Growing up in Niagara Region I was exposed at an early age to some of the tremendous tales of various Niagara Falls ‘daredevils’. Certainly the most famous of these being the great French tight-rope walker Charles Blondin. In the summer 1859 he crossed the roiling river many times and in increasingly daring ways including backward, blindfolded, on stilts, pushing a wheelbarrow, and even carry his manager on his back. Blondin’s instructions were clear: “Look up, Harry.… you are no longer Colcord, you are Blondin …If I sway, sway with me. Do not attempt to do any balancing yourself. If you do we will both go to our death.” It is one of the best examples of trust between humans. Can you imagine if halfway across Harry said, “Charles, thanks for the lift this far, but let me down; I’ve got it the rest of the way.”
Obviously, that would be foolhardy, but this is what Paul is dealing with in his letter to the Galatians. In essence, the belief that the Christian life is begun by faith, but grown by works. He asks rhetorically, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal 3:3)”. He then appeals to the gospel promise given to Abraham, and from verses 10-14 outlines the folly of not trusting that promise.
Something to Understand: A Promise Perverted
No fewer than four Old Testament texts are quoted between Gal. 3:10-14: Deuteronomy 27:26; Leviticus 18:5; Deut. 21:23; and Habakkuk 2:4. He establishes that anyone who chooses to rely on “works of the law” are under a curse, because cursed is anyone who does not abide by all the things written in the “Book of the Law”. Then what hope is there for us law-breakers? It is Christ and Christ alone, for it is he who redeemed us from God’s curse as “cursed is the one who is hanged on a tree (Gal 3:13)”. The law can do nothing but condemn; and so the righteous, Paul says, “shall live by faith”. His pleading call is to trust not in our own work, but in Christ’s finished work, to get us safely home!