Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 3:13

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:

13. ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us’. In Gal 3:10 the Apostle has shewn that by the very terms of the Law, all who are under the Law (i.e. all who seek to be justified by their own obedience) are under the curse. To rescue us from that terrible malediction, Christ submitted to an accursed death. He, though sinless, bore, nay became the curse, that on us might come the blessing.

hath redeemed us ] ‘ransomed us’, from the thraldom of the curse at the cost of a death of shame and anguish unutterable.

a curse for us ] ‘Who’, asks Bengel, ‘would dare to use such an expression without fear of uttering blasphemy, if we had not the example of the Apostle?’ Here, as in 2Co 5:21, we have the abstract noun put for the concrete, to give force and comprehensiveness to the statement. Our Divine Lord in human nature was made sin for us not a sinner, not even a sin-bearer, or sin-offering. He was identified with that which is the cause of ruin and death to the whole human race, ‘that we might become in Him the righteousness of God.’ So, here, He is said to have become, not accursed, but ‘a curse’. The curse incurred by all, in consequence of sin, was borne by the sinless One in His own Person. He, like the typical scape-goat (Lev 16:5, &c.) was the representative at once of the sin and the curse which it entailed.

for us ] ‘on our behalf’. The preposition does not necessarily mean ‘in our stead’. The great doctrine of our Blessed Lord’s vicarious sufferings and death does not rest on the narrow foundation of the exact force of a particle. It is the doctrine of the types and prophecies of the O.T. and of the teaching of our Lord Himself and His Apostles in the N. T. To the passages already referred to may be added Isa 53:5-6; Mat 20:28 ; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 2:14.

Light is thrown by this passage on the narrative of the Brazen Serpent (Num 21:7-9), which our Lord declares to be a type of His Crucifixion (Joh 3:14). Why was the serpent chosen by God to be the emblem and means of recovery to the Israelites? One reason may be that it was accursed of God (Gen 3:14), and so a fitting type of Him Who on the Cross became a curse for us.

it is written ] The Apostle makes good every step of his argument by an appeal to Scripture. By the Law of Moses (Deu 21:23), it was ordained that the body of a criminal, who, after being put to death, was exposed on a tree, should not be suffered to remain all night; and the reason is assigned, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God”. The words, ‘of God’, are omitted by St Paul, not as inconsistent with, but as unnecessary for his purpose. Those who account for the omission of the words by supposing them inconsistent with the acceptance of our Lord’s self-sacrifice by His Father ‘as an odour of a sweet smell’ (Eph 5:2; comp. Gen 8:21), seem to overlook the fact that if in any true sense Christ became a curse for us, it was the curse of God.

It may be objected, that the curse to which our Blessed Lord submitted was not the same curse as that to which all men became subject by their failure to render perfect obedience to the moral law that it was, so to speak, technical, rather than moral. But a careful consideration of the passage in Deuteronomy will shew that the curse there spoken of applied not to the mere impalement of the malefactor, but to the violation of the Law, for which he had previously been put to death. The body of one who had “committed sin worthy of death” was not to hang upon the gibbet after sunset, lest the land should be defiled, for the curse of God rests upon it. “In the Scripture doctrine of the atonement, the believer is one with Christ, until at length Christ takes the believer’s place, and all that the Christian is, and all that he was, or might have been, are transferred to Christ”. Jowett.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13, 14. Reverting to what he said, Gal 3:10, the Apostle shews how complete this justification is. The curse has been borne, and the Law is silent. The curse has been removed, and the blessing remains; descending in all its fulness on the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, through faith.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Christ hath redeemed us – The word used here exegorasen is not that which is usually employed in the New Testament to denote redemption. That word is lutroo. The difference between them mainly is, that the word used here more usually relates to a purchase of any kind; the other is used strictly with reference to a ransom. The word used here is more general in its meaning; the other is strictly appropriated to a ransom. This distinction is not observable here, however, and the word used here is employed in the proper sense of redeem. It occurs in the New Testament only in this place, and in Gal 4:5; Eph 5:16; Col 4:5. It properly means, to purchase, to buy up; and then to purchase anyone, to redeem, to set free. Here it means, that Christ had purchased, or set us free from the curse of the Law, by his being made a curse for us. On the meaning of the words redeem and ransom, see my notes at Rom 3:25; Isa 43:3, note; compare 2Co 5:21.

From the curse of the law – The curse which the Law threatens, and which the execution of the Law would inflict; the punishment due to sin. This must mean, that he has rescued us from the consequences of transgression in the world of woe; he has saved us from the punishment which our sins have deserved. The word, us here, must refer to all who are redeemed; that is, to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. The curse of the Law is a curse which is due to sin, and cannot be regarded as applied particularly to any one class of people. All who violate the Law of God, however that law may be made known, are exposed to its penalty. The word law here, relates to the Law of God in general, to all the laws of God made known to man. The Law of God denounced death as the wages of sin. It threatened punishment in the future world forever. That would certainly have been inflicted, but for the coming and death of Christ. The world is lying by nature under this curse, and it is sweeping the race on to ruin.

Being made a curse for us – This is an exceedingly important expression. Tyndale renders it, And was made a curse for us. The Greek word is katara, the same word which is used in Gal 3:10; see the note at that verse. There is scarcely any passage in the New Testament on which it is more important to have correct views than this; and scarcely anyone on which more erroneous opinions have been entertained. In regard to it, we may observe that it does not mean:

(1) That by being made a curse, the Lord Jesus character or work were in any sense displeasing to God. He approved always of what the Lord Jesus did, and he regarded his whole character with love and approbation. The passage should never be so interpreted as to leave the impression that he was in any conceivable sense the object of the divine displeasure.

(2) Jesus was not ill-deserving. He was not blame-worthy. He had done no wrong. He was holy, harmless, undefiled. No crime charged upon him was proved; and there is no clearer doctrine in the Bible than that, in all his character and work, the Lord Jesus was perfectly holy and pure.

(3) Jesus was not guilty in any proper sense of the word. The word guilty means, properly, to be bound to punishment for crime. It does not mean properly, to be exposed to suffering, but it always, when properly used, implies the notion of personal crime. I know that theologians have used the word in a somewhat different sense, but it is contrary to the common and just apprehensions of people. When we say that a man is guilty, we instinctively think of his having committed a crime, or having done something wrong. When a jury finds a man guilty, it implies that the man has committed a crime, and ought to be punished. But in this sense, and in no conceivable sense where the word is properly used was the Lord Jesus guilty.

(4) It cannot be mean that the Lord Jesus properly bore the penalty of the Law. His sufferings were in the place of the penalty, not the penalty itself. They were a substitution for the penalty, and were, therefore, strictly and properly vicarious, and were not the identical sufferings which the sinner would himself have endured. There are some things in the penalty of the Law, which the Lord Jesus did not endure, and which a substitute or a vicarious victim could not endure. Remorse of conscience is a part of the inflicted penalty of the Law, and will be a vital part of the sufferings of the sinner in hell – but the Lord Jesus did not endure that. Eternity of sufferings is an essential part of the penalty of the Law – but the Lord Jesus did not suffer forever. Thus, there are numerous sorrows connected with the consciousness of personal guilt, which the Lord Jesus did not and cannot endure.

(5) Jesus was not sinful, or a sinner, in any sense. He did not so take human guilt upon him, that the words sinful and sinner could with any propriety be applied to him. They are not applied to him any way in the Bible; but there the language is undeviating. It is that in all senses he was holy and undefiled. And yet language is often used on this subject which is horrible and only a little short of blasphemy, as if he was guilty, and as if he was even the greatest sinner in the universe. I have heard language used which sent a chill of horror to my heart; and language may be found in the writings of those who hold the doctrine of imputation in the strictest sense, which is only a little short of blasphemy. I have hesitated whether I should copy expressions here on this subject from one of the greatest and best of men (I mean Luther) to show the nature of the views which people sometimes entertain on the subject of the imputation of sin to Christ. But as Luther deliberately published them to the world in his favorite book, which he used to call his Catharine de Bora, after the name of his wife; and since similar views are sometimes entertained now; and as it is important that such views should be held up to universal abhorrence, no matter how respectable the source from which they emanate, I will copy a few of his expressions on this subject. And this, no doubt, all the prophets did foresee in spirit, than Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, and blasphemer, that ever was OR could be in the world. For he being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is not now an innocent person and without sins; is not now the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; but a sinner which hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor; of Peter, which denied Christ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murderer, and caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord; and, briefly, which hath and beareth all the sins of all people in his body: not that he himself committed them, but for that he received them, being committed or done of us, and laid them upon his own body, that he might make satisfaction for them with his own blood.

