Far As The Curse Is Found

“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” – Deuteronomy 27:26

“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’… Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”- Galatians 3:10, 13

These chapters in Deuteronomy are fascinatingly horrific to read. We know about the curse from Genesis 3, but here it is fleshed out in detail so terrible and gruesome that it’s hard to keep looking at the page. In family and work, kitchen and field, weather and body, war and love, king and children: this is what God’s wrath upon disobedience looks like. This is what it means to be forsaken by God. This is what the death and disintegration began in Adam looks like. One would think the decision to obey was a no-brainer! And yet, despite this warning that was read to the people every seventh year, we’ll see in books to come that much of the curses came true. 

Paul quotes these chapters multiple times in Galatians 3 to help us understand what it is Jesus redeemed us from. I was under a curse. Jesus became a curse for me. He took my place. He had all my sins laid on him. He received to the full the physical and spiritual suffering of the accursed, in my place. He lifted the curse from me. Question 39 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, “Is it significant that he was ‘crucified’ instead of dying some other way?”  Answer: “Yes. This death convinces me that he shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was accursed by God.”

We still live in a cursed world, but one day he will set even that right. As we sing during this time of year, “No more let sin and sorrow grow / nor thorns infest the ground / He comes to make his blessings flow / far as the curse is found…” Written by Isaac Watts in 1719, these words are based on Psalm 98 and are actually about the second coming of Christ. The world will be remade, Revelation 22 tells us. The water of life will flow from the throne of God. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” That is what we’re singing about. Christmas in this world is bittersweet: there is light but still darkness; there is family but still dysfunction and absence or loss; there is holiday but still work looms; there are gifts but still clutter and covetousness. But this first coming of Jesus reminds us too of his second. We have not only the beginning of the story but the end. We know the time will come when blessings flow as far as the curse is found.