Why should you feel cursed?
I felt like I could not win.
I would never measure up.
My older brother was so smart; I just couldn’t compete.
And for an elementary school boy who loved the outdoors, rough housing with friends, and high levels of activity, I just wasn’t making the grades like he was. Not only that, but I visited the principal’s office enough for the both of us.
So, when I went to junior high and my teacher said, “Oh! You’re Robbie’s little brother!” my internal response was, “Yeah. But don’t expect me to get grades like him.”
My external response was to make a name for myself through athletic achievement. I joined the soccer team, wrestled, and ran track. And by the age of 15, I felt like I had reached the pinnacle.
As a ninth-grade student, our varsity soccer team went undefeated. The coaches recognized my hard work by naming me athlete of the week in two different sports, and I set three school records in track. The exciting part was that I was making a name for myself! Or at least until… the announcements.
The principal of our school would read through the list of student achievements in the morning school-wide announcements. But every time that he stated my achievement, some other guy named Don Stud got all the credit! (My last name is pronounced Stoot.)
Years later, when I was in my first ministry position as the youth pastor at my home church, it still happened. Periodically, someone would call me Robbie. I understand now—sometimes I get my own sons mixed up!
But there it was again. I was living in my older brother’s shadow and never felt good enough. Was I cursed?
In one sense, yes. I was living under what the Apostle Paul calls the curse of the law. I was trying to achieve my way into acceptance, security, and significance. The problem? I could never be good enough through my own efforts. And neither can you.
“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” … Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” – so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:10-14, ESV)
The blessing of Abraham is that he was accepted by God—even proclaimed righteous in God’s sight—by faith, not by works of the law. Abraham received God’s promise by faith; he didn’t trust in his own performance. The result was that he was given life in the face of death. (See Romans chapter 4.)
In Christ, the blessing of Abraham is God’s promise to us as well. By faith in the finished work of Christ, we are brought from death to life (Eph. 2:5). We are proclaimed righteous in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
Dear Saints, we all know that we can’t achieve God’s perfect standard through our own performance, so we receive the gift of life in Christ by faith. Yet it’s easy to fall back on our own performance as a means to maintain our relationship, or righteous standing, with God. Take a moment and think about your own life. Have you slipped back into thinking it’s up to you to keep God’s favor? Paul says that doing this is foolishness and doesn’t work because it is not by works that we were filled with the Spirit (Galatians 3:1-6).
This doesn’t mean that we don’t work hard in service to God, though. Dallas Willard put it this way, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.” (The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship).
If you find yourself trying hard to measure up, take a step back and consider the following: In Christ, you are complete (Colossians 2:10). In Christ, you have been given His perfection from which to grow in holiness (Hebrews 10:14).
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)
On our own, we remain under the curse of the law. But the good news of the gospel is that Christ redeemed us by becoming the curse for you and me. There’s no need to live under anyone else’s shadow; no need to strive to earn acceptance or measure up through our efforts. In Christ, we are declared righteous.
Friends, receive these truths by faith. Then, relying on the Holy Spirit for wisdom and strength, live and work out of who God has made you to be and what He has called and equipped you to do.