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The truth about generational curses
A generational curse is something bad or evil that "runs in the family". It could be a disease, bad habit or even tragedy. For example, if your father and his father had heart disease, then your chances of having heart disease are very high. Or if your father and his father were alcoholics, then you are likely to be bound to the bottle too. In terms of tragedies, the Kennedys come to mind. The family has had one tragic death after another. Medical science, of course, calls some of these "curses" genetic diseases, predispositions or disorders. That means you have it because "it is in your genes". While genetic studies may provide a logical explanation for family diseases or addictions, they don't quite explain the tragic deaths that run in families. My guess is that science just attributes them to "coincidence". Christians, on the other hand, explain the phenomenon by saying that God is punishing you with the same disease, evil habit or tragedy because of your fathers' sins. Yes, you have it because your father and/or grandfather sinned against God. Or, your children and their children will be punished with similar curses because of your sins. The Christian explanation, unfortunately, sounds more unfair than the scientific one. But is it true that God punishes us with family curses for our fathers' sins? To answer the question, let's look at the scriptures that are used to support this teaching:
A casual reading of the four passages does give one the idea that God punishes you for the sins of your fathers. But if you read them carefully again and note the phrases in red, you will see that it is not that straightforward.
The sons hate God too There is a good reason for the visiting of iniquity upon the sons -- the sons also hate God and are part of "the guilty". And if they hate God and do evil as well, then God will "give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings".
But the passages do not in any way, state that God will punish the sons and their sons with similar punishments. In other words, there is no punishment that "runs in the family" in the way of a generational curse. It is more a case of the sons choosing to follow in their father's footsteps, living the same evil lifestyles and hence suffering the same consequences or punishments their fathers suffered. For example, a son who chooses to smoke and womanise like his father, is likely to be punished the same way his father was punished. Perhaps, he will also contract lung cancer and end up with a broken marriage. But if the son can choose to follow in his father's footsteps, then he can also choose not to follow in his father's footsteps, and escape the punishments that his father suffered or is suffering. Is that possible? Yes! Ezekiel 18 actually talks about the son who follows in his father's footsteps and dies, and the son who does not follow in his father's footsteps and lives.
The son will not bear the guilt of his father In Ezekiel 18, God told His people to stop using the proverb:
The proverb says that you bear the sour taste of the sour grapes your father (not you) ate. This means that a child suffers or pays for his father's sins. God told His people to stop quoting this proverb because He will repay everyone according to what they do. Every man will be responsible for his own sins. "The soul who sins shall die" not some other soul. But "if a man is just and does what is lawful and right... he shall surely live". Now, if this man has a son who disobeys God's laws and does evil, then the son himself "shall not live... he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him". Yet, if this son has a son who sees the wrongs his father has done, and chooses to obey God's laws and live righteously instead of following in his father's footsteps, then "he shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live". But why is it that the good son does not have to bear the guilt of his father? God's reason is simple: "Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live." But what God says next is even more amazing: "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." In other words, whether your father was evil or not does not matter because he will be responsible for his own sins and you, likewise, will be responsible for your own sins! God also adds that if a wicked man should, in the course of his life, turn from all his sins and start obeying God, "he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live". On the other hand, if a righteous man turns to evil, then "the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die". And God says that He is being fair -- "... is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?" God then ends by telling His people to repent and turn from their evil ways because He takes no pleasure in seeing them die. He loves His people and wants them to live. Isn't God gracious even in the Old Testament? So God is very fair. His principle is simple: "The soul who sins shall die." Everyone will be responsible for his own sins. A father and his son will be responsible for their owns sins and neither one of them will have to bear the guilt of the other. And because of this, His people are to stop saying: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Christians must stop believing, talking and preaching about generational curses as though they can be under one or more because God is punishing them for the sins of their fathers.
