Revelation 22:3 "And there shall be no more curse…" KJV
Why do we care about the curse and how God reverses it in Revelation? Because we all feel the effects of the curse each day of our lives. Our bodies decay, the people we love die, there are famines to endure, we have to work for food and shelter - and having babies and raising kids is difficult and often filled with sorrow.
Why study the reversal of the curse here in Revelation? We are about to enter the portion of the book where extreme judgments come upon planet earth. It’s important to see the context and the effect of these judgments - like a spacecraft reentering earth’s atmosphere, there is much fire and heat and smoke as God takes away the curse.
How does God reverse the effects of the curse in the book of Revelation? By making Jesus a curse for us.
Galatians 3:13 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" ESV
Where did the curse come from? Genesis 3 - and the Garden of Eden.
What happened in the Garden?
1. God created the heavens and the earth - and they were "good."
2. Man was given charge over the garden and given one command - don’t eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
3. The garden was well watered - all sustenance provided
4. Lucifer was let loose in the garden and disguised himself or took the form or inhabited a serpent
5. Lucifer called God’s Word into question and tempted Eve to disobey God
6. Eve and Adam ate from the fruit (effectively giving Satan control over earth - see Luke 4:5-6 "For it has been delivered up to me")
7. The effect was that they knew they were naked and attempted to cover their nakedness (which was more than physical nakedness - but spiritual.)
8. They hid from God
9. God called them to account for their works
10. The actual curse:
The Serpent
a. The serpent was cursed above all animals
b. There would be a battle between Satan and Jesus (enmity)
c. Jesus would be bruised, but Satan would be crushed
Eve
a. Pain in childbirth - perhaps child rearing too knowing that sin would continue
b. Inequality and competition between men and women ("desire" = run after, overflow)
Adam
a. Held specifically accountable for the sin
b. Ground cursed - efforts will bring forth no fruit - only hard labor - the creation now pits itself against man, not for him (including natural disasters)
c. Death results
11. Barred from the Tree of Life
12. Barred from the Garden
What came with the curse?
A Sin Nature - passed on from parents to children ("suffer in childbirth")
Ephesians 2:3 "we … were by nature children of wrath."
Death - spiritual and physical ("in that day you shall surely die" - "return to the dust"))
Spiritual death - loss of fellowship with God
Physical death - the body dies, the sin nature kills (Cain and Abel)
A Fallen World ("thorns and thistles")
Romans 8:19-22 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ESV
"Futility" here means "to have no purpose." When God declared that the ground would bring forth only thorns and thistles - He put the creation under judgment - that it would not be able to fulfill its purpose of providing a place for man to live, and enjoy fellowship with God, but would instead be under "bondage to decay."
We see that decay all around us - from the laws of physics (the 2nd law of thermodynamics, for instance) to the natural disasters that hit us to the diseases that plague us to the age that ravages our bodies - even to the mountains that are in a continual state of being washed away and crumbling into dust.
Under God’s Judgment and Wrath
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23
"But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed." Romans 2:5
"The soul who sins shall die." Ezekiel 18:20
Unable to Approach God
"…for man shall not see Me and live." Exodus 33:20
Destined for Hell (that separation made permanent)
"The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 13:41-42
What Happens In Revelation
Jesus undoes the effects of the curse - but to do so He lets the creation, man, and Satan, get to their worst. It’s a little like coming out of a cold dry snap in the northwestern United States. Sometimes we get these high pressure systems that keep storms away but allow really cold air to flow down the Columbia River gorge into the Portland area and the Willamette Valley. When a storm finally dislodges the high pressure - warm moist air rides up above the cold dry air. First we get snow, but as the air continues to warm, the rain falls down and freezes in the cold air - so we get ice pellets instead of rain. Then the water falls as rain but freezes on contact with the cold ground and we get an ice storm. It’s not until some time later that the warm air scours out the cold and thaws the ice.
So in a way, Revelation is spiritually like the coming of the warm air to finally thaw out planet earth. But to get there, to return us to the purpose for which He created us and earth - we must undergo some of the worst "weather" we’ve ever seen.
The judgments are like the curse at its worst before it goes away altogether. War is the ultimate murder, natural disasters like the ultimate rebellion of nature against man, and the Anti-Christ as Satan’s ultimate attempt to usurp God’s authority.
Here’s the process:
1. God is proclaimed as the creator (Rev 4:11)
2. The Lamb purchases back earth & begins to lay claim to it (Rev 5:6-7)
3. A series of judgments ensues
a. The earth is nearly destroyed in a series of natural disasters (6, 8-9, 15-16)
b. Man is nearly destroyed by war (9)
4. Satan creates a replacement for God on earth (13)
5. Man rebels against God - and aligns himself with Satan (9:20, 16:21)
6. All the systems of man are destroyed (17-18)
7. Satan is destroyed (20)
8. Rebellious man is destroyed (20)
9. God creates again a "new heavens and a new earth"
a. The New Jerusalem is the New Eden (21)
b. Watered with the "Spring of Life" (Rev 21:6)
c. All sin & temptation banished (Rev 21:7)
d. God lives in the New Jerusalem (fellowship restored Rev 21:22)
e. Tree of Life restored for man to eat from (Rev 22:2)
How Does This Reverse the Curse?
1. God "recreates" both creation and us
2. God invites us to His new creation
3. God gives us the Tree of Life to eat
4. We are clothed with Christ and never need to be ashamed
5. The Serpent is utterly destroyed
6. The new creation gives its fruit willingly and regularly
7. Relationship with God is reinstated forever
8. Sorrow over the curse is banished
9. Temptation, sin, and death are forever done away with
How does this apply to use now?
It helps us cope with the world we live in
As I mentioned in a previous study - there are three kinds of suffering in the world: Suffering for Jesus, suffering from our own choices, and suffering the effects of living in a fallen world.
Many times we hear a statement begin with "how could a loving God allow …" In point of fact, the only thing God allowed was our free will. The first thing we did with that gift was to give away the creation and subject it to futility. All the evil that we see and the decay and trouble and disease and death is a result of our rebellious character, not God’s.
It helps us understand God’s judgment
God could have simply wiped the slate clean and started over. But He knew all this was going to happen, and planned instead to give us another ultimate gift - that of His own life - in order to restore us and His creation - the curse was actually a gift as well - because it kept us under bondage and forced us to see that we need a savior. God is gracious, but He is also just. Grace without justice is meaningless. Why give a gift if there was nothing to overcome? So God must judge wickedness and evil.
It helps us explain the gospel
Jesus undid the curse and the wrath of God against us - but it is only through Him:
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. ESV
Outside of God’s washing of our sins - we are still ashamed of our nakedness like Adam and Eve.
Revelation 3:18 talks about the Laodicean church - they weren’t saved - and the Lord urges them to be washed by Him so that the shame of nakedness might not be seen.
Adam and Eve were ashamed of their nakedness because it represented their sin - not that our bodies are bad - but you don’t want to be naked spiritually before God. Without being clothed with Christ’s righteousness you will feel shame and lack if you come before God. Their innocence was gone - you can only get it back through Jesus Christ.
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