Concordia Journal | Spring 2013

I view it as a positive thing. In its overuse, the word “blessing” now sounds quaint or even sappy.

The sermon could dust off these biblical expressions, reconnect them with the biblical story (assumed by Paul in the text), and proclaim the removal of the curse and the bestowal of “the blessing of Abraham” upon your hearers—not by any human effort, but in Christ’s death. The aim would be threefold: first, that hearers perceive the radical scope and consequences of God’s curse on human sin; second, that hearers believe and marvel at the depth of Christ’s love, who “became a curse” for us (2:20b; 3:13); and third, that hearers long more fervently for the restoration of all creation in Christ, the promised “blessing of Abraham.”

God’s blessing begins in Genesis 1, and God’s curse enters the story in Genesis 3. Old Testament saints longed for relief, longed for rest, and restoration from this curse (e.g., Gn 5:28–29). God declared that blessing would return to humanity and to the creation, and that God’s blessing would come through Abraham and through his seed (12:2–3; 22:18). Luther writes, “The curse is a kind of flood that swallows up whatever is outside Abraham, that is, outside faith and the promise of the blessing of Abraham . . . All nations before, during, and after Abraham are under a curse and are to be under a curse forever, unless they are blessed in the faith of Abraham . . .” (AE 26:248). (See also Jn 3:18, 36; 1 Cor 15:17.)

Luther notes how large this promised blessing is: “The prophets preach about this blessing everywhere . . . the sort of blessing that belongs to the imputation of righteousness that avails in the sight of God, that redeems from the curse of sin and everything that follows sin . . . [The sayings of the prophets] all flowed from these promises, in which God promised to the fathers the crushing of the serpent’s head (Gn 3:15) and the blessing of the nations (Gn 12:3)” (AE 26:246).

In Galatians 3, then, Paul is speaking about ultimate, cosmic, eternal blessing or curse from God. The profound depth of the gospel is that Jesus himself received the curse, even “became a curse” for us, in his death on the cross. Through faith in Christ, the “blessing of Abraham” now comes also to us (Gentiles). This blessing of a restored, untainted human life within a restored, untainted creation is described vividly in the final two chapters of Revelation. “And there shall be no more curse” (Rv 22:3).

Suggested Sermon Outline God’s Curse and God’s Blessing I. God’s curse over all (Gal 3:10–12) A. Such little “curses”—popular uses of the term B. God’s great curse II. God’s curse upon One: Christ Jesus (Gal 3:13) III. Through Christ, the “blessing of Abraham” comes to us (Gal 3:14) A. Such little “blessings”—popular uses of the term B. God’s great blessing Thomas Egger 160