The curse of the law Bear in mind that all the passages we have examined so far are taken from the Old Testament. That means they are to be understood in the context of the old covenant of law. Under the old covenant, God's people had to obey all of God's laws if they wanted to be blessed. If they failed to do so, then not only would they not be blessed, they would be punished or cursed! This is known as the "curse of the law". Indeed, the law was more a curse than a blessing for them because being fallible, they just could not keep God's laws and thus fell under the curse most of the time. But what exactly is the curse of the law? It is simply this: If you fail to obey all of God's laws, you will be cursed -- with all manner of curses! The list is long and frightening. You can read all about the various types of curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Of particular significance are these curses:
While these are curses, they are not generational in nature. There is no suggestion of repetition. Anyway, as we have seen earlier, neither father nor son will have to bear the guilt of the other (Ezekiel 18). Every man will be responsible for his own sins. Every man will be punished or cursed for his own sins. So the old covenant system of law is this: Do good get good, do bad get beat. It is a harsh system because man just cannot keep God's laws, which demand perfection. Nothing wrong with the law -- it is perfect, but something wrong with man -- he is not perfect. And because man cannot keep God's laws, he ends up cursed instead of blessed. (The people of the old covenant were blessed at times only because of the animal sacrifices which reminded God of Jesus' sacrifice for all time, not because they were good at keeping the laws.)
Redeemed from every curse So thank God He found fault with the old covenant and established the new covenant of grace in His Son's blood. Thank God for Jesus! Indeed, no one should talk about generational curses as if the cross did not happen because the cross of Jesus changes everything!
If you are still not convinced that there is no such thing as generational curses as far as the Bible is concerned, then at least consider the work of Jesus. Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:
If you still insist that you are under some generational curse, then know that Christ was cursed at the cross so that you can be blessed. He took your place of a cursed person so that you can take his place of a blessed person! A wonderful divine exchange took place at the cross. And you can either humble yourself and receive it, or remain proud and doubtful, and reject it. Come on, what is it? An inherited sickness? A genetic disease? An addiction your father had? Poverty? A failing marriage? Fear of premature death? Whatever it is, it is covered at the cross because Jesus became curse itself so that you can be blessed! He has redeemed you from every curse known and unknown to man. The question is, can you believe it and receive it into your heart? Or are you going to continue believing the lies of the devil? If you are not a Jew, you may be wondering: "How can I be redeemed from the curse of the law when I was never under the law because the law was given to the Jews?" Well, Paul says that "when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves" (Romans 2:14). In other words, the requirements of the law are written on their hearts and they know it when they fulfil or fail to fulfil them because their conscience will tell them (Romans 2:15). So without Christ, Jew and Gentiles alike are all under the law, hence all under sin because they have all broken God's laws (Romans 3:9, James 2:10). But the one who turns to Christ is no longer under the old covenant of law, but under the new covenant of grace. Now, whether he chooses to walk by grace (Spirit, faith) or law (works, flesh), or mix both covenants, is another topic altogether.
You are righteous in Christ The Christian who has turned to Christ is righteous in Christ. He has been made righteous by the blood of Christ. It is a gift that is imputed. It is not something earned by abstaining from sin or doing good works.
If you think that this sounds too good to be true or "unfair", you are right. But just as it is "unfair" that we who knew know righteousness have been made righteous, it is even more "unfair" that He who knew no sin was made sin for us!
So you are righteous not because of your good behaviour, but because of Jesus' obedience all the way to the cross. Jesus took your sin and died, so that you can take His righteousness and live! He also fulfilled the law you could not fulfill so that in Him, you have fulfilled all the law and will never be cursed by God! With this in mind, recall what we read earlier in Ezekiel 18. Remember that God says that the one who is righteous and obeys His laws shall live? Well, you are now that person because you are the righteousness of God in Christ! You more than qualify to live and are disqualified from any punishment because you are the righteousness of God in Christ!
All the way back to Adam Some folks just believe that Christ redeemed them from a curse that came as a result of their great grandfather's sin, but not a curse that is a result of their father's sin. This is called "tracing" the reason for the curse.
To me that is rather ridiculous because they might as well trace it all the way back to Adam! Why stop at their great grandfather? Adam's one act of disobedience impacted all future generations and made every human who was ever born a sinner (Romans 5:19). Without Christ, you and I are sinners not because we sinned, but because Adam sinned. And because Adam made us sinners, we sin. But the last Adam, Jesus Christ, made you and I righteous. His one act of obedience makes every man who believes in Him righteous (Romans 5:19), effectively cancelling out sin and its resulting curses all the way back to Adam! And the work of the last Adam, Christ, is a "much more" compared to the work of the first Adam (Romans 5:15). So as long as you are in Christ, it no longer matters whether its your father who sinned or your great, great, great.... grandfather Adam who sinned. It is all covered by the perfect and "much more" sacrifice of the last Adam, Jesus.
