No Longer Cursed

Our theme for 2021 is “Redeeming the Time”

Last month I began a study of Paul’s letter to the Galatians

Remember that Paul encountered opposition to the gospel.

There were Jewish “missionaries” following Paul around the region and trying to convert Christians, both Jew and Gentile, back to Judaism.

Now the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 took up this matter and decided not to burden the Gentiles with these requirements.

What the Galatians thought was a religious debate was really a supernatural struggle.

Becoming a follower of Christ is not just a matter of following a religion, it is a supernatural transformation.

You are no longer what you used to be.

After coming to Christ, like these Galatian believers, the doubts and the questions start to arise.

What are some of those questions?

Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?

You can say, I have had an encounter with Jesus who is the truth and I am no longer deceived.

Well, there must be something wrong with you? If people really knew about you they wouldn’t accept you.

You can say, “I am adequate, I am competent and my life is meaningful!”

Why? Because it’s not about me; it’s all about Jesus and what He is doing in and through me.

You need to come back to simple faith in Jesus.

You are not what you used to be.

As we go through this series, I want to confront those other voices.

This week we are in Galatians chapter three and “You are no longer cursed.”

(Optional play video with Dan Ombija’s testimony)

Last week we had pastor Dan from Kenya speak. He shared part of his testimony that he was the youngest of four sons. His grandfather had been a witch doctor and had dedicated his family line to the gods. His father and each of his brothers died. He was on his deathbed when his grandmother, who had come to Christ, prayed for him and broke the curse. He came back to life and has dedicated his life to serving Christ!

That is a powerful story of being “no longer cursed!”

We don’t think much about curses in America, but we express the same idea in different language.

Cursing relates to binding utterances with negative and damaging connotations. It can convey a declaration of, wish for, or realization of judgment from God. It is associated with binding oaths and can refer to demeaning and harmful speech directed from one person to another. - Lexham Theological Wordbook

We think of cursing as swearing or saying bad words; but cursing is more about saying damaging words than just bad words.

Curses communicate hopelessness and helplessness.

They are intended to bind and to punish.

It is the enforcement behind an oath - this is what happens if you break your oath.

Cursing is the opposite of blessing.

Blessing brings a supernatural empowerment.

Cursing dis-empowers people.

Have you ever felt like you just can’t succeed no matter how hard you try?

There was an old show called “Hee Haw” where they would sing “If it weren’t for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” That’s what it is like to be cursed!

The whole world is against me!

I mess up everything that I ever try!

I just can’t get a break!

How do we move from cursing to blessing?

Jesus reverses the curses!

But before we get to how Jesus does that, Paul is going to point out a few things that are not helpful.

The curse of performance

Galatians 3:1–5 ESV

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Speaking of harsh words - Paul has some harsh words for the Galatians - but it is all in love.

He literally asks them if they are under some kind of spell?

Spells are not just something in books or movies. There are people who study and practice witchcraft, even people around us.

I had a pastor friend recently who was having difficulty in his church. They had a treasurer who stole money. their board was having difficulty making decisions and coming to agreement and he was burning out and talking of quitting the ministry.

One day he was praying through the church and felt like he was wrestling with an evil spirit. He tried casting it out but it wouldn’t go. So, he got the janitor to pray with him. Then he called me and I prayed and had our prayer group pray over him. That evening he had their prayer meeting go around and anoint and pray around the church.

We also prayed against witchcraft, because he told me he was feeling sluggish and his mind was being attacked with confusion.

After we prayed, things turned around in his church. He also said that his attitude changed and he felt free from the oppression that he had been under. Even his wife noticed the difference.

These Galatian believers were acting like they didn’t know or understand anything that Paul had taught them.

They had fallen under the curse of performance or perfectionism.

Perfectionism is when you have already done your best and you still think you could have or should have done better.

The Galatians had Jewish missionaries telling them that they were not good enough because they didn’t keep all of the Jewish laws.

We have voices in our head telling us that we are still failures because we still make mistakes or that we can never live down our past.

Paul reminds us of the simple gospel that Jesus died for our sins - period.

And then he reminds us of how this works:

You didn’t earn salvation.

