The Curse and the Cure
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. We have for today a curse without a cure. When God spoke to the serpent He pronounced a curse upon him, which neither in the Garden, nor subsequently throughout the Bible, has any promised cure.
We read of the deliverance of other beasts of the field, and then comes this solemn statement, "And dust shall be the serpent's meat." From its proud and lofty height the serpent, the most subtle of all the beasts of the field, was cursed with the words, "Upon thy belly shalt thou go." There is no pardon in prospect for the serpent.
2. We have a curse followed by a promised cure. The fact of the cure from the curse is plainly stated in the expression, "It shall bruise thy head" an expression which holds in it all of the agonies of Calvary. The extent of the cure is set forth in many Scriptures which follow throughout the Word of God. The cure is made possible through the seed of the woman.
The seed of the woman is none other than the Son of God. In corroboration of this fact, we have the genealogy of Jesus Christ from Adam to Mary in the Book of Luke. The cure which is promised, with the exception of the serpent and Satan, is just as wide as the curse which was pronounced.
3. We have the beginning of the unfolding of God's great creative plan. As soon as Adam and Eve had sinned, God steps into the Garden to make the great pronouncement of a secret which had been with God from before the foundation of the world. That secret was, that Jesus Christ, the Creator, should become the Saviour of that which He had created and made.
4. We have the eternal supremacy of Christ over the devil. It was plainly stated that Satan would bruise Christ's heel, but that He, Christ, would bruise Satan's head. This conquest raged during the earth life of Christ. Satan sought to slay Christ as the Babe, in the edict of Herod that the male children under two years of age should be slain. He sought to overthrow Christ in the wilderness temptation. He sought to cast Christ down over the brow of the hill at Nazareth. He sought to kill Him while He lay asleep in the boat. He sought to vanquish Him in the Garden, and then upon the Cross; and we believe he sought to hinder the glorious ascension. However, through it all, and over it all, Christ prevailed, and finally He took His seat far above all principalities, and powers, and the world rulers of this darkness.
5. We have the particular revelation of Christ's Calvary conflict. It was on the Cross that Christ met the combined onslaught of Satan and his forces. Satan-driven men, and Satan-guided principalities and powers, all joined in one supreme conflict around the Cross against the Son of God. It was there that our Lord, single-handed and alone, met these powers and triumphed over them in it. With what triumphant shout, did the Son of God cry, "It is finished"! His death was Satan's defeat, man's deliverance, and His own eternal glorification.
I. THE CURSE UPON THE WOMAN (Genesis 3:16)
1. Sorrow in motherhood. A woman's greatest joy is the fruitage of her greatest sorrow. He who desires gold must obtain it through the anguish of toil. God has put man's blessings low, where he can reach them only by the way of suffering and of sorrow. Every son and every daughter is a child of travail and of heartache. This is part of the curse.
2. Submission to her husband. Our text says that the woman's desire shall be to her husband, and he shall rule over her. Much of this has been changed so far as its "abusive sense" is concerned, through Christ and Christianity. In heathendom the woman is for the most part the slave of her husband. It is she who does the menial task, and lifts the heavy load. He certainly rules over her.
Under the sway of Christianity, womanhood has been emancipated from the abuse of her husband's authority. Christ and the New Testament did not remove from the husband the place of headship in the home, but they did put the ban forever upon unseemly lordship. They taught that wives should be subject to their own husbands in everything; but that husbands should love their wives. The relationship between husband and wife should fall in line with that hallowed and holy relationship which exists between Christ and the Church.
The Church is subject to Christ, but His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Womanhood still feels the curse, however, both in her sorrow in motherhood, and in her subjection to man.
In spite of all that has been said, woman still holds a place of supreme joy, and of incalculable worth. "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely, trust in her." Thank God for grace!
II. THE CURE OF THE CURSE UPON THE WOMAN FOUND IN THE CROSS (Isaiah 53:4)
1. Jesus Christ was the Man of Sorrows. Not for one moment would we suggest that Jesus Christ carried a sorrowful mien, and that He was continually shadowed and gloomy in His countenance. Not so. Our Lord was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. Christ, in the darkest hour of His night, could bequeath His joy unto His disciples, saying, "These thing's have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full," The sorrows which Christ Jesus knew were our sorrows. He carried our pains, He knew our woes.