Jesus drank the sour wine and died for you What was the last thing Jesus did on the cross? He drank sour wine and then He died!
Remember the proverb "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge"? Well, Jesus took the sour wine, but He Himself bore the consequences -- He Himself died! What does that mean for you today? You do not have to be punished for the sins of your fathers because Jesus has already been punished with death in your place!
God does not punish the believer for his sins The same crime cannot be punished twice. If your lifetime of sins has been fully punished in the body of Jesus body when He hung on the cross, then God, being a holy and righteous God, will not and cannot punish you for your sins today. If He does, then He is not being faithful and just to the finished work of His Son.
In fact, the terms of the new covenant state that God remembers your sins "no more":
The words "no more" in the Greek carry a strong double-negative sense. That means God will by no means ever remember your sins! Even when you sin, God does not impute sin to you. He does not keep an account of your sins. Trust me, if He did, you would not be standing today!
So if God does not punish you for your sins because Christ was already punished in your place, if God does not count your sins or impute them to you because of the cross, then why believe that God has cursed you for some sin? Or worse, for a sin that you did not even commit?
Wrong beliefs give generational curses their power My pastor always says that "right believing will produce right living". In other words, when you believe the truths of God's Word, you will live and see the truths of God's Word.
The opposite is true, of course. If you believe the lies of the devil, then you will see them manifest in your life. I believe this to be the case for generational curses. I am not blind. I can see that generational curses do run in families. Whether they are diseases, addictions or failed marriages, they exist, unfortunately. But it is not because God is doing it! It is not because God is punishing us for the sins of our fathers! It is only because we have been believing the wrong things. We have been fed and brought up on a diet of lies from the devil. And we feed others with the same diet of lies. How many times have we read health articles or books that talk about genetic or hereditary diseases, and believed them into our hearts? How many of such television programmes have we watched with nodding heads? How many times have we inclined our ears to the same reports from our doctors, colleagues, friends and family members? Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that these reports are not true, that medical science is wrong. But there is a higher truth -- God's truth -- that we should be giving our undivided attention to, not letting it depart from our eyes and keeping it in the midst of our hearts (Proverbs 4:20-22). So it is a matter of whose report you will believe -- God's or the world's? Then there is culture, customs and paganistic religions that teach us things like reincarnation and karma, proverbs like "What goes around, comes around". So you are suffering today because in your past life, you did something wrong. You have this disease because your karma is bad. And it is bad because you have done something wrong. Such belief systems are especially prevalent in oriental cultures. And with movies and books like Harry Potter, as well as countless cartoons that deal with casting magic spells, we have a whole new generation that is intrigued by curses. Our children know what a curse or spell is. They know that a curse that is not broken, will carry on until it is broken by the kiss of a prince or princess! Christians are as much to be blamed. The topic of generational curses seems to be a hot one today. Books have been published to tell the Christian that his sickness or addiction is a generational curse from God, a punishment he has to bear for the sins of his fathers. The pulpit has been used to pull Christians into the pit of curses, rather then to pull them out of it by pointing them to the finished work of Christ!
Be free from an evil conscience But why all this obsession with being cursed and punished? I believe it all stems from an evil conscience. One who has an evil conscience is one who still has a consciousness of sins (Hebrews 10:1-22). And when one has a consciousness of sins, he has a conscious or subconscious need to punish himself. The conscience in every man demands justice -- the soul that sins must die. Only such a conscience is not a virtuous one as some believe, but an evil one because it has not been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. But the Christian who knows in his heart how perfectly the blood of Christ has cleansed him from all sin and unrighteousness will no longer be sin-conscious, but Son-conscious or righteousness-conscious. He has a revelation of the blood and the perfect work of his Saviour. He understands "one sacrifice for sins forever" (Hebrews 10:12) and so sits down with Christ in heavenly places, ceasing from his own works and resting in His finished work -- with no consciousness of sins, no need for sacrifices, no need for punishments. Such a Christian will reject all hints and symptoms of generational curses in his life for he knows that his sins have been punished, that God does not impute sin to him even when he sins, that he has forgiveness and everlasting righteousness -- all because of what Jesus has done! Such a Christian no longer lives in the past of generational curses. He knows that he is a new creation -- old things have passed away --- behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). So you have a choice right now -- to believe God's truth and be like this Christian, or to continue believing the lies of the devil and sink back into the pit of generational curses. I pray that you will do the first!
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