How did you get saved?

Was it anything that you did?

Sure, you prayed a prayer or you went to the altar or maybe you just cried out to God - but it wasn’t really about what you did.

Whatever you did was in response to what the Holy Spirit was already doing inside of you.

The point is that God saved you and you didn’t save yourself.

Why is that important?

Because if you are saved by your own works or by your own merit, then the accusation that you are not good enough or that you didn’t do enough might actually make sense.

But you are not saved by your own merit and your own merit can not sustain you.

If you are saved by God’s grace, that grace never changes!

There is a difference between justification and sanctification.

Justification means that your sin; past, present and future was forgiven when you committed you life to Christ.

Sanctification means that you confess your sin as often as you become aware of it and repent of it as part of an ongoing process of becoming who God say you already are.

The Kingdom of God is “already but not yet.”

Justification is the “already” and sanctification is the “not yet.”

The problem is that while we are working out the “not yet” we get fooled into thinking that the “already” never happened.

You can make up for what you didn’t earn.

Galatians 3:3 The Message

3 Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?

If your salvation is a gift of God given by grace then do you really think you can make it better by your own self-effort?

If justification is by grace through faith, then why would sanctification be any different?

This is not one of those offers where you get something free only so you will have to pay more later!

Your growth and development as a believer is also a work of grace but we so often make it a chore.

Do you feel guilty if you miss your devotions?

Do you pray to get things from God or to be with God?

Do you spend time with God apart from your designated prayer time or reading your devotions?

Is worship, prayer and devotion part of your lifestyle?

So, as soon as I say that people are probably thinking, “I need to do more.” - wrong!

If I love my wife, then I naturally want to be with her.

I don’t have to work at spending time with her because that is what I want to do anyway.

I sometimes have to work at eliminating things or moving my schedule around so that I can spend time with her because other things clutter my time and may keep me from spending time with her.

The point is that I don’t have to strive to do what I am already inclined to do, but I may have to struggle against things that might interfere.

The Spirit is like that inclination.

If my spirit is aligned with the Holy Spirit, and the Father, Son and Spirit are one in essence, then that is going to naturally change me to be more like God.

You can’t make things happen by trying harder.

Galatians 3:5 The Message

5 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?

Performance is a curse.

First, to convince you that you are not good enough.

Then get you into striving and always trying harder.

However, the truth is that you will never be good enough, no matter how hard you try.

You are doomed to chasing after what you will never apprehend.

Unless you get off the treadmill and follow the Spirit.

Just receive God’s grace and let Him accomplish in you what you could never do.

Lets look at it from another angle.

The curse of not belonging

Galatians 3:6–9 ESV

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Another way that we think about curses is genetic or generational.

We have no control over where we come from, but where we come from has a lot of influence over us.

We are born with a predisposition to certain physical or character traits.

We often work hard to try to compensate for what we perceive as deficiencies.

In the ancient world, where you come from is probably the biggest determiner of who you are.

Paul of Tarsus - he could change his name, but he’s still know by where he came from.

I’m one of the “Spring City Kolbs” people still recognize me by family especially in Mennonite circles.

Imagine being a Gentile believer in the province of Galatia and being a believer in Jesus.

“You’re not Jewish!” “You don’t have a Jewish name”

You don’t look Jewish, or act Jewish.

Don’t you know that Jesus is a Jew?

Gentiles were “the red-headed stepchild’, the genetic misfit, the ones who supposedly didn’t belong.

But not so fast!

There are a few reasons why Gentiles, why you and I or anyone may belong:

You belong through Abraham.

God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the Jews get their name from Judah, the tribe of David, the righteous King of Israel.

But how did Abraham become so special?

Abraham made a covenant with God.

That is the same covenant that the Jews are claiming gives them exclusive rights to relationship with God.

But was God really being exclusive by making covenant with Abraham?

God promised Abraham that He would bless him and that all nations would be blessed through him.

All nations - not just Abrahams family - but all the families of the earth.

So you and I as Gentiles were included in that promise.

Paul is reminding both Jews and Gentiles that God’s intention from the beginning was to bless the whole world.

