July 20 -- "He Became Our Curse"

 Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 21

"He Became Our Curse"

In Israel, any person who was executed for breaking God’s law was considered as bearing a “curse” in his body. A curse is the opposite of a blessing: a blessing is a pronouncement of good fortune because one participates in God's plans and promises, a curse is a pronouncement of ill fortune because one opposes God's plans. 

The word “cursed” means something that is despised, something that is devoted to destruction, something that is doomed.  That's what it means to be cursed.  To be cursed by God means that you are set for doom or destruction. 

Since you and I have broken God’s law, all of us are considered as guilty before God and, as a result, we bear a curse in our body. We are doomed.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Our sin must be punished by the death penalty.  We all have been set for doom and destruction.  God has pronounced His curse upon sinful humanity.

But wait! There's more! Yes, all have sinned. Except one!  Jesus broke none of God’s laws.  He lived a sinless life.  “You know that He [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” (1 John 3:5)  Jesus is the one and only Person who is eligible to walk away from this life without God’s pronouncement of a curse upon Him.  He alone is entitled to participate in God’s blessings and eternal life.

That’s why His death upon the cross was so extraordinary.  For our sake God chose to place our curse upon the Sinless One.  “He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Christ’s death on the cross was the clear sign to all that He bore the curse of God. He suffered the death penalty on behalf of the law-breakers, so that all who believe in him might escape the law’s curse.  “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,’ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13)

When Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse. And at the same time dissolved our curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that God’s blessing of eternal life is present and available for anyone who believes. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing in the One who took our death penalty and our curse.