No Longer Cursed

Introduction

Plug for Kids ministry. Parent commissioning is not just sending parents, but the church responding to disciple kids.

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We need 20 people to step up.

20 kids coming in the next 6 moths. Let’s do this together.

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Around 1945 a man named Billy Sianis happened to receive a gift that he loved dearly. While working in his bar, a billy goat that supposedly fell off a truck wandered into the doors of the Lincoln Tavern. Billy loved this little goat. He cared for it. hugged it, took it where ever he went. He loved this goat so much that it made him change the name of his bar to the Billy Goat Tavern.

In October of 1945, Billy decided that he wanted to take his beloved goat as a good luck charm to root on his favorite baseball team as they were in the thick of the world series against the Detroit Tigers. As he took the goat with him, people began to smell the goat and the owner of the team ordered the ushers to kick that goat out of the stadium. In frustration, Bily Sianis went on to speak these wicked words over the Chicago Cubs “Them Cubs, they aint gonna win no more.”

The Chicago Cubs went on to lose to the Detroit Tigers and go on a seven decade stretch of not making it back to the World Series. Even when it seemed to look promising, the famous words of Sianis felt like they continued to plauge the Cubs.

In 1969 the Cubs looked like the team to beat. But during a series against the Mets’ a cat ran across the field and into the dug out and following that incident, they tanked the rest of the season.

In 1984 during game 5 of the National League Series someone knocked over a gatorade bottle onto the 1st basements glove and as he went into play, a ball came right at him and he missed the routine out. The Cubs went on to lose.

In 2003 the Cubs were 5 outs away from the World Series once more, but a fan interfered with a foul ball which then led to a defensive melt down by the Cubs where they gave up 8 runs and went on to lose the series.

Many fans would say that this is all a result of the Billy Goat Curse. Many would go to extreme measures to try and break this curse like bringing in Priests, honoring goats, and going as far as mailing sever goat heads to the owner of the Cubs.

But it carries this idea that there is some kind of persistant source of suffering or back luck upon them. It’s a worldly modern view of a curse that carries the idea that a curse needs to be broken and I think many of us would probably assume that’s how curses work.

But what our text this morning shows us in Galatians is that a curse isn’t just something that is persistent suffering that needs some type of ritual to break a curse. It’s actually something far worse.

The bad news is that you’re under a curse. It can’t be broken and it’s not just persistent, it’s eternal. So how can it be removed?

Context/Explanation

Paul continues on in his argument about the blessing God gave to Abraham was a blessing that from the beginning has always been that salvation is by faith in God, not in any works.

The Law as a Curse

In verse 10 Paul makes a big claim, anyone who rely on works of the Mosaic law for salvation, will never actually be blessed. They are cursed. Paul uses the word curse 5 times in our 4 verses.

Paul’s point is simple and clear. Your salvation cannot be dependent on the idea of works saving you. He’s arguing against these false teachers who are claiming that the gentiles (non jewish) need to become Jewish and participate in Jewish traditions & law keeping & believe in Jesus in order to be saved. These verses that paul quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus may even been scripture references that the false teachers were using to lead the people astray.

But Paul uses the Old Testament verses to make his point. You can’t save yourself by upholding the law perfectly.

Deuteronomy 28 is known for being a section of verses that describe the blessings from God if you obey him. The first 14 verses of blessings from following the Lord are beautiful. But from verse 15 all the way to verse 68 demonstrate all the punishment that they would receive if they do not follow the law. Just listen to the emptiness of what the curse of not following the law perfectly brings.

“You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit.  Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never certain of survival.  In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see”

The point Paul is making is that if you even try to live by salvation being earned by following the law perfectly, you are under a curse. You are not blessed and you will not receive salvation because you are relying on yourself and you can’t follow the law perfectly. You will fail miserably.

The false teachers were claiming that salvation, being made right with God would under following the law and being circumsized. That was the evidence. But what living under the curse of the law does, is it actually cut’s you off from God. It is the mirror that demonstrates to you that you can’t live perfectly holly to please God and earn his approval.

That’s the tragic news for all of us. We’re cursed on our own. We live under a curse as we attempt to be near to God but there is nothing we can do to achieve that.

The opposite of being cursed by God is being blessed. I think it’s pretty common to know or hear the blessing that Moses told Aaron to give to the Israelites. Numbers 6:24–26 ““May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’”

But to understand the weight of what this curse upon us means, I love what RC Sproul does in his commentary. He reverses it to show what this means to be cursed by God for not being able to follow the law perfectly.

