Can a Christian be cursed? Will God allow a curse on a believer?

Balak sends for Balaam. The grand question in this touching scene is this, "Can Satan succeed in cursing the people of God, so as to prevent their entrance into the land of promise?" It is not merely a question of redemption and of the joy of redemption at the beginning of their course, but in the end, when all their unfaithfulness has been manifested — their unfaithfulness even after the Lord has brought them to Himself. Can Satan succeed then? No.

Balaam, who used enchantments, had to confess, "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel." When the elders of Moab and Midian came from Balak, they were sent "with the rewards of divination in their hand" (Num. 22:7); and when Balaam professed to go to meet Jehovah, he went "to seek for enchantments" (Num. 24:1). If there was no natural power to overcome the people of God, neither was there any diabolical power that could prevail against them.

But now, in having to do with God about His people, it is only the occasion of God's making a new revelation of His grace. God could not curse His people, or defy Israel; and so Balaam has to say after him. God has His own thoughts about them, and although He can allow no inconsistency in His people, He will bring to pass His own purposes. "And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. And Jehovah put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy whom Jehovah hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

But grace had also stated the faith principle in the Old Testament. "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, is manifest, for the just shall live by faith." But redemption has come. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." If a believer then goes back to the law and puts himself under that law, tries to live by it, he puts himself under the curse. He slights the precious work of Christ, who took the curse upon Himself, so that it can no longer fall upon us. And the result of Christ having removed the curse of the law is that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Him, so that all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, should receive the promised Spirit.

This is quite a different thing than if Paul was pronouncing upon the standing of a Christian, as God sees him, "in Christ." Impossible that in such a position he could be under a curse; and were he realising it, he could not put himself back into a condition to which the curse of the Law applies. When consciously there, he walks, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in him who does so (Rom. 7:4), but never by being under it. Back

How can it be said of saints, justified sinners by faith in Jesus, even though they should make the law their "rule of life," as they say, that they are under a curse? To be sure, such practically deny their oneness with Christ in resurrection; they are rendering themselves incapable of living in the power of the risen life, but this does not alter the fact that they are one with Christ ― risen, ascended, and seated in the heavenlies, and that God looks at them as such. How, then, can it be said they are under a curse?

A. ― The Apostle is not speaking of the standing of persons, but is showing the effect of the law upon all who put themselves under it, or are striving to live on that principle in their relationships with God. That they are in fact putting themselves back in the state to which the curse of the law applies, and consequently putting them selves under the curse, for the simple reason that they do not fulfil it, and it curses all who fail to do so. If a Christian puts himself under the law, he must be consciously only in the position to which it refers; i.e., he must be "in the flesh" (Rom. 7:5). Whereas the standing of a Christian is "not in the flesh but in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9), and, as a matter of course, he is not realising his place as risen with Christ. The law applies to a child of fallen Adam, responsible to God as a sinner, and to none else. It pursues its claim upon him as far as the death of Christ. There, the believer, as having died with Christ, disappears from its pursuit, and it can go no further. It has no claim over one who is dead, and has thus eluded the uncompromising grasp of the law, and is now alive in another state, in Christ risen from the dead. So that, if a Christian puts himself under it in any way, he practically denies the place where Christianity has set him, and cannot consciously be in his true position before God. Of course then he breaks the law ― (Who ever kept it as alive in that state?) ― and it curses, without distinction, all who do so!

Moreover, it will not do to say that, though we have failed to keep the law, yet Christ has fulfilled it in our room and stead. The law knows nothing of obedience by proxy. Its language is, "The man that does them shall live in them." Nor is it merely on the man who fails to keep the law that the curse is pronounced; but, as if to put the principle in the clearest possible light before us, we read that "as many as are of works of law are under the curse." (See Gr.) That is, as many as take their stand on legal ground — as many as are on that principle — in a word, as many as have to do with works of law, are, of necessity, under the curse. Hence, we may see at a glance, the terrible inconsistency of a Christian's maintaining the idea of being under the law as a rule of life, and yet not being under the curse. It is simply flying in the face of the very plainest statements of holy scripture. Blessed be the God of all grace, the Christian is not under the curse. But why? Is it because the law has lost its power, its majesty, its dignity, its holy stringency? By no means. To say so were to blaspheme the law. To say that any "man" — call him what you please, Christian, Jew, or Heathen — can be under the law, can stand on that ground, and yet not be under the curse, is to say that he perfectly fulfils the law or that the law is abrogated — it is to make it null and void. Who will dare to say this? Woe be to all who do so.

Condemnation is the result of judgment, for if God enter into judgment with a man it must result in his being condemned. But those who are in Christ are completely cleared from it and there is a full salvation. It is much the same as the answer that Balaam gives in Numbers 23. "How can I curse whom God hath not cursed"; or again when he declares that God. "had not found iniquity in Jacob nor seen perverseness in Israel. He hath blessed and I cannot reverse it." There is nothing to curse or condemn in those who are in Christ, for, blessed be His name, He has borne all the judgment, and now He must be condemned before those that are in Him could be

And wonderful is the word that was spoken. "Come, curse me Jacob." When he takes up his parable he says, "Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel." This was the word of Balak to him. He replied, "How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom Jehovah has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" That is, he states in the most explicit manner the great and certainly fundamental privilege of Israel — that they were a nation called out to be alone with and for Jehovah. This is the basis of all their blessing. They were unlike all the rest of the world in this, that they were set apart to be with Jehovah, the true Elohim.

Chapter 22:1-6. We see the enmity of the world against the people of God brought out, and especially against the power of the people of God. God's power was with His people, and this drew out the enmity of Satan. When the Son of God came into the world, the whole energy of Satan's power and enmity was directed against Him; so afterwards against the apostles, those who had "turned the world upside down," Acts 17:6. But God's power was with and for His people See the song of Moses; Ex. 15:14-16. God had redeemed His people with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm from the power and bondage of Satan, and had brought them to Himself; Ex. 19:4. When this is the case, Satan seeks to force others into an open opposition to the people of God. Their presence becomes intolerable to their enemies. But the effect of it all is, to bring out God's people as being under His eye and care. The very wish that God should curse Israel only brought out the more His distinct blessing upon them "And he [Balaam] took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom Jehovah hath not defied? For from the tops of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations," chap. 23:7-9. Here we find the effect of Satan's opposition was to bring out into the clearest manifestation that they were not of the world.