Redeemed from the Curse!  by James Lantz

      What a joy it is to be the bearer of good news. The gospel is good news! Jesus said that he was not sent into the world to condemn the world but rather to save those who are lost. People are already condemned through Adams betrayal. God, because of his great love for us, decided to have Jesus take our sins upon himself and give us his righteousness. This degree of grace was unheard of, Jesus had never been sacrificed before and he never will be again. The devil could not fathom that Love would sacrifice his Son, Jesus, for condemned humanity. Selfishness does not think that grace should be available to the undeserving. Love thinks differently, love delights in truth! When a person gets honest with God and gives himself fully to the Lord, he qualifies to walk in the blessing of the Lord! The blessing of the Lord is every good thing, and spoken of numerous times in the Bible. There is not one good thing that we experience that is not a gift from God. We would not have our next breath if it was not for the grace of God.  James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The scriptures teach that those who do what the word says are blessed and those who disobey the word are under the curse. You always seem to have those who speak from their ignorance, saying, I do not believe that a good, merciful, and gracious God would send anyone to hell. First of all we must agree that God is a good, merciful, and gracious God! God is all good and there is no unrighteousness in him. God is also a just God, a God who does what is right. God rewards the righteous and has wrath for the wicked. Second, it is not God who sends someone to hell, but sin that leads to death and hell. Romans2:4 – 6  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds:  God has done the hard part that we could not do, he qualified us to become sons of God, and empowered us with the ability to obey him. Salvation includes being freed from the curse of the law while we are on this earth in our mortal bodies.  Gal. 3:13&14  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Romans  3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption (freedom from the curse) that is in Christ Jesus:   Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation (judgement) to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

       What is the curse of the law? In order to know what we are redeemed from we need to know what the curse of the law is. We must go back to the first five books of the Bible to find out what the curse of the law is. The curse is three fold. First, there is spiritual death. This is what happened to Adam and Eve when they disobeyed their Father God. God said, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.  Gen. 2:16 & 17  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  You would need help to misunderstand God’s instructions. They ate the fruit of that tree which God said not to eat and died that very day. The death that God was referring to was spiritual death, they (their spirit) was separated from Almighty God their Father. They were born from life into death. Satan became their father and physical death, which came many years later, was the result of their dying spiritually. Jesus said that the Pharisees were of their father the devil. Jesus told the religious leaders that he spoke of the things that his Father showed him and they did the things that their father did. They did not see themselves as murderers even though they were planning to kill Jesus. Because Jesus loved them, he had to make it real plain to them that they were in the wrong family.  John 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.   The Second part of the curse is sickness and disease.  Exodus 15:26  .   .   .   If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none (original Hebrew is in the permissive form and not the causitive) of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.  Healing was available to overcome the curse in the old covenant as well as today.  Deut. 28:27  The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt (sores, boils, ulcers), and with the emerods (tumors & hemorrhoids), and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.  Jesus told his home town folks that healing was available today because he was anointed. When they refused to believe who he really was, he said they were like their forefathers, who had failed to receive their healing in the days of the prophet Elisha. Do not be deceived, sickness is a curse, it is not from God like some preachers say.  Job 2:7  says that satan smote Job with sore boils. Ps. 41:8 refers to disease as being evil. Jesus healed a woman that was bowed over for eighteen years with a spirit of infirmity as being bound by Satan. He declared that a covenant girl ought to be free from Satan’s bondage! (Luke 13:16)  Peter refers to sickness as Satanic oppression.  Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.  If God were the one putting sickness on people then Jesus would be working against God. No, God is not putting sickness on people. He put sickness on his first born Son, Jesus, so that you and I could be free from sickness and disease.  Isaiah 53:10  Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief  ( sickness in the Hebrew ): when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.  Jesus sacrificial suffering included every sickness and every disease.  1 Pet. 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.  The third part of the curse is poverty. The devil will fight christians tooth and nail to try and stop us from grasping the fact that Jesus has redeemed us from being sick and being poor. Notice I said, the devil will try to stop us from grasping the truth of what Jesus purchased for us through his death, suffering, and resurrection. He can not stop us from believing the truth and receiving what has been given to us. Jesus traveled throughout Israel teaching in their synagogues that he was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. Do you think that Jesus was telling poor people that they need to stay poor? Did he teach the broken hearted to just stay sad? Did he teach that those in captivity should just stay captive the rest of their life? Did he tell blind people to just keep wandering around in the dark and eventually in heaven they will be able to see. No, Jesus preached good news, you don’t have to be poor anymore, you don’t have to be sad anymore, you can go free. God’s will is for it to become on earth like it is in heaven. The two greatest things that the Lord desires for his people is that we prosper and be in health.  3 John 2  Beloved, I wish (pray) above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.  2 Cor. 8:9  For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.  Jesus became poor so that you and I could be made rich. I know this teaching will stir up devils because he is endeavoring to keep the wealth of this world out of the  hands of those who will use it to preach this glorious gospel.   Pro. 28:8  He that by usury (interest) and unjust gain   increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.  Jesus became poor for us, just like he became sin for us, and just like he became sick for us, so that we could go free from the curse of the law.   Pro. 10:22  The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.  Ps. 112:1-3  Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.  The blessing of the Lord is on those who love him and are going about building his kingdom with joy and gladness! Redemption was purchased for every person who will receive Jesus! Redemption is not something that God is going to do for us, redemption has already been secured for us. Jesus has already become sin for us! Jesus has already taken our sicknesses upon himself! Jesus has already become poor for us when hung naked on the tree! Total redemption has been provided for us, spirit, soul, and body! Glory to God! The Lord did this for us out of his great love for us and he has made it available to us on a gift basis. We do not deserve this grace but we need to receive this grace that has been freely given by our good God. Righteousness is granted to those who believe that Jesus became sin for them and that Jesus righteousness is theirs.  Ps. 84:11  For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. God’s grace must be appropriated by faith. Noah believed God and received grace for himself and his family (including you and me). Peter received forgiveness and went on to become an apostle of the Lamb. Faith takes what God offers! The woman with the issue of blood took her healing even though her circumstances were saying no way. The Lord is pleased when you take the grace he offers! You are redeemed from the curse of the law so go ahead and enter the throne room and receive by faith!