“May the Lord curse you and abandon you. May the Lord turn his face away from you and give you only his judgement. May the Lord turn out the light of his countenance and give you nothing but distress and turmoil.”

That is the worst experience a human could ever endure.

Paul proves his point that the law cannot be a blessing because it pronounces a curse on anyone who fails to abide by it’s every command.

Righteous by Faith

But in verse 11 Paul quotes another Old Testament prophet to demonstrate how God’s people can be blessed and not live under the curse. He quotes from Habakkuk 2. Which in Habakkuk 1, the prophet is basically just angry and complaining at God because he feels that God’s punishment on the people of Israel is not fair. They have been taken into slavery and they are treated wickedly. But this was all because they didn’t follow God’s command to worship him and him alone. Even Deuteronomy 28 reads like prophecy of what Israel did after Moses and what happened to them through the exile.

But in God’s response to Habakkuk, God tells him that his justice is something to wait for patiently because God will finish his work and the righteous, those who follow him and not living by the law for salvation, but they are living by faith in God. They are counted righteous and have right standing with God not because of their perfect works, but by faith in God just as Abraham was.

To live by something means that we rely on it for our happiness and fulfillment. It’s what gives us meaning and confidence. Living by faith in God is a dependance on him and trust in him to be what sets us free from the pressure of perfection, the standard of holiness required, and the curse that enslaves us.

Paul uses this to defend his point. You aren’t saved by the law. You aren’t saved because you’re awesome. You aren’t saved because you think you’re a good person. You aren’t saved because you think you followed God well. You are saved because you trusted and believed, and had faith in the living God!

And so he turns to point us to the living God who makes it possible for us to be saved in verse 13.

He says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. To be redeemed paints this picture that we have been bough tout of slavery. The law was the curse that held us down. relying on works, ourselves, good deeds out weighing the bad ones isn’t want saves us, it’s what condemns us to the curse.

But Jesus became the curse for us. It doesn’t say that Jesus broke the curse with magic words. Jesus BECAME the curse. He took on who we are in our sin. Trent talked about imputation a few weeks ago. This is what it’s drawing. Jesus actually gave you all of who he is and took on all of who you were in your sin, and Jesus became the curse so that you could be set free from the curse.

He quotes from Deuteronomy 21 pointing to what in the ancient near east, when someone was found guilty and to be sentenced to death, they would stone them. Then after they stoned them, they would hang their body on a wooden pole to symbolize that this person was a curse. It was a symbol of divine rejection.

So as Jesus experienced Roman crucifixion which killed him, it also fulfilled the visual picture for us to see that as he shouted “why have you forsaken me” he experienced the brutal reality that yes the physical pain of taking the stakes through his limbs, the mockery of hanging for hours before others, the inability to breath as his lungs could not take in air was horrible. What burdened him most and what he experienced with the curse of the rejection from the father as the payment and justice and wrath of God upon the sin of the world.

Because of Christ redeeming you and becoming a curse for you, that if you have faith in him - you can be set free. Praise the Lord that you don’t have to live under the curse, but you can trust in Christ and actually receive the blessing of Abraham by Christ Jesus.

Blessing of Abraham

Get his, at the end of verse 14 Paul let’s us in on something so powerful we overlook it.

The blessing of Abraham is not just salvation to the gentiles. It includes that yes, but the blessing of Abraham is rooted in God actually giving you his Holy Spirit through faith in him.

The curse of the law cut you off from God. But the blessing of Abraham fills you with God’s presence so that he would never leave you. The law and it’s false teacher tell you that you’re made right with God through circumsizion and works. The blessing of Abraham proves your saved through faith and the Spirit of God seals your salvation.

In Christ you are no longer cut off from God but indwelt by him. In Christ the evidence of your salvation isn’t circumsion but the evidence is the sealing of the Spirit upon you.

This is Paul’s whole point. You are saved by God’s kindness through the work of Jesus becoming a curse for you. Believe and give your life to Jesus and through faith you will be saved and receive the blessing of Abraham to be near to God.

Christ became the curse so you could live by faith.

Application

So why does this matter to us today?

We may not live as through we’re under the law trying to live up to the commandments in the Old Testament for our salvation. But we do live in such a way that we feel like we’re under different kinds of curses. Each of these we see in how we relate to people horizontally, but they’re actually symptoms of what we believe about God vertically in our relationship wit him.

