Blessing and Cursing

Part of my reading was from Deuteronomy 28 this morning. The headings for the sections are “Blessings for Obedience” and “Curses for Disobedience”. Moses is instructing the nation of Israel in preparation for his death. Carefully keep the commandments of the LORD, he says, and you shall be blessed. They are instructed to keep every rule, command and statute so that the Lord may bless them in all that they do. And the blessings are great if they are faithful.

Next come the curses. This section reads prophetically since so much of what Moses promised for their disobedience came to pass. In fact, in the ESV, the blessings are two paragraphs and the curses eight! Do you think that perhaps God and Moses knew in advance which would be the more likely outcome? Every single one of the curses mentioned eventually comes to pass for Israel because they never found it within themselves to keep the commandments. They could do it for a while, but invariably they fell away and ignored the severe demands of the Law of God. And then the curses would come. The history of Israel is a history of cyclical obedience and disobedience, blessing and curses. Mountains high and valleys low, very much like the cyclical experience of many Christians today. It is easy to become discouraged and fall away when we begin to feel that life is still just the same old ups and downs that we always had; only as a Christian it’s worse because we understand that the ups and downs are a result of our obedience and disobedience.

Enter Christ. He told his disciples this: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17 ESV) If we analyze what he is saying, we can mine some pretty deep truths from it. First of all, he did not come to abolish the law. The law stands to this day, along with the blessings and curses that result from obedience or disobedience. He did, however, come to fulfill the law; to perfectly keep every statue and precept. So in him half the battle is won. At the very least, Christ is the only one who could actually perfectly obey. In Christ, the requirements of the law are fulfilled.

That leaves one piece of the puzzle to be solved. Sure, Christ lived perfectly and obeyed the law perfectly, but how does that relate to me? I still alternately obey and disobey the commandments and can feel and see the blessings and curses that result in my life. Christ was righteous enough, but that doesn’t seem to have much to do with my situation. It is actually sad that so many Christians can believe this way, because agreeing that the law is correct and good and trying to keep it in our own strength is extremely tiresome and frustrating, not to mention impossible. It shouldn’t be so, but this is what so much of the church is teaching today: place faith in Christ to be saved to eternal life and then keep the commandments. This is not what the first church taught, as is clear when Paul tells the Roman church, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.“ (Romans 3:21-22 ESV) Read that again and think about it for a minute. Because of Christ, God’s righteousness is no longer to be manifested (revealed, shown) through the keeping of law. The righteousness of God is revealed in us when we place faith in the one who kept the law. Done deal. We can go on trying to keep the law all we want, but it means nothing to God because the law has already been kept by Jesus. God looks at us not to see if we are keeping the law, but if we are trusting in the law-keeper.

So in essence, when we place faith in Christ as being the righteousness of God, it is just as if we had always kept the law in God’s eyes. Every time we come across a passage in the scripture that promises blessings for obedience, we can say “Christ has obeyed, and I am in Christ, so these blessings must be mine”. When we come across a passage that threatens curses for breaking the law, we likewise can say “Christ has obeyed, and I am in Christ, therefore I will not be cursed.”

So then we can do whatever we feel like, right? Not if we are truly in Christ, because to be in Christ is to have the righteousness of God manifested in our lives, and that leads to Spirit empowered living. We are released from viewing everything that happens to us as a blessing or a curse based on our ability to obey because we live by faith in Christ’s obedience, and that causes us to approach God as one who loves us and wants to bless us (because of our faith in Christ’s obedience) and not as one who desires to punish us for disobedience. Suddenly there are fewer ups and downs because the ‘up’ of Christ is always credited to us. We begin to understand what Paul means when he says “...for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 ESV) Life becomes less a series of blessing and cursing and we recognize that the situations in our life are working together for ultimate good (ultimate blessing) because we are trusting in the obedience of the one who ultimately obeyed.

Perhaps it would be good for you to read Deuteronomy 28 yourself, keeping these things in mind. As you read, recognize that in Christ the law has been fulfilled. If you are in him, the blessings are yours and the curses are not. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless