By Tom Shanklin

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it 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 3:13, 14, KJV.

Today, you have a choice to live under the curse or under the blessing. A curse is a pronouncement of evil or judgment. A blessing is a pronouncement of good things. The Scripture says that Christ HAS redeemed us (bought us back) from the curse…that the blessing of Abraham may come on us.  Because of Jesus, we no longer need to live under the curse but we can have the blessing of Abraham.

If you want to learn about the curse of the law, you can study about it in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. It includes sickness, disease, poverty, spiritual death, defeat from our enemies, mental illness, social problems, family problems, divorce, and more. Today we see the curse all around us. The world is full of the curse of the law. The curse of the law is really an expression of “the law of sin and death” which began to operate when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden. Sin causes a separation from the life of God and from the plan of blessing that He has for our lives.

When Jesus went to the cross, He took the curse, which you and I deserved, upon Himself. He literally became a curse for us. That’s why He cried out on the cross saying, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” God the Father allowed His precious Son who had never sinned to become sin for us, so that we could become righteous. (See 2 Cor. 5:21) When we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we receive a gift of HIS righteousness. Our sins are eradicated. It is as if we had never sinned. In fact, God forgets our sins and delivers us from the curse. This opens the door for us into the blessing of Abraham.

You can learn about the blessing of Abraham by studying Abraham’s life beginning in Genesis 12. You might say Genesis 12 is the beginning of the story of redemption. It is there God began a solemn relationship with Abraham and His seed. This was not just about Abraham’s physical descendents, the physical nation of Israel, but God said “…in thee shall ALL the families of the earth be blessed.” That includes you and your family! Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel. One of those tribes was Judah, and from Judah our Lord was born. According to Gal. 3:16, Jesus Christ is “the seed of Abraham” and recipient of the blessings that the covenant that God made with Abraham many years before. This is why God said, “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,” because through him (Abraham) would come the seed that would be the Savior of the world.

When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God gives you the right to become a child of God. (John 1:12) You are joined to the Lord and become one with Him. You are “in Christ.” If you are “in Christ,” then YOU are the seed of Abraham and you are blessed with the blessing that God pronounced upon Abraham and his seed.

In Luke 13, we see the story of a woman in the synagogue who was bowed over with a back problem for 18 years. When Jesus saw her, He immediately said, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.” He laid hands on her and immediately she was made straight. The ruler of the synagogue was unhappy (amazingly) because Jesus had healed on the sabbath day. But Jesus said, “Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” Luke 13:15, 16, KJV.

Jesus said that she ought to be healed because she was a daughter of Abraham. So we see clearly that the blessing of Abraham extends to every area of our lives, including physical healing. In Gal. 3:14, we also see that the blessing of Abraham relates to “the promise of the Spirit.” In other words, when we receive Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to lead us and guide us into all truth. If we will allow Him, He will also empower us to be witnesses and to do the works that Jesus did. And there is no limit to the blessings that God can bring into our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

My friends, Jesus paid a great price so that you and I could be free from the curse and live under the blessing of Abraham. I want to encourage you today. Refuse to live under the curse, but receive and walk in the blessing of Abraham. When anything pertaining to the curse tries to cling to your life or family, firmly resist it in Jesus name. Stand against it in the power of the Spirit by confessing these words:

Dear Father, I thank you that you have sent your Son to die for me. I confess that Jesus is my Lord. He took the curse, so I wouldn’t have to. You raised Him from the dead and now I have life and blessings. I refuse to live under the curse. I confess I have the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit. I’m blessed and not cursed, in Jesus name. Amen.