Gospel
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
Galatians 3:13
One night, while listening to a sermon on television, I heard this preacher talk about Christ's work in our lives. He mentioned how Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. Therefore, we should claim the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 as our own.
The preacher emphasized the fact that we are not to suffer, since Jesus set us free from the curse of the law. And since we are no longer under the curse, we no longer have to suffer any sickness or disease.
Something bothered me about this teaching. I know many believers who suffer. I know those who have died of heart attacks, cancer and other life-threatening diseases. My mentor, one of the humble giants of our faith, died of throat cancer. So how can this televangelist say that we no longer need to suffer?
To begin with, let us examine the curse that Paul spoke about in Galatians 3:13. Paul gives us Good News. He says Jesus freed us from the curse of the law. What is the curse and how did it affect our lives?
To understand this, we must understand the old covenant from the perspective of the Jew and the Gentile alike.
The first covenant had to do with law. God gave this covenant to the Israelites. They were His people and He was their God. This covenant, based on the law, never included any other nation or people. It was a bilateral agreement between two parties; the first party was God and the second party, the people of Israel.
I call this covenant a bilateral agreement because it was only as good as the two parties involved. God promised to bless Israel, if the people kept His laws and statutes. Failure to keep these would subject the Israelites to various curses like diseases, debt, drought and lack. However, if they kept them, they would suffer none of these as a nation and God would bless them.
This is where the message of the televangelist and I differ. When he proclaimed that Jesus set us free from the curse, he pointed to the curses God promised Israel if they failed to keep His laws and statutes. The televangelist told us that Jesus set us free from the curses found in Deuteronomy 28. For this reason, we no longer need to suffer.
Unfortunately, there are problems with the televangelist's message. First, Gentiles had no part in the first covenant. God made it with Israel and no other nation or people. Second, the Gentiles had no law (Rom. 2:14). God had to write those laws on the Gentile's heart. The laws He wrote on our hearts were the moral laws or Ten Commandments. However, God never offered, through Moses, any direct blessings and curses to the Gentile people or nations for either keeping or breaking His moral law.
Third, if Paul had referred to the curse of the law in Deuteronomy 28, then the blessings found in Deuteronomy 27 would be ours through the keeping of the law, and not faith. After all, the blessings spoken of in (v. 27) came from observance of the law, not faith.
For these reasons and others, I believe the curse Paul referred to in Galatians was the curse of sin and death.
Since Adam's sin, the curse of death, like an evil predator, continued to stalk us. The moral laws (written on our hearts) proved that we could not find any goodness by keeping the law; nor was there any reward for doing so. However, the law had a purpose. It showed how morally bankrupt we were without Christ. And because we could not keep it, death awaited us.
In Romans, Paul reminds us that the wages of sin is death. Sin and death are the two eternal enemies of man. Jesus defeated both of these on the Cross. No more does the last enemy, death, have any hold on those of us who receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Thus, death's curse no longer reigns in our lives. Jesus broke its curse on Calvary, by becoming a curse for us, and setting those who love Him free for all eternity. For the Word says, "anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse" (Deut. 22:21NLT).
How does this relate to us? We, who are in Adam, deserve death. By our very nature, human beings without Christ are guilty of capital crimes. Remember, no sin can enter heaven.
Like dead men walking, our lives remained on death row until Jesus became a curse for us by hanging on the Cross, and took upon Himself, our sin and death. On Calvary, He died and rose again setting us free from the curse of the law. While He can heal us, He did not free us from sickness or disease. While He can remove our lack, He did not free us from lack. He did not free us from pain, trials and tribulations, although He can certainly set us free from them. Even Paul, who suffered great tribulations, wrote there were times that he had plenty and times he suffered lack. This happens to each of us. Therefore, the curse God freed us from is the one curse that plagues all men and women, Gentile and Jew alike; a curse tied to an Adamic sin nature that defies God's moral laws and statutes. It is the curse of sin and death.
Yes, death's curse discriminates against no one. Thus, Christ is the only way to free ourselves from this curse. Without Him, neither the Jew nor the Gentile has hope. Left to our own whim, the curse of the law will carry out it's end—death and separation from God for all eternity.
Copyright, 2005
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Very concise. You explained your premise without going off on unnecessary tangents. I like it! God bless.
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