LD 4: Cursed is Everyone

…so states the Book of the Law.

In my last post concerning Lord’s Day 3, I couldn’t help ending with the meritorious work of Christ’s righteous obedience after highlighting Adam’s failure in the Covenant of Works.  Both Adams, the First and the Last, were covenantal (or federal) heads commanded to earn rewards by way of their obedience.  Because of their covenantal contexts, both Adam and Christ’s actions had lasting consequences for their respective posterities.

In Adam
For those in Adam, his sin was imputed to everyone’s account.  This means every single person already stands guilty before God by virtue of Adam’s representation before all mankind.  Everyone is cursed.  Our ongoing sinfulness is a constant affirmation that every individual bears a sinful nature imputed to us by Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden.  We stand with Adam if we place our trust in ourselves.  Our “good works” are about as meritorious as Adam’s sin was cause for banishment from God’s holy presence in the Garden.  In other words, if we are left to trust in our own efforts, the only result is condemnation from a holy God.  God hates sin.  He hates it infinitely, eternally more than the anger we would feel towards the worst possible injustice committed against us.  God hates sin and Adam’s exile from the Garden was a type of the condemnation that awaits those who believe their own works are worthy of eternal glory.  Only condemnation awaits for those in Adam alone.

• #1: Adam’s sin is imputed to each person’s account.

In Christ
For those justified by faith alone in Christ alone, the imputation continues.  I’ll explain how this is possible shortly, but for now Christ’s work continues the story of imputation in the Great Exchange; this is the gospel:

• #2: Believer’s sins are imputed to Christ’s spotless account through faith in Him.
• #3: Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to the believer’s account through faith in Him.

What does this all mean?
(#1) In Adam, God sees us as guilty, worthy of eternal punishment.  God’s righteous anger and loving mercy converge as He seeks to redeem a people for Himself.  He sends His Son to do what Adam failed to do: to perfectly obey the Father’s will.  Adam wasn’t able to earn heaven through obedience, and neither can we because we constantly sin, so the Father sent His Son to do what we couldn’t do.  Christ earns the glory of heaven for His people by perfectly obeying His Father in every possible way.

But the curse that Adam ushered in had to be paid.  God can’t simply forget sin committed against Him.  He must be faithful to His own Word, justice, and righteousness.  From creation God’s Word proclaimed,

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16-17; emphasis mine)

Death, along with all its cosmic ramifications, was the ultimate sanction for Adam’s law-breaking.  With sin, God promised sure death.  From the outset, sin was meant to be punished.  Even now, all sins must be punished, and since God is and always will be true to Himself, justice must be either be paid personally by all those who reject Christ or for those in Christ by Christ Himself.

So Lord’s Day 4 teaches that God is both merciful and just (with the emphasis on His justice).  How are these twin truths simultaneously upheld?

God’s wrath and mercy converge at the cross…

Cursed is everyone… including Christ.  All sin must be paid, but the beauty of the gospel is that when we look at the cross we see our Savior become repugnant before the Father on our behalf, on my behalf.  Jesus took on our sins and took the punishment worthy of those sins.  His death on the cross was the

21 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)

Again, I can’t help ending with the meritorious work of Christ.  This is a text highlighted within LD 4:

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”  13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” (Galatians 3:10-13, emphasis mine)

Christ became God’s curse for me so that in Christ the Father would look at me with the blessing of Christ’s perfect righteousness.  When God looks at me He sees the perfection of Christ.  This is the best news in the world.  God satisfies His demands for justice against sin in Christ, while offering me the mercy my utter sinfulness longs for.  Curse of the law is paid by the passive obedience of Jesus, and the righteousness needed for heaven is accomplished by Christ’s active obedience.

There is nothing better than Christ’s perfect obedience to the Father.  By my union in Christ, this is my obedience too.

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Lord’s Day 4

Q & A 9
Q. But doesn’t God do us an injustice by requiring in his law what we are unable to do?
A. No, God created humans with the ability to keep the law. They, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.

Q & A 10
Q. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
A. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Q & A 11
Q. But isn’t God also merciful?
A. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty—eternal punishment of body and soul.