Therefore, this general sentence of Moses comprehendeth him also (albeit in his own person he was innocent), because it found him among sinners and transgressors; like as the magistrate taketh him for a thief, and punisheth him whom he findeth among other thieves and transgressors, though he never committed anything worthy of death. When the Law, therefore, found him among thieves it condemned and killed him as a thief. If thou wilt deny him to be a sinner and accursed, deny, also, that he was crucified and dead. But if it is not absurd to confess and believe that Christ was crucified between two thieves, then it is not absurd to say that he was accursed, and of all sinnerS, the greatesT. God, our most merciful Father, sent His only Son into the world, and laid upon him all the sins of all people, saying, be thou Peter, that denier; Paul, that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor; David, that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the fruit in Paradise; that thief who hung upon the cross; and, briefly, be thou the person who has committed the sins of all people; see, therefore, that thou pay and satisfy for them – Luther on the Galatians, Gal 3:13. (pp. 213-215. London edition, 1838).

Luther was a great and holy man. He held, as firmly as anyone can, to the personal holiness of the Redeemer. But this language shows how imperfect and erroneous views may warp the language of holy people; and how those sentiments led him to use language which is little less than blasphemy. Indeed, we cannot doubt that in Luther had heard this very language used by one of the numerous enemies of the gospel in his time, as applicable to the Saviour, he would have poured out the full torrent of his burning wrath, and all the stern denunciations of his most impassioned eloquence, on the head of the scoffer and the blasphemer. It is singular, it is one of the remarkable facts in the history of mind, that a man with the New Testament before him, and accustomed to contemplate daily its language, could ever have allowed himself to use expressions like these of the holy and unspotted Saviour. But what is the meaning of the language of Paul, it will be asked, when he says that he was made a curse for us?

In reply, I answer, that the meaning must be ascertained from the passage which Paul quotes in support of his assertion, that Christ was made a curse for us. That passage is, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. This passage is found in Deu 21:23. It occurs in a law respecting one who was hanged for a sin worthy of death, Deu 21:22. The Law was, that he should be buried the same day, and that the body should not remain suspended over the night, and it is added, as a reason for this, that he that is hanged is accursed of God; or, as it is in the margin, the curse of God. The meaning is, that when one was executed for crime in this manner, he was the object of the divine displeasure and malediction. Regarded thus as an object accursed of God, there was a propriety that the man who was executed for crime should be buried as soon as possible, that the offensive object should be hidden from the view In quoting this passage, Paul leaves out the words of God, and simply says, that the one who was hanged on a tree was held accursed.

The sense of the passage before us is, therefore, that Jesus was subjected to what was regarded as an accursed death. He was treated in his death As If he had been a criminal. He was put to death in the same manner as he would have been if he had himself been guilty of the violation of the Law. If he had been a thief or a murderer; if he had committed the grossest and the blackest crimes, this would have been the punishment to which he would have been subjected. This was the mode of punishment adapted to those crimes, and he was treated as if all these had been committed by him. Or, in other words, if he had been guilty of all these, or any of these, he could not have been treated in a more shameful and ignominious manner than he was; nor could he have been subjected to a more cruel death. Since it has already been intimated, it does not mean that Jesus was guilty, nor that he was not the object of the approbation and love of God, but that Jesus death was the same that it would have been if he had been the vilest of malefactors, and that that death was regarded by the Law as accursed.

It was by such substituted sorrows that we are saved; and he consented to die the most shameful and painful death, as if he were the vilest criminal, in order that the most guilty and vile of the human race might be saved. With regard to the way in which Jesus death is connected with our justification, see the note at Gal 2:16. It may be observed, also, that the punishment of the cross was unknown to the Hebrews in the time of Moses, and that the passage in Deu 21:23 did not refer originally to that. Nor is it known that hanging criminals alive was practiced among the Hebrews. Those who were guilty of great crimes were first stoned or otherwise put to death, and then their bodies were suspended for a few hours on a gibbet. In many cases, however, merely the head was suspended after it had been severed from the body. Gen 40:17-19; Num 25:4-5. Crucifixion was not known in the time of the giving of the Law, but the Jews gave such an extent to the Law in Deu 21:23 as to include this mode of punishment (see Joh 19:31 ff).

The force of the argument here, as used by the apostle Paul, is, that if to be suspended on a gibbet after having been put to death was regarded as a curse, it should not be regarded as a curse in a less degree to be suspended Alive on a cross, and to be put to death in this manner. If this interpretation of the passage is correct, then it follows that this should never be used as implying, in any sense, that Christ was guilty, or that he was ill-deserving, or that he was an object of the divine displeasure, or that he poured out on him all his wrath. He was, throughout, an object of the divine love and approbation. God never loved Jesus more, or approved what he did more, than when he gave himself to death on the cross. God had no hatred toward him; He had no displeasure to express toward him. And it is this which makes the atonement so wonderful and so glorious. If God had been displeased with Jesus; if the Redeemer had been properly an object of Gods wrath; if Jesus, in any sense, deserved those sorrows, there would have been no merit in Jesus sufferings; there would have been no atonement. What merit can there be when one suffers only what he deserves? But what made the atonement so wonderful, so glorious, so benevolent; what made it an atonement at all, was that innocence was treated as if it were guilt; that the most pure, and holy, and benevolent, and lovely being on earth should consent to be treated, and should be treated by God and man, as If Jesus were the most vile and ill-deserving. This is the mystery of the atonement; this shows the wonders of the divine benevolence; this is the nature of substituted sorrow; and this lays the foundation for the offer of pardon, and for the hope of eternal salvation.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Gal 3:13

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

Sin and redemption

I. The divine execration of sin.

1. Under a moral government a righteous governor will, yea, must, append blessing to good and cursing to evil.

2. There is a law above all human laws:

(1) In the perfection of its nature;

(2) the extent of its application;

(3) the power of its condemnation.

3. If we have broken this law, then we are placed under a curse.

II. The Divine redemption of the sinner

1. Guilty men are under the curse; a guiltless one comes under it

(1) joyfully;

(2) completely.

2. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, represents our race, and for us has become a curse.

(1) He was of such dignity that He could represent it;

(2) His act was spontaneous;

(3) He was appointed of the Father;

(4) foreseeing the result of His work He rejoiced to do it (Isa 53:11; Heb 13:1-2).

3. By bearing the curse on Himself He bore it off from us.

4. The curse being thus rolled away, the way is prepared for the coming of the blessing.

5. The blessing comes to those who repent and believe. (C. Clemance, D. D.)

I. The curse of the law contained all that was due to sin.

II. This belonged to us.

III. It was transferred to Christ. His hanging on a tree was the sign and token of this (Deu 21:23 cf.; 1Pe 2:24).

IV. This secures for all believers the blessing of faithful Abraham.

1. An interest in Christ.

2. Righteousness.

3. Acceptance with God. (J. Owen, D. D.)

The necessity for Christ
s bearing our curse

The sentence or curse of the law must not fall to the ground, for then the aid of Gods governing the world could not be secured; His law would seem to be given in jest, and His threatenings would be interpreted to be a vain scarecrow, and the sin of the creature would not seem so odious a thing, if the law might be broken and there were no more ado about it; therefore Christ must come to bear this curse. (T. Manton.)

Deliverance firm the curse through Christ

1. The threatenings of the law, denouncing a curse against those who yield not personal obedience to it, did not exclude or forbid a surety to come in the sinners room, and to undergo the curse due to him.

2. All men are by nature under the sentence of the laws curse, whereby in Gods justice they are under the power of darkness (Col 1:13), slavery and bondage to sin and Satan (Eph 2:2), so to remain until they be cast into utter darkness (Jud 1:13), except delivery and redemption intervene.

3. There is no delivery of enslaved man from this woeful bondage, but by giving satisfaction and by paying of a price for the wrong done to Divine justice, either by himself, or by some surety in his stead. Satisfaction is demanded by

(1) Gods fidelity (Gen 2:17);

(2) His righteous nature (Psa 11:6-7);

(3) the inward desert of sin (Rom 1:32).

4. It is not in the power of fallen man to acquire a ransom for himself, by anything he can either do or suffer.

5. Jesus Christ has undertaken and accomplished this great work.

6. This work is to redeem. Christ buys back what was once His own, but for a time lost.

7. It is a real redemption, all that was forfeited being restored.

8. The price paid by Christ, in order to our redemption, was no less than His undergoing the curse due to us. (James Ferguson.)

