Christian Living

The Cross, Part 6—Reversed the Curse

by J.W. Phillips
03/18/25
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The Cross, Part 6—Reversed the Curse 

The accomplishments of the cross are as many as the barriers taken down. Some of these barriers we already know: those constructed by sin, self, and Satan. But other barriers don’t come as readily to mind—for example, all those barriers constructed by the curse.

We in the modern west don’t think of the curse too much. To us, this is a concept that spooked the ancient world: witches stirring their brew, casting their spells, invoking supernatural forces to bring disaster against an enemy. Notions such as these are smugly dismissed by many moderns as the hocus-pocus of primitive people.

The only other thought that comes to our mind whenever the word “curse” is mentioned is the vulgar verbalization of bad manners, a habit that could perhaps be reversed if some money were put in a cookie jar for each offense.

What is far more serious, though, than the curses of the uncouth or the curses of the superstitious, are the curses of God.

Did you know that God curses?

In the Garden of Eden we see God’s curses against Satan, man, and even the ground man walks on. It was there that Satan’s destiny was doomed, that havoc took root in the first family, that devastating forces brought ruin to the soul, and that our planet came under a death sentence.

To demonstrate how seriously God regarded the curses, we will focus on a very dramatic incident in the history of Israel. In the twenty-seventh chapter of Deuteronomy we see God summoning his people to Shechem, where two mountains stood nearby. There was Mount Gerizim (six of the tribes were told to go there), and there was Mount Ebal (the other six tribes were told to go there).

As each tribe gathered where they had been assigned—at first puzzled by this sudden and strange assembly—they soon learned that Mount Gerizim represented the mountain of blessings, and Mount Ebal represented the mountain of cursing. What subsequently transpired at these two locations produced vivid and sharply contrasting testimonies.

Following the instruction of the Lord, the leaders at Mount Ebal announced for all the people to hear, those sins that would result in a curse. And after each sin was announced, all the people would say, “Amen,” thus indicating their understanding and agreement.

The alternative to this way of destruction was Mount Gerizim where blessings were extended to all who heeded the voice of God and walked in obedience.

So, two mountains, each sizable, each illustrating a life lesson these people would never forget! The entire direction of life—for them and for us—was ultimately based on making a critical choice: Will curses come because of allowed disobedience, or will we walk in the way of blessings by complying with God’s commands?

By gathering the entire nation at these two mountains, God strongly stressed the power of the curse, as well as the power of the blessing. Two lifestyles. Two destinies. Choose!

It is in the next chapter of Deuteronomy that God tells us more about what constitutes a blessing and what constitutes a curse. The blessings include prosperity, healing, security from enemies, an unusual ability to help others, and a capacity for great influence on the earth (Deuteronomy 28:1-13). What an enviable life!

The curses are in an entirely different direction: poverty, sickness, frustration (because of constant failure and unfairness) and also victimization (by nature and by the malice of others). With no help at all from Heaven, those under the curse are crushed by life, confused by its outcomes, and confined to live a sad and sorry life.

That the Lover would come for the beloved is a marvelous story. But for this story to have a happy ending, these curses had to be removed from the beloved, inside and out. That is, from the ruin it was doing in her (the hardness of heart, the corruption of soul, the distancing from God) but also from the ravages life was imposing on her (the poverty, the diseases, the failures, the frustrations, the frequent futility—what Solomon called vanity and vexation of spirit).

We end up with only half a gospel if we see it dealing with the inner curses and not the outer curses. “Don’t forget,” A.W. Tozer said, “that when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, he didn’t die alone for men, but for everything that touches men.”¹

Now, if the best the gospel has to offer is Jesus joining us in our distress, becoming a companion with us under the curse, this story wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as it turned out to be.

This half-gospel scenario leaves much of the curse intact, at least while we’re on earth. Under this arrangement, major areas of daily life are susceptible to the same curses enumerated in Deuteronomy. The only sure way the believer gains relief is to die. Aside from that option, the pain remains and financial hardships stay hard.

The salvation story gets radically reduced by focusing on one part and not the other parts. Yet, this is exactly what has happened in many churches. That Jesus came to save our souls is rightly proclaimed, but other aspects of his salvation are strangely omitted.

The impression thus left is that major areas of life remained as they were, outside the salvation Jesus brought to earth. While the soul gets saved, the body languishes under the curse and anguishes for relief.

