If you’re black man or woman living in America then you’re well aware of the challenges that exist just living here. I don’t need to iterate them. These challenges have caused many throughout the years to wonder if black people are simply cursed.
Show Notes
3 Reasons why blacks typically believe in curses
1. Failure to understand the different types of curses and who they were for.
2. Failure to understand the Character and nature of God
3. Failure to understand the point of God the Son coming to save us in the personhood of Jesus Christ.
Understanding Curse Rightly
– The entire world is cursed. Every ethnic group sits under A curse. No one is exempt regardless of ethnicity. This is the curse of a fallen world and fallen humanity due to sin, entered by Adam. This is spiritual as it separated us from God but it also has physical implications.
Genesis 3:17-19
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
Romans 3:23
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
Romans 5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
– We are all guilty and with this we live in a corrupt world where people treat people like trash because we are sinners.
– Out of our guilt we misrepresent our Father and His love for humanity. God becomes more of a tyrant we must please vs a Father who gave His own life to save His children.
Romans 5:15-21
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. 17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
– God had always predestined a way to bring humanity back into relationship through Jesus.
Galatians 3:10-14 (Curse of the Law)
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. 11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.
– We are not cursed unless you cling to the Law because the Law can’t save anyone.
– The injustice, racism and division we face is because men and women are sinners.
– God calls all of us to salvation through Jesus Christ. It’s not a license to sin.
Romans 6:1-2
What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
– Despite our circumstances we should rely on God’s strength for change not our own.