All the People Said Amen

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 60, All the People Said Amen.

"'Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'" Deuteronomy 27:26.

Picture the scene. Israel is split across two mountains — Gerizim and Ebal — and the Levites read a series of curses over the people, one by one. And after each one, the whole nation answers together: "Amen." This is the last of them, and it sums up all the others: cursed is anyone who does not confirm, who does not carry out the words of this entire law. And the people say amen. They agreed. They signed on, without fully knowing the weight of what they were accepting.

This verse seems distant from our lives today, until you notice where it shows up again. Centuries later, the apostle Paul is writing to the Galatians — people who were being convinced they needed to keep the law perfectly to be accepted by God. And Paul quotes this exact verse: "cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." And he uses this line to prove a point that shakes anyone trying to justify themselves by their own works: no one is justified by the law before God, because no one can keep everything it demands.

Notice the word Paul highlights: everything. This isn't a curse only for total failure. It's a curse for anyone who doesn't confirm the words of the law in full. A single stumble is already enough to fall under it. And if you're honest with yourself for a moment — who, besides Christ, has ever kept the whole law of God without failing even once? No one. Not me, not you, not the most devout Pharisee.

And that is exactly where this verse reveals its true purpose. The law was not given so that we could save ourselves by keeping it. It was given, among other things, to show us that we need someone outside ourselves. If the law condemned only the worst sinners, maybe we could strive to escape it. But it condemns everyone who fails at any single point — and that is everyone. The law closes off every exit we might try to build with our own effort.

But Paul doesn't stop at the curse. The very next verse, right after the one I quoted, says: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." He didn't only keep the law perfectly in our place — he also took on himself the curse that fell on us for failing to keep it. The curse from Mount Ebal, the one the people confirmed with a solemn amen, was carried by the very Son of God on the cross.

So today, the invitation is not to try harder to earn God's approval. It is to recognize, with humility and relief, that you will never keep the law perfectly on your own — and that Christ has already done it for you.

So here is the call for today: before breakfast, confess out loud before God that you cannot keep the law on your own. Say it without shame — it is the truth that sets you free. And then thank Christ, also out loud, for keeping everything you could not, and for carrying the curse that was yours.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.