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Stage 1: Level 2 - Class 3
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Copyright © 1998 P.F.(Simon) Measures
I know some good people who have suffered serious illness, financial loss, social upheaval or emotional trauma over recent years. It might be easy to say, "It must have been brought on by wrong doing in their lives or something faulty in their lifestyles!" An event in Jesus' ministry makes it clear though that this is not always the case.
In John's Gospel chapter nine we read that Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth. Beforehand the disciples asked Jesus, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" He answered them, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned."
Jesus' answer tells us it was not as a result of some fault, misstep or offence by him or his parents that he had suffered blindness all his life. Why had he so suffered then? What is it about our human existence that people so often find themselves afflicted in one form or another apparently through no fault of their own?
(N.B. When reading John 9:1-3 please be aware that punctuation in our New Testament is at the translator's discretion. In most versions we find that this discretion was poorly exercised in verse three - a better sense is read with a full stop after Jesus' answer in verse three and a coma at the end of that verse.)
The answer is: there is a curse in the Earth. It is this curse that is responsible for so much of the distress men and women find themselves experiencing in this life. This curse was brought in by our enemy sin. Adam, the first man, sinned by disobeying the commandment God had given him about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Immediately we then hear of a curse in the Earth. We read in Genesis God telling Adam,
Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life...in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.
Genesis 3:17, 19 - NKJV.
God was declaring to Adam that for reason of what he had done - in breaking the law - the ground was now cursed. As a result he was going to have work with sweat and toil to have enough provision to live; he would be experiencing what the Bible calls the curse of the law.
After that, as sin increased in the Earth, so the prevalence of the curse increased. The world witnessed what Paul put into words,
The wages which sin pays is death.
Romans 6:23 - Amplified.
Death here refers to far more than just the ending of our physical existence. It refers to all the miseries arising from sin, both now and hereafter. (See Amplified Bible Romans 8:6)
This death that sin pays as wages was written down in detail by Moses so we'd see what misery is brought into our lives by sin. In it we see how the curse brought in by sin manifests itself destructively in every facet of our human existence. You can read it in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy starting in verse sixteen.
The curse of the law is the Bible's label for all the distresses experienced as a result of sin.
Today you can walk away once and for all from the curse of the law. You can be set free by knowing that the price of redemption has been paid in your life.
Redemption is a big word but it has a simple meaning. Redemption refers to the act of buying something or someone back from what they've been sold into. Specifically for us redemption means we've been bought back out of the land of sin - the place of the curse - that Adam, ourselves and our forefathers had sold ourselves into.
Thank God, in Christ Jesus by the blood of His cross we are redeemed from the curse. Paul declares,
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree').
Galatians 3:13 - NKJV
Our enemy sin no longer has the hand it previously had on our lives by the curse of the law. We are no longer in the hand of our enemy sin and iniquity. We have been redeemed to our God.
Jesus paid the required price for our redemption. He bought us out of the curse with the blood of His cross to bring us to God and His peace. We are redeemed from the curse in every facet of our existence.
The curse is still in the Earth but it has no right to be on you and me. The curse's hand on your health is removed by the blood. (Deut.28:58-61) The curse's hand on your family life is removed by the blood. (Deut.28:41 and 56) The curse's hand on your social positioning is removed by the blood. (Deut.28:33)
The curse's hand on your productivity is removed by the blood. (Deut.28:38) The curse's hand on your finances is removed by the blood. (Deut.28:43-44)
In the Old Testament the Bible tells us,
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Exodus 20:5-6 - NKJV.
Iniquity is visited on the descendants of those who commit it but God shows mercy on those who love Him. How has He shown us as believers this mercy? He has redeemed us from all iniquity (sin's inner character) by the blood of Jesus.
In Paul's letter to Titus he writes,
Our Saviour Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Titus 2:15.
Jesus gave Himself for us to provide our redemption from all iniquity. This is so important to us; otherwise iniquity could be visited on us and on our children. The redemption Jesus provided has liberated us from the horrible harvest of sin that even holds over for the following generation.
