Cursed No More!

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law

By becoming a curse for us,

For it is written:

‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’”

Galatians 3:13

Do you believe in curses?  Well this shirt that I am wearing represents a curse that many people actually believe in.  I am a Chicago Cubs fan.  Now for those of you who know nothing about American baseball I will make this simple.  The Chicago Cubs are a team that hasn’t won a championship in over 100 years.  In fact, they haven’t even been to a championship series – what baseball calls the World Series – in over 70 years.  Why?  Well many people will say it’s because of a curse.  The story goes, that back in 1945 as the Cubs were playing in the world series, a man tried to bring his goat with him to the game.  When the Cubs wouldn’t let the goat into the stadium the man supposedly cursed the Cubs – that they would never again play in another world series.  Well so far the curse has held true. To this day the Cubs have never made it back to the World Series. Now the truth is I don’t believe in the curse.  The curse is an excuse for the Cubs fielding some pretty lousy teams.

There is however a curse I do believe is real.  Paul calls it “the curse of the law.”  This is the curse that hangs over the whole human race.  This curse is real. What’s worse this curse is no excuse for our sin.  It is the result of our sin. The Scripture is clear. “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”  God warned our first parents back in the Garden.  “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”  Thus they brought down the curse down on themselves when they did just exactly what God told them not to do… when they took the fruit from that tree and ate it. Whenever we disobey His law we show that we too have brought ourselves under the same curse.

For our first parents the curse took effect immediately.  Hearing the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden - they hid from Him.  They started blaming each other for what had happened.  Eventually the worst pain of the curse struck their own family as one of their sons killed the other.  Even so we experience the same curse every time we try to cover up what we’ve done rather than confess it… every time we blame someone else for our own actions…. Every time we promise to do better only to repeat the same sinful actions again and again.  We experience the curse of sin as every new physical ailment reminds us that we are all growing older… all are in the process of dying.  Every visit to the cemetery, every new funeral reminds us that this is the ultimate curse God’s law has promised.  “You shall surely die.”  “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” 

Yet in spite of all the ways that you and I daily experience the curse of sin, that the reality is that in Christ we are cursed NO MORE!  How can that be?  Well believe it or not the Cubs provide a great illustration.  A few years ago some Cub fans tried to rid the team of the curse.  They brought a goat all the way down from Chicago to another stadium in another city.  They thought they might be able t transfer the curse to this other team.  As silly as that sounds, that is in reality a great illustration of what our God did for us.  He transferred the curse.  He provided someone to take our place.  That is what was happening when In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  This is what was happening when Jesus became like us in every way except that He was without sin.  God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  That is what was happening when the Father in heaven offered Jesus up once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God.   That’s what was going on when on the cross Jesus cried out “My God!  My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?”    In that moment Jesus was suffering the full weight of the curse for our sins.  He was damned in our place.  Then on Easter Morning He was raised from the dead so that by His death and resurrection He might destroy Him who holds the power of death that is the devil and set at liberty all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.  All this is what Paul means when He writes to us in today’s text, “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.”  Death has lost its sting in Christ.   There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  At the beginning of this blog I asked you if you believe in curses.  Now I have a much more important question.   Do you believe in Jesus?  After all because of Jesus you and I are cursed no more.