Jesus was made a Curse that We might receive the Blessing

Then we come to Galatians 3:13–14. Here is a very clear, specific aspect of the exchange which has largely been ignored by the Christians that I have associated with. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anybody preach a message on this text except myself. But for me, over the last five years, it has become increasingly vivid and important. Through the insight that God has given me on this text and its application to the cross, I have seen, I think, more radical and dramatic transformations take place in peoples’ lives than through any other truth that God has given me. So we’ll look at it and then we’ll analyze it. Galatians 3:13–14.

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.”

Remember that the tree was the cross. Some people don’t understand that, but in some languages the word tree means a tree when it’s growing and a tree when it’s cut down. If you happen to be in East Africa, in the Swahili language the word "mti" means exactly the same. It’s a tree growing or a piece of wood cut down. When it says the tree, it’s talking about the cross. I’ll read that verse again.

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.”

In other words, when Jesus hung on the cross, every Jew who knew his Old Testament recognized that Jesus was made a curse. Then we read the other side of the exchange in verse 14:

“That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Now, what are the two aspects of the exchange in that verse? What’s the evil? Curse. What’s the good? Blessing. It’s very clear, isn’t it? Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing. Let’s say it again. “Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing.” And you’ll notice there’s tremendous emphasis on curse in verse 13, the word occurs three times. Christ has redeemed us from the curse, having become a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.

In l979 Ruth and I were in a family conference in the State of Missouri. A young man whom I don’t know that I ever met before or since kind of interrupted the conference in a way with a prophecy which was one of the most significant in my life and ministry. The prophecy had two main themes. This is unrelated to what we were talking about at the conference. It will have something to do with what I’m going to deal with later on in this series. But the prophecy said in effect: “All that God has been doing against witchcraft up to the present time has been nothing but preliminary skirmishes. But from now on God is declaring total war on witchcraft.” That was l979. Then it said: “The reason is that witchcraft has millions of men bound whom God needs in his end-time army.” Then, as a kind of P.S. it said: “And you will come across people who are under a curse that comes from preceding generations. But you do not need to be afraid, you will be able to release them.”

Well, that was totally new to my thinking at that time. That was 1979, now l987, that’s how many years? Eight years, nearly eight years. I have seen that prophecy totally fulfilled many, many times over. God opened up a whole new area of truth to me concerning curses. And I have had the joyful experience of seeing hundreds of thousands of people released from curses. And the basis is this, there is no other basis for any provision of God. The basis is Galatians 3:13–14. That Jesus was made a curse perhaps we need to confirm. If you keep your finger in Galatians 3 and turn to Deuteronomy 21:22–23. This is part of the Mosaic law.

“If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree. But you shall surely bury him that day so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who is hanged is accursed of God.”

So by the divine plan of God, Jesus died hung on a tree. And by that God signified to all who knew his word that Jesus had been made a curse. And that’s what Paul says in Galatians 3:13. Jesus was made a curse that we might be redeemed from the curse. To redeem means to be bought back. And that in place of the curse we might receive the blessing.

Now, if I got into the subject of curses we’d miss the real thrust of this teaching so I only want to take a little while. But if you want to know about curses, there is one chapter in the Old Testament which is the source chapter. How many of you know which it is? Deuteronomy 28, that’s right. And it has 68 verses. The first 14 verses deal with blessings. The remaining 54 verses enumerate curses. And if you want to know what a curse is, you need to read the last 54 verses of Deuteronomy 28. It could shock you to find out some of the things that are called curses.

This is my rough estimate. I think Ruth and I find that when we minister to people, particularly praying for the sick, at least one out of every four persons we minister to is under a curse. In most cases the person is not able to receive healing until the curse has been broken. We have seen some very dramatic examples of this.

I think I’ll give you just one which happened a long while ago in the great City of St. Louis. I would say it didn’t really register with me at the time, it just happened and I said to myself, “There’s something here but I don’t quite know what it is.” But I was conducting a service in the Presbyterian church and it was a deliverance service. It was one of those churches that felt deliverance should be conducted in the basement. So, that’s where we were.

I was standing behind a little pulpit just like this one and I come to the end of my message and I was looking at the people sitting there and right on the front row, just about like where these people are here, there was a family: father, mother and teenage daughter. And I felt the Holy Spirit said to me, and I wasn’t anticipating it, “There’s a curse over that family. “ So I stepped up to the father and I said, “Sir, I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me that there’s a curse over your family. Would you like me to revoke it?” And he immediately said yes. Later on I got to know that he had been through a lot of things which made it easy for him to believe there was a curse. So I stepped back behind the pulpit and I prayed a very simple prayer just releasing that family from the curse in the name of Jesus. When I said in the name of Jesus there was a visible, physical reaction in each member of the family although I was not touching them.

Then I saw that the daughter had her left leg in a cast from above the thigh to the bottom of the foot. So I stepped back and I said, “Would you like me to pray for the healing of your daughter’s leg?” And he said, “Yes, but you need to know she’s broken the same leg three times in eighteen months and her doctor said it will not heal.”

Now, if I heard that statement today I wouldn’t have any doubts that there was a curse because only a curse will cause a person to break the same leg three times in eighteen months. All I could do was just take the cast in my hands and hold it and pray a very simple prayer. I’ll cut the story short but the next time they went back to the clinic to have the leg X-rayed it was healed. And within a few weeks the cast was off. Apparently there was complete healing.

As I meditated on that I said this: Why did God show me the curse before he permitted me to pray for the healing of the leg? My conclusion was because if the curse had not been revoked, the leg would not have been healed. I have seen that confirmed scores of times in subsequent experience.