The price of redemption is paid for all. Nevertheless, each of us must receive it individually. Each of us must accept Jesus as our personal Saviour and Redeemer accepting that He died and rose again for each one of us personally.
It is by faith that we enter into redemption. It is by faith that we come to know the peace He made for us by the blood of His cross. You and I in faith must plead the blood over our lives. We must accept the peace it has made for us and know freedom from all the distresses that would otherwise be experienced as a consequence of sin.
The sad thing is that so many Christians - even though they have been born again - still live as if they have not been redeemed.
Why is this? It's simply because they don't know the marvellous truth of their redemption and so that truth can't set them free. They are unaware of the redeeming power of the blood; what the blood redeems them from and what it has redeemed them to. In ignorance they continue to live in what they have been redeemed from and never come to enjoy what they have been redeemed to.
The redemption that is in Christ Jesus is part of our Christian inheritance. You can't enjoy, though, an inheritance you are ignorant of. On the other hand, the moment you know what you have been redeemed from you can begin entering into all that is yours in this life through redemption. This is what every Christian needs to know and needs to do!
We have a redeemer and His Name is Jesus. In Heaven the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb (Jesus) saying,
You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Revelation 5:9 - NKJV.
We have been redeemed to God and the price for our redemption was the blood of Jesus.
We are now God's people; we have been bought with a price; we have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy into the Hand of God!
Peter declares to us,
You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people...who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 - NKJV.
You ought to realise how very precious it is to be one of God's own special people. There are many covenant promises for you attached to this privilege. One of them is found in Psalms.
The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.
Psalm 29:11.
God's peace is towards you as one of His people. It only remains now for you to enter into this peace that He has provided.
Jesus made peace for you and me by the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:20.)
Peace is such a powerful word as it is used in the Bible. It means so much more than just tranquility of heart. The peace Jesus offers to mankind grants freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin. (See The Amplified Bible - Matthew 10:13)
How has He offered us this peace? By redeeming us! Jesus paid the only possible price for the redemption of us all - He gave Himself for us; He offered up His own body on the cross for you and me.
Our new relationship with the Father has been made possible at the cost of Jesus' death. Jesus became the Lamb of God for us so that His blood could redeem us from all iniquity. Now we have wonderfully available to us both peace with God and the peace of God.
In Paul's letter to the Galatians we see how God in Jesus redeemed us out from under the curse of the law. We see that all the time He had the express intention in mind that the blessings of Abraham should come on us.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:13-14 - NKJV
What's the object of all this? Is it just so we can be blessed and live comfortably in our blessing? No, God has a far greater plan than this. Paul shows us the progressive nature of God's plan of redemption.
Our Saviour Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Titus 2:15.
First Jesus redeems us from all iniquity then He purifies us to make us God's very special people.
Now in this position of being God's people we become zealous of good works. What good works? The good works God ordained we should walk in. What good works are those? They are the works that Jesus did and said we would do also. (See Ephesians 2:10; Acts 10:38 and John 14:12.)
We are redeemed so that we might be blessed and then as the blessed we are called to be a blessing. This is exactly how God spoke the blessing over Abraham in the first place, He said,
I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 12:2-3 - NKJV.
You can discover how wonderfully the blessing of Abraham coming on you will affect you in all of your life's aspects by reading Deuteronomy 28:1-15.
Let the blood work; all you have to do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. Plead for the blood's work to be manifest in your life. Declare to heaven, earth and hell itself that Jesus' blood has paid the price of your redemption.
Enter your new life liberated to serve God and liberated to walk as one of His own special people.
You are to be blessed with the blessing of Abraham. You are to live out your calling of being a blessing.
Copyright © 1998 P.F. (Simon) Measures
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This class is part of High Impact Christianity - now available as a five part book series!
Next class: Another Comforter! - a lesson on receiving the Holy Spirit.
Previous class: Risen to Eternal Life - a lesson on water baptism.
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