Christ made a curse for us

The apostle here unveils a reason why men are not saved by their personal righteousness, but by their faith. He says the reason is, that men are not saved now by any personal merit, but their salvation lies in another, viz., in Christ Jesus, the Representative Man, who alone can deliver from the curse of the law; and since works do not connect us with Christ, but faith is the uniting bond, faith becomes the way of salvation. Since faith is the hand that lays hold upon the finished work of Christ, which works could not and would not do, for works lead us to boast and to forget Christ, faith becomes the true and only way of obtaining justification and everlasting life. Let us try to understand more clearly the nature of His substitution, and of the suffering which it entailed upon Him.

I. What is the curse of the law here intended?

1. It is the curse of God. God who made the law has appended certain penal consequences to the breaking of it; and the man who violates the law becomes at once the subject of the wrath of the Lawgiver. Hence it must be

(1) supremely just;

(2) morally unavoidable;

(3) most weighty.

2. It is a sign of displeasure. God is angry with the wicked every day: His wrath towards sin is great.

3. Gods curse of something more than a threatening; He comes at length to blows. He uses warning words at first, but sooner or later He bares his sword for execution. Cain. Flood. Sodom.

II. Who are under the curse?

1. The Jewish nation. To them the law of God was very peculiarly given beyond all others.

2. All nations. The law, although not given to all from Sinai, has been written by the finger of God more or less legibly upon the conscience of all mankind.

3. Those who, when offered the gospel, prefer to remain under the law (Gal 3:10). All that the law of works can do for men is to leave them still accursed.

III. How was Christ made a curse for us?

1. By substitution. Christ was no curse in Himself. Of His own free will He became a curse for us.

2. All the sins of His people were actually laid upon Him. He endured both

(1) the penalty of loss; and
(2) the penalty of actual suffering, both

(a) in body and

(b) in soul.

It was an anguish never to be measured, an agony never to be comprehended. To God only were His griefs fully known. Well does the Greek liturgy put in, Thine unknown sufferings, for they must for ever remain beyond guess of human imagination. Behold Christ bearing the curse instead of His people. Here He is coming under the load of their sin, and God does not spare Him, but smites Him as He must have smitten us, lays His full vengeance on Him, launches all His thunderbolts against Him, bids the curse wreak itself upon Him, and Christ suffers all, sustains all.

IV. The blessed consequences of Christs having thus been made a curse for us.

1. We are redeemed from the curse. The law is silenced; it can demand no more. The quiver of wrath is exhausted.

2. The blessing of God, hitherto arrested by the curse, is now made most freely to flow. A great rock has been lifted out from the river-bed of Gods mercy, and the living stream comes rippling, rolling, swelling on in crystal tides, sweeping before it all human sin and sorrow, and making the thirsty who stoop down to drink at it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The nature of our redemption

Redemption being deliverance by means of the substitution of a ransom, it follows that, although the ransom can only be paid to God, and to Him only as the moral governor of the universe, we may still be said to be redeemed from all that we are delivered from by means of the ransom paid in the sacrifice of Christ. Thus we are said to be redeemed from

(1) our vain conversation (1Pe 1:18);

(2) death (Hos 12:14);

(3) the devil (Col 2:15);

(4) all iniquity (Tit 2:14);

(5) the curse of the law (Gal 3:13; Gal 4:5).

It is, of course, not meant that the ransom is paid to the devil, or to sin or to death, or to the law. These different conceptions are not inconsistent. A captive is redeemed by a price paid only to him that holds him in bondage, but by the same act he may be redeemed from labour, from disease, from death, from the persecution of his fellow-captives, and from a slavish disposition. (Hodge.)

The two curses

Two curses pronounced in the law are here referred to. All mankind was liable to the former one. How was it to be removed?

1. He who was to remove it must not Himself be liable to it. He who was to be a substitute for the guilty must Himself be innocent. He who was to suffer in the stead of the disobedient must Himself be obedient in all things.

2. He who was to be the substitute for all must have the common nature of all. He must not take the person of one individual man (such as Abraham, Moses, Elias), but He must take the nature of all, and sum up all mankind in Himself.

3. He who was to do more than counterbalance the weight of the sins of all, must have infinite merits of His own, in order that the scale of Divine justice may preponderate in their favour. And nothing that is not Divine is infinite. In order, therefore, that He may be able to suffer for sin, He must be human; and in order that He may be able to take away the sins, and to satisfy Gods justice for them, He must be Divine.

4. In order that He may remove the curse pronounced in the law of God for disobedience, He must undergo that punishment which is especially declared in the law to be the curse of God.

5. That punishment is hanging on a tree (Deu 21:23).

6. By undergoing this curse for us, Christ, He who is God from everlasting, and who became Emmanuel, God with us, God in our flesh, uniting together the two natures–the Divine and the human–in His one person–Christ Jesus, redeemed us from the curse of the law. Thus, having accepted the curse, He liberated us from it. (Bishop Chris. Wordsworth.)

Christ stood for the every one who continueth not, by becoming the very one who hung upon the tree. (M. B. Riddle, D. D.)

The satisfaction of Christ

1. The believers discharge. The law of God hath three parts, commands, promises, and threatenings or curses. The curse of the law is its condemning sentence, whereby a sinner is bound over to death, even the death of soul and body. The chain, by which it binds him, is the guilt of sin, and from which none can loose the soul but Christ. This curse of the law is the most dreadful thing imaginable; it strikes at the life of a sinner, yea, his best life, the eternal life of the soul; and when it hath condemned, it is inexorable, no cries nor tears, no reformations or repentance, can loose the guilty sinner: for it requires for its reparation that which no mere creature can give, even an infinite satisfaction. Now from this curse Christ frees the believer; that is, He dissolves the obligation to punishment, cancels the hand-writing, looses all the bonds and chains of guilt, so that the curse of the law hath nothing to do with him for ever.

2. We have here the way and manner in and by which this is done; and that is by a full price paid down, and that price paid in the room of the sinner, both making up a complete and full satisfaction. He pays a full price, every way adequate and proportionable to the wrong.

3. The nature of Christs satisfaction.

(1) It is the act of God-man; no other was capable of giving satisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God. But by reason of the union of the two natures in His wonderful person, He could do it, and hath done it for us.

(2) If He satisfy God for us, He must present Himself before God, as our Surety, in our stead, as well as for our good; else His obedience had signified nothing to us: To this end He was made under the law (Gal 4:4), comes under the same obligation with us, and that as a Surety, for so He is called (Heb 7:22). Indeed, His obedience and sufferings could be exacted from Him upon no other account. It was not for anything He had done that He became a curse.

(3) The internal moving cause of Christs satisfaction for us was His obedience to God, and love to us. That it was an act of obedience is plain from Php 2:8, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

(4) The matter of Christs satisfaction was His active and passive obedience to all the law of God required.

(5) The effect and fruit of this His satisfaction is our freedom, ransom, or deliverance from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins. Such was the dignity, value, and completeness of Christs satisfaction, that in strict justice it merited our redemption and full deliverance; not only a possibility that we might be redeemed and pardoned, but a right whereby we ought to be so. We pass on to state some obections, and to answer them. The doctrine of Christs satisfaction is absurd, for Christ (say we) is God; if so, then God satisfies Himself, than which what can be more absurd to imagine? I answer, God cannot properly be said to satisfy Himself; for that would be the same thing as to pardon, simply, without any satisfaction. But there is a twofold consideration of Christ; one in respect of His essence and Divine nature, in which sense He is the object both of the offence, and of the satisfaction made for it. Another in respect of His person and economy, or office; in which sense He properly satisfies God, being in respect of His manhood another, and inferior to God (Joh 14:28). The blood of the man Christ Jesus is the matter of the satisfaction; the Divine nature dignifies it, and makes it of infinite value.

2. If Christ satisfied by paying our debt, then He should have endured eternal torments; for so we should, and the damned shall. We must distinguish betwixt what is essential, and what is accidental in punishment. The primary intent of the law is reparation and satisfaction; he that can make it at one entire payment (as Christ could and did) ought to be discharged. He that cannot (as no mere creature can) ought to lie for ever, as the damned do, under sufferings.

3. If God will be satisfied for our sins before He pardon them, how then is pardon an act of grace? Pardon could not be an act of pure grace, if God received satisfaction from us; but if He pardon us upon the satisfaction received from Christ, though it be of debt to Him, it is of grace to us: for it was grace to admit a surety to satisfy, more grace to provide Him, and most of all to apply His satisfaction to us, by uniting us to Christ, as He hath done.

4. But God loved us before Christ died for us; for it was the love of God to the world that moved Him to give His only-begotten Son. Could God love us, and yet not be reconciled and satisfied? Gods complacential love is indeed inconsistent with an unreconciled state: He is reconciled to every one He so loves. But His benevolent love, consisting in His purpose of good, may be before actual reconciliation and satisfaction.

