Sermon Tone Analysis

Imagine yourself in the land of Canaan around the time of the conquest that was led by Joshua the son of Nun.

Perhaps you are observing the events from a distance.

As you watch you observe that the entire nation splits in half: one croup climbs up Mount Ebal and the other group climbs up Mount Gerizim.

While observing this you hear the sound of many voices that is so loud that sounds like the roar of the sea.

As you listen closely you pick up on the fact that the group that is on Mount Ebal is shouting out the blessings that will belong to the children of Israel if they carefully observe all the things that are written in the book of the law.

Then you notice that the group on Mount Gerizim is also shouting out.

But instead of shouting out blessings they are shouting out the curses that will come upon the people if they do not follow everything that is written in the book of the law.

Their statement is summarized as follows:

This magnificent scene must have been in Paul’s mind as he wrote our passage for today in .

Today, we continue in our series, NO OTHER GOSPEL.

As we do so we will look at the comparison between the blessed and the cursed.

We will look back over our previous passage as we consider those who are blessed.

So, to get things started I would like for us to read .

THE BLESSED (, )

THE ORIGIN OF BLESSING

The origin of blessing is related to faith in the promise of God

The Greek phrase, “ek pisteōs” (of or by faith) is a reoccurring technical expression in this extended passage ().

The preposition “ek” notes the origin or point from which action or motion proceeds

Blessing is the action

Thus our bullet point about the origin of blessing.

Four of the five occurrences of this phrase are stated in the positive, while one is stated in the negative.

Let’s look at each in turn:

— Those of faith are the sons of Abraham

— Gentiles are justified by faith

— Those of faith are blessed with Abraham

— The righteous man shall live by faith

— The Law IS NOT of faith

THE CHANNEL OF BLESSING

Not only is the origin of blessing related to faith, but faith is also the channel of blessing

Look with me at verse 14.

Once again we find the mention of faith.

More specifically we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

The preposition translated “through” at the end of verse 14 is the Greek term “dia.”

This term denotes the channel of an act.

So, the blessed are those who are described as the sons of Abraham.

That is, all true believers in Jesus Christ.

And the blessing comes through the channel of faith

THE CURSED ()

THE CURSED LAWBREAKERS

What does it mean to be cursed?

Between the reference to being bewitched in verse 1 and being cursed in verse 10-13 one could easily get the idea that we are talking about some form of witchcraft here.

In his commentary on Galatians, Douglas Moo states:

To be under a curse is to be under God’s judgement for failure to live up to His covenant requirements

Notice verse 10 with me once again.

Once again we see the preposition “ek” translated as “of.”

To remind you, we have already noted that this Greek term refers to the origin of an action.

The origin of blessing is faith in the promise of God.

The origin of cursing is dependence on the works of the Law

It’s not simply a matter of dependence on works for salvation; it is also dependence on works for future blessing as well.

Remember, Paul is addressing those who are truly believers in Jesus Christ.

These folks began their journey in the Christian life by the Spirit, but were seeking to finish it by works ().

Writing about this, Bush and Due stated:

Paul isn’t cursing those outside the church, he’s aiming at those who diminish grace—and cultivate pride—by supposing that it’s possible to gain God’s favor through God-talk, church attendance, profession of right doctrine, meal-time prayers, regular Bible reading, avoiding gross sins, and the like.

The Galatians are running with the ball, trying to score points in helter-skelter frenzy of “doing the right thing,” so Paul sounds the penalty buzzer.

To prove his point Paul quoted the passage from Deuteronomy that we looked earlier in regards to the curses that would be for those who failed to keep what was written in the book of the law.

Expositing this same passage James wrote:

Notice the first part of verse 11 of our text: “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident.”

The whole point of the law was bring about the realization that we cannot keep the law ourselves.

We are all guilty.

We were guilty even before we were born since we were born with a sin nature.

Douglas Moo, stating this as a syllogism, states:

A syllogism is a method of deductive reasoning which shares a common term, and then makes a conclusion.

Only those who do everything written in the law will escape the curse.

No one can do everything written in the law.

Therefore: No one who depends on doing the law will escape the curse.

To further prove his point Paul quotes another O.T. passage at the end of verse 11: “The righteous man shall live by faith.”

This comes from .

In the prophets original rendering he is contrasting the arrogant pride of the Babylonians who were to conquer Judah because of their sin against God, and those who are truly righteous.

The one is arrogant and prideful, the other is humbly relying on the promise of God for salvation.

This statement is the hinge of the Protestant Reformation in which the truth of the gospel was recovered from the false teaching of the Medieval Roman Catholic Church.

Martin Luther, a monk turned reformer, was the leader of this movement.

In his monastery at Erfurt, Martin Luther fell into a period of darkness and depression in which he felt he was under the wrath of God.

Habakkuk’s words, “The righteous shall live by faith,” spoke to him during this time.

The words resonated once more when he journeyed to Rome and visited the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

There, certificates for the forgiveness of sins, called indulgences, were issued to all who climbed the steps of the basilica on their knees, pausing to pray and kiss each step.

Later, Luther’s son recorded what happened:

As he repeated his prayers on the Lateran staircase, the words of the prophet Habakkuk came suddenly to his mind: “The just shall live by faith.”

Thereupon he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as the chief foundation of all his doctrine.

Luther no longer believed his efforts could gain God’s favor.

He later said, “Before those words broke upon my mind, I hated God and was angry with him … But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words—‘the just shall live by faith!’ ‘The just shall live by faith!’—then

I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God.”

Look at again at verse 12.

There is a comparison between the righteous man in verse 11 and the cursed man of verse 12.

The NLT puts the first phrase of verse 12 this way: “This way of faith is very different from the way of the law.”

Those who are righteous live by faith

Those who practice the law live by the law

Thus far we have been looking at the cursed lawbreakers.

Let’s turn our attention now to the cursed law-keeper.

THE CURSED LAW-KEEPER

Look with me at verse 13.

There have been many songs written about Christ as our Redeemer, and rightfully so.

Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim it.

There is a Redeemer.

Christ Redeemeth Sinful Men.

My Redeemer is Faithful and True.

I Know My Redeemer Lives.

And on and on they go.

And I, for one, never tire of singing those precious songs.

What did Christ redeem us from?

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law