For as many as are on the principle of works of law are under curse. For it is written, Cursed is every one who does not continue in all things which [are] written in the book of the law to do them;
This verse passes sentence on everyone who takes the law as their ground before God. Its force lies in one phrase: Paul does not say those who have broken the law, but those who rely on works of the law.
The apostle is not measuring how far a person has failed. He is naming the ground a person stands on.
The works of the law are not bad works. They are right works: loving God and our neighbour, and not breaking the commandments that forbid sin. But those who are of the works of the law are under the curse. They stand under the law's obligation to do these works, whether someone else put them there or they put themselves there. He does not say the one who has broken the law is under the curse, or the one who sins, or the one who has done evil. He says the one who is of the works of the law. That is the one who goes on the principle of being under its obligation, bound to keep it.
If the works are good, why does taking them up bring a curse? Because the person taking them up is already a sinner. A perfect standard can only expose him.
Suppose I bring a right and true measure to a man who is in the habit of using a wrong measure — what do I do it for? Not to make him honest, but to prove his dishonesty. It is useless for him to say, "I will change my character"; the thing is already done. The question is, does he have a character? And the measure proves him a dishonest man… God gave His right, perfect, holy law as a rule. But that rule comes to a sinner who cannot keep it. It searches him with all the power of God's holiness. So he stands judged, and comes under its curse.
The quoted sentence demands continuance in everything written. There is no clause allowing for an off day.
Not those who have broken the law, but those who take their stand on legal ground — these are under the curse. Whoever tries to please God on this principle has fallen under it. And why? Because there is such a thing as sin… So that, if I stand on this ground, there is not the slightest provision made for failure.
Commentators picture a man hanging over an abyss by a chain.
If one link of this chain breaks, will the rest of the chain hold him? No, he plunges into the abyss. And so if a person breaks one commandment, he breaks the whole law, and he comes under the curse.
Paul backs his claim with a written quotation. Commentators point to where he found it — and to what is missing there.
The quotation here is from Deuteronomy 27, and it is very striking. There six tribes, Simeon and the others, were to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, and six tribes on Mount Ebal to curse. The Levites were then to say with a loud voice to all the men of Israel, "Cursed…" But where are the blessings? They are not to be found in the chapter at all. Why are the blessings from Mount Gerizim not named? Because God knew well that they would never be wanted.
Some say a believer may take the law as a guide and escape its penalty. Commentators answer that the law does not let you pick and choose.
It is useless to talk of using the law for sanctification, or as a rule of life, and not for justification. You cannot use the law for one purpose or another as you please. It will use its rights over you as it pleases… You cannot deal with God's law as you like. If you will have God's law, you must take it with all the consequences God has attached to it.
The argument does not end here. The same chapter shows Christ stepping into the place this verse describes.
Think of the curse as a great sword hanging by a thread over my head. It may fall at any moment and destroy me. Christ came above me, between me and the sword. The sword fell on Him; He received the blow that must have taken us down to hell; He took us out from under the curse.
- Ground, not record. The curse falls on a position, not a score. Paul names those who stand on law-keeping. The good performer and the poor one lie under the same curse.
- Because sin is already there. A perfect measure handed to a dishonest man proves him dishonest; it does not reform him. The law reveals a condition that existed before it arrived.
- "All things" leaves no margin. One broken link drops the whole weight. Law makes no provision for failure — that is what makes it law.
- Deuteronomy's own silence agrees. Six tribes were to bless from Gerizim, yet the chapter records only Ebal's curses. God knew that blessing on that ground would never be wanted.
- Rescue, not repair. Christ stepped between the sinner and the falling sword. He took the blow and carried us out from under the curse.
but that by law no one is justified with God [is] evident, because The just shall live on the principle of faith;
Paul has just said that everyone who stands on law-keeping is under a curse. Now he proves from the Jewish Scriptures themselves that God never cleared anyone on that road, and his proof is one line from the prophet Habakkuk.