It is most striking to note that the climax of the sorrows of Christ was upon the Cross. He bore our sorrows as He moved among men, healing the sick and raising the dead. He wept because we weep. However, when He came to the Cross, the sorrows of death laid hold upon Him. His death is called, "The travail of His soul." If God pronounced upon the woman sorrow in her motherhood, then that woman in her own travail, only anticipated the deeper and greater sorrow which should be Christ's, when He brought forth spiritual sons.
2. Full deliverance from sorrow yet awaits the saved. When Calvary meets its full fruition in the blessed Over There, there will be no more sorrow, neither crying, nor pain; for the former things will have passed away. If sorrow falls like a pall in the Garden, when the curse is pronounced, it is lifted in the glory, when the work of the Cross is fully realized. No more the curse, will then be the theme of our song.
III. THE CURSE UPON THE GROUND (Genesis 3:17-18)
1. Why the curse was given. God said unto Adam, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." There is a deep import to these words. The ground, of course, had done nothing evil. It was not capable of sinning. It was only for man's sake that the ground had to suffer. There are two things before us.
(1) God's chastening upon man was for his good and not his harm. Had God left the earth uncursed, and permitted man to have everything that he desired apart from any trouble or inconvenience, it would have only hastened him on in his evil way. The thorns and thistles were sent to arouse man to his own sinful state, and to his need of a Saviour.
The Word says, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." Chastening may not seem an act of love, and it may not, therefore, seem joyous; however, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
(2) No man sinneth unto himself. Sin touches not alone the one who sins, but everything connected with the sinner. Adam dragged down with him the whole of God's marvelous creation.
2. The result of the curse upon the ground. We read, "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." As long as the ground grows the thorns and the thistles, the briars and the weeds, we will know that we are still living in a land subjected to the curse. Thorns and thistles are neither good for food, nor for raiment. They are only fit to be cast out and burned.
Originally the ground knew nothing of all of this. Thorns and thistles came because of sin, and they will remain as long as sin dominates the world. The prick of the thorn suggests the prick of sin. There is a verse which reads: "That which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."
IV. THE CURE OF THE PHYSICAL EARTH INCLUDED IN THE CROSS (Isaiah 55:13)!
1. Did the Cross of Christ effect the physical earth? How often do we hear the question, "Is Divine healing in the Atonement?" There is but one answer to the question and, that is, Was sickness a part of the curse? Everything is in the Atonement which was under the curse, that is, everything that man's sin wrought, Christ came to undo.
We do not by any means assert that Divine healing and the deliverance of the physical earth from its thorns and thistles, are in the Atonement in the same sense that sin is there. The moment we believe, we are made the righteousness of God in Him. However, the, moment we believe we are not delivered from all of the results of the curse. It is not until we enter the New Jerusalem that we read, "And there shall be no more curse."
How remarkable is that expression, "When they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head"! God pronounced the curse of the thorns, and the thorns pressed the forehead of Him who was made the curse for us.
2. The answer of the Cross to thorns and thistles. Our text says, "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree." When the Lord Jesus comes to the earth, the creation which has been subjected for man's sake, and which during the ages has travailed together in pain even until now, shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
V. THE CURSE UPON THE MAN (Genesis 3:19)
1. The curse entailed the sweat of Adam's face. Sweat stands for toil and labor. It also stands for anguish and suffering. Many men are so distressed under the pain of living that they seek to end their life, thinking, perhaps, that thus they may cease from their struggles.
From the day that God pronounced the curse, saying, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," the world has sought to remove this sting of sin. Early in the history of man we read of the harp and the organ. We read, also, of every artificer in brass and iron.
The world today has reached the apex of invention. In spite of all man's effort, however, he has not overcome the curse. It seems to us that there is more of sweat mixed in with the luxuries and comforts of the twentieth century, than there has ever been. All kinds of amusements have been invented to quiet the race so that it will not feel the curse of its toil.
2. The curse entailed dust unto dust. The Lord said, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Every son of Adam's line, with the exception of one or two, has fallen under this part of the curse. Death comes alike to all. The somber notes, "Dust unto dust" have been heard so long and so frequently that man has almost become steeled against their wailing woe.
