Habakkuk, Leviticus, and the Curse

The last chapter read Galatians 3:10 whole and found that its curse falls where Moses put it, on the one who does not remain in what is written. Paul, however, keeps going, and the next three verses are where many readers decide that the Torah has been set aside for good. So we keep reading too.

Galatians 3:11-12 Now that no one is justified by nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) before God is evident; for, "The righteous man shall live by faith." However, the nomos(law) is not of faith; on the contrary, "He who practices them shall live by them."

Read quickly, these two verses sound like a contest between faith and law, in which one wins and the other loses: “The righteous man shall live by faith” stays, and “He who practices them shall live by them” goes.

Both lines, however, are quotations, and both come from the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul is not setting the Bible against itself. He is setting one text of Scripture beside another.

Two Texts, Two Jobs

The first quotation comes from the prophet Habakkuk:

Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, the puffed up—his soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh) is not upright within him; but the righteous shall live (chai חַי khah'-ee) by his faith.

In Hebrew it reads tsaddiq be’emunato yichyeh צַדִּיק בֶּאֱמוּנָתוֹ יִחְיֶה tsad-deek', “the righteous one will live by his faithfulness.” This speaks of how a person is declared righteous: it is received by faith.

The second comes from Leviticus:

Leviticus 18:5 And you shall keep my statutes (chuqqot חֻקָּה khook-kaw') and my judgments (mishpat מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt'), which if the man (adam אָדָם aw-dawm') does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.

Here the Hebrew is vachai bahem וָחַי בָּהֶם khaw-yah'-ee, “he shall live by them.” This speaks of how a person lives in that righteousness: by doing God’s statutes and judgments.

The two texts do two different jobs. A person is declared righteous by faith, and he lives in that righteousness by doing the commandments. Leviticus cannot be made to do Habakkuk’s job, but that does not make Leviticus worthless. It was simply never given to do that job.

Did Paul throw out Leviticus 18:5? In another letter he quotes the very same verse as it stands, and he calls it the writing of Moses:

Romans 10:5 For Moses writes concerning the dikaiosyne δικαιοσύνη dik-ah-yos-oo'-nay(righteousness) that is by the nomos(law): "The person who does these things shall live by them."

“Moses writes,” Paul says. He does not say that Moses was wrong or that his words have expired. The one who does these things shall live by them.

What “Justified by Law” Means

What exactly, then, is Paul against? He defines it himself:

Galatians 2:21 I do not nullify the charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) of God, for if dikaiosyne(righteousness) comes through nomos(law), then Messiah died dorean δωρεάν do-reh-an'(needlessly).

If righteousness comes through the law, the Messiah died for nothing. The word dorean (δωρεάν) means freely, for nothing, without cause. To seek righteousness through the law is to treat the Messiah’s death as needless. It is to seek righteousness by the law alone, without the Messiah.

Later in the same letter Paul says where that way leads. We read Galatians 5:4 in Chapter 1, and Book 1 examined it closely. Here it is with the two verses before it:

Galatians 5:2-4 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Messiah will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole nomos(law). You have been severed from Messiah, you who are seeking to be justified by nomos(law); you have fallen from charis(grace).

The result of that way is to be severed from the Messiah, and that tells us something about the way itself: it left the Messiah out from the start.

Paul gave the two kinds of righteousness two names:

Philippians 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a dikaiosyne(righteousness) of my own derived from nomos(law), but that which is through faith in Messiah, the dikaiosyne(righteousness) which comes from God on the basis of faith,

The first is “a dikaiosyne(righteousness) of my own derived from nomos(law),” and the second is “the dikaiosyne(righteousness) which comes from God on the basis of faith.” The first is built by a man; the second is given by God. That, Paul says, is where Israel stumbled:

Romans 10:3-4 For not knowing the dikaiosyne(righteousness) of God and seeking to establish their own dikaiosyne(righteousness), they did not submit to the dikaiosyne(righteousness) of God. For Messiah is the telos τέλος tel'-os(goal, completion) of the nomos(law) for dikaiosyne(righteousness) to everyone who believes.

The Messiah is the telos, the goal, of the Torah, and the Torah points to Him. Israel left the goal out and tried to set up a righteousness of their own by the Torah.

What the Torah Never Did

The Torah was never given to do this. Forgiveness of sins and justification were never its work.

Acts 13:38-39 Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through this One forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified through the nomos(law) of Moses.

Galatians 3:21 Is the nomos(law) then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a nomos(law) had been given which was able to impart zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life), then dikaiosyne(righteousness) would indeed have been based on nomos(law).

The Torah was not given to impart life. It was given, Paul says a few verses later, to lead us to the Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24). Chapter 7 looks at that verse with care.

This was also the issue at the council in Jerusalem. Some men had come with a very specific teaching, and Peter answered it:

Acts 15:1; 15:11 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." … But we believe that we are saved through the charis(grace) of the Lord Yeshua, in the same way as they also are."

“Unless you are circumcised … you cannot be saved.” That is seeking to be saved by the Torah. “We believe that we are saved through the charis(grace) of the Lord Yeshua.” That is the answer.

Here, then, is what seeking “to be justified by nomos(law)” means. It is trying to gain forgiveness of sins and justification on the ground of having kept the law, without the blood of the Messiah and without faith. That way makes the Messiah one who died needlessly.

And here is what it does not mean. When a person who has been declared righteous by the Messiah’s blood keeps His commandments, that does not fall into this category at all. It is the life Luke 1:6 calls righteous, the life in which, Paul says, the whole law is fulfilled:

Galatians 5:14 For the whole nomos(law) is fulfilled in one logos λόγος log'-os(word), in the statement, "You shall agape ἀγάπη ag-ah'-pay(love) your neighbor as yourself."

Redeemed From What?

We come now to the verse that follows the two quotations:

Galatians 3:13 Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the nomos(law), having become a curse for us — for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" —

The Messiah redeemed us from “the curse of the nomos(law).” The word for redeemed is exagorazo ἐξαγοράζω ex-ag-or-ad'-zo, to buy out, to purchase someone’s release. What He bought us out of is not the nomos but the curse of the nomos. In the New Testament that exact expression, “the curse of the nomos(law),” appears only here.

Which curse is it? We already know, because Paul quoted it three verses earlier: Deuteronomy 27:26, the curse on the one who does not remain in what is written. That sentence stood over us, and the Messiah became a curse for us to release us from it.

Picture a man who has been convicted of reckless driving and then receives a pardon. He is released from the sentence, but he is not released from the speed limit. If he walked out of the courthouse, got into his car, and tore through school zones again, no one would say that the pardon had put him back in trouble. Nor would anyone say that driving carefully would put him back under the sentence. The road back to the courtroom is not keeping the traffic law but breaking it.

So it is here. The way for a released person to come back under the curse is not keeping the Torah. It is failing to remain in the Torah.

The Two Readings, Again

Here is how the rest of the passage reads when the two readings are set side by side.

Who, then, is really cursed? It is not the believer who, justified by grace through faith in the Messiah’s blood, walks in God’s commandments. The curse belongs to the one who does not remain in what is written, and the Messiah bore it for us so that we would be free of it.

One more passage is used to put the Torah behind us, and it stands a few verses later in the same chapter of Galatians. Paul calls the law a guardian, a paidagogos παιδαγωγός pahee-dag-o-gos', until Messiah came, and many take that to mean that the Torah was only for people who did not yet know God. That raises a question worth asking next: to whom was the Torah given in the first place?