Cherish The Blessing Of The Curse On The Cross

4.18.25 Galatians 3:10–13 (EHV)

10 In fact, those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.” 11 Clearly no one is declared righteous before God by the law, because “The righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law does not say “by faith.” Instead it says, “The one who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

Cherish the Blessing of the Curse on the Cross

We are here to contemplate, mourn, and yet celebrate the curse that took place on the cross. What does it mean to be cursed? One of the definitions is to treat something lightly. It’s kind of like when you grab a Christmas present. You pick it up and test it for how heavy it is . . . . maybe shake it around a bit. Is this worth anything or not? If something is cursed, then it’s light, it is treated as nothing and meaningless.

But it’s more than that. In the Bible, a curse implies that there is a supernatural force behind it, bringing judgment on someone. We are introduced to the curse right after the Fall into sin. God cursed the snake by making it crawl on the ground and making it eat dust. He also cursed the ground by having it produce thorns and thistles, so that it wouldn’t so easily produce good fruit. It was naturally created to be fruitful and full of life. Not so much after the curse. The ground lost some of its life giving power.

Fast forward to Holy Week. Jesus comes across a fig tree that doesn’t bear fruit. He’s not happy with it, so He curses it. Not too long afterward, it withers quickly and dies, much quicker than normal. The disciples were astounded.

We live under a curse in this world right now, and you can see it in how nothing in this world really lasts. The houses that you buy, the promotions that you get, the body that you take so much care of, the teams that you cheer for . . . it gets emptied of its importance over time. I think of how we were so emotionally involved in the sports teams of our children, taking pictures, getting angry or rejoicing . . . in hindsight I was too emotional over it all. Think also about how obsessed we can be over body image. We fret over an inch here or there, a wrinkle or a loss of hair. We want to take care of ourselves and the body God gave us. But one way or another, your body will get old and wither away if you live long enough. You actually shorten and lose weight over time.

Madonna is an interesting case in point. She’s trying so hard to be relevant, but she’s doing it by trying to act as if she were still in her 20’s or 30’s. It would appear that she’s had plenty of botox. She still dances around on stage in sexually suggestive ways, twerking away. I’m not a fan of twerking no matter how old you are, but it’s all the more disturbing coming from a 69 year old woman. 69 year old women can still be attractive, but not when they’re trying to pretend they are 23. The more she tries, the worse it gets, and it’s sad to see her desperation. She just can’t see it, and people are making fun of her for it with good reason.

Like it or not, most of us lose relevance over time. You used to have power and influence at work, but once you retire your opinions don’t really matter so much. When you try to give advice, your grandchildren will probably just smile and wave. It has to be frustrating at times, but it’s part of the curse of living in a broken world.

I say all this to add some context to what Paul says in today’s text in the context of a curse. In fact, those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.” It seems kind of odd, if you think about it for a minute. Why does God curse people for at least TRYING to obey the law? They were working under an old and outdated system, and in the process they were convincing themselves that they didn’t really need a Messiah at all. In God’s mind they were just deluding themselves into thinking that He must be pleased and impressed with their efforts, as if they were doing the Lord’s work. In reality, they were empty to Him. They weren’t accomplishing anything.