Deuteronomy 27 “The Curse” September 9, 2007

Heidelberg 9-11

Last time we asked

8. Are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?

And we also saw that the answer is:

“Yes, unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.”

This is sometimes called the doctrine of total depravity.

It is not that man is as bad as he could possibly be.

People do all sorts of nice things.

Rather, it is that every part of us is corrupt.

It is like if you have a circular saw and you are trying to saw a 90 degree angle,

but the saw is perpetually set at 45 degrees.

The saw is in good working order.

It keeps on cutting just fine –

but if it keeps on cutting at 45 degrees,

then the fact that the saw keeps on cutting is not that helpful!

That is what sin has done to us.

We are perpetually set at the wrong angle.

Our hearts are oriented toward the wrong things.

We are inclined by nature to hate God and our neighbor.

And yet God still says, “love the Lord your God with all your heart,”

and “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Is this fair?

9. Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in his law what man cannot do?

If we are incapable of obeying God,

then is it fair for God to expect us to obey?

This is the question at the heart of Pelagianism.

Pelagius was a British monk.

Around the year 400 he came to Italy and saw how soft the church was on sin.

Christians were disobeying God and the church was winking at it.

And then he read a book by the bishop of Hippo that said,

“command what you will, O God, and give what you command.”

Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, was saying that we can only obey God

if he gives us the grace to obey.

Pelagius was horrified!

God is just!

God would never command anything that we do not have the power to do.

Therefore, if we are unable to do something,

then God would be unjust to command it.

So the Pelagian answer to this question,

Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in his law what man cannot do?

is “yes, God would be unjust to require something we cannot do,

therefore we must not be totally corrupt.”

But what does Scripture say?

Does God command us something that we are incapable of doing?

We have already seen that God requires us to love him with our whole heart,

all the time – no exceptions.

And yet God also tells us, in Genesis 8:21

that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

Our hearts are turned in the wrong direction.

But as we saw last time, when we read Genesis 3,

man was created good – Adam and Eve were able to obey God.

They could have chosen life instead of death.

They could have done what was right –

and all of us would have benefited from their obedience.

But as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it:

No [God is not unjust], for God so created man that he was able to do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

Paul says in Romans 5:19

By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.

Because Adam sinned, therefore sin and death passed to the whole human race.

I will deliberately give you only the Adamic quotes from Romans 5:

Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin,

and so death spread to all men because all sinned… (5:12)

many died through one man’s trespass (5:15)

the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation (5:16)

because of one’s man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man (5:17)

as one trespass led to condemnation for all men (5:18)

Clearly, Paul views the condition of the human race as depending on Adam.

Because Adam sinned, therefore all the human race fall under the wrath and curse of God.

Truly, Adam, “in deliberate disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.”

Because of Adam, we are sinners.

Because of Adam, we are condemned.

Because of Adam, we die.

Well, we’re off to a great start!

We have established that God is just!

And we have established that man is a guilty and polluted sinner,

who is utterly incapable of pleasing God.

And I thought Christianity was about good news!

Well, it gets worse!

10. Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?

After all that we have heard, I don’t suppose that you are too optimistic at this point!

We come here to our passage in Deuteronomy 27.

Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as with our actual sins.

Remember Romans 5:19?

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners?

Because of Adam’s original sin, we are all under God’s wrath and curse.

And we only make it worse with our actual sins!

God is displeased with us because of Adam,

but he is also displeased with us because we simply make it worse!

Therefore he will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally, as he has declared: Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them (Galatians 3:10).

The catechism cites Galatians 3:10,

but in Galatians 3:10, Paul is quoting Deuteronomy 27.

In Galatians 3

Paul is pointing out that the works of the law cannot justify.

Paul is contrasting the works of the law with faith.

And he is arguing that the only way to be justified

is to be justified the way Abraham was – by faith.

“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” (Gal 3:6)

In verses 10-14 of Galatians 3

Paul is contrasting the curse of the law with the blessing of Abraham.

The law is not the means of becoming righteous.

Why? Because that was never the purpose of the law in the first place!

Nonetheless the law held forth for us the righteous requirement of God –

that we love him with all of our being,

and that we love our neighbors as ourselves.

The problem is that, as Paul puts it:

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.’

Paul cites Deuteronomy 27.

Deuteronomy 27 consists of the covenant renewal ceremony

that Israel was to perform when they entered the promised land.

They were to place half of the people on Mt Ebal for the curse,

and the other half on Mt Gerizim for the blessing.

And the Levites were supposed to pronounce the curses

against those who broke God’s law.

Twelve curses were proclaimed,

and after each curse the people of God were to reply Amen (so be it).

God will not allow disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished.

His curse is against all those who rebel against him.

He curses those who worship other gods.

He curses those who mislead the blind.

He curses murderers and adulterers.

But the twelfth curse covers everything and everyone:

Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

And because Israel failed to obey God,

therefore Israel has come under God’s curse.

Israel deserves to die.

Paul’s point in Galatians 3

is that this is the very foundation for the good news about Jesus.

We have seen from Romans 5 that all of humanity is under God’s curse.

And now we have seen from Galatians 3 that Israel is under God’s curse.

You might think that it is only getting worse!

And in a sense it is.

Because Paul’s whole point is that there is someone else

who has come under the curse as well!

Even Jesus has come under God’s curse:

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. (Gal 3:13-14)

The question of the justice of God cuts both ways!

How can God be just for condemning us?

Well, we deserve it – because we are sinners.

But how can God be just for condemning Jesus?

He didn’t deserve it!

He was righteous.

He never sinned.

How can God be just and yet condemn an innocent man?

Paul says that God rightly cursed Jesus –

because Jesus was hanged on a tree,

and God had pronounced a curse on all those who were hanged on a tree.

Jesus took upon himself the curse that we deserved.

Because God is just.

God will always do what is right.

11. But is God not also merciful?

God is indeed merciful, but he is also just. His justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God also be punished with the most severe, that is, with everlasting, punishment of body and soul.

God is both merciful and just.

And he reveals his mercy and justice most clearly in the cross of Jesus.

Because there, at the cross,

the justice of God is revealed,

as God pours out his most severe punishment against his own Son.

Jesus, the eternal Son of God,

takes upon himself the sins of the world,

and thereby overturns the curse of the law.

We saw earlier all those passage from Romans 5 that speak of our condemnation.

Let me know read that passage in context. (Read Romans 5:12-21)

What is the point of Romans 5?

Paul is not arguing here that all are sinners – that all are guilty – or that all die

because of Adam.

Rather, he is assuming that you already understand this.

He is arguing that it is only because this is true that you can be saved!

It is only if God judges sin and condemns sin in the flesh

that he can show mercy to Adam’s fallen race.

8. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?

Yes, unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.

9. Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in his law what man cannot do?

No, for God so created man that he was able to do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

10. Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?

Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as with our actual sins. Therefore he will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally, as he has declared: Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them (Galatians 3:10).

11. But is God not also merciful?

God is indeed merciful, but he is also just. His justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God also be punished with the most severe, that is, with everlasting, punishment of body and soul.