One of the strangest things I encounter in life is people who identify themselves as Christian, but don’t really believe basic Christian teaching. I can identify numerous things we don’t really believe, but I thought I might make a few entries on these beliefs, one at a time.
Perhaps the belief I see denied in reality most often is the curse.
By the curse, I refer to the judgment imposed against humanity as a result of sin. The curse.
The modern result of the curse is simple: we live in a fallen world. The manifestations of this are myriad. The obvious are natural disasters, illness, death. Less obvious are our failures to succeed; unemployment; relational problems; physical, emotional, mental, and psychological development issues and illnesses…basically any and every source of pain we endure or see others endure.
We all believe these things are real. What we don’t all seem to believe is that these are part of the curse—the judgment we earned as a result of our own sin.
If we did believe in the curse, it would mean we would see all the bad things that happen to us as a judgment against us. In short, as our fault. And yet we don’t seem to see it that way. We (yes, even Christians) ask questions like, “How could God let this happen?” and “How could a loving God do this?
Others approach it as a way to let God do wonderful things for us. I endure hardship so God can rescue me and make wonderful things happen instead of what I’m already experiencing. So I pray for help. I ask God to rescue me. I ask him to bless me. I ask him to heal me. I ask him to provide for me. All good things to ask.
But what if he doesn’t? We get mad. We get frustrated with Him. We stop believing in His love. We say he doesn’t answer (translate that “say yes to”) our prayers.
We forget we are under the curse.
Jesus came to buy us back form the curse. But the finality of that comes at the resurrection. In the meantime he said something we don’t want to hear. “In this world, you will have trouble.” Of course, that isn’t the end of what he said.
He didn’t say he would take it away. He said He has overcome the world.
So here’s the truth we don’t want to believe: We sinned, and earned the curse (yes, it started with Eve, then Adam, but let’s get real—if they hadn’t sinned, we would have). We deserve these things. The curse is real and it is truly terrible. So, we will have all those problems we talked about earlier.
But Jesus has overcome the world. That means the trouble we have isn’t the last word. Even if it ends in our deaths, or the death of someone close to us, it isn’t the last word.
If we belong to him.
Jesus believed in the curse. Do you?
in Christ,
Randy Christian Senior Minister, North Orange Christian Church 1001 E. Lincoln Ave. Orange, CA 92865 714-998-3181
