THE CURSE OF THE LAW.docx

7/28/2019 THE CURSE OF THE LAW.docx

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"THE CURSE OF THE LAW"

The Scriptural and Covenantal View of Man Outside of Christ

"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of

Abraham.

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith,

preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be

blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written,

Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book

of the law to do them.

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The

just shall live by faith.

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: forit is written, Cursed is every one 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."

Galatians 3: 7 - 14

"The power of God's anger is unknown. And so Moses in his song sets it out in

some measure: 'A fire is kindled in Mine anger, which shall burn unto the lowest

hell' (Deuteronomy 32: 22). So that the King, being thus provoked, is provoked to

curse you. In Matthew 25: 41, it is put into the form of a sentence; this cursing
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shall be your lot in hell; it shall be your very sentence: 'Go, ye cursed into

everlasting fire.' There is nothing but cursing. As Job cursed himself and the day

of his birth, so then shall cursing be all your song. You will curse yourself that you

did not hearken to the preacher, that you would not accept Christ, and the means

of mercy and grace when they were offered unto you. You will curse the time

that you were acquainted with this man and that man, and others will curse you

for drawing them to sin. God will curse you and man will curse you; and God does

not curse in vain when He curses. Others will curse you, and you will curse

yourself and others - and think how cursed will be your condition! All the curses

that can be thought on, and all the curses that cannot be thought on, shall rest on

the head of the impenitent sinner, to, to show God's terrible and just indignation

against him. O beloved, to deliver us from this curse, Christ, the Son of God, was

made a curse for us. The curse is so great that nothing else can free us from it."

- James Ussher

ellfire and brimstone isn't cool anymore. Of course it has always been resented, but now it's

become completely unacceptable. The modern preacher, Fundamentalist or Evangelical - it

makes no difference - no longer wants the social stigma that naturally results from

confrontational preaching. He wants to appear sophisticated. Dignified. Refined. So he only wants to

preach "encouraging" messages. "Uplifting" messages. "People are hurting", he says. "They need

encouragement. We must not agitate the situation by preaching against sin, by preaching hellfire and

brimstone. They do not need to hear all of that. We just need to encourage them." This is the

fashionable way of thinking now among preachers.

Now on the theological level, this is primarily the fault of Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism has

advocated this idea that we are living in "the Age of Grace", which of course is an extremely cloudy and

misleading term, full of all kinds of problematic implications. It is really little more than a veiled form of

universalism, and only avoids being actually categorized as full-blown universalism by the most narrow

margins. Dispensationalists, of course, will not actually deny the doctrine of the Lake of Fire or of

eternal perdition. But their whole outlook, their whole perspective, their whole way of looking at things

slants the attention completely away from these truths in such a way that they are almost completely

ignored. I even heard one influential preacher here in central Indiana - a man with a reputation as a

conservative Baptist and a defender of the Fundamentals - say that sinners will not be judged for their

sins because Christ has already paid for their sins on the cross of Calvary! They will only be judged for

their unbelief. Universalism! And the result of this is that the doctrine of the Lake of Fire and of eternal

perdition are almost entirely bypassed, just barely mentioned in the most cursory manner before

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moving on to talk about grace and forgiveness and the love of God. The sinner is not convicted over sin,

he is not made to feel guilty or burdened or threatened by God's judgment. His conscience is never

awakened or terrified in the least. He is made as comfortable as possible, and the church tries not to do

or say anything that would upset him.

Now the problem with all of this is that it fails to correctly diagnose the problem and consequently

prescribes a completely artificial remedy. Encouragement is being prescribed, but encouragement will

not correct the issue. It is impossible that it should do so, because man's root problem is not

discouragement or depression, it is blindness and enmity, actual hostility, in relationship to Almighty

God. The modern Fundamentalist or Evangelical is not taking this into account, this Scriptural fact that

the carnal mind is at enmity with God (Romans 8: 7), and is utterly opposed and antagonistic to the

things of God, and cannot receive them because they are spiritually discerned (I Corinthians 2: 4).

Now the Scriptural remedy for this is entirely foreign to this modern outlook. The Scriptural remedy is

never to paint over the problem, or to try to "encourage" the sinner. The Scriptural remedy is

confrontational, it exposes the root problem of sin for what it is. It makes sin exceedingly sinful. How

does it do this? It does this by "the commandment", by the Law of God(Romans 7: 13).

And of course Dispensationalism excludes this principle by banishing God's Law to the Old Testament.

God's Law is not seen as an eternal constant. It is just this feature of God's program for Old Testament

Israel that has been suspended until Christ returns and establishes his Millennial Kingdom.