There is, however, a deeper meaning to this death. It looks not only to physical, but it includes that death which means eternal separation from God, and life, and light, forevermore. This is the curse.
VI. THE CURE OF THE CURSE UPON THE MAN FOUND IN THE CROSS (Luke 22:44)
1. Christ sweating as it were great drops of blood. We wonder if there is not a relationship between, "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," and, "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
God, in the garden, said, "In the sweat of thy brow." The echo conies from Calvary down through the centuries, "His sweat was as it were." The result of all this is seen in that wonderful statement in Revelation: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." In. the Golden City, there will be no weariness, and no toil. His servants will serve Him but they will serve apart from any thought of laboriousness.
2. Christ tasting the cup of death for every man. So far as physical death is concerned, He died. This does not mean that the Christian shall not physically die, for he does die, and he will die until the Lord's Second Coming takes up those in Christ without dying. There is, however, one thing that Christ has already accomplished for us. He has taken away from us the sting of death, which is sin.
The Christian can now look death in the face, and say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" We thank God who giveth us the victory in Christ Jesus.
There is another thing the death of Christ has done for us. It has altogether taken from us that eternal death which means separation from the Father. We cannot be hurt of that second death. Indeed, we have passed out of death, into life. Physical death may overtake us, but spiritual death can never claim us. He that believeth on the Son has passed out of death and into life.
VII. THE MUCH MORE OF GRACE OVER THE CURSE (Romans 5:15)
"Where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound." If through the offence of one many be dead, much more the Grace of God, and the gift by Grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. If sin reigned unto death, much more will Grace reign unto eternal life. Whatever sin may have wrought, whatever havoc it may have played, Jesus Christ has shown us the way out.
1. Here and now Grace abounds over sin. We cannot but feel that in Christ Jesus we have been lifted above Adam's first estate. We are sons of. God in a very real, and blessed way. We are already partakers of eternal life. We are the heirs of all things. We have now within us God's earnest of all the good things which are laid by for us in the ages to come.
We realize that we are still in the flesh, and yet we are not of the flesh. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. To us old things have passed away, and all things are made new.
2. In the ages to come Grace will superabound. When we have been quickened and changed into His image, in the resurrection, when we have entered into the glorious City of the saved, we will realize that what Adam lost in the fall, has been made up for us a thousandfold in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Eden was a wonderful abode, but Heaven will be far more wonderful. There was much in Eden, but there will be many things in Heaven, which were not in Eden. It is only in the eternal ages that we will begin to enter in to the exceeding riches of His Grace.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Once when I was preaching in St. Paul's Church, Halifax, the Westminster Abbey of Canada, as it has been called, I told at the close of the sermon the following story:
"Many years ago Doctor Valpy, a well-known English scholar, wrote a verse of four lines as the longing of his heart and the confession of his faith. This was the stanza:
'In peace let me resign my breath,
And Thy salvation see;
My sins deserve eternal death,
But Jesus died for me.'
Some time afterwards he gave this verse to his friend, Doctor Marsh, a Church of England clergyman and the father of Miss Marsh, the author of the 'Life of Captain Hedley Vicars,' and the verse became a great blessing to him. Doctor Marsh gave the lines to his friend, Lord Roden, who was so impressed with them that he got Doctor Marsh to write them out, and then fastened the paper over the mantelpiece in his study; and there, yellow with age, they hung for many years, a memorial of the beloved! hand that traced them.
Some time after this an old friend General Taylor, one of the heroes of Waterloo came to visit him at Tollymore Park. Lord Roden noticed that the eyes of the old veteran were always fixed for a few moments on the motto over the mantelpiece. 'Why, General,' said Lord Roden, 'you will soon know the verse by heart.' 'I know it now by heart,' replied the General, with feeling, and the simple words were the means of bringing him to know the way of salvation. Some two years afterward the physician, who had been with the old General while he lay a-dying, wrote to Lord Roden to say that his friend had departed in peace, and that the last words which fell from the old General's lips were the words he had learned to love in his lifetime." Canon Dyson Hague, M. A.