Galatians 3:6–14 — Leader / Learner Guide | Galatians | NT Book Studies

Big Idea and Context

Big idea: The law can only curse those who fail to keep it, and everyone fails. God justifies sinners as He justified Abraham, by faith alone, and Christ became the curse so the blessing could come to all who believe.

Having appealed to the Galatians' experience (3:1–5), Paul now appeals to Scripture. The Judaizers claimed Moses; Paul goes back to Abraham, about 500 years earlier.

3:1–5: your own experience says faith.
3:6–14: Abraham and the Scriptures say faith.
3:15–29: the law, coming later, cannot cancel the promise.

Faith, Not Law — Three Anchor Verses

Verse	What it says	Teaching point
3:6	Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness	Genesis 15:6, Paul's favorite text (Rom 4:3, 9, 22). Righteousness credited — a bookkeeping term.
3:10–11	Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things … the just shall live by faith	The law curses every failure; even in the law era, the just lived by faith (Hab 2:4).
3:13	Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us	Bought out of the slave market. He took the curse in our place.

Habakkuk 2:4 in the New Testament: Romans 1:17 shows who the just are; Galatians 3:11 shows how they live; Hebrews 10:38 introduces what "by faith" means.

Every dispensation: people have always been saved the same way — by grace through faith. The dispensations show how to live and serve, not how to be saved.

Teaching Flow

The Study of Faith (6–9). Its foundation: Abraham believed and was credited righteous. Its fellowship: only those of faith are sons of Abraham. Its fruit: the Gentiles blessed with faithful Abraham (Gen 12:3).
The Substitute for Faith (10–12). Law-keeping cannot save: one failure brings the curse (James 2:10); the weakness was in the people (Heb 8:7–8); and the law itself said the just live by faith.
The Solution of Faith (13–14). Christ became a curse for us (Deut 21:23). The blessing of Abraham comes to the Gentiles, and we receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Clarify While Teaching

Eliezer (Gen 15:2–3): he was Abraham's household servant and heir by custom, not someone born after the promise.
Abraham's age: he was 99 and Sarah 90 when the promise was renewed (Gen 17). Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 (Gen 21:5).
"Certainly not!": that phrase is in 3:21. Verse 17 says the law cannot annul the promise.
The tithe text: it is Malachi 3:10, not 3:3.
Hebrews 12:28: "let us hold fast to grace" is Sellers' own rendering. Most translations read "let us be grateful" or "let us have grace."
Leviticus 18:5: reading "live" as a good life in the land rather than eternal life is Sellers' interpretation. Present it as his view.

Discussion and Close

"Give them the good news, then the bad news." Where have you seen the gospel offered free and then loaded with requirements?
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Why was the law's weakness really our weakness?
If God asked, "Why should I let you into My heaven?", how would you answer from 3:13?

Close: Point ahead to 3:15–29: the law came 430 years after the promise and could never cancel it. Saved by faith, sanctified by faith, serving by faith.

Full study: Blessing or a Curse — Galatians 3:6–14 · Source: Dr. C. Norman Sellers, SellersBibleInstitute.com