Redeemed From The Curse of the Law!
Galatians 3:13. Christ has 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''),
- that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
If you asked most Christians if Jesus redeemed them, they would say yes. If you asked them what they were redeemed from, they would most likely say they were redeemed from sin.
The Word of God tells us Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. I would like to ask the question, did you know the law has a curse, and that you have been redeemed from it, and do you know what that curse is? We need to know what the Word of God is telling us, about the curse Jesus redeemed us from. The least we can do is find out what the curse of the law is. The law can refer to the ten commandments, or sometimes refers to the entire Old Testament, or in many cases the first five books of the Bible, this is called the Pentateuch. If you go back to the Pentateuch, you will find the curse of the law very clearly defined in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy starting in verse 15 and going to the end of the chapter to verse 68. I would encourage you to get your Bible out and read it for yourself. You will see that the curse of the law has multiple parts.
The curse of poverty, starting with verses 15-20, 30-33, 38-40, and 51.
As you read this, you can clearly see that poverty is definitely a part of the curse of the law,
also sickness, in verses 20-22, 27-29, 35, 59-61. There are other curses throughout the Old Testament, always as a result of disobedience to God. Spiritual death is the first curse to come upon man, as mentioned in the 2nd chapter of Genesis, where God told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'' Adam did not die physically that day, but he did die spiritually that day. Spiritual death is not ceasing to exist, but to be separated from the life of God. Adams spirit was separated from the life of God, as a result of his sin. His body was made to last forever, but because he no longer had the life of God indwelling his spirit, his body eventually died, even at that, it took over 900 years for him to die physically.
I would like to take a look at the 103rd psalm, even though this is Old Testament, it shows God’s desire for mankind. He loves us and wants us to come to Him as our redeemer.
Psalms 103:1. Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
- Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
- Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
- Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
- Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
- The Lord executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed.
Verse 2 says to forget not all His benefits, another way of saying this is, do not forget any of His benefits. We as the body of Christ have forgotten some of His benefits, yet His Word tells us very clearly here, Do not forget! They go on to list these benefits, 1.Who forgives all your iniquities, 2. Who heals all your diseases, 3.Who redeems your life from destruction. 4.Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5. Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
This psalm is not talking about the law or its consequences, yet I wanted to look at it because it is talking about God’s love toward us and His desire to see us free from all bondage's, to see our total redemption.
God brought these blessing upon Abraham through his faith as we see in Gal.3:14. that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. This happened 430 years before the mosaic law was given. God established a Covenant with Abraham in order to get His seed into the earth and redeem mankind once and for all. A Covenant is a binding agreement between two agreeing parties. A blood covenant throughout history was considered the strongest kind of covenant that could be made. Abraham shed his blood in the act of circumcision, and God bound Himself with His Word. Jesus fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant with His blood. The 13th verse says, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'' Jesus became the blood act committed by God’s high priest to totally fulfill the Abrahamic covenant and establish His blessings upon the earth. Jesus was that seed. Vs.16. Says, Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds,'' as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed,'' who is Christ.
- 17 through 19 go on to say, 17. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
- For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
- What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
In other words, God had to establish the law and the priesthood because of sin, and sin is what separated us from God in the first place. So God established the law and the priesthood, so that man would be able to receive His blessings. As vs.19.says, What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Continuing with vs. 20. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. 21. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
- But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
- Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
God would not have had to initiate the law except for man’s transgression, in order to show man that he was a sinner. If it wasn’t for the law man would not have been accountable to God for there was no commandment to be broken. As verse 24. says, the law was a tutor to show us the way to Christ, that by faith we might be justified. This first covenant was not the end result but a way for God to establish an everlasting Covenant through Jesus Christ, an eternal Covenant that could not be broken. In order for us to be partakers of this Covenant we have to receive the promise by faith, as vs. 24 says, that we might be justified by faith.
Our justification before God comes through Jesus Christ through faith. This blood Covenant was made through Abraham’s seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, and can not be broken by man, but we can be partakers of the inheritance by faith. Glory to God , this is the good news of the Gospel. Lets go on to read in vs. 25. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29.And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
In other words the fulfillment of God’s Covenant has come, our redemption has come. We have been redeemed from the curse of the law, Christ Jesus has became that curse for us, for one purpose, to fulfill God’s Covenant with Abraham and redeem mankind, so that the blessings of Abraham might come upon the gentiles by faith. The truth of the matter is, the body of Christ as a whole has forgotten His benefits, even after His admonishment not to forget. I know this must truly grieve the heart of the Father.
