Redemption in Christ- Galatians 3:10-14

We have seen that we have redemption in Christ, and that this means that the price has been paid which has secured our freedom from our bondage to sin. Having seen what this means, we will now look at some New Testament passages in order to see just what that means in our lives. We will turn first to Galatians 3:10-14, in which we read that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law” in verse 13. Law here represents the realm of self-effort, and it is a curse because all who try to be saved through their own efforts will remain in bondage to the doctrine that they must “work” to get saved, or work to stay saved. Sin uses the law to try to persuade us that we can earn or merit our salvation by keeping the law, that by our own efforts we either get saved or stay saved. This passage clearly teaches that salvation comes only by faith in Christ, and that salvation has brought us redemption from the curse of the law, has set us free from the bondage of trying to save ourselves through our own efforts, which is impossible. Verses 10 and 11 very clearly teach that faith and law are in opposition to one another, that law is the realm of self-effort and the reason we can’t be justified by it is that no one can possibly measure up to its standards all the time and in every way. We are justified not by our own efforts, but by faith in what Christ has done, and this is true from the moment we are born again until the moment we die (Romans 1:17, by faith from “first to last”). We have been freed once for all from the bondage of trying to earn salvation through our own efforts, but sin will try to persuade us that we must “perform” in order to keep our salvation, that we must live by a “law” in order to receive the “promise of the Spirit” (verse 14). The word translated promise here is epangelia, and it means “to offer one’s services to”, and it is something we “receive” (verse 14), with receive here being in the active voice. We must “do” something to receive the promise of the Spirit, and we find here that what we must “do” is have faith. Faith here is contrasted with “works of the law”, for law is trust in self while faith is trust in Christ. The bottom line in all of this is that Christ has paid the price to set us free from sin’s persuasiveness. Sin will try to “persuade” us that we must keep a “law” to get saved or to stay saved, and through the law keep us in bondage to the law, in bondage to a “do it yourself” Christianity, keeping us from learning to live in reliance on the Holy Spirit. This passage makes very clear to us that the price has been paid to secure our freedom from this, but that it is only as we grow to understand this that we will live it out in our lives. As we grow to understand this and live by trust in the Spirit and not in our own efforts, we will grow in our reliance upon the Holy Spirit and die to the realm of self-effort, and we will live out the freedom we have been given, we will live in the totality of the redemption which we have in Christ.