Your Choice

As believers in Christ, we are no longer under the curse of sin.  However, it is possible to be a believer and remain under the curse of the law.  Paul wrote to the Galatians on just that subject.  He admonished them that even though they had been saved by faith in Christ, they had gone back to the way of the law in their everyday lives – what we would call a “works mentality”.  A works mentality will cause us to try to please God by our good deeds.  If you read Galatians 3, you will understand how easy it is to revert to this type of lifestyle, even as a Christian.  Unfortunately, this type of lifestyle brings the curse of the law on anyone who practices it. 

The Message Bible spells it out plainly enough:

Galatians 3:2-6    “Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.”

The word curse means – a cause of great harm or misfortune (Merriam-Webster).  The Greek word for curse “katara” -  means to imprecate (invoke evil on) or execrate (to declare to be evil or detestable). 

The word blessed means – bringing pleasure, contentment, or good fortune.  The Hebrew word for blessing “brakah” – is benediction (the invocation of a blessing); by implication prosperity.  The Hebrew word for bless “barak” – means to kneel; by implication to bless God and man abundantly.  This carries with it the knowledge that God and man are joined together – that all God has is available to man and all man has is available to God.  It is astounding to me that the word “bless” means to kneel – for God Himself said it to Abraham. 

Galatians 3:10-14 (New King James Version):  ^“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
¹³ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), ¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

One of the amazing things about the blessing that God gave to Abraham is that it continues throughout time to include all those who are in Christ.  Abraham is our spiritual father, and we are heirs of the promises of God.  This blessing covers every area of our lives – the natural as well as the spiritual – and causes us to prosper in all things.  We are blessed to be a blessing, just as Abraham was.  But this blessing is conditional – we cannot work our way into the blessing.  It is received by grace through faith and obedience to the Word of God.

I choose the blessing!  How about you?

Rhonda J. Roughton