The Temporary Curse

Take a look through the two main curse passages of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and Leviticus 26:14-39) and you will notice something very interesting – all the curses have to do with THIS LIFE!

There is not a hint of spiritual death being part of the curse, for good reason – the people these curses were addressed to were already spiritually dead!  Becoming spiritually alive only became available in the New Covenant, under which people can be born again.  The Law could not make them alive anyway!

There was NOTHING about the hereafter, about damnation or about eternal bliss.

Moreover, when you study the “blessing” verses that immediately precede the “curse” verses, you’ll find that every one of those blessings concerns things in this present lifetime as well!  No blessing of the Law got you to heaven.

Compare this to the way most Christians think, which is that we have to slog through this life like the unbelievers, but after a just few more weary days, we’ll fly away to our mansions over the hilltop and once we all get to heaven we’ll sing and shout the victory.  You can wait if you like, but I’m singing and shouting the victory in this life because I have it in this life (1 Corinthians 15:57, 2 Corinthians 2:14, 1 John 5:4-5)!

Galatians 3:13 contains the powerful statement that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us.  We are redeemed from everything in those curse verses RIGHT NOW IN THIS LIFE!

We don’t have to wait for heaven to be redeemed from the curse of sickness.  In fact, you won’t need to be redeemed from sickness in heaven, because no one will cough while walking on the streets of gold and give you the flu strain described by the latest combination of letters and numbers.  You certainly won’t need to be redeemed from poverty in the accommodations that await you, either.  You won’t have any enemy people around who could make you into a slave and collect interest from loans they make to you.

No, what Christ redeemed you from – past tense – are the curses that applied to THIS LIFE.  You do not have to be broke and sick here any more than you have to be broke and sick in heaven.  Christ has already redeemed you from those things.  You don’t even have to ask Him to do anything about such conditions; you need to believe that He already has done something about them on your behalf by becoming a curse for your sins.  Then act on the Word by receiving your inheritance in Him!

So the good news is that you ALREADY have redemption through Christ for ALL the conditions named in those curse passages.  So read them with a smile because EVERYTHING you see in them is something that does NOT belong to you as a Christian!  You’re redeemed IN THIS LIFE from those curses that applied IN THIS LIFE.  Hallelujah!