Today in God's Word—March 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
March 21, Galatians 3
The pouring rain made it hard to see as we returned from a spring beach vacation shortened by bad weather. After creeping along for two hours, we were near the interstate that would take us home. Just north of Bay Minette, Alabama, I saw a drenched man standing in the road, waving his arms. I stopped, and rolled down my window. He shouted above the pelting rain, “You can’t make it this way! The bridge is out!” I told him I was only going to the interstate. He shook his head, “No! You have to turn around. You can’t get to the interstate. The bridge is gone!” So we backtracked, and took another route toward home.
My young family and I were traveling through the most intense rainfall our region had seen in decades. The following day, Saturday, March 17, 1990, the Pea River broke through the levee at Elba, Alabama, almost destroying the town. I remember the stranger who saved us from tragedy that day, warning us that the way I was trying to go was impossible. I wish I knew his name to thank him.
These words from Paul remind me of our rain-soaked messenger. To people trying to be justified by law keeping, Paul shouted, “You can’t make it that way!” He contrasted two ways to righteousness. One way (trusting Christ) is blessed and connected to the promise God gave Abraham. The other way (relying on law keeping) is cursed— impossible and impassible. The problem with the law route is that our sins have washed the bridge away. I can’t make it that way, and neither can you. The law was never intended to be the way, but to point us
to Christ, the way. Paul said the law was not against the promise, and if a life-giving law could have been given, it would have been done. But we’re all guilty under the law so the promise can be given to those who trust Christ for righteousness.
Do we get it about being saved, but miss it about living saved? After trusting grace to save us, do we despair when we can’t live a godly life by our own strength? Or do we claim to be saved by trusting, but prove by our disobedience we don’t really trust him at all? Paul laced the prophets’ promises together and tied them with Habakkuk’s familiar line, “The righteous shall live by faith.” He reminded his readers the standard of law is: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Jesus took our curse by dying on the cross. The way of life and blessing is through trusting him. The way of death and cursing is to trust your own law-keeping. If we’re trying to do enough or be good enough to make it, Paul is waving his arms, telling us the bridge is out. We can’t make it that way.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide for Your Journey Through the New Testament, Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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