5. Temporal death, as well us eternal, is a part of the curse; if Christ have fully satisfied by bearing the curse for us, how is it that those for whom He bare it die as well as others? As temporal death is a penal evil, and part of the curse, so God inflicts it not upon believers; but they must die for other ends, viz., to be made perfectly happy in a more full and immediate enjoyment of God, than they can have in the body; and so death is theirs by way of privilege (1Co 3:22). They are not deaths by way of punishment. The same may be said of all the afflictions with which God, for gracious ends, now exercised His reconciled ones. Thus much may suffice to establish this great truth. We proceed to make the following inferences:

1. If the death of Christ was that which satisfied God for all the sins of the elect, then certainly there is an infinite evil in sin, since it cannot be expiated, but by an infinite satisfaction. Fools make a mock at sin, and there are but few souls in the world that are duly sensible of, and affected with its evil; but certainly, if God should damn thee to all eternity, thy eternal sufferings could not satisfy for the evil that is in one vain thought.

2. If the death of Christ satisfied God, and thereby redeemed the elect from the curse, then the redemption of souls is costly; souls are dear things, and of great value with God.

3. If Christs death satisfied God for our sins, how unparalleled is the love of Christ to poor sinners!

4. If Christ, by dying, hath made full satisfaction, then God is no loser in pardoning the greatest of sinners that believe in Jesus; and consequently His justice can be no bar to their justification and salvation. He is just to forgive us our sins (1Jn 1:9). What an argument is here for a poor believer to plead with God!

5. If Christ hath made such a full satisfaction as you have heard, how much is it the concernment of every soul, to abandon all thoughts of satisfying God for his own sins, and betake himself to the blood of Christ, the ransomer, by faith, that in that blood they may be pardoned? It would grieve ones heart to see how many poor creatures are drudging and tugging at a task of repentance, and revenge upon themselves, and reformation, and obedience, to satisfy God for what they have clone against Him: And alas! it cannot be, they do but lose their labour; could they swelter their very hearts out, weep till they can weep no more, cry till their throats be parched, alas, they can never recompense God for one vain thought. For such is the severity of the law, that when it is once offended, it will never be made amends again by all that we can do; it will not discharge the sinner, for all the sorrow in the world. (John Flavel.)

Suffering, redemption, blessing

I. The sufferings of Christ. He was made a curse. Upon Him rested, for a season, the wrath of God.

1. This was the bitter experience of His life. From His standpoint of perfect rectitude and purity, He saw how far men had wandered from God, and how deeply they had fallen in sin.

2. This was the agony of His death. Mans hatred to God culminated in the act that put Christ to death.

3. That Christ endured such suffering, being made a curse, was evident from the peculiar manner of His death. As it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

II. Redemption by christ. He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

III. Blessing through Christ. In this blessing is included–

1. Salvation for the Gentiles, That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.

2. Blessing through Christ included the promise of the Spirit.

Lessons:

1. Christ the sufferer must be Christ the Redeemer.

2. The blessings of salvation are to be obtained in Christ ( ). There must be fellowship with Christ.

3. Salvation becomes an actual and personal blessing through the ministration of the Spirit. (Richard Nicholls.)

Christ made a curse for man

A man pays a ransom for slaves; but Christ took the slaves place. A doctor gives medicine to a sick man; but Christ took the disease on Himself. We are told of Sister Dora that she was in the habit of bringing back to life patients who had sunk into the first stage of the fatal collapse which often precedes death from small-pox, by actually putting her mouth to theirs, and breathing into them, until vitality was restored. (Sister Dora, by M. Lonsdale.) St. Vincent do Paul was at one time almoner-general to the prison ships in the chief harbours of France, during the reign of Louis XIII. While visiting those at Marseilles, he was so much struck by the broken-down looks and exceeding sorrowfulness of one of the convicts, that, on discovering his sorrow was less for his own sake than for the misery to which his absence must needs reduce his wife and children, St. Vincent absolutely changed places with the convict. The prisoner went free, whilst St. Vincent wore a convicts chain, did a convicts work, lived on convict fare, and, worst of all, had only convict society. He was soon sought out and released, but the hurts he had received from the pressure of the chains lasted all his life . After this St. Vincent worked with infinitely more force on the consciences of the convicts for having been for a time one of themselves. (From Miss Yonges Book of Golden Deeds.)

Our redemption by Christ

This curse is the wretched inheritance of all the guilty sons of Adam. And can there any, in this forlorn and desperate ease, interpose to shelter the trembling sinner from so great, so deserved, so imminent a destruction? Is there any way of escape, any door of hope opened? There is; for, behold! I this day bring unto all penitent and humble souls the glad tidings of great joy; joy which, if excess of fear and horror have not altogether stupefied and made us insensible, must needs fill us with the highest raptures of triumph and exultations. A Saviour, a Redeemer: O sweet and precious names, for lost and undone sinners! Names, full of mercy, full of life! Justice is answered; the law is satisfied; the curse removed; and we restored to the hopes of eternal life and salvation. Christ hath redeemed us, etc.

I. Jesus Christ, the ever-blessed God, was made a curse for us.

1. What it is to be made a curse. Now to be accursed, in its proper notion, signifies to be devoted to miseries and punishments; for we are said to curse another when we devote and, so far as in us lies, appoint him to plagues and miseries. And God is said to curse men when He doth devote and appoint them to punishments. Men curse by imprecation; but God curseth more effectually by ordination and infliction. But yet, notwithstanding, every one whom God afflicts must not be esteemed as cursed by Him. Every one, therefore, that is afflicted is not presently accursed. For God hath two ends for which He brings any affliction upon us. The one is the manifestation of His holiness; the other is the satisfaction of His justice. And accordingly as any affliction or suffering tends to the promoting of these ends, so it may be said to be a curse or not.

2. How Jesus Christ, who is God blessed for ever, could be made a curse or become accursed. This, at the first glance of our thoughts upon it, seems very difficult, if not impossible, to be reconciled. And the difficulty is increased, partly because the true faith acknowledgeth our Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God, blessed for ever; and partly because the apostle tells us, That no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth. Jesus accursed (1Co 12:3).

(1) Then certain it is that Christ is essentially blessed, being the most blessed God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, possessing all the infinite perfections of the Deity, invariably and immeasurably. Yea, and He is the fountain of all blessing, whence flow all our hopes and happiness. But although He is for ever blessed essentially, yet,

(2) Mediatorily, He was accursed; and that because the economy and dispensation of His mediatory office required that tie should be subjected unto sufferings, not only as they were simply evil, but as they were penal, and inflicted on Him to this very end, that justice might be repaired and satisfied.

(3) But the curse of the law being only duo unto sin and guilt, it remains yet to be inquired how this curse could be justly inflicted on our Saviour, who was infinitely pure and innocent; and to whom the Scripture gives this testimony, that He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth (1Pe 2:22). To this I answer: That sin may be considered either as personal or imputed.

(a) Christ was free from all personal sin, whether of corruption of nature or transgression of life.

(b) Yet He was not free from all imputed sin and guilt. The sins of all the world assembled and met together upon Him.

3. Is it consistent with the justice of God to punish an innocent person for the sins of those that are guilty? To this I answer:

(1) In general, that it is not unjust for God to punish the sins of one person upon another who hath not committed them. We find frequent instances of this in the Scripture (Exo 20:8; Lam 5:7; Gen 9:25; 2Sa 21:1-14; 2Sa 24:17).

(2) It is just with God to inflict the punishment of our sins upon Christ, though innocent. And there are two things upon which this justice and equity are founded–conjunction and consent.

[1] There is a near conjunction between Christ and us, upon which account it is no injustice to punish Him in our stead. And this conjunction is twofold-either natural or mystical.
1st. There is a natural conjunction between us, as Christ is truly man, and hath taken upon Him our nature, which makes a cognation and alliance between us. We are bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. It was therefore necessary that Christ should take our nature upon a threefold account.
(1st) That thereby the same person, who is God, might become passive, and a fit subject to receive and bear the wrath of God; for had He not been man, He could not have received it; and had He not been God, He could not have borne it.
(2ndly) That satisfaction might be made to offended justice in the same nature which transgressed; that as it was man which sinned, so man also might be punished. And yet farther,

(3rdly) that the right of redemption might be in Christ, being made near of kin unto us, by His taking our flesh and our nature. For we find in the law that the person who was next of kin was to redeem to himself the lands of his relations, when they were fallen to decay, and constrained by poverty to sell them (Lev 25:25; Rth 3:12; Rth 4:4). Whereby was typified unto us our redemption by Jesus Christ, who, having a body prepared for Him, is now become near of kin unto us, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Now, because of this natural conjunction, the transferring the punishment from us, who are guilty, unto Christ, who is guiltless, doth, at least in this respect, answer the rules and measures of justice; that although the same person be not punished, yet the same nature is. But this is not all, for–

2ndly. There is a nearer conjunction between Christ and us, and that is mystical, whereby we are made one person with Him. And by reason of this, God, in punishing Christ, punisheth not only the same nature, but the same person. For there is such an intimate union by faith between Christ and a believer, that they make up but one mystical person.
[2] As Christ is thus conjoined to us, both naturally and mystically, so He has also given His full consent to stand in our stead, and to bear our punishment.

