See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. Deuteronomy 11.26
It’s not just Moses. Whenever you preach the Gospel, you set a blessing and a curse before the people. Unless you have issues, you’d rather preach about blessings, but blessings are to curses as sunrise is to night. The brilliance of the former is its contrast to the latter. The Gospel, like the eternity, is binary. It’s blessing or curse, grace or law, salvation, or perdition. To tell a sinner to run to Christ is to tell them there’s nowhere else to go.
Unless you have issues, you’d rather preach about blessings, but blessings are to curses as sunrise is to night.
Maybe that’s why it was Jesus who said more about hell than any other prophet. Who better to speak of darkness and dread than the one who endured it for us? Who better to set the curse before us all than the blessing himself. The Gospel is the ultimate blessing, so preach it with joy. But make it a sober joy, remember. Every time you offer Christ to sinners, you’re setting a blessing and curse before them.