First is the curse of security. (have enough)

If this is you, you may often been worried about finances. You feel like you don’t have enough or God isn’t providing enough. You desire comfort. You feel like everything is on the edge and if something isn’t going well its becasue you don’t have enough. You live by comparing to the people around you in how much or what they have. You covet the things like the house, car, vacation, and picture a peace of the comfortable life. But what you really need is not more. It feels like it consumes your mind even if you don’t name it. but the curse of security promises you that when you have more, you’ll be okay. But you believe the lie that God doesn’t want you to have enough. You beleive that God isn’t enough. You beleive that other comforts will actually make you secure and safe.

The second is the curse of success. (get more)

You’re driven to continue to climb the ladder. You feel the pressure that there is always more to be done. You feel the weight of the next step and looking forwad to the promotion, displaying to people how you have achieved more. You feel the need to demonstrate success through hard work or a display of perfection. You mask it with humility when it corrupts your thoughts of how to get the next promotion, invitation to lead, speak, give counsel, and are hungry to just keep going. The live and the curse upon you deomstrates that you’ll never be enough. There is always someone better. You grow resentment over others success and tear them down. You find yourself discontent with God’s gifts to you. You desire to be God and receive praise like him. The curse of success displays that you’ll always just try to keep getting higher and higher until the pressure cloapses you.

Third, the curse of social standing. (feel desired)

You want to be approved of. You want others to see you. You desire people to know you deeply. You hope to be seen. You live by making sure you have friendships and relationships. You crave approval from people and encouragement from them seeing you in what you do or who you are. You’re cursed by winning them over or displaying how you don’t need them. You feel the weight of not being enough. And by living by the curse of social standing, you feel the weight of never being enough. You try to fill the gaping hole that only God can satisfy with trying to get love from others and others being your foundation.

Illustration

Here’s what it looks like played out in my life. The curse of social standing.

A month ago I turned 33. I’ve shared before that my dad and I don’t have the best relationship. It’s improved over the years, but the divorce my parents had when I was a young child and circumstances between my father an I have created distance.

Well on my birthday my dad came up from Texas to meet my son. It’s the only time I can ever remember being with my dad on my birthday. I can remember being a kid and dreaming of spending this day with him. Longing for him to be home and be a part of our home. Hoping he would remember the day, how old I was, and want to take me out and spend time with me. So as a 33 year old young man, i felt like a child in a candy store having his wish come true.

But as the evening came to a close my father told me that we’d have breakfast together in a few days before he left. He wanted to see me one more time before he went back to texas. It sounds small, but this promise meant something. It’s the picture of my father who i’ve tried to impress my entire life showing and displaying that he saw me and wanted to be with me.

The days went by and I shot him a text the night before our breakfast. “hey, we still good for breakfast?” …”No, i have some other people to see.”

At every turn over the last 30 years, i’ve tried to be enough. At every achievement I tried to make and succeeded in I boasted so he would see. At all the moments and meals I wanted to make him laugh at and be next to me, I could never be enough to get him to want to see me. Be with me.

The curse of social standing brings me the pain of never living up to being worth dropping everything for to spend time with.

But here’s the beauty of the blessing of Abraham. The beauty of Jesus becoming the curse so I no longer have to live under that lie. The power that it displays in the law keeping of trying to prove myself worthy is that the Blessing of the Spirit of God dweling in me is that I can live by faith and it’s the gift of the Holy Spirit to promt me to see that I’m longing for and fighting for somethign that does not actually bring me satisfaction. The Spirit prompts me to remind me that the curse of feeling like I’m not good enough to stop and have breakfast with is actually something I don’t need to be enslaved by.

Because Jesus became the curse I know that the assurance of God, my heavenly father has fulfilled me and I can meet with him any day. I don’t have to live trying to prove my worth. I don’t have to live trying to succeed enough. I don’t have to live trying to fight for perfection so he sees me because the curse has been taken and you and I no longer have to live as though were enslaved by it.

It’s the moments were most let down are the moments where the gospel of Jesus becoming the curse for us that set us free.

Living in the blessing by faith through the Spirit is the power that the curse isn’t like a bad shadow that gives us a bad day and rips everything away. The curse has been taken, not by some counter spell, breaking of a hex with works. But taken on by a savior who hung on a tree so we could be set free. Jesus became the curse so you could live by faith.