Category Archives: Roger

God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 3

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Continued from Part 2

“‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ” “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:” (Deuteronomy 27:26–28:2, NKJV)

That leaves us in a precarious situation, doesn’t it? Not fulfilling every command leaves us under a curse. The blessing is for those who “observe carefully all His commands.” But carefully obeying every single command in both deed and attitude is not possible! That’s why God promises blessing to those who believe, just as He had blessed Abraham for believing.

So, Paul teaches us in Galatians 3 that there are two ways to live life, and these ways are mutually exclusive. He explains this in verses 11 and 12. In verse 11 he tells us that one way is to live by faith, “The just shall live by faith.” The other way, given in verse 12, is to live by the law. He says very clearly that the law is not of faith because those who do them shall live by them. The “them” I take to mean all of the commandments in the law. So you can live “by faith” or “by them, the commandments.” These are two mutually exclusive ways of living. Each one of us can live either by faith or by the law, but not both.

These are so mutually exclusive that Paul writes in Galatians 5:4, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

Back in Galatians 3, Paul now makes the statement that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law because Christ became cursed for us. Why? What is the purpose? He goes on 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” (Emphasis mine). Jesus Christ fully kept the law in every way including all deeds and attitudes. And yet, he bore the judgment of the curse. This happened so that blessing could be given to us, the blessing given to Abraham unconditionally. In other words there were no constraints of law-keeping on Abraham in order to receive the blessing. We receive the truth of this blessing by faith — by believing what God has said concerning Christ’s work on the cross for us. When we believe this we move from being under the law and its curse, to living by faith — a totally different approach to life.

In Galatians 3:15 we read that even men’s contracts are binding. We know that is true in our culture. When you sign a contract, it is a binding agreement. Therefore it is even more so if God makes the contract. God’s contracts are binding. God is faithful and true and His contracts cannot be broken. God made a contract with Abraham and his seed, and he made it as a one-sided promise. Nothing can void the contract which God gave to Abraham and his seed.

This is where the real crux of the argument begins to come into play. This is such an important truth that I hope that you will take the time to really think about what is happening here. Galatians 3:17 tells us that the law which came 430 years after the promise to Abraham cannot annul or cancel the promise which God had made to him and his seed. You see, the law that the Israelites were given that conditioned either blessing or curses was given long after God promised a blessing to Abraham. That law cannot add conditions to the promise God gave him. God won’t hold Abraham and his seed accountable to the law in order to receive His blessing. That would be adding terms to a contract already ratified by Himself. And who is Abraham’s seed. As you’ll see in a future article, the seed is all those who believe God and trust Him. Therefore, the curse for disobedience, cannot apply to any of those who truly come to God through Christ.

If you know a little bit about Old Testament history, you know that Abraham lived before Moses. God’s rescue of the Israelite people and the subsequent giving of the law came 430 years after Abraham’s time. God had made a binding contract with Abraham and nothing that would happen later could annul that agreement. Why? Because God’s Word and promises are certain and binding. If man’s contracts cannot be abrogated, how much less can God’s? What Paul is saying is that if God were to give the blessing of the inheritance based on the law, then it wouldn’t be the result of a promise any more, but would be based on our keeping the law. But God gave it as a promise without any conditions.

Ephesians 1:17

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that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

Paul’s prayer is going to encompass several spiritual requests for the people of Ephesus. But first, we need to notice the source of these spiritual benefits. He speaks of God in two ways. First, he calls Him the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I mentioned at the beginning, but it continues to amaze me that Paul, the Jewish scholar and pharisee, and persecutor of all those identified with Jesus Christ, would say God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is clearly identifying himself with Jesus Christ here. He says our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s acknowledging the lordship of Jesus, and he is referring to Him as the Messiah. This is the God he is asking to provide certain spiritual blessings to them.

The second way he refers to God is as the Father of glory. God is the glorious God who created all things and to whom all glory should be rendered. He is the God of might and dominion, but He is also Abba Father.

What is he asking this God to give them? First, he is asking for God to give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Some translations capitalize Spirit for us to understand that this is the Holy Spirit. The original language didn’t use capital letters and so we don’t know if this was the intention of not. But in any case he is asking that God would give them a wise spirit. A spirit that would be discerning, able to sort out truth from error and apply it to the various situations they faced as individuals and as a church.

He also prays for a spirit of revelation. In the days of the New Testament, the scripture was not completed and God revealed His truth to the apostles in order for the truth to be confirmed. I’m not sure if this is what Paul is referring to here. But the challenge to me is that when we pray for others, we should pray for spiritual things such as a spiritual wisdom from God to be given to others in our family and church fellowship.