You are not an after-thought!

It is no accident that you are here.

Abraham was just the beginning - God had us in mind all along!

The Law and the tribes and the Temple were all leading up to Jesus,

after which we too would have access to God through Jesus.

You belong through faith.

Faith is not only what Abraham had, but it preceded the covenant.

But before God made covenant with Abraham, Abraham believed God.

Genesis 15:5–6 ESV

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

So if Abraham can do it, you can do it!

You simply believe what God says and enter into covenant with God.

So when God sent Jesus to die for your sin, you can simply believe in Jesus and, like Abraham, you have a relationship with God.

Faith is not exclusive to those who are in covenant - faith is how you enter into the covenant in the first place.

And you know that you are in covenant with God because He gives you His Spirit.

You belong through the Spirit.

There will be much more about the Spirit later on in Galatian, but I wanted to mention it here because it is important.

When Peter went to Cornelius’ house he knew that God had accepted the gentiles because they recieved the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s evidence to the Jerusalem council was that the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders following.

Acts 15:8–9 NLT

8 God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith.

From this point on in Galatians, Paul will make the argument that the Spirit is superior to the Law as a sign of the covenant and as a guide to follow.

What does this have to do with no longer being cursed?

If you are in covenant with God, just as Dan’s grandmother was, then you can no longer be cursed because you are blessed!

The curse is broken because the blessing is stronger than the curse.

And that brings us to the conclusion...

The curse is broken in Christ

Galatians 3:10–14 ESV

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

The curse of disobedience is broken.

Remember when the Israelites entered the promised land they reaffirmed the covenant that was made at Sinai.

Moses had half of the people stand on mount Ebal and half on mount Gerazim

The people on mount Gerazim were reciting the blessings for obedience and those on mount Ebal were reciting the curses for disobedience.

Deuteronomy 27:26 NLT

26 ‘Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

So how did that go for them?

How is it going for you? For any of us?

Romans 3:23 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

We all fail and bring on ourselves the curses associated with disobedience.

But what is the rest of the story?

Romans 3:23–24 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Jesus took the curse and nailed it to the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

The curse of disobedience is broken.

Nobody is “getting away” with anything because Jesus took it all.

The curse of the law is broken.

The law of Moses provided a way for mankind to have fellowship with God after sin had entered.

The problem is that because sin is part of our very nature, we can’t keep the whole law, no matter how hard we try.

We may try to just make sure that the good outweighs the bad, but as long as the bad is there, the curse is there too.

Paul quotes two Old Testament text which insist that there is a way to live on the blessing side and it is by faith.

In other words, don’t be defeated by what you have done wrong, just hang in there and keep your eyes on God’s promises.

As Paul will later say;

Galatians 5:16 NLT

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

If you are going to try to live a perfect life, you are doomed to fail.

But if you just live your life in relationship with God, seeking to do what God wants you to do and using his strength to do it - that could work!

Perfectionism and trying to belong only bring on the curse.

You have a new identity in Christ and He makes you worthy of blessing.

Every curse is reversed by blessing.

What does it mean that Jesus became a curse?

We have already said that blessing is stronger than a curse.

Proverbs 26:2 NLT

2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.

A curse does not land where it is not deserved - where there is no offense it just flies off.

So that’s what happened when Jesus took on your curse.

Galatians 3:13 TPT

13 Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed it completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: “Everyone who is hung upon a tree is doubly cursed.”

Jesus absorbed the curse, because as God He is the source and originator of blessing - it could not stick to Him.

The curse is cancelled out - you could even say reversed- by blessing.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ!

Questions for reflection:

Do you ever feel like you are under some kind of spell? You can’t seem to succeed? All your luck is bad luck? Have you tried calling on Jesus to take that curse and break it?

Are you trying to finish by your own effort what started with grace? Have you brought a curse on yourself by trying to appease God rather than trusting God? What would it look like to begin to walk by the Spirit?

Are you blessed? Do you know it? Do you remind yourself of who you are in Christ? That blessing (being who God says you are)is stronger than any curse. Receive the blessing of God to reverse every curse in Jesus Name!