Made Righteous by a Cursed One

Made Righteous by a Cursed One
Galatians 3:1-14
August 10, 2025

We continue our study in the book of Galatians where we find Paul cementing into their faith-walk the doctrine of being saved by grace through faith, not works or the law; nothing more, nothing less.

When we talk about upholding the law,  we are dealing with the question in the context of right standing before God.

You’ll remember that he has been dealing with the Judaizers, the Jews who have come to faith in Christ but still wanted to practice the law for justification and sanctification. They expected the gentiles that came to faith to also do this.

Paul confronts this notion head on in chapter 3. People might ask, why was this so important? Why does Paul continue to so strongly oppose this mixing of law and grace? Isn’t it only a small technicality?

In this chapter Paul explains why he is so fervently standing on the principle of saved by faith through grace alone.

It has everything to do with our righteousness, justification, and sanctification. As a quick reminder, righteousness has to do with our right standing before God; or our right to even be able to stand before God. We will all agree that this is critical, because if we have no right to stand before God, it affects where we spend eternity.

Since God is not going to leave heaven as He is the one that sustains and defines heaven, the only other option for those who are not righteous is to not be there.

There are only two possible destinations: heaven, or hell. And since the only other option to being righteous is being unrighteous, hell is the only other destination. If you are saved, now is a good time to fall to your knees in thanksgiving for God’s amazing grace.

Justification deals with our guilt being wiped away. Is it by the atoning work of Jesus, or will our works stand up to the test? Paul addresses that too.

And then lastly, our sanctification. It speaks to our holiness and being made holy. What is it and how does this happen?

These are critically important understanding, as it leads us to either pride, and trusting in our own efforts; or humility, trusting in the finished works of God. One God hates and rejects, the other God loves and welcomes.

Paul will use the law and the types God revealed in the Old Testament to beyond a shadow of doubt reveal God’s plan for our redemption.

After this study, we will all see that we have been made righteous by another becoming a curse for us.

The question is, will you accept it, or continue to take self-righteous stand in pride? This is the danger, even for Christians who want to revert back to their own good works to try and be acceptable before God, but the root of it is pride. 

I. Who bewitched You?

• Paul asks a very direct provocative question This must have shocked the Galatians. They were busy with godly things. How could Paul equate their works with that evil, dark word?
• The Hebrew word used here literally means to be under a spell or to be charmed.

Illus – We have all seen the practice of snake charming. It is when a person brings a snake under such control that it looks like they are hypnotized. They are able to do certain things with a snake that one would not think possible because the snake is focused on the charmer. Being called a charmer is maybe not such a good thing. The meaning of it is someone that easily impresses other people but for the function of manipulating them.

• When we see this context, one can make the connotation that Paul is even referencing back to where the serpent enticed and charmed Adam and Eve, seducing them to oppose the will of God, leaning on their own pride and self-sufficiency.
• And as we see Paul then expounding on this notion, we see that it is exactly the problem and the spirit that was creeping into the doctrine in the churches.
• They were taking their eyes off Christ, the one crucified for them, and placing their eyes on something else that was busy bewitching them, turning their eyes to the law and works.

A. We Received the Spirit through Faith

• It is important to remember that the Galatian church did not have the law. They were gentiles. Everything they received was through faith apart from the law. This is why Paul asks them questions and reminds them that everything they had received and experienced was based on faith.

Verse 2 – did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 

• Since the fall of Adam, man has been on one of two quests: the first is those who tried to become God, or be their own god, which is actually the spirit of the Antichrist driven through pride.
• The second quest, which Paul is addressing here, are those who are trying to return to God, or to be able to be in the presence of God.
• As we have seen, the law was given to set the standard of holiness and perfection, because God is holy and nothing substandard can be in His presence.
• Naturally, it was glaringly obvious to every person that they were breaking the law and as such, they did not have the right to be in the presence of God.

Illus – It is like hanging on a ten link chain over the edge of a cliff. How many links need to break before you fall?

• This is why we see, in the Old Testament, that God’s presence would be in the holy of holies separated from man by a thick veil. Only the high priest could enter into the holy of holies once per year to make atonement for the sin of the nation, but only after sacrifices were brought and the blood of those sacrifices applied to atone for their sins.
• The blood used for these sacrifices was a foreshadowing of Christ as explained in Hebrews.

Hebrews 10:4, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 

• They were, without even knowing it, placing their trust in the sacrifice of Jesus that were to come, which the blood of bulls and goats were only a foreshadowing of.
• Yet access to the Spirit of God was not available. Sin still separated the people from God.
• This is what Paul is referring to. Did you receive the spirit by the law? The obvious answer was that they did not. The law could never give them access to the presence of God since every man is sinful and has broken the law.
• How did they receive the spirit of God? It was through faith in Jesus Christ.
• When Jesus declared on the cross, “It is finished!”, we read that the veil of the holy of holies tore in half from top to bottom. This was a shocking event, because it signified that God was no longer there. His dwelling was now somewhere else.

1 Corinthians 6:19, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

• We have this glorious, miraculous, undeserved incredible favor that the Spirit of God is now living inside of those who have put their faith in Him. That which those who had a heart for God longed for for thousands of years, but were never able to come close to. We don’t only have access periodically now like going into the holy of holies, but we have the Spirit of God indwelling us.

B. We are perfected by the Spirit

• Being perfected speaks to our sanctification. How you grow to spiritual maturity. We are all born into sin. We have this flesh to contend with. The natural tendency is to atrophy, from whole to broken, from clean to dirty, from perfect to imperfect. in other words, spiraling more into brokenness.

