Overcoming the curse—Part 2 (KT 9)

As discussed last time, we humans cannot overcome the curse on our own. The curse turned God’s intended order upside down. Humans, empowered by their souls, were meant to rule over physical creation—including their own bodies. But when Adam turned dominion into subjugation by trusting in the physical and worshiping it, the human soul became a slave to that which it was meant to rule. We, therefore, needed a rescuer.

There are three important steps to overcoming the curse. The rescuer must have a perfect soul—a soul that has not submitted to the control of our physical essence, a soul that has not worshiped (trusted in) anyone but God for the fulfillment of its innate desires for TGB, life, and relationship.

Jesus’s life—fully God, yet fully human—secured the first step in breaking the curse. He lived a sinless life. He depended on the Father. He did not give in to the enslaving power of human essence. Only with that victory in hand could he proceed to the next stages of redemption—the cross and the resurrection—to accomplish the rescue of all creation.

The human is a combination of body and soul, material and immaterial. When God created humanity, he intended the soul to function similarly to how God operates. From God's essence of truth, goodness, and beauty (TGB), his own “soul” takes direction. Likewise, each human was to direct the efforts of his or her soul (psyche and spirit) according to God’s TGB essence. Thus, the human soul would rule over human essence—material, physical creation. But the fall changed that. Adam cut off the soul’s dependency on God’s essence and instead trusted in his own physical essence. As a result, rather than ruling over physical creation, the human soul became subjugated by it.

Jesus—our God who took on flesh to become human—brought his divine soul into fallen, cursed human essence. However, because his divine soul could resist the subjugating influence of cursed flesh, Jesus triumphed in living a pure life. He did not yield to the temptation to exalt (worship and trust in) human essence.

But the cross is not about sin guilt—it is about the curse, which is essence-based corruption. Under the curse, all cursed bodies must eventually die—they are anathema, ultimately separated from God along with all physical creation. Since Jesus had cursed flesh, his body also was destined for death.

Jesus’s resistance to sin is seen most clearly in the garden of Gethsemane. That scene is meant to recall another garden—the one in Eden. Both gardens present moments of choice. Notably, both Adam and Jesus faced their choices with imperfect knowledge. Adam had only just been introduced to God and his TGB. Jesus, though welcoming and knowing God’s TGB, had set aside his infinite characteristics as God to become fully human—limited, in one respect, in knowledge. We see this in his prayer in Gethsemane: “All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me!” Just like Adam, Jesus faced a situation in which he could satisfy desire either through trust in himself and what he wanted or through trust in God. Both Adam and Jesus wanted God to work differently than the road they faced. But the difference is that Adam said, “My way!” while Jesus said, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”

So Jesus laid down his life because he wanted to—because he loved God and he loved humankind. John 15:13 says, “No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And in John 10:17–18, Jesus said, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” No coercion. No forcing. Jesus gave of himself for the benefit of relationship. He loved, and so he laid down his life for us.

But Jesus’s death was not enough—or more precisely, it was not all that needed to be done. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” So Jesus had to be resurrected as human—a body-and-soul combination made alive—to end the curse. And this was not merely resuscitation, like Lazarus had experienced. Rather, in resurrection, Jesus’s body was restructured. His body was no longer subject to decay (Acts 2:31). His body was no longer under the domain of death (Romans 6:9–10). And Jesus’s soul was no longer vulnerable to enslavement by the body. The curse was broken in Jesus’s body.

So the cross was not for sin guilt. Jesus didn’t become guilty of our sins and then go to the cross to be punished for that guilt. No—sin guilt is removed from us when we come to God and say with a sincere heart that we’re sorry for our sin, that we want to be right in relationship with him. And when we do that, God forgives. Jesus doesn’t pay for our sin or get punished for it. If he did, there would be no forgiveness involved. But the Bible tells us throughout that God loves, that God is merciful, that God forgives.

Still, the cross and the resurrection were necessary. They were necessary so that the curse could be put to death—so that Jesus could raise human essence, in his own body, to life.

Summary of Why Jesus Had to Die—Why His Resurrection Broke the Curse

The curse on humanity isn’t mainly about guilt. It’s about a world that got turned upside down. God designed creation to support love—but under the curse, the physical world fights back. It breaks down. It demands things. It pulls us away from the Creator instead of pointing us to him.

Our bodies, too, changed under the curse. They no longer just help us love and serve. They became sources of constant cravings, needs, and distractions—things the world uses to tempt us. The soul, which was designed to look to God for truth, goodness, beauty (TGB), and life, now starts looking to the physical world instead. And when that happens, the soul begins to serve the body instead of leading it.

That’s what the curse really is: not just physical death, but a complete reversal of the soul-body relationship. The body becomes king, and the soul—created to guide in love—becomes its servant.

But Adam didn’t fall because of that condition. His sin caused it. He was still in a perfect world. His body wasn’t demanding. The world wasn’t misleading. But Adam didn’t wait on God to meet his needs. When tested, he chose his own way, trusting what he saw instead of trusting God. That broke the right order of soul and body and brought in the curse—not just as guilt, but as a new way of being.

Jesus entered that world—the cursed one. His body was like ours. It could feel pain. It got tired. It could die. And just like us, he felt temptation. But his soul never gave in. He never let the body rule. He never chased after what the world offered instead of trusting the Father.

His temptations were real—not because he had sinful desires inside, but because the broken world constantly offered him things that looked like shortcuts to what his soul truly longed for. But he never took the bait. He stayed fully aligned with God.

That’s what we can’t do on our own. We don’t just get tempted—we’ve already made the body king. Every time we give in to selfish cravings, the soul reshapes itself to want the wrong things even more. It’s not just a behavior problem. It’s a worship problem. And we can’t fix that ourselves.

But Jesus never made that false exchange. His soul, even inside a cursed body, stayed true to God. He lived a full human life without sin. And he didn’t win that battle by overpowering his body—he won it by never putting it on the throne.

Still, his body was cursed. It was mortal. It had to die. So he gave it up—not in defeat, but in love. He offered it to the Father. He didn’t destroy the body; he surrendered it. That death wasn’t a punishment. It was the breaking of cursed essence itself.

And then came the resurrection.

Jesus didn’t just come back to life—he came back with a new kind of body. It wasn’t like Lazarus, brought back temporarily. Jesus’s body was transformed. It was no longer ruled by decay or driven by appetite. It was no longer vulnerable to temptation. The curse was gone.

His soul was still in charge. His body had been restored to what it was always meant to be: a perfect partner in love, completely aligned with God.

That is the curse broken.

The resurrection wasn’t just about escaping death. It was about reversing the fall—restoring the soul-body relationship, and re-establishing the body as a vessel for love, not a rival for worship.

And in Jesus, that new way of being—new essence—is now open to us. The curse has been overcome. And if we are united with him, that same restoration—the same new body—is coming for us too.