I mentioned earlier that I think many Christians have come to the thought that believing in Jesus as the Messiah is the only thing necessary to receive salvation and that no work is required out of fear of being like the Galatians. And we see the grounds for this fear beginning in verse 10.

Read verses 10-14
"10 For all who are of works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written: “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THE THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO DO THEM.” 11 Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH.” 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “THE PERSON WHO PERFORMS THEM WILL LIVE BY THEM.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

In verse 10, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 which says, “Cursed is anyone who does not fulfill the word of this Law by doing them.” Also in verse 12, Paul quotes from the beginning of Leviticus 18:

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the LORD your God. 3 You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. 4 You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. 5 So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them; I am the LORD.”

These verses say that the person who does not keep the commandments, who does not keep God’s statues and judgements, is cursed. My question is why does Paul quote these verses here? This seems counterproductive since the point of the letter is to dissuade the Galatians from taking up the legal requirements of the Law.

And to add to the confusion, he begins this section by declaring that anyone who performs the works of the Law is cursed, but then immediately quotes scripture that tells you if you don’t perform the works of the Law, you are cursed…In short: Cursed if you do. Cursed if you don’t.

Paul does this—goes back and forth between adhering to the Law and then resting in trust—in the hope that the Galatians will stop trying to justify themselves by taking up the Law—a Law that was never intended for them in the first place. Cursed is anyone who takes up the Law, he tells them, because to break one part of the Law is to break the whole Law. It becomes a never-ending cycle.
But I think there is something deeper going on here.

At the end of my comments on chapter two, I said, or at least I should have said, that life is only possible though faith—be it our faith, if we translate that phrase in 2:16, “faith in Christ”, or be it Jesus’ faith, if we translate it “faith of Christ”. Regardless, life is only possible through faith—by believing in God and acting accordingly. What Paul knows is this:

Life results from keeping God’s laws and commandments and statutes (Leviticus). And if we do not keep them, we are cursed (Deuteronomy). But to keep them, we have to keep all of them (Deuteronomy, again). And we cannot keep them all. We are blessed if we can—but we won’t and we can’t. So, we are cursed. But…

Paul would have known that God tells Isaac that Abraham was blessed because he had been obedient and performed the commandments and kept the statues and the laws (Genesis 26:5). So what’s going on?

We don’t know the outcome of our actions and choices if we are being honest. All we can do is trust that God is true to His word. Sure, Isaac could have believed God about His promise of provision during the famine, but what meaning would that have had if he had gone on to Egypt anyway. It’s the same with his dad back in Genesis 12. Abram could’ve BELIEVED God’s promise to give him descendants, but if he didn’t leave for the Promised Land based on God’s promise to him, what would it have mattered.
And while we’re on the subject of Abraham, let’s not forget James’ reference to his willingness to offer back to God the promised son that he had received.

Paul says that “the Law is not of faith” in verse 12. Abraham’s and Isaac’s faith was righteous because their choices and their deeds had come out of their trust in God and not their trust in themselves. This is the real reason why the one who lives by the Law is cursed. Faith is about living for God, but the Law is about living for oneself. “The righteous one will live by faith,” Paul says in verse 12, quoting Habakkuk 2:4.

Paul is not freeing the Galatians from the requirements of true religion; he’s not freeing them from the requirement of good works—he’s just freeing them from the works of the Law. He reminds them of this in verses 13 and 14 that it is about Christ and not themselves. Read verses 13,14 again.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE—in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Paul uses Deuteronomy 21:23 here to describe Jesus, thus associating Him with a sinner who deserves to die. This is case, Paul says, “in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles…” So Jesus is the mechanism, the descendent of Abraham, through whom the nations would be blessed—or in Hebrew a possible alternative, “through whom the nations will bless themselves”.
Paul goes on to define—that blessing: “the promise of the Spirit”.

Paul does not explain here why this is the case; he simply states it as a matter of fact. But this is something that he will do later in his writings. I do believe, however, that he possibly covered all this with the Galatians when he shared with them the gospel. In verse 14, Paul defines this blessing that has been obtained for the Galatians through Jesus’ death on the cross: That blessing is the Holy Spirit.