Day 28: How To Make The Right Decision

Now, to be very practical, I’m going to explain to you the scriptural way by which you can implement your decision to turn from the curses and to enter into the blessings. It’s all based on a key passage in Galatians, chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, which says this:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”

That speaks about what Jesus accomplished for us by His atoning death on the cross and the particular aspect of what He accomplished in those verses is the transition from curse to blessing. And it’s based on this scriptural legal fact—that on the cross Christ became a curse. In the Old Testament it was written that everyone who was hanged on a tree is a curse. So when Jesus, by the foreknowledge of God, was hanged on the tree, which is the cross, that was God’s testimony that Jesus had been made a curse for us. Why? That He might redeem us from the curse. In other words, the curse that was due to all human sin, rebellion, stubbornness, wickedness—all that came upon Jesus on the cross.

Let me use this phrase: Jesus exhausted the curse. Every curse. And if you analyze the curses, you’ll see that they were all fulfilled in that act of the crucifixion. Every curse came upon Jesus.

Let me mention one specific curse, just by way of illustration: the poverty curse. In Deuteronomy 28, the poverty curse is described as this: “that thou shalt serve thine enemies whom the Lord thy God shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things.” That’s total absolute poverty. Hunger, thirst, nakedness, want of all things.

Consider Jesus as He hung on the cross: He was hungry, he had not eaten for 24 hours; He was thirsty, one of His last utterances was, “I’m thirsty”; He was naked, they had taken all His clothes from Him; and He was in want of all things, He had nothing. He was buried in a borrowed burial robe and laid in a borrowed tomb. He had literally nothing. He exhausted the poverty curse on our behalf.

But not only the poverty curse but every one of those curses Jesus exhausted on the cross. He was made the curse. Why? That we in turn through faith might receive the blessing. The evil came upon Him that the good might be made available to us. That’s the legal scriptural basis of this transition. That’s the basis on which God can give you your decision. You’ve decided to turn your back on the curses. You’ve decided to seek the blessings. Well, this is the way that God, without compromising His justice, can offer you the blessings in place of the curses. Because His justice was satisfied by the propitiatory death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus bore our sins, He was condemned in our place, He died our death and He bore our curse that we in turn might be made righteous, that we might have life, and that we might receive the blessing.