As Far As the Curse is Found
“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His slaves will serve Him.” Revelation 22:1-3
Did you read that? We are told that “there will no longer be any curse.”
You may not realize it, but Christmas is a season to celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ was born to remove all the effects of the curse.
It’s a rather simple statement, but it takes the entire Bible to tell the story. The statement “Jesus Christ was born to remove all the effects of the curse” can’t make sense unless we are able to hold all of Scripture together as one, big story. What is the curse? We need Genesis to understand that. Who is Jesus and why is He called the Christ? We need the history and covenants of Israel and the four Gospels to understand that. How will He remove all the effects of the curse? We need the rest of the New Testament and the book of Revelation to understand that.
All 66 books of the Bible are ultimately telling one story that was written by one Author. We believe this because all of Scripture has been breathed out by God (2 Tim 3:16). Another way to say this is that the Bible is inspired. That means all the words are totally trustworthy and true, without any mixture of error, because “men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21). And not only did God by His Spirit superintend the entire process of the writing and preservation of Scripture, but He also oversaw the unity of Scripture so that it would be a cohesive message.
The story of Scripture is ultimately a story about God’s salvation in Jesus Christ and the redemption of creation and His people. Therefore, we can expect while reading the Old Testament to find things that would point forward toward “the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God” (Romans 16:25-26).
These are the things that speak of “the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” (Eph 3:4-5). God has now revealed to us what was not fully understandable in the Old Testament, namely “the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:8-11).
Even Jesus read the Old Testament in light of Himself, knowing that “all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). And not only are all the major sections of Scripture ultimately a story about God’s redemption and restoration in Christ, but all things in the universe—things past, present, and future; things seen and unseen; things great and small—are all serving a purpose as parts of the bigger story of God’s salvation through Christ. God is “making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him for an administration of the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in Him” (Eph 1:9-10).
Its All About Jesus
Therefore we do not look on the many and memorable stories of the Bible like a collection of fables or morality lessons. We should not treat stories like Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the lion’s den like Aesop’s Fables. We understand that they are parts of the singular story of salvation history that progressively unfolded over many covenants and seasons. In the word of Dr. Jim Hamilton, we approach the Old Testament with the assumption that it is “a messianic document, written from a messianic perspective, to sustain a messianic hope. Adopting this perspective might go a long way toward explaining why the NT seems to regard the whole of the OT as pointing to and being fulfilled in the one it presents as the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.” [James M. Hamilton, “The Skull Crushing Seed of the Woman: Inner-biblical Interpretation of Genesis 3:15,” SBJT 10.2 (Summer 2006), 30.]
God has acted within history to redeem a people for Himself, and we have a reliable record that is totally trustworthy, without mixture of error, inspired by God, and superintended to teach us how it all fits together. This means that even the stories of the Old Testament contain glimmers of the gospel. For example, the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to “continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:14-15). Paul told Timothy that the Scriptures he knew as a child would lead him to Jesus. In these Old Testament stories, we can read of things that would give us wisdom toward salvation. But what is salvation? Salvation is trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. But Paul said the sacred writings of the Old Testament are able to make one wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Where in the Old Testament can we read of Christ? We can read of Him in the story of Jonah (Matt 12:40), in the story of the rock that was struck and gave water in the wilderness (1 Cor 10:14), in the story of the bronze serpent that was lifted up (John 3:14), in the story of the manna that came from heaven (John 6:32), in the story of Adam who was the fountainhead of humanity (Romans 5:14), in the stories of festivals and sabbaths (Col 2:16-17), in the story of Melchizedek, who was the king of righteousness and king of peace (Heb 5:6), in the story of Jacob’s ladder to heaven (John 1:50-51), and in many, many more. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about Me…For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me” (John 5:39, 46).
The stories of Joseph, Samson, David, Jonah, and Daniel are all ultimately about Jesus. The story of David and Goliath is not about the little boy who was brave and faced his giants but about God’s anointed warrior who would crush the head of the seed of the serpent and give His people rest. [More on this in Why Step on Snakes?, a forthcoming article].
Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.
This one, big story can be summarized in four plot points:
1) Creation. All of history and creation, including you and me, are a part of this one story. As we read the Bible we discover that Jesus, as the eternal Son of God, is the One through Whom creation was made. And, furthermore, all of His creation has a purpose: it was made for Him and His glory (Col 1:15-16).
2) Fall. But Adam and Eve did not want the Lord to rule over them. Being seduced by the serpent they willingly and witfully fell into disobedience, for which “death came upon all, and reigned over all, so that all since the Fall are conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity, and are by nature children of wrath, and servants of sin, subjects of death, and all other calamities due to sin in this world” (1st London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1646, Article 4). We languish under the curse of sin. The whole of creation is subject to futility, and even now it groans and suffers the pains of childbirth (Rom 8:20, 22).
3) Redemption. Yet the One through whom and for whom creation was made also had a plan to redeem His creation. We are told that a son born of woman would crush the head of the serpent, being grievously wounded himself in the process (Gen 3:15). Throughout Scripture we are given a progressive revelation of God’s dealings with humanity and learn that the answer to the curse is through the line of Abraham. The seed of the woman is also the seed of Abraham, who is also the seed of David, who will have dominion over the whole earth (Psalm 72:8). The line of descent from the woman ultimately culminates when the God who made creation entered into His creation. Jesus Christ was born under the law to redeem “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’” (Gal 3:13).
4) Restoration. But Jesus Christ did not stay dead. He was raised as the firstborn from the dead to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven (Col 1:18). Through His incarnation, sinless life, death, and resurrection the world and His people will be redeemed from the curse. The God of creation entered into creation so that He might also be the One who would usher in the New Creation. One day “creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). “And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Rev 21:5).
Jesus Christ was born to remove all the effects of the curse, as the One for Whom and through Whom creation was made, and as the One who took on human flesh as the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David to usher in the New Creation.
The late, professor Dr. Edmund Clowney put it best this way:
Only God’s revelation could maintain a drama that stretches over thousands of years as though they were days or hours. Only God’s revelation can build a story where the end is anticipated from the beginning, and where the guiding principle is not chance or fate, but promise. Human authors may build fiction around a plot they have devised, but only God can shape history to a real and ultimate purpose. The purpose of God from the beginning centers on His Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…All things were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:15-16).
God’s creation is by His Son and for His Son; in the same way His plan of salvation begins and ends in Christ. Even before Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden, God announced His purpose. He would send His Son into the world to bring salvation (Gen. 3:15).
God did not accomplish His purpose all at once. He did not send Christ to be born of Eve by the gates of Eden, nor did He inscribe the whole Bible on the tablets of stone given to Moses at Sinai. Rather, God showed Himself to be the Lord of times and seasons (Acts 1:7). The story of God’s saving work is framed in epochs, in periods of history that God determines by His word of promise. God created by His word of power. He spoke and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In the same way God spoke His word of promise. That word has no less power because it is spoken in the future tense. God’s promises are sure; they will be fulfilled at the appointed time (Gen. 21:2). [Edmund Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament, P&R Publishing (1989), 11-12.]
As Christians, we trust in that same word of promise. We look forward to the day when we read in Revelation 22:3, “And there will no longer be any curse.”
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is foundJoy to the World
John Wesley, 1719