Thorns and Thistles: Facing the Curse

I know this is probably a bumper sticker somewhere and everyone else knows this, but when I was searching for images for my last post, I had an epiphany. I was looking for images to represent the thorns and thistles of our curse, and while doing so I made this connection: Christ was crowned with the thorns and thistles of my own rebellion. Yes, the curse I inflicted on creation was the very thing that crowned Christ during His crucifixion. Literally HE wore the consequences of my sinful thinking—to know apart from Him. His head and mind were crowned with a crown fashioned of the thorns and thistles of my rebellious mind.

Thorns and Thistles: My Curse

My curse is this: I’m to reap my harvest through painful toil while fighting the tearing of my flesh by thorns and thistles. The epiphany I had is that after my mind is crucified with Christ, I no longer live this painful toil, Christ lives it in me. My thinking was what got me into trouble in the first place—I wanted to KNOW! It was by thinking we knew. And through a crucified mind we are freed from that curse. Jesus took the penalty of my independent, willful thinking and then wore the consequences as a crown. A triumphant statement of His Lordship over my mind. He would be King over the source of my sin (my mind), the consequence of my sin (the curse), and take back the dominion that was lost by my choice.

The way the Lord weaves His meaning and messages through living realities is amazing. And His revelations are ever new. Christ came as a man to obey the Father, a task we refused to do. And in that, He was crucified, taking on Himself our sin and the penalty of our rebellion.

Thorns and Thistles: The Solution

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11 NKJV

He leads us to destroy our lofty thoughts of independence of Him. 

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 ESV

And He releases us from the slavery of our fallen nature and the dominion of sin by crucifying it.

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 6:6 HCSB

Our crucified self, with our crucified mind, is free to return to our original state with the knowledge of Him and nothing else.

For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the One who was crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2 NLT