This wisdom and revelation should be in the knowledge of God. God has revealed himself in His Word and He wants us to get to know Him in that way. We need to pray for one another that our wisdom and understanding in life would grow according to our knowledge of God. There are all kinds of philosophies swirling around. We need to make sure that what we latch onto is consistent with who God has revealed himself to be, and not just some whim or feeling that happens to be sweeping through at the moment.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:09 PM October 5, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 2

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Continued from Part 1

Galatians 3:10 reads: , “For as many as are of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’” Notice that it is necessary to continue in all things in order to avoid the curse. The problem is that many Christians are viewing life as a law-based scheme. They are attempting to please God, be acceptable to God, and grow in their Christian life by keeping the law. This approach is doomed to failure as we shall see.

Please stay with this. Things that are worth knowing and understanding are worth a little effort of thinking and studying. 

Paul begins his thought in Galatians 3:1. The first thing we read is that Paul appears somewhat frustrated by the fact that the Galatian Christians have been turned away from the truth of the gospel. We need to read carefully so that we can discern whether we too have missed the gospel. He appeals to the fact that the crucifixion of Christ had been clearly portrayed for them so that they would know what His death had accomplished. So he begins his detailed instruction with this question, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?” The answer to the question should be obvious – by the hearing of faith. Salvation comes by faith alone — trusting only in the promises God has made, which tell us that those who receive and trust Christ will be eternally forgiven and saved.

In verse 3 he asks another question. “Having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh?” The answer should obviously be “No.” So the teaching here is that we begin the Christian life by faith. It cannot be earned. It must simply be believed. Similarly, maturing in the faith is achieved the same way — by faith. It is not accomplished by the keeping of rules. Growth in the Christian life and growing in Christ-likeness are accomplished by faith and not by submitting to the law. In order to illustrate this point, Paul brings up Abraham in verse 6. He explains that Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness for him. God had just showed up at Abraham’s door one day and promised him some things, and Abraham took God at His word. God counted this faith, this believing, as righteousness for Abraham. That means, God declared Abraham perfectly righteous. These promises were made by God unconditionally. That means nothing was required of Abraham except to believe and receive those promises as a gracious gift from God. Because Abraham believed God, God declared him righteous.

In verse 7, Paul tells us, then, that those who are of faith (like Abraham was) are the sons of Abraham. God had promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him and verse 9 tells us the conclusion of this section: “Those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” That means that if you have placed your faith in the promises of God given through His Son, Jesus Christ, you are one of those who are blessed along with Abraham. There you have one of the key words of this study: “blessed.” You see, we began this study with the concept of the blessings and the curses of God. This then sets up the basis for the argument Paul is going to use in the rest of the chapter and it is an extremely crucial argument if you want to understand your relationship to the blessings and curses of God.

According to verse 10, what is the standard for avoiding the curse? If we’re under the law, the standard is that we must continue in all of the things written in the book of the Law. We’re not allowed to deviate from it to either side. We must hit the nail on the head every time. This is exactly the point in Deuteronomy 26:

“‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ” “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:” (Deuteronomy 27:26–28:2, NKJV)

That leaves us in a precarious situation, doesn’t it? Not fulfilling every command leaves us under a curse. The blessing is for those who “observe carefully all His commands.” But carefully obeying every single command in both deed and attitude is not possible!  That’s why God’s promise of blessing through believing is so important. Believing takes us out from under God’s curse and places us under God’s blessing, just as it did for Abraham. We are blessed because we believe, and the requirement of law-keeping in order to satisfy God has been removed. Being obedient is important for us as children of God, but not for merit, not for scoring points with God. Believing God’s promise credits us with Jesus’ righteousness. He is the one who scored all the points and merited all the blessing for us.

Ephesians 1:16

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I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

Because of what he has heard, Paul tells them that he does not cease giving thanks for them. The faith and love he has heard about ignites a spirit of thankfulness for what God is doing in and through these people. When we hear of faith and love among the people of another church, do these qualities generate a genuine spirit of thankfulness in us?

This thankfulness results in the remembering and mentioning of them in prayer. I don’t know about you, but prayer is hard for me. I don’t like it really, because it demonstrates our total inability and inadequacy to accomplish things in our own strength. But God calls us to pray for ourselves, our family, and our church ministries. In this case, Paul prayed for a church where he had been ministering, and, having heard of their faith and love, he prays for them that God will accomplish many spiritual things in their lives.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:56 AM October 5, 2020.

Are You Under God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 1

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The Bible says we are cursed if we do not perfectly keep all of the Law’s demands. How does this work and what hope is there for us to escape this curse? Paul’s teachings in Galatians 3 is very important for Christians to understand. Often we just read these passages and don’t really think through what God would have us to know and believe.

Let’s begin, though, in Joshua 8:30. In this passage, Joshua split the people up and sent half to Mount Ebal and the other half to Mount Gerizim. I know that’s not the most interesting beginning, and you may be tempted to tune me out, but please stay with me on this and follow the logic that God has laid out for us.

In Deuteronomy 27-28, Moses had commanded this event to take place when the people reached the Promised Land. The people on Mount Gerizim were to read the blessings that you will find recorded in Chapter 28. The people on Mount Ebal were to read the curses. You’ll notice that God’s blessing included every facet of life:

Deuteronomy 28:3-6 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”

Similarly the curses were declared. There are curses to match each blessing:

“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out…”  (Deut 28:16-19).