4. Did Christ bear the same wrath and curse which were due to us for our sins, or some other punishment in lieu thereof? For answer to this, we must carefully distinguish between the substance of the curse and the adjuncts and circumstances of it. For want of rightly distinguishing between these, too many have been woefully staggered and perverted in their faith; and have been induced to believe that Christ died not in the stead of any, but only for the good of all, as the Socinians blaspheme. Now certain it is that Christ underwent the very same punishment, for the matter and substance of it, which was due to us by the curse and threatening of the law, though it may be different in very many circumstances and modifications, according to the divers natures of the subjects on whom it was to be inflicted. For the substance of the curse and punishment threatened against sinners is death. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

5. For whose sake was Christ thus accursed and punished?

(1) He died in our place and stead as a Ransom for us.

(2) He suffered our punishment to free us from it.

II. Christ being thus made a curse for us, and suffering all the wrath and punishment that was due unto us, hath thereby redeemed us from the curse and condemnation threatened in the law.

1. Let us consider what redemption is. Redemption, therefore, may be taken either properly or improperly. An improper redemption is a powerful rescue of a man from under any evil or danger in which he is. Thus Jacob makes mention of the angel which redeemed him from all evil (Gen 48:16); and the disciples profess that they hoped that Jesus had been He who should have redeemed the Israelites from under the Roman yoke and subjection, etc. A proper redemption is by paying a price and ransom. And that either fully equivalent: thus one kinsman was to redeem another out of servitude (Lev 25:49-50); or else what is given for the redemption of another may, in itself, be of a less value, but yet is accepted as a recompense and satisfaction: thus the first-born of a man was to be redeemed, and the price paid down for him no more than five shekels (Num 18:15-16). Now the redemption made for us by Christ is a proper redemption, by way of price; and that price, not only reckoned valuable by acceptation, but, in itself, fully equivalent to the purchase, and compensatory to Divine justice.

2. The reasons which moved God to contrive the method of our redemption by substituting His own Son to bear the punishment of our offences.

(1) God substitutes His Son to undergo our punishment that thereby the exceeding greatness of His love towards us might be expressed and glorified.

(2) In the sufferings of Jesus Christ, God manifests the glory both of His justice and mercy, and with infinite wisdom reconciles them one with the other.

(3) By this means also God most effectually expresses His infinite hatred and detestation of sin. For it is expedient that God should, by some notable example, show the world how provoking a thing sin is. It is true He hath already demonstrated His hate against it by ruthful examples upon all the creatures. As soon as ever the least breath of this contagion seized upon them, God turned the angels out of heaven, and man out of Paradise; He subjected the whole creation unto vanity, that nothing but fears, care, sorrow, and disappointment reign here below; and under these woeful effects of the Divine wrath we groan and sign away our days. But all these are but weak instances of so great and almighty a wrath; and their capacity is so narrow, that they can only contain some few drops of the Divine indignation, and those, likewise, distilled upon them by degrees and succession. And, therefore, God is resolved to fit a vessel large enough, a subject capable enough, to contain the immense ocean of His wrath; and because this cannot be in any finite and limited nature, God Himself must be subject to the wrath of God.

(4) God so severely punisheth His Son that the extremity of His sufferings might be a caution to us, and affect us with a holy dread and fear how we provoke so just and so jealous a God. For if His own Son, dear to Him as His own essence, could not escape, when He only stood in the place of sinners, how thinkest thou, O wretch! to escape the righteous judgment of God if thou continuest in thy sins and provocations?

3. Who the persons are for whom Jesus Christ has wrought out this great redemption.

(1) That Christ died for all men, with an absolute intention of bringing all and every one of them into a state of salvability; from the which they were excluded by their guilt and Gods righteous judgment, and that He is not frustrated in this His intention, but, by His death, hath fully effected and accomplished it.

(2) The second argument is this: The covenant of grace is propounded to all indefinitely and universally. (Mar 16:16) Whosoever believeth shall be saved. And, under these general terms, it may be propounded unto all, even the most desperate and forlorn sinners on earth. But if Christ had not died for all, as well for the reprobate as the elect, this tender could not be made to all, as our Saviour commands it to be (v. 15), Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

(3) It must needs be acknowledged that Christ died for all men, in such a sense, as He is denied to have died for the fallen angels; then His death was not only a sufficient, but an intended, ransom for all. For the death of Christ had sufficient worth and value in it to have redeemed and restored them, being an infinite price, through the infinite dignity of His person.

(4) All are bound to the great duty of believing in Christ; therefore He died for all.

(5) All men in the world are obliged to return gratitude and obedience unto Christ upon the account and consideration of His death; therefore His death had a respect to all (See 1Co 6:20; 2Co 5:15).

(6) Christ challenges unto Himself supreme authority and dominion over all by the right of His death (Rom 14:9). But if Christs authority over all, as Mediator, be founded on His death, it will follow that, as His authority is over all, so His death was for all; otherwise He must exercise His jurisdiction over those persons over whom He hath no right nor title.

III. Practical inferences and corollaries.

1. Be exhorted to admire and adore the infinite love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards fallen and undone mankind, in that He was pleased to substitute Himself in our stead, and, when the hand of justice was lifted up against us, to thrust Himself between us and the dread effects of the Divine wrath, receiving into His own bosom all the arrows of Gods quiver, every one of them dipped in the poison of the curse

(1) Consider the infinite glory and dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) Consider our infinite vileness and wretchedness.

(3) The infinite love of Christ, in being made a curse for us, is mightily glorified, if we consider, not only what He was, and who we are, but the several bitter and direful ingredients that compounded the curse which was laid upon Him.

2. If Christ has thus borne the curse for us, why should we think it much to bear the cross for Him?

3. Here is abundant satisfaction made to the justice of God for all the transgressions of true believers. They, by their Surety, have paid to the full, yea, and supererogated in His sufferings. For God could never have been so completely satisfied in exacting the penalty from us in our own- persons as now He is by the punishments laid upon His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For those very sufferings of thy Saviour, which were an expiation for the sins of the whole world, were all of them tendered to the Father as an expiation for thine, and the full value of His infinite satisfaction belongs all of it entirely unto thee. And, therefore, look upon thy sins as horrid and heinous as thou canst; yet, unless thine in particular have been more than the sins of all the world, unless thine have been more sinful than sin itself can be, know, for thy comfort, that a full atonement is made, and now nothing is expected from thee but only to accept, it, and to walk worthy of it. (E. Hopkins, D. D.)

The substitute

One of our boys had committed an offence so bad that Mr. Gibb, his teacher, though rarely using the rod, felt it necessary to make an example of him. The punishment was to be publicly inflicted, that others might fear. But when the culprit, who had only been a few days in our school, was stripped, he was such a living skeleton, that the master had not the heart to beat him. At his wits end what to do–for the crime must be punished–it occurred to him to make such an appeal as, to compare small things to great, reminds us of the mystery of salvation, and the love of Him who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and by whose stripes we are healed. Turning to the others, It goes, he said, against my heart to lay a hand on that miserable creature. Will any one take his place, and be punished in his stead? The words bad hardly left his lips when, with tears of pity brimming in his eyes, a boy stepped bravely out, pulled his jacket off, and pushing the culprit aside, offered his own back and shoulders to the rod. A ragged school boy, he was a hero in his way, presenting an example of courage and kindness, of sympathy and unselfishness, rare in schools–or anywhere else. (Dr. Guthrie.)

Christ our substitute

Damon, a Grecian philosopher, is remarkable for his devotion to Pythias, his friend. Pythias having been condemned to death, he obtained leave of absence to go home and settle his affairs, and Damon pledged himself to endure the punishment if his friend did: not return. Pythias was absent at the time for the execution, but Damon was punctual, and ready to die for his friend, and the king was so pleased with the friendship of Damon that he pardoned him. (W. Birch.)

