law, don't rely on the law. So here's what the verse is Galatians 3 10. All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it's written cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Okay, well let's just start with the first half of that sentence. Obviously, the second half of that verse starts to clarify it right away, but all who rely on observing the law are under a curse. Okay. Well, Paul, this is I mean, this is no departure for Paul from what he's been saying in Galatians. The law doesn't work, the law doesn't work, the law doesn't work. Well, the law doesn't work for what? Paul is saying the law doesn't work for right standing before God. You can't obey the law into being justified before God. And he's been saying it a ton over the last few paragraphs. I mean, practically every other line. That's just he's pounding this point. Let's go back just a couple lines here to verse five. Does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard? Go back two more lines. Paul says, Are you so foolish after beginning with the spirit? Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Let's go back a couple more. Uh verse two. Did you receive the spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Let's go back a couple more. Galatians 2, 21. I don't set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Let's go back a little bit further. Verse 16. Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. Okay, what do all of those statements have in common? Is he saying the law is bad or bad things will happen if you observe the law? No, he isn't at any point saying that. He's saying the law is the wrong tool for the job. If you use a hammer to try to neatly saw a piece of nice wood for a trim finish, that's going to be a really ugly cut and it's not ever, it's just not going to work for that purpose. Likewise, comparison is mine. If you try to use the tool of the law to achieve right standing with God, it's the wrong tool for the job, and it's not going to work. What is at the center of Paul's pushback against the Galatians is that they are using the wrong tool for the job to their own great peril. So when he says in Galatians 3 10, all who rely on observing the law are under a curse, I don't get the impression that he's wadding up the whole Old Testament and throwing it over his shoulder into the trash to say this was never good or useful for anything. If you rely on the law, you're condemned, but if you disobey the law, you're condemned. Give him the stick. Don't give him the stick. I don't think that's what he's doing here. Rather, I think he's trying to parse two very similar-looking things that have been uncritically conflated in the minds of the Galatians. And what he's going to do over the course of the rest of chapter three and into chapter four is he's going to try to get in there with his fingers and parse these two things out. He's going to try to disabuse them of the notion that it's a turn right and you're in traffic or go straight and you're in traffic, either way, it doesn't work, kind of situation. He's going to try to disabuse them of the notion that if they just try hard enough and strategize hard enough that they will be able to earn right standing with God, going to go on here to try to help them understand that the law was a good gift from God and a good tool for a particular task, one we're going to talk about tomorrow, but that it is an insufficient tool for earning right standing with God. If you try to use the wrong tool for the job, it isn't gonna work. But it's amazing how easy it is, effortless it can be with the right tool. So big picture here. If you and I listen to an audio Bible and we set it to 1.75 X and it's just flying by, and we're getting, you know, most of it, we're working and doing stuff on the side. But there's like there's Bible osmosing into our brain. There's a decent chance that we're gonna have a bit of a record scratch sensation here in Galatians chapter three, as this line just pops. All who rely on observing the law are under a curse. Wait, what? Oh pause the playback for just a dang minute there. Didn't we just get done with all of this part of the Bible that was saying obey the law? Is the New Testament in conflict with the Old Testament? Are we talking about a different deity here in the New Testament than the Old Testament? Am I supposed to obey it or not obey it? Give him the stick, don't give him the stick, catch 22, turn right on Omaha Street, go straight. Traffic either way. It's overwhelming, it's confusing. However, if we slow down the metaphorical playback on our Bible read through to 1x or maybe even a little bit slower and more reflective than that, I think we can really see what Paul is saying here and how absolutely vital what Paul is saying here is to understanding the whole Bible and the character of God and God's redemptive plan and how people back then and people like you and me might have any hope of being justified before God, of having right standing before God. So to sort this thing out, we are going to go back and look at the blessings and curses of the law just a little bit tomorrow and try to better understand what this tool was for and what it was doing in the Old Testament, and how the Galatians might have gotten a little crossways here in the New Testament in terms of understanding what it means and how it is to be employed, what it's supposed to do. Please do not take this episode of the podcast as me in any way discouraging you from continuing to do that thing that you do on your commute where you get in the right lane and at the last minute pick which move is gonna get you to where you're going faster. That's brilliant. And you are a traffic boss, and you should continue to do that, and I'm going to continue to do that too. All right, I'm Matt. This is the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.
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