One writer weighs the phrase "in the sight of God," then the logic of Paul's one-sentence proof:
Notice first the force of the words, "in the sight of God." Law was a justifier of man with man, as Paul himself is a witness. For a man who counted things by human standards, being a strict and consistent Pharisee was "gain." But the law, once you know its real force, is spiritual, and by nature opposed to the sinful nature in us. So the legal righteousness he had long treasured, and could fairly boast of, turns into unrighteousness when God's light examines it. Notice also how his reasoning works. He states a general truth: "The just shall live by faith." If that is so, no one lives by any other means, because that is the only means by which men are justified.
Writers point out that Scripture speaks of two courtrooms, not one.
Scripture shows us both sides. One is to be justified in the eyes of God (Galatians) by faith alone, which no works of law can achieve. The other is to be justified in the eyes of men through works of faith (James).
The quotation comes from a prophet grieving over a ruined nation. The New Testament uses that one line three times, and the stress falls on a different word each time. (Older translations read "the just"; the ESV has "the righteous.")
The prophet grieved over the ruin of His people. God's dealings puzzled him, because deliverance did not come quickly. God told him that "the just shall live by his faith." The phrase comes three times in the New Testament, and each time for a different purpose. Look at Romans 1 and the emphasis falls on "just"; in Hebrews 10 it falls on the word "live"; in Galatians 3 on "faith."
Here faith is the point at issue, set side by side with a law that could supply neither righteousness nor life.
Here, then, faith is put in the forefront, and Paul did not stop there, although he did not lose sight of its link with righteousness or with life. He put faith side by side with the law, which could give neither the one nor the other.
Law and faith run on opposite principles, and the Jews of Paul's day missed the difference:
They looked on the law as being the means of their justification. They were content with a very shallow obedience to some of its demands. They were "seeking to establish their own" righteousness, as Paul puts it in Romans 10:3. In this they failed completely, because their own Scriptures had already recorded that "the just shall live by faith." And faith is not the principle the law rests on; that principle is works. The whole matter, briefly summed up, stands like this: by law men come under the curse and die. By faith men are justified and live.
The difference is not one of degree but of kind — one road asks you to produce something, the other puts you right.
Doing right is one kind of perfection; being set right is another. The first was what the law uselessly offered. The second is the blessed reality of the gospel, once faith receives it into the heart.
"Justified" is a bigger word than "forgiven":
The "just" or "righteous," in the language of the Spirit, are not only the "forgiven." The single word "justification," as Scripture uses it of God's redeemed people, holds three distinct ideas that cannot be separated. First, it means the sinner's pardon — the forgiveness of his sins. Second, it means deliverance both from the fear of punishment and from the shameful sense of guilt in the sight of God. Third, it means that God credits righteousness to him.
Justification and daily life run on the same track. What clears you is what sustains you:
In this simple statement God denies the idea that men can gain either righteousness or life by their own works. The principle that justifies a man must also be the principle he lives by. And the principle he lives by must be the one that justifies him... Christ cannot be your life without also being your righteousness. He must be both righteousness and life to all — or, if He is neither, then Judge.
Living by faith is not one act at the start. It is a whole way of relating to God:
To live by faith is to walk with God; to cling to Him; to lean on Him; to draw from His endless springs; to find all our resources in Him... to know Him as our only resource in all difficulties and in all our trials.
- Evident — Paul needs no long argument. One line from Habakkuk settles it: if the righteous live by faith, no one is justified any other way.
- Before God — the law could win a man a good name among people. Held up to God's light, that same righteousness turns into unrighteousness.
- Faith — the New Testament uses the same line three times. Romans stresses "just," Hebrews stresses "live," Galatians stresses "faith."
- Justified — the word covers three things: pardon, release from guilt and fear, and righteousness credited to the believer.
- Live — the principle that justifies you is the principle you then live by. Faith is not one topic in the Christian life. It is the whole walk with God.
but the law is not on the principle of faith; but, He that shall have done these things shall live by them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.