Enduring the curse for another

About a fortnight ago a man was admitted to the Bristol Royal. Infirmary, suffering from an affection of the throat, supposed to be diphtheria. The operation of tracheotomy was performed by Mr. W. C. Lysaght, M.R.C.S., assistant medical officer to the Infirmary; but the tube becoming choked, the last chance of saving the mans life was for some one to apply his lips to the tube and suck the moisture. This Mr. Lysaght did, but without avail, for shortly afterwards the patient died of suppressed scarlatina. Mr. Lysaght caught the disease in its worse form, and died. (From The Yorkshire Post, Aug. 6, 1887.)

Christ made a curse

I. Christ made a curse. First of all, I lay down this position as certain (however unlikely it might have seemed to us beforehand:), that the curse which the apostle speaks of is the curse of God. True, there was no lack of the cursing of this blessed One, in a secondary sense of the word, from other quarters,–no lack of the cursing of Him by men and devils, in the sense of maligning, blaspheming–wishing, calling Him accursed. But Paul assuredly does not speak of anything of that kind. Besides that he says made–not called, or wished, but () made a curse,–see how certain it is from the entire context that it is the curse of God which he speaks of, and which he says Christ was made. He had begun to speak of this curse at the tenth verse, saying, As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that con-tinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Then in the thirteenth verse, where the text lies, Christ, says he, hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. It is out of the question to imagine the sense of the term to be entirely changed in this second: clause. Beyond all doubt the meaning is, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having borne that curse–been made the curse of the law for us. And then, as it is Gods curse which the apostle says Christ was made, so was it God Himself who made Him that curse. God alone can bring His curse on any man. And you may only further notice as to this, that the word made here is the same the apostle uses in the fourth verse of the next chapter, When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law–made by God, of course. Our first position then is, that it is the curse of God which the apostle says Christ was made, and God Himself who made Him that curse.

II. But, secondly, at once the question arises, how could such a thing ever be? For the righteous God will bring His curse on no guiltless one. But it is certain He will not bring His curse on the guiltless. Wicked men may curse them–may wish, or call them, accursed.

III. But now, thirdly, there was a mysterious manner, yet most real and true, in which Christ was not guiltless. I might remind you of those words of the ransomed Church in Isaiah, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. But let us fix our attention a little more closely on those words of 2Co 5:21, God made Him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Made Him to be sin–the entire expression is, made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. So much is certain, therefore, negatively, that the apostles meaning is not, and cannot be, that He was made our sin in the pollution, or stain, or turpitude of it, either in nature or in life. For, besides the frightfulness of such a thing to be even imagined, it were in contradiction to the express words, He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. So that the question remains just as before, what that sin was which was transferred. It could not be the pollution, the turpitude, on the one hand; it was not the suffering simply, on the other. But there was a great intermediate element between the turpitude and the suffering;and this it was that Christ was made in the whole fearful reality of it–even the guilt (the reatus, as the Latins spoke)–the just liability in law, and in the eye of the lawgiver, to endure the suffering, the punishment, the curse. For Christ, by an altogether peculiar Divine constitution–of infinite grace alike on the Fathers part and on His own–had become the Head of His body the Church,–taken their place in law–become one with them in law for ever. Read again, for instance, that fourth verse of the following chapter, When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law–under the law? But what could the Son, the very Lawgiver, have to do with subjection to the law? Nothing, assuredly, for Himself–nothing save as a public Person, Surety, Representative. And now turn we for a moment to the passage cited by the apostle from the Pentateuch. Let no one be startled in the reading of it. It is the twenty-first of Deuteronomy, the twenty-second and twenty-third verses–If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; his body Shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God); that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

IV. Fourthly, thus have we the wondrous explanation of the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ, which otherwise were an inexplicable enigma. Even had His sufferings proceeded simply from the hands of men and devils, the mystery would not have been removed, since neither devils nor men could be more than instruments–voluntary and guilty, yet only instruments–in the hand of Jehovah for the executing of His designs. But the fact, unquestionably, was that the principal sufferings of this Just One came from the immediate hand of the Father himself. It is impossible to read the Gospel histories without perceiving that by far His deepest agonies were those which He endured when there was no hand of man upon Him at all, or when, at least, He himself traces the suffering to another hand altogether–saying, for example, Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour.–My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with Me–Oh My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me–My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Ah! behold the explanation of all–of the travail of Messiahs soul–of an agony that wrung the blood from every pore of His sacred body–of what He himself declared to be His own Fathers desertion of Him–see, not the source of it only, but the soul also of its deepest bitterness and anguish, in these words, made sin, made a curse,–not accursed simply, but–as if all the curses due to a worlds sin had been made to meet in His person–made curse, that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law!

V. Fifthly, there are certain great central things among the types of the Old Testament which cast much light over the mysterious fact in our text, and, in their turn, receive important light from it. Let me select three–the brazen serpent, the burnt offering, and the sin offering.

1. The brazen serpent. At first view it seems very strange that the chosen type of the blessed Redeemer should have been the likeness of a serpent,–that, when the Israelites were dying of the bite of serpents, the medium of their cure should have been the likeness of one, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. But the wonder ceases, or rather is turned into another wonder of holy admiration, when we find that the only possible way of our deliverance from sin, was the Redeemers taking it, in its whole guilt and curse into His own person–being made sin and a curse for us. What glorious light is thus cast on the words of Jesus, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life!

2. The burnt offering. There is no doubt that the fire of all the burnt offerings of the law, whether it came down immediately from heaven to consume the victim, as on various memorable occasions, or was kindled naturally, was the emblem of the Divine holiness and justice, consuming the substitute lamb on which the sin had been laid–the sacrifice in place of the sinner. What a picture of Christ made a curse, enduring the fire of the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men! What a picture of the prophets Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the shepherd! What a picture of Him who cried, My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death!

3. The sin-offering. Let these words, for example, be carefully observed (Lev 16:27-28), The bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin-offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skin, and their flesh, and their dung. And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. That is to say, the victim, as having had the whole iniquities transferred to it by the laying of the hand upon its head, had become an unclean and accursed thing, and so behoved to be carried away out of Gods sight without the camp, and consumed in the fire. This is what our apostle refers to in those words in Hebrews, The bodies of those beasts, whose blood for sin is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. As if to say that when God appointed the sin-offerings of the law to be carried forth outside the camp as unclean and accursed, and to be burned in the fire, it was but a figure of our Lord Jesus, laden with our accursed iniquities, made sin and a curse, numbered with the transgressors, dealt with as the vilest of all–not by man so much as by God, the Holy One of Israel–because the Lord had, with His own most free consent, made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all. When Jesus was led forth out of Jerusalem, and there crucified between the thieves, it was as if all the innumerable multitudes of sinners whom He represented had been in that hour carried out, and had there endured, in their own persons, the curse of the Divine law due to their whole ungodliness, unrighteousness, pride, falsehood, vanity, uncleanness, rebellion, and I know not what other crimes and sins.

VI. But thus I observe, once more, that we do not get at the full explanation of the mysterious fact in our text till we have taken into view the wondrous design and issue of all, as set forth in the passage thus–Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And now, not only are we thus delivered from the laws terrible sentence, but–the stone which lay over the grave of our corruption once removed–the way is open for the Holy Ghosts descending into it to make an end of our corruption too,–yea, open for the whole blessing of the Abrahamic covenant, I will be a God to thee, coming on believers everywhere, of the Gentiles and of the Jews alike–from which blessing the apostle singles out the promise of the Holy Ghost, as being the centre and sum of it all, saying, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, etc., that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Three words in conclusion.

1. The apostle, in the opening chapter of this Epistle, speaks of another gospel, which is not another. Very rife in our day is another gospel, which truly is not another gospel. Substantially it is this, that God never has had a quarrel with man, but only man a quarrel with God,–that God never has been angry with men, but men only jealous of Him; and that the whole design, of Christs coming into the world, and of His suffering unto death was to convince men of this–who, as soon as they are persuaded to believe it–to believe that God loves them, and has loved them always, are saved. Another gospel truly–which in fact turns the whole mission and work of our Lord Jesus Christ into an unreality! But see the apostles gospel in verses 10, 13, 14, of this chapter. Verse 10, Gods quarrel with guilty men–As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Then, the wondrous settlement of that quarrel (verse 13), Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. And hence the settlement of our vile quarrel also with God (verse 14), that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now at length a conscience purged, and righteously purged, from dead works, to serve the living God! Now all possible motives, of love, and fear, and gratitude, and hope, and joy, unto a new and child-like obedience! O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid: Thou has loosed my bonds.

2. Behold here the very soul of the Lords Supper, which might have for its motto, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,–This is My body broken for you: this cup is My blood of the new covenant, shed for remission of the sins of many. Oh for a profound self-abasement, and fervent love, and lively faith, in the observing of it!

3. Be it well known to all, that we become partakers of this whole redemption by faith alone without the deeds of the law. (C. G. Brown, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us] . Hath bought us with a price; viz. his blood, or life.