We can see specifically that the curse of the law has many folds, and included disease of every kind, financial ruin, destruction of your family, lack of peace or mental illness, we can see clearly that the curse of the law included every disease known and every disease that there was, whether recorded in the Book or not, from verse 61."Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed.”
By reading this scripture as well as others in the Old Covenant we would conclude that God brought these things upon people, yet according to Dr. Robert Young, a renowned Greek and Hebrew Bible scholar, the verb was written in the permissive tense in the original language rather than the causative tense. But because the English of the day when the King James was written, had no permissive tense the translators translated it in the causative tense. I said this just to point out that God is not evil, the Word says, the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever. Lets not mix up good and evil, the Lord is good not evil.
Psalms 100:5. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
It is important that we see and understand the truth. God is good not evil and His desire for mankind is to demonstrate that goodness toward us.
Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
When we understand this, we won’t be confused where the evil is coming from, and it becomes easier for us to receive God's blessings. Vs. 14 of our text says,
that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
We have been redeemed from the curse of the law, yet we must also realize that we have been redeemed from something into something. It doesn’t just end with us being redeemed from the curse, praise God we have, but we have been redeemed from the curse that, or we might say so that we might receive. Receive what, receive the Holy Spirit. Redemption is not just so we can go to heaven someday, although that is certainly the truth, thank God. We just read Jeremiah; God wants us to have a future with hope, and I might add, while we are here on this earth. We have been redeemed into blessings. We now have the blessing of Abraham, that is the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The blessing of Abraham provided healing in the Old Covenant, how much more in the New Covenant. If the New Covenant doesn’t provide for healing, then we are not in a better Covenant, are we?
Hebrews 8:6. But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Many Christians believe God puts sickness on people to teach them a lesson, or to draw them closer to Him, yet that is not what we see in the Word of God, as a matter of fact just the opposite. We are in a better Covenant with better promises, praise God. What kind of a loving parent would want their children to be sick? If you made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you are God’s child. In the Old Covenant the children of Israel were called God's servants, we are called His children. If you were a parent, would you make your child sick to keep them closer to you? NO, that is twisted and perverted even in the natural.
This is religion speaking, not God's Word. God wants his children to be whole, healthy and prosperous, not maimed, sick, and poverty stricken. Man has failed in his attempt to properly discern the Word of God, so instead of admitting that they blew it, they just made a doctrine out of unbelief, after all, it is much easier to blame God than admit we are wrong isn’t it? Lets get our thinking straight, God is not the author of sickness and disease, Satan is. Do you remember what Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke?
Luke 13:16 "So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound think of it for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?''
Jesus first pointed out that this woman is a daughter of Abraham. This is signifying, that she was a Covenant daughter of Abraham, that wasn’t just a term of endearment, it meant something. Secondly He said Satan bound this woman, not God. Satan bound her and Jesus set her free. That’s the way it went all through the Gospels. Satan did the binding and Jesus did the loosing.
1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, not to give him a hand in destroying mankind. Satan is the destroyer, Jesus is the healer. Jesus said so Himself in John’s Gospel.
John 10:10. "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Acts 10:38. "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
According to the book of Acts, the devil was the oppressor, and Jesus was doing good when he healed, so lets get our thinking straight. We also know by the Scripture, that Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) He has not changed, aren’t you glad?
His attitude toward sickness and disease are the same now as they were when He was walking the shores of Galilee. My question is why aren’t we walking in it if it is true? And it is true. I’m not going to blame God if I miss it, so I’ve got to go to the Word of God to find the answer to the truth. Let’s look at our text.
Galatians 3:13. Christ has 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''),
- that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
It says in vs. 14. We receive the promise by faith. We have to receive it. It’s not just going to drop out of the sky and hit us in the head like chicken little. We have an active part to play in this. Let’s do our part and receive the promises of God, and prove God's Word true, because it is! We have to acknowledge God's Word is true and act on it. We act on it by believing it and speaking it.
As we have said, the curse of the law has 3 parts, poverty, sickness and spiritual death. We have been redeemed from all of these things, So that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us through faith.
Spiritual death was the first curse to come upon mankind.
Genesis 2:17. "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.''
