Generational blessings and curses are embedded in the Law of Moses, The Ten Commandments. The first commandment specifically postulates:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:2-6)
The Law of God comes with blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1-13) and curses (Deuteronomy 27:15-26; 28:15-68). In session three, we discussed in detail how the blessings and the curses result in life or death, respectively. The teaching in the Scripture is consistent—obedience to the Law brings blessings and life; disobedience to the Law puts a curse and brings death (spiritual) on the person committing the offense. Breaking any of the commandments is a grievous sin. The first commandment, especially, as Jesus emphasized, is the pillar on which the rest of the commandments are hinged (Matthew 22:36-40). It evokes a blessing or a curse (Exodus 20:6). The sin, if not confessed and repented, is passed on to the next generation via bloodline genealogy. Six hundred years after the Law of Moses, the Prophet Jeremiah validated the truthfulness of the blessings and the curses over a person’s life.
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives”. (Jeremiah 17:5-6)
After another six hundred years, following the Prophet Jeremiah’s warning, Jesus also confirmed the validity of this same teaching, saying,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17,18)
The curse is a spiritual state that evokes spiritual death, and according to the Law, it is passed on to the next generation. God is three-in-one: God the Father, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Humans, made after God’s likeness, are created after the same three-in-one pattern: Body, soul, and spirit. Just as the physical resemblance and character traits are passed on from generation to generation, the spiritual resemblance is passed on in the same manner (1 Corinthians 15:46-49). Thus, the children not only inherit the physical resemblance of their parents but the spiritual state of blessings or curses they have accrued. And yet, the Scripture says that Christ redeemed us from the curse associated with the Law that results in death (Galatians 3:13). What is the spiritual mechanism through which the blessings and the curses manifest in the life of the believer?
The Law is like an instruction manual, guiding humanity in preserving spiritual life under the corrupt circumstances of the fallen world. Throughout the Scripture, God repeatedly warned Israelites that idolatry results in death, triggering the curses of the Law, especially the curses associated with the first commandment.
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)
Living under the Law in Old Testament times must have been very dreadful. The Temple system was pedantically legalistic to meet the righteous requirements of the Law of God. Only through the Law does one become conscious of sin (Romans 5:20). The Law determines what is sinful and what is righteous. It sets eternal universal moral standards according to which spiritual and physical realms function.
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)
No matter how hard the Israelites worked to keep the Law, it was unattainable by any human means (Romans 3:10-12; Psalm 14:1-3; Psalm 53:1-3). It is still unattainable to this day unless the believers attain the righteousness of Christ, which enables them to meet the righteous requirements of the Law.
Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Philippians 3:9)
Jesus went to the cross on His free will and became the guilt offering needed for the redemption of humanity from the curse of the Law—death due to the consequences of sins. On the cross, He took the curse associated with the Law of God—the Death, upon Himself. At that moment, all the sins of the world were put on Him (1 John 2:2).
God did (canceled the deadly power of the Law) by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3,4, clarification added)
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Death through being “hanged on a tree” is the destiny of a lawbreaker. Despite being completely innocent, Jesus was counted among the lawbreakers because the iniquity of the entire humanity weighed on Him. From a human perspective, Jesus paid the penalties and suffered the punishment of death on the cross. It appeared that the enemy, the Devil, succeeded in killing the Son of God, thus thwarting his ultimate demise. From Heaven’s perspective, however, the punishment of death was a spiritual transaction through which Jesus, God Himself, became the substitute offering for believers’ death sentence. From that punishment of death sprang life, not only for Jesus, upon His resurrection but to all who would believe in Him; He granted life into Eternity. Who is the loser, then? Jesus rose on the third day, alive and powerful, transformed from the helpless state of a sacrificial lamb on the cross to the Lion of Judah, the King of kings and the Lord of lords in Heaven. Death had no hold on Him (Acts 2:24). The tomb could not keep Him down. He defeated Death for Eternity, for all humanity.
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
What happened to Jesus will happen to all who believe in Him. He was the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18). Through Jesus, all who believe in Him also defeated Death.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the Law of the Spirit of life has set me free form the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1)
Since believers become heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) they are grafted in His genealogy (Romans 11:11-31) and inherit His victory over Death. The only condition to inherit this great blessing is to keep His commandments; specifically significant is obedience to the first commandment: To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37-39). The righteous requirements of the Law of God never changed. Jesus made it clear that obedience to the first commandment not only shatters curses but brings the ultimate blessing of becoming EHAD with God:
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:24)
Today, the blessings and the curses continue to be in effect because the Law of God continues to be in effect (Matthew 5:17-18). Unlike in ancient times, though, believers are being enabled to live out the righteous requirements of the Law, thus negating the power of Death. There is no need to work for one’s righteousness. No more exertion in keeping with the Law; no more condemnation (Romans 8:1). Just through simple, child-like faith in Christ, God imputes in the believer His righteousness, the ability to live out the righteous requirements of the Law. Apostle Paul exclaims,
I have been crucified with Christ and I lo longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son fo God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
To the man who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Romans 4:5)
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
This is the spiritual curse that Jesus canceled. The eternal consequence of this victory has a new spiritual reality—Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). What happens when a believer breaks the Law of God? There is a provision in the Law that stipulates that,
And when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you...The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 30:2-10)
Indeed, when a believer deviates from the narrow road that leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:14), Jesus leaves the ninety-nine and runs after them (Matthew 18:12). The moment you say, “Yes” to Jesus, you are saved and at that moment, just as the Israelite entered into a covenant with the living God on Mount Sainai so are you, also entering into a covenantal relationship with the living God. God never abandoned Israel; God will never abandon you. The condition, though, of loving the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul remains in effect. Thus, the call to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) is a reminder that the only required “work” from you is to love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37-39). The Holy Spirit convicts the believer of wrongdoing, producing godly sorrow that leads to life (2 Corinthians 7:10). Do not dwell in the past.
Forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).