Love (Rescue from the Curse)

 I have been posting on love these many months. I have one more post on this topic and will be moving on to other topics. I will, God willing, revisit this subject that has been near to my heart. This post is not directly about love, but rather the removal of the curse as an act of love by God.

There will no longer be any curse.
Revelation 22:3a

There are times when the full weight of guilt rests upon our conscience. The guilt and shame overcome and drag us down to the depths of despair. This tangle of condemnation rests upon everyone. You see there is not a one of us that can escape the reality that we all miss the mark in life (that is sin). Missing the mark is no small thing either. Sure, we can think about minor sins and say that was not a big deal. However, how can we gage how large a sin must be before it is considered bad. Is the badness related to the nature of the sin itself? What if the sin is frequent does that make it worse? Does remorse change the nature of guilt? All of these and more are interesting questions. James an early follower of Christ answered these questions this way: “For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. (Jas 2:10)” That seems harsh to the modern ear. Paul another follower of Christ said it this way: “For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. (Ga 3:10).” The point is this if you are depending on being a good enough person to please God you have already come up short.

Loving God and loving others well is a response to having the curse removed from your life. The curse is that we can never be good enough on our own. No amount of good works can make you a good person. However, when the curse is removed, we can reach the full potential of what God has created us to be. In many ways this returns us to the occasion that Jesus said to love God and love others. The question was how to inherit eternal life. To which Jesus replied to Love God (with all heart, soul, and strength) and to love your neighbor as yourself. A follow up question was “Who is my neighbor?”  Jesus used a parable to explain that our neighbor is another human being in need that we care for regardless of what group they identify with.

We come up short though. So, are we hopelessly under the curse? Yes and no.

“Yes”

As I have already mentioned we cannot be good enough to remove the guilt and shame of our sin. We remain under the curse of this sin and our virtuous deeds do not rescue. It is a hopeless and impossible state.

When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Mt 19:25–26)

With man it is impossible to be saved from the curse.

“No”

Our hope is in God’s promise. It is possible to escape the curse when we come to and trust in God.

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
(Jn 3:16–18)

Simply stated it is God’s love for us that provides the escape from the curse. The progression is quite simple. God loves us. He gives us a way to escape the curse. His Son Jesus provided the way. If we believe in Jesus, we receive the escape of the curse. Dear friends that is God’s love!