Being made a curse for us] Being made an atonement for our sins; for whatever was offered as an atonement for sin was considered as bearing the punishment due to sin, and the person who suffered for transgression was considered as bearing the curse in his body; therefore, in the same day in which a criminal was executed it was ordered that his body should be buried, that the land might not be polluted, because he that was hanged, which was the case with every heinous culprit, was considered accursed of God, De 21:22-23; hence the necessity of removing the accursed THING out of sight.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

If the law curseth all those who continue not in all things contained in the law, (as the apostle had said, Gal 3:10, and proved from Deu 27:26), it might be objected: How will believers then escape more than others; for none of them continue in all that is written in the law? The apostle here obviateth this objection, by telling the Galatians, that, as to believers, Christ had

redeemed them from this curse. The word generally signifies delivering; here it signifies a deliverance by a price paid. This was by being himself

made a curse for us, not only execrable to men, but bearing the wrath and indignation of God due for sin:

for so it was written, Deu 21:23; He that is hanged is accursed of God; that is, hath borne the wrath or curse of God due to him for his sin. The apostle applying this to Christ, teacheth us, that Christ also, hanging upon the cross, bare the curse of God due to the sins of believers; in whose stead, as well as for whose good and benefit, he died. And indeed he could no other way redeem believers from the curse of the law, but by being made himself a curse for them. Some think, that under the law he who was hanged was made a curse, not only politically, but typically, as signifying that curse which Christ should he made on the behalf of the elect.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. Abrupt exclamation, as hebreaks away impatiently from those who would involve us againin the curse of the law, by seeking justification in it, to“Christ,” who “has redeemed us from its curse.”The “us” refers primarily to the Jews, to whom the lawprincipally appertained, in contrast to “the Gentiles” (Ga3:14; compare Gal 4:3;Gal 4:4). But it is notrestricted solely to the Jews, as ALFORDthinks; for these are the representative people of the world atlarge, and their “law” is the embodiment of what Godrequires of the whole world. The curse of its non-fulfilment affectsthe Gentiles through the Jews; for the law represents thatrighteousness which God requires of all, and which, since the Jewsfailed to fulfil, the Gentiles are equally unable to fulfil. Ga3:10, “As many as are of the works of the law, are under thecurse,” refers plainly, not to the Jews only, but to all,even Gentiles (as the Galatians), who seek justification by the law.The Jews’ law represents the universal law which condemned theGentiles, though with less clear consciousness on their part (Ro2:1-29). The revelation of God’s “wrath” by the law ofconscience, in some degree prepared the Gentiles for appreciatingredemption through Christ when revealed. The curse had to be removedfrom off the heathen, too, as well as the Jews, in order that theblessing, through Abraham, might flow to them. Accordingly, the “we,”in “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit,”plainly refers to both Jews and Gentiles.

redeemed usboughtus off from our former bondage (Ga4:5), and “from the curse” under which all lie whotrust to the law and the works of the law for justification. TheGentile Galatians, by putting themselves under the law, wereinvolving themselves in the curse from which Christ has redeemed theJews primarily, and through them the Gentiles. The ransom price Hepaid was His own precious blood (1Pe 1:18;1Pe 1:19; compare Mat 20:28;Act 20:28; 1Co 6:20;1Co 7:23; 1Ti 2:6;2Pe 2:1; Rev 5:9).

being madeGreek,“having become.”

a curse for usHavingbecome what we were, in our behalf, “a curse,” thatwe might cease to be a curse. Not merely accursed (in theconcrete), but a curse in the abstract, bearing theuniversal curse of the whole human race. So 2Co5:21, “Sin for us,” not sinful, but bearing thewhole sin of our race, regarded as one vast aggregate of sin.See Note there. “Anathema” means “set apart to God,”to His glory, but to the person’s own destruction. “Curse,“an execration.

written (De21:23). Christ’s bearing the particular curse of hangingon the tree, is a sample of the “general” curse which Herepresentatively bore. Not that the Jews put to death malefactors byhanging; but after having put them to death otherwise, inorder to brand them with peculiar ignominy, they hung thebodies on a tree, and such malefactors were accursed by the law(compare Act 5:30; Act 10:39).God’s providence ordered it so that to fulfil the prophecy of thecurse and other prophecies, Jesus should be crucified, and so hangon the tree, though that death was not a Jewish mode of execution.The Jews accordingly, in contempt, call Him Tolvi, “thehanged one,” and Christians, “worshippers of thehanged one”; and make it their great objection that He died theaccursed death [TRYPHO, inJustin Martyr, p. 249] (1Pe2:24). Hung between heaven and earth as though unworthy ofeither!

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,…. The Redeemer is Christ, the Son of God; who was appointed and called to this work by his Father, and which he himself agreed to; he was spoken of in prophecy under this character; he came as such, and has obtained eternal redemption, for which he was abundantly qualified; as man, he was a near kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belonged; and as God, he was able to accomplish it. The persons redeemed are “us”, God’s elect, both of Jews and Gentiles; a peculiar people, the people of Christ, whom the Father gave unto him; some out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation: the blessing obtained for them is redemption; a buying of them again, as the word signifies; they were his before by the Father’s gift, and now he purchases them with the price of his own blood, and so delivers them “from the curse of the law”; its sentence of condemnation and death, and the execution of it; so that they shall never be hurt by it, he having delivered them from wrath to come, and redeemed from the second death, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. The manner in which this was done was by being

made a curse for us; the sense of which is, not only that he was like an accursed person, looked upon as such by the men of that wicked generation, who hid and turned away their faces from as an abominable execrable person, calling him a sinner, a Samaritan, and a devil; but was even accursed by the law; becoming the surety of his people, he was made under the law, stood in their legal place and stead and having the sins of them all imputed to him, and answerable for them, the law finding them on him, charges him with them, and curses him for them; yea, he was treated as such by the justice of God, even by his Father, who spared him not, awoke the sword of justice against him, and gave him up into his hands; delivered him up to death, even the accursed death of the cross, whereby it appeared that he was made a curse: “made”, by the will, counsel, and determination of God, and not without his own will and free consent; for he freely laid down his life, and gave himself, and made his soul an offering for sin:

for it is written. De 21:23,

cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree: it is in the Hebrew text, , “he that is hanged”: which is the very name the Jews y commonly call Christ by way of reproach; that is, “everyone that hangeth”, as the apostle rightly renders it; which is always the sense of an indefinite phrase, unless a restriction is put: adding out of the same verse, “on the tree”, by way of explanation; for which he cannot upon any account be found fault with, since it is manifest one hanged on a tree is meant, “who is accursed of God”, or “the curse of God”; the curse of God, in vindicating his righteous law, was visibly on such a person; as it was on Christ, when he hung on the cross, in the room and stead of his people; for he was made a curse, not for himself, or for any sins of his own, but for us; in our room and stead, for our sins, and to make atonement for them: upon the whole, the Jew z has no reason to find fault as he does, either with the apostle’s sense, or citation of this passage; for whether it be rendered “hangeth”, or is “hanged”, the sense is the same; and though the apostle leaves out the word “God”, it is clear from what he says, that his meaning is, that the curse of God lighted upon Christ as the surety of his people, standing in their legal place and stead, in order to redeem them from the law and its curse; since he says, he was “made a curse” for them, which must be done by the Lord himself: and whereas the Jew objects, that it is impossible that anyone, even an Israelite, should be delivered from the curses of the law, but by the observance of it, this shows his ignorance of the law, which, in case of sin, requires a penalty, and which is its curse; and it is not future observance of the law will free from that: and as for the Gentiles, he says, to whom the law was not given, and who were never under it, they are free from the curses of it, without a redemption; but as this is to be, understood not of the ceremonial, but of the moral law, it is a mistake; the Gentiles are under the moral law, and being guilty of the violation of it, are liable to its curse; and cannot be delivered from it, but through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; by virtue of which, they have a part and portion in the blessings promised as follows.

y Vid. Buxtorf. Lexic. Talmudie. col. 2596. z R. Isaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 89. p. 469.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Redeemed us ( ). First aorist active of the compound verb (Polybius, Plutarch, Diodorus), to buy from, to buy back, to ransom. The simple verb (1Cor 6:20; 1Cor 7:23) is used in an inscription for the purchase of slaves in a will (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 324). See also Gal 4:5; Col 4:5; Eph 5:16. Christ purchased us

from the curse of the law ( ). “Out from ( repeated) under ( in verse 10) the curse of the law.”

