"For as many as are out of works of law, these are under a curse. For it has been written that, 'Cursed [are] all who are not abiding by all the [things] having been written in the book of the law to do them.'"
-In Hebrew the word most often used for curse contains the idea of something which is snared or bound. It stands in stark opposition to the blessing, that which is an experience of the goodness of God. The Lord blessed those He made in His image, He showered His goodness on them, He promised His blessings, and they chose instead to walk away in their hearts, to walk in rebellion and idolatry and spiritual adultery, to try and experience goodness on their own term apart from God. And as a consequence of the sin of Adam, all the earth is under a curse, ensnared and bound up in an experience of that which is quite contrary to the goodness of God. It is a promise, in fact, of evil, of that which was never part of the original design. What tragic irony, that the very freedom we attempt to pursue apart from our Maker instead has us trapped in brokenness. It is a catch-22, however. There is a promised curse for those who walk away FROM the law of God and away from living in to He wants, but there is also a curse for those who depend entirely UPON the law and on their best efforts to try and perfect themselves through the law, because that of course is impossible. The law requires that one keep all of it, dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every last ‘t’, and of that we all fall short even on our best days. This is the essence of the curse, a double-edged curse, that the world is bound up under a law of works, and the whole world is bound to fail. That’s precisely the point which Paul is emphasizing in the verse he quotes here (Deuteronomy 27.26). The standard of the law - if one would escape the curse - is to keep the whole thing, every part. All things - that is the standard. In fact, that verse in the Hebrew does not actually contain the word ‘all’, so Paul is taking some inspirational license with the text, adding the ‘all’ for emphasis.
-Reverse the curse. Is not this Good News which was pre-good-newsed to Abraham about all the nations of the earth realizing a blessing instead of a curse? THE Curse of all curses this, with all the attendant brokenness and death, not at all a part of any original design - transformed in the blessing of blessings. It seems that quite often there is a blessing and a curse, and in fact that was the original message to Abraham, that there would be both a blessing and a curse. There would be a curse for anyone who would curse Abraham, something not good at all, but rather something thoroughly bad. Surely this would extend to any who might not walk in faith as did Abraham the faith[ful] one. To not follow Abraham in his step(s) of faith would indeed be tantamount to cursing him. And thus we have The Curse. Not merely a place of physical death, but of eternal spiritual separation from our Creator. Bad, not good. Entirely and eternally bad. This is The Curse. And quite frankly there’s hell to pay. Literally.
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