Now this makes the Apostle Paul's statement here all the more important. He says that "Christ hath

redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us". We must take note of this and

observe closely the language that he has employed, and the circumstances under which he is writing.

First of all, we notice the plural pronoun, "us". It cuts two ways, because it unites two separate

categories of people, Jew and Gentile. The Apostle Paul, of course, is a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews,

of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day (Philippians 3: 4 - 6). But he is writing to Gentiles,

Galatian Christians who have been told that they must be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law in orderto be saved. Yet in spite of this vital distinction, he unites both parties together under a single banner,

with just two little letters in our English Bible - "us".

The significance of course is that the Jews assumed themselves to be the rightful heirs of the blessing of

Abraham. They thought just like the modern Dispensationalist. "We are the Covenant people, we have


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these special blessings, these special privileges, unconditionally because of our Jewish lineage. They

cannot be forfeited. We have Abraham to our father."

And Paul simply dismisses all of that at once. This is not true, he says. This is completely false. You are

looking at this the wrong way. The Jews are not under God's blessing, but under God's curse. They have

failed to keep the commandments of God. " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which

are written in the book of the law to do them." It does not matter at all that a man is Abraham's seed in

this respect. He has forfeited his privileges by his sin. God's Covenant has been broken. His Law, his

perfect standard of holiness has been violated. And as a result, the Jew, in his natural, unregenerate

condition, is not entitled to the blessing of Abraham, but under the curse of the Law. And this is a

complete refutation of Dispensational Theory, the idea that the Jewish nation is unconditionally entitled

to the Abrahamic blessing.

It refutes Dispensational theory in another way as well by including the Gentile Galatians under this

same umbrella, this "us". How could Paul incorporate these Gentile Galatians under the same curse,

when - according to Dispensationalism - the Old Testament promises, which include not only blessings,

but cursing, are exclusively for the Jews? How could Christ redeem the Gentile Galatians from a curse

which had no application to them, but applied only - according to Dispensational theory - to the Jews?

But the Dispensationalist has yet another problem. The book of Galatians was written, even by the

earliest date theories, well over a decade following the Day of Pentecost. This places the date of writing

well within the Dispensationalist's supposed "Age of Grace". In other words, the supposed "Age of Law"

had already concluded years before.

Now if this "Age of Law" had already concluded, how is it possible that the Apostle Paul can include

these Galatian Gentiles under the Lawand under the curse and say that Christ had redeemed them from

the curse of the Law? The "Age of Law" (according to Dispensational theory) had ended years before

they had even heard the Gospel in the first place! How can he talk about them returning to "the weak

and beggarly" elements (Galatians 4: 9) that they had never been under in the first place, seeing that

they were not Abraham's biological seed and the Old Testament Law had been written "exclusively forthe Jews" (according to Dispensational theory)? Either Paul's inspired writing is entirely incoherent and

beyond reconciliation, or else Dispensational Theory is an utterly unbiblical method of interpreting the

Scriptures that contradicts what the Word of God actuallysays and results only in a total breakdown of

genuine exegetical meaning!


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No Beloved, the Word of God never contradicts itself. It most certainly contradicts Dispensational

Theory. But never itself. The truth is that Dispensationalism is simply wrong. It is an utter

misunderstanding and confusion of the separate principles of progressive revelation and God's divine

administrations. It a hokey, hackneyed, hermaneutical house of cards.

Beloved, Christ has accomplished the work and paid the price toredeem us from the curse of the Law.You and I, all of these centuries later, were born under the same curse dictated by God's eternal,

immutable standard of righteousness, his holy Law. We were condemned to the everlasting punishment

demanded by that Law, endless and agonizing death in the "lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"

(Revelation 21: 8). But, God be praised, Christ became a curse for us when he suffered upon the cross of

Calvary (Galatians 3: 13). Shedding his blood and enduring the awful torments inflicted by the Jewish

mob and the Roman authorities, as well as the unleashed wrath of his own Father (Isaiah 53: 10), he

paid the redemption price necessary for cursed men and women such as you and I to be reconciled to

God (II Corinthians 5: 18 - 19) and adopted into his heavenly family by the quickening power of the Holy

Ghost, the Spirit of Adoption (Galatians 4: 3 - 6).

Perhaps you have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. You have never

trusted in him and called upon him for salvation. Beloved, if that be true, you remain under the curse.

Even now, you are cursed with a curse, an incomprehensible curse that eternity itself will never exhaust

or release you from. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can deliver you. Why don't you repent of your sins and

find forgiveness and peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by believing on him, God's perfect,

spotless Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the whole world ( I John 2: 1 - 2)? In so believing, the blessing

of faithful Abraham will come upon you (Galatians 3: 13 - 14).

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