Notice the summary curse in verse 27:26: “Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by doing them.” So the point is that in order to be blessed, one must keep all of the commandments perfectly. If you look at Deut. 28:47-48 you will see that not only the deeds must be done, but the attitude must also be perfect:

“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you” (Emphasis mine).

Paul picks up this theme in Galatians 3:10 where he writes, “For as many as are of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’” Notice that it is necessary to continue to obey all the law in order to avoid the curse. The problem is that many Christians are viewing life as a law-based scheme. They are attempting to please God, be acceptable to God, and grow in their Christian life by keeping the law. This approach is doomed to failure, and since it is not possible to keep every single requirement of God’s law, you find yourself cursed. 

God doesn’t want you to be living this way. All false religions put an emphasis on keeping the rules and being rewarded for success and being judged for failure. Even as Christians, many of us struggle with a cycle of trying and failing, and wondering if what we are doing is going to be accepted by God. In His Word, God reveals a different way of living that avoids the impossible task of being perfect, and still puts us in the place of blessing.

To be continued…

Ephesians 1:15

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For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,

In the next few verses, Paul is going to tell the Ephesian Christians what he is praying for them. He begins, though, by giving them the reason and motivation for his praying. This explanation takes us through both verses 15 and 16.

The first reason he gives is that he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus. My immediate thought is, “Has anyone heard of my faith in the Lord Jesus?” The Ephesian Christian’s faith must have been strong enough and evident enough that someone told Paul about them. Their faith must have stood out to this person in such a strong way that it had an impact on whoever it was that told Paul about it.

The second thing he mentions is that he has also heard of their love toward all the saints. How would that love have manifested itself? Love produces action and so there must have been an abundant demonstration, within the church and toward saints in other places, of love. It would have consisted of sacrificial sharing of resources, kindness, a forgiving spirit, gentleness, humility, and any number of other things that demonstrated that love. The point is that it was evident. Love is evident not through the absence of arguing and bickering, but through the positive demonstration of love.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:36 AM October 5, 2020.

Ephesians 1:14

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Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. He is the first installment. Just as we, when we provide a down payment on a car, we are guaranteeing the owner that we will make good on the rest of the payment. So the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the rest of the payment that God has promised us.

This verse tells us that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee until God redeems His purchased possession. In other words, God has purchased us. He has provided the down payment of the Holy Spirit. The ultimate redemption and claim of his purchase hasn’t occured yet. In the mean time, God’s Holy Spirit is present with us.

This truth is meant to encourage us with the truth that God will not renege on His promise. It’s absurd to think of it, but the idea is that if God were to back out of His promise, we could keep the Holy Spirit, because He is God’s down payment.

All of this is to the praise of the glory of God. Haven’t we seen this over and over in this passage? God’s glory and grace deserve praise. Everyone in heaven and earth needs to know how great God is.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 2:31 PM October 1, 2020.

Bible Study Helps Available

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Over the years I have taught hundreds of Sunday School lessons, and written study guides for many biblical topics. I’ve made many of these available for download on my website. I’m thankful that many people have made use of these materials. Here is a picture of one of the download pages showing the topics and the number of downloads over the past four years. If you like Bible study, take a look at these pages to see if any of the topics might be of interest to you.

On the menu above choose “Teaching” and then “Roger” and you can choose from several general areas of study. Everything there is available there for your personal use and study.

Ephesians 1:13

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In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Not only those who were the first to hope in Christ, as verse 12 says, but also the Ephesian believers, and, I believe, we as well, have the blessings of the promises of God.

Here we see some of the process. First, they heard the word of truth, the gospel. How can they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? So hearing is the first step.

What was heard? The gospel, which Paul says in Romans 1, is the power of God unto salvation.

Second, they believed in Him. Believing in Christ is what saves us. Believing, trusting, entrusting ourselves to Him is saving faith. Saying you believe isn’t the same as believing. Saying a prayer to accept Christ is not the same thing as believing. Going to church is not the same thing as believing.

The result of this believing as explained in verse 13 is that we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The next verse is going to tell us that He is our guarantee, the down payment of our eternal inheritance.

The Holy Spirit is the one Christ promised to us before He left. He told us that He would not leave us comfortless, but would send the Holy Spirit to teach, guide and convict us, and be the one who encourages us as we travel through life.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:23 PM September 28, 2020.

Ephesians 1:12

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So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Verse 12 finishes the thought from verse 11. So that… We learned in verse 11 that God works everything according to the counsel of his will. But in this predestinating work, the question is why? What is he trying to accomplish? Verse 12 gives the answer to that question. So that we who hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. There you have what is basically the answer to the greatest philosophical question of the universe. Why am I here and why is God doing what He is doing? The answer is so that those who place their hope in Christ would be to the praise of the glory of God. Do you see your life that way? That the reason you go to work, mow your lawn, vacuum your house, are all done for the glory of God? Whether you eat or drink or in whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:18 PM September 28, 2020.