Illus – You might find your house full of dust, even though you just dusted. The floor quickly becomes dirty after you mop. It seems like everything breaks down or gets dirtier all on its own. There is no better way to see this than a teenagers room. If you ask them, why does you room look like this, they with a shocked expression say “ I don’t know?!”

• How do we become better? Some people try by trying to uphold the law, doing the right thing. Although you might grow in some areas, the mark you set off from is already imperfect if you are not in
• It is like starting a marathon, but you have one leg chopped off and the other one is broken. Imperfection can never on its own turn into perfection.
• The bar for perfection was set very high.

Verse 10 – For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” 

• There is a very important little word in the sentence: the word “ALL”. Some might have been able to abide by some of the law some of the time, but not all of the law all of the time.
• In other words, one mistake and you are dead. There are no do-overs.
• So, two areas have to be dealt with: what you start off as and how you grow into perfection.
• Both is perfectly addressed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit through the sacrificial work of Jesus on the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.

• Now you are starting the marathon with two new, perfect, legs.
• Not only this, but our growing into the image of Christ is also the work of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love…

Philippians 1:6, I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].

• Now we can start off every morning by saying, Thank you God that I am a new creation. Yesterday has been wiped away. My slate is clean. Thank you that you are changing me into your image by your Spirit indwelling me. I surrender to your Spirit to finish the work it has started.
• This is what Paul refers to. Neither they nor anybody else were ever able to be sanctified by the law. The law, by definition, cannot sanctify.
• It only sets the standard and shows the need for someone to save us; a sinless intermediary able to die in their place.
• The danger is, the Judaizers proclaimed salvation through the blood of Jesus, but then staying clean was your own responsibility by keeping the law.
• We need to be careful not to go back under the law that Christ has set us free from. It nullifies the work of Christ on the cross. If you want to find righteousness under the law, you will be judged by the law.

Verse 12, However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” 

• It is an insult to God. You are essentially saying, ‘Thanks for helping me out a bit God, but I’ve got it from here.’
• It is the definition of pride and trying to be righteous by one’s own effort.

This is what the writer of Hebrews refers to, rejecting the work of Christ on the cross, and returning to the old covenant of the law.

Hebrews 10:29, How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 

• This is not about sinning, but about seeing the blood of Jesus as insufficient.
• The wonderful truth is that the infinite righteousness of Christ has been infinitely credited to your account. Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds.

II. Righteousness Comes through Faith

• The Judaizers were proudly pointing to Moses who received the revelation of God on the mountaintop where Israel was called to worship God. It showed that they were the chosen people. So, if anyone would want to draw near to God, shouldn’t they first submit to the same principles and become part of God’s chosen people?

A. Faith was God’s plan all along

• Paul trumps this argument by taking them back even further: to Abraham. The Jewish religious leaders actually set the stage for this when they proudly proclaimed Abraham as their father when in a confrontation with Jesus.

John 8:39, They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.”

• What were the deeds, or works of Abraham? The law was not given yet when righteousness was accounted to Abraham. Paul points back to this.
• Abraham was a gentile called to follow God. Israel only came into the picture from Jacob’s lineage.

Romans 4:3-5,  “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” …one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

• This was God’s plan all along. Righteousness by faith which Abraham was the example of.

B. Christ became our curse

• We have seen that the law cannot make one righteous. But even more than that, breaking the law proclaims a curse on us.

Verse 10 – For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.”

• The law had a blessing and a curse attached to it. By default, wewere all cursed. Israel could only receive blessing because of the sacrifices that would cover their sins.
• Even this was a foreshadowing and a picture of Christ.
• But the moment they stopped sacrificing, they stepped under the curse, because the blood of bulls and goats were not a continual covering for sin.

If you want to uphold the law and be sanctified by the law, and then break it, you are stepping under a curse.

App – So be very careful if you want to stand under the law. For example, if you want to worship God on the Sabath, do it, but not to uphold the law. If you choose to not eat pork for health reasons, do it, but not to uphold the law and be acceptable to God.

• Now, we have this beautiful, amazing promise.

Verse 13 – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— 

• Christ became our curse so that we can stand under the blessing of fulfilling the law, because he already fulfilled it. And we are united with him in death so we can reign with Him in life.

Verse 14 – in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

• With this verse, Paul bypasses the law Moses received for the nation of Israel, pointing directly to Abraham. Gentiles are now connected to the blessing of Abraham not through Israel and the law, but by faith in the finished work of Christ.

C. Acceptance of grace requires death of pride

• The picture of Jesus becoming the curse for us is clearly connected to an earlier event by Jesus when he spoke to Nikodemus in John 3.

John 3:14-15, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

• Christ became the curse of sin for us. But you need to look to Him.
• The people that were bitten by the vipers in the desert had a choice. They could pridefully try to take the matter into their own hands, trying to suck out their own poison, wait it out and see what happens, crawl somewhere else to try and find a doctor, or lay down their pride, repent, and choose to look at the snake on the pole and be saved.
• This is the ONLY message of salvation. Acknowledge the need for a Savior, accept His loving forgiveness, receive His unmerited favor because of His love, and let Him save you. Him having been made a curse makes you righteous.
• Then the curse is broken and you stand under the continual blessing and undeserved favor of God.
• You now stand in relationship to God as His son and daughter. You can be corrected by the Father, just like an earthly father corrects his son, but you are never disconnected in relationship. “ I’m so blessed…”