The now-famous Christmas song, “Joy to the World,” had it right when it said of Jesus, “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

Galatians 3:13 says Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. This means that all that constitutes a curse, which Deuteronomy 28 helps explain, was borne by Jesus on Calvary’s cross. He bore it so we wouldn’t have to!

Galatians 3:14 further explains that this was accomplished so the blessings of Abraham would come on us. Here we find an important connector between Old Testament promises and the New Testament believer. Through Jesus, God took actions to negate the curses and to provide the blessings. That which needlessly vexes and perplexes found remedy in the cross.

Some people dismiss this claim as one that owes its discovery to twentieth-century charismatics. Yet long before the charismatic movement came into being, none other than the great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, wrote these words about the verses we just cited in Galatians: “Though this be a promise of the law, it stands good for the people of God, for Jesus has removed the curse, but he has established the blessing.”²

Properly understood, prosperity is a blessing and poverty is a curse. Health is a blessing and sickness is a curse. Jesus bore the curses that we may walk in the blessing.

Walking in the blessing doesn’t mean a bloating consumerism caught up in the whirlwind of getting and gaining. That kind of lifestyle exists, obviously, but not with Heaven’s sponsorship.

Who can deny that the piled-up splendors of ostentatious wealth can make a complete mockery of the kingdom, and at the same time can pierce the soul of such money-grubbers with many sorrows (I Timothy 6:10)?

It isn’t all that difficult to discern if Scripture’s safeguards are being ignored and if the corruptions of covetousness are taking hold. Thomas Watson observed:

A man may be said to be given to covetousness, when he takes more pains for getting earth than for getting heaven. He will turn every stone, break his sleep, take many a weary step for the world; but will take no pains for Christ or heaven.³

Witnessing this phenomenon in his own day, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Things are in the saddle and ride mankind.”

Of course, “the kingdom of thingdom” won’t find any sponsorship from God, for our God would never sanction anything like this! Nevertheless, he does offer financial wealth without the burden just mentioned. Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.”

On this point, Charles Spurgeon offered balanced commentary, saying:

Riches are no curse when blessed of the Lord. When men have more than they require for their immediate need and begin to lay up in storehouses, the dry rot of covetousness or the blight of hard-heartedness is apt to follow the accumulation; but with God’s original blessings it is not so. Prudence arranges the saving, liberality directs the spending, gratitude maintains consecration, and praise sweetens enjoyment.⁴

The book of Isaiah connected the cross to the curse of sickness when it said, “by His stripes we are healed.” The great evangelical (not Charismatic) professor from Scotland, James S. Stewart wrote,

In God’s world Jesus always regarded disease as an intruder. It was not part of the plan. It was not directly devised by God’s good will. It was not native to God’s kingdom. It was alien. Therefore Jesus, whenever he met it, set himself to destroy it.⁵

Jesus’ attitude toward disease was never a question, and his ability to destroy it was never limited by him! What he bore was sufficient, not for some believers only; it was sufficient for all. And it was sufficient, not for some sicknesses only. Matthew 4:23 declares that Jesus went about “healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.”

Multiple passages proclaim Jesus healed everyone, all that were in the crowd (Matthew 12:15). According to G.D. Watson, “God declares himself the master of diseases, both sporadic and epidemic; and, on condition of faith and obedience, will heal both individuals and nations.”⁶

In his book, The Gospel of Healing, A.B. Simpson noted: “These healings were not occasional but continual, not exceptional but universal. Jesus never turned any away.”⁷ So surely these facts must impress us!

What an amazing accomplishment! The cross reversed the curse!

Notes:
1. A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God, Volume Two, (Christian Publications, Camp Hill, PA., 2003), p.198.
2. Charles Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, (South Plainfield, NJ, Bridge Publishing Inc., 1987), p.44.
3. Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments, (Kindle Edition, 2010; Kindle locations: 3348-3350).
4. Charles Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, p.333.
5. James S. Stewart, The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ, (Nashville, Abingdon, 1978), p.113.
6. G.D. Watson, Holiness Manual, (Salem, Ohio, Schmul Publishing Company, 2007), p.86.
7. A.B. Simpson, The Gospel of Healing, (Camp Hill, PA., WingSpread Publishers, 1986), p.14.