Man did not die physically that day, that didn’t come for over 900 years, however he did die spiritually. For the first time, man was aware of His physical body, up until that point he didn’t even know he was naked. He stepped out of life into death. Spiritual death is not ceasing to exist, spiritual death is the absence of the life of God. Man had become separated from the life of God, and for the first time became aware of sin and death.
Romans 5:14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Romans 5:17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Death reigned from Adam to Moses, we might say it in today’s English, death dominated man from the time of Adam to Moses, or death had dominion over man. having dominion over someone or something means you totally dominate them; in this case, body, soul and spirit.
We know that the Word tells us that the wages of sin is death. The Word also tells us that sin has no more dominion or dominance over us.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The curse of the law can no longer dominate man; we have been redeemed from it, however we need to realize we have a part to play in this as well. We have to receive this free gift and acknowledge its dominance. If we won’t let righteousness dominate us, it won’t; sin will, and with the sin comes death.
1 Corinthians 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
W.E. Vines dictionary, says to awake means - metaphorically, "of awaking from a state of moral sloth.
If we don’t wake up to righteousness, we will allow sin to dominate us, sin will dominate us by default, and God will not override our will to stop it. However sin no longer has the right to dominate us.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
There are 2 spiritual laws that are mentioned here, the law of sin and death, and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. These spiritual laws can not be negated and are in effect whether we know it or not. The wages of sin is always death. When we acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our life and accept Jesus as Lord, we give God the permission He needs to use His power to effect the law of the spirit of life. You are now in Christ Jesus, and this law is in effect. The more aware of this you are the more you can walk in it. We have to renew our minds to these truths, and prove the Word of God true. If the Word of God declares that sin has no more dominion over us, then it doesn’t. God's Word declares we can renew our minds to His Word and prove His Word true.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
There is a process that takes place; renewing is an ongoing process, it doesn’t just happen once and that’s the end of it, no it is a continual and ongoing process. It never ends.
The more we learn in Christ Jesus the more we have to bring our minds and bodies under subjection to His Word. Then we allow this law of life to dominate us. It will over ride the law of sin and death. When we awake unto righteousness, we start to become aware of the fact that we have been reconciled unto God. The Word of God is telling us to awake. WAKE UP! Be aware of who you are in Christ Jesus. You have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Righteousness is an old English Word meaning to be right standing with God. We have been made right with God. We have to make ourselves think this way; it is not natural for us.
Our carnal natural man won’t think this way on it’s own, yet God tells us to think on these things. It’s the only way we can begin to take hold of these truths and walk in them, let life have dominion over death.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things.
We have to make a conscious decision to think on these things. Our natural minds will tell us we are unworthy, yet the Word of God tells us we are no longer unworthy, ( I'm not talking about our own worthiness.) we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Our worthiness is in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
If you are in Christ, you are not unworthy; you are the redeemed of the Lord. Start to dwell and meditate on this truth, and it will change your life from the inside out.. God's Word tells us to let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
Psalms 107:1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
- Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
If we won’t acknowledge and declare it, we will never come to the realization of it. The Lord is telling us in His Word how to be victorious. We have to say we are redeemed. We will never rise above our confession of faith. If we confess doubt and unbelief, we will certainly get what we say. The Word declares that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Our heart won’t have an abundance of righteousness in it if we don’t put it in there, by dwelling on and meditating in what God's Word declares. We have God’s permission and command to actually speak the fact, we are the redeemed, and we should say so every opportunity we get. This will begin to develop a consciousness of right standing with Our Heavenly Father. If we won’t act on it, it won’t do us any good. This consciousness has to be developed in us.
AWAKE. Rise up into who you are in Christ, and walk in the glorious reality of the sons of God. Praise His holy Name. Amen
Dr. Lillian B. Yeomans published a book called the Gold of Ophir, and in it she wrote down a psalm that the Holy Spirit gave to her sister. It was based off of Galatians 3:13.
Christ redeemed me from the curse of the law,
As He hung from that shameful tree,
And all that is worse is contained in that curse,
And Jesus has set me free.
(refrain)
Not under the curse, not under the curse,
Jesus has set me free; For sickness I’ve health;
For poverty, wealth, Since Jesus has ransomed me.
Christ paid the price of the broken law, He paid the whole price for me;
God saw not one spot, not one blemish or blot,
In the Lamb that was slain for me.
Do not abide in the ancient days, Ere ever the lamb was slain;
Take that which was given as freely as heaven, And joined in the glad refrain.
Amen.