Having become a curse for us ( ). Here the graphic picture is completed. We were under () a curse, Christ became a curse

over () us and so between us and the overhanging curse which fell on him instead of on us. Thus he bought us out () and we are free from the curse which he took on himself. This use of for substitution is common in the papyri and in ancient Greek as in the N.T. (John 11:50; 2Cor 5:14).

That hangeth on a tree ( ). Quotation from De 21:23 with the omission of (by God). Since Christ was not cursed by God. The allusion was to exposure of dead bodies on stakes or crosses (Jos 10:26). means wood, not usually tree, though so in Lu 23:31 and in later Greek. It was used of gallows, crosses, etc. See Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39; 1Pet 2:24. On the present middle participle from the old verb , to hang, see on Matt 18:6; Acts 5:30.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Hath redeemed [] . P o. Better redeemed. Comp. Gal 4:5; Eph 5:16; Col 4:5. In LXX once, Dan 2:8. See on Col 4:5.

Us Referring specially to Jews.

Being made a curse [ ] . Better, having become. See on chapter Gal 2:20.

It is written. From LXX of Deu 21:23, with the omission of uJpo qeou by God after cursed. Paul, as Lightfoot justly says, instinctively omits these words, since Christ was in no sense accursed by God in his crucifixion. The statement does not refer to Christ ‘s enduring the curse in our stead, but solely to the attitude in which the law placed Christ by subjecting him to the death of a malefactor. The law satisfied its demand upon him, and thus thrust him out of the pale of the legal economy. We, by our fellowship with him, are likewise cast out, and therefore are no longer under curse.

Upon a tree [ ] . Originally wood, timber. In later Greek, a tree. In Class. used of a gallows (Aristoph. Frogs, 736). Often of the stocks (Aristoph. Clouds, 592; Lysistr. 680; Knights, 367). So Act 16:24. Of the cross, Act 5:30; Act 10:39; 1Pe 2:24. Ignatius (Smyrn. 1) says that Christ was nailed up for our sakes – of which fruit are we. That is, the cross is regarded as a tree, and Christians as its fruit. Comp. Trall. 2. See the interesting remarks of Lightfoot on the symbolism of the tree of life in Paradise (Apostolic Fathers, Part 2, Volume 2, page 291).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Christ hath redeemed us,” (Christos hemas eksegorazen) “Christ redeemed us;” It is (on his part) a finished transaction. God the Father is satisfied in His crucifixion and full payment for the sins of all men, Rom 3:24.

2) “From the curse of the law,” (ek tes kataras tou nomou) “out of the curse of the law;” which invoked the just wrath of an offended God upon the guilty, Rom 8:3; 2Co 5:21. God made Him to be sin on our behalf – What Love! Joh 3:16.

3) “Being made a curse for us,” (genomenos huper hemon katara) “Becoming a curse on our behalf,” when he was “delivered for our offenses and raised again for-our justification,” Rom 4:24-25; This He did when He became our scapegoat bearing our sins away, Lev 4:21; Lev 4:25; 1Pe 2:24.

4) “For it is written”, (hoti gegraptai) “Because it has been written;” Paul reiterates his faith in the literal accuracy and fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures.

5) “Cursed is everyone,” (epikataratos pas ho) “accursed (is) everyone,” Deu 21:23; Deu 27:26. The law of Moses did not permit a crucified person to hang on a tree even over night. He was to be buried, put away the very day that he was hanged.

6) “That hangeth on a tree,” (kremamenos epi zulou) “hanging upon a tree;” The hanging of the obstinate law breaker was of Divine command, a just retribution for the willful ones who showed contempt or disregard for God’s laws, Num 25:4; 2Sa 21:6-9.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

13. Christ hath redeemed us. The apostle had made all who are under the law subject to the curse; from which arose this great difficulty, that the Jews could not free themselves from the curse of the law. Having stated this difficulty, he meets it, by shewing that Christ hath made us free, which still farther aids his purpose. If we are saved, because we have been freed from the curse of the law, then righteousness is not by the law. He next points out the manner in which we are made free.

It is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Now, Christ hung upon the cross, therefore he fell under that curse. But it is certain that he did not suffer that punishment on his own account. It follows, therefore, either that he was crucified in vain, or that our curse was laid upon him, in order that we might be delivered from it. Now, he does not say that Christ was cursed, but, which is still more, that he was a curse, — intimating, that the curse “of all men (59) was laid upon him” (Isa 53:6.) If any man think this language harsh, let him be ashamed of the cross of Christ, in the confession of which we glory. It was not unknown to God what death his own Son would die, when he pronounced the law, “He that is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deu 21:23.)

But how does it happen, it will be asked, that a beloved Son is cursed by his Father? We reply, there are two things which must be considered, not only in the person of Christ, but even in his human nature. The one is, that he was the unspotted Lamb of God, full of blessing and of grace; the other is, that he placed himself in our room, and thus became a sinner, and subject to the curse, not in himself indeed, but in us, yet in such a manner, that it became necessary for him to occupy our place. He could not cease to be the object of his Father’s love, and yet he endured his wrath. For how could he reconcile the Father to us, if he had incurred his hatred and displeasure? We conclude, that he “did always those things that pleased” (Joh 8:29) his Father. Again, how would he have freed us from the wrath of God, if he had not transferred it from us to himself? Thus, “he was wounded for our transgressions,” (Isa 53:5,) and had to deal with God as an angry judge. This is the foolishness of the cross, (1Co 1:18,) and the admiration of angels, (1Pe 1:12,) which not only exceeds, but swallows up, all the wisdom of the world.

(59) “ La malediction de tous hommes.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

4.

Justification by faith proved by the death of Christ on the Cross. Gal. 3:13-14

TEXT 3:13, 14

(13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (14) that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

PARAPHRASE

13 Wherefore, justification according to the tenor, whether of the law of nature or of the law of Moses, being a thing impossible in our present sinful state, Christ, ever since the fall, hath bought us all off from the curse of the law; consequently hath bought us off from law itself, as a rule of justification; having become an accursed person, a person most ignominiously punished for us: for it is written, Most ignominiously punished is every one who is hanged on a tree.
14 This deliverance Christ hath wrought, that the blessing of justification by faith, promised to Abraham, might come on the nations through Christ Jesus, Abrahams seed; and that we Gentiles might receive the promised gifts of the Spirit through faith, as the evidence of our being justified by faith, and of our being the sons of God.

COMMENT 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law

1.

What was the curse of the law?

a.

The curse followed a breaking of the law.

b.

All men broke the law, so as long as men lived under the law the curse hung over them.

c.

The curse is the wrath of God: banishment from God and death.

2.

The important thing is to see the liberation obtained by Christ.

a.

Under Christ you are counted righteous by faith even though you do not obtain perfection.

b.

Observe how Christ frees us.

1)

He forgives us of sin.

2)

He takes away the dominion of the law.

3)

He gives us a motive for living righteously.

a)

It is not a terror of the law, but love.

b)

It is a spontaneous devotion.

3.

The word redeem and the word ransom are used frequently by Paul.

a.

Give his life a ransom. Mat. 20:28

b.

Life a ransom for many. 1Ti. 2:6

c.

Ye were bought . . . 1Co. 6:20; 1Co. 7:23

d.

That he might redeem us . . . Tit. 2:14

having become a curse for us

1.

I believe that Jerome says this verse can not refer to Jesus, but I believe if Jerome believes that, he must not refer to this verse.

2.

Paul is not saying that Christ was guilty but that it was for our behalf.

a.

The sentence of death has been pronounced upon a sinful world, but Christ took the penalty upon Himself.

b.

On February 9, 1951, television showed a German being released from prison after having served for his father who was condemned as a war criminal.

c.

The Scriptures teach that Christ died for us.

1)

Isa. 53:12 He bare the sins of many.

2)

Cf. 1Co. 15:3

3.

An extreme position teaches that Christ actually became sin.

a.

When He became a curse:

1)

He became Peter the liar.

2)

He became Paul the persecutor.

3)

He became David the adulterer.

4)

He became Noah the drunkard.

5)

He became Adam the disobedient.

b.

2Co. 5:21 is quoted as proof text: he made to be sin . . . that we might become the righteousness of God.

4.

To ascribe all the sin of man to Christ to make him guilty is not what Paul is teaching.

a.

A person who substitutes for another serves as though he were guilty.

b.

The result is the same as though he had sinned.

The following is a special outline of the subject, Curse for us.

A.

We best understand this from the Old Testament.

1.

Curse has in it the idea of atonement for our sins.

2.

Whatever was offered as an atonement for sin was considered as bearing the punishment due to sin.

3.

Whoever was hanged was cursed of God and was not to hang over night but to be buried at once to get it out of sight. Deu. 21:22-23

B.

The Prophets picture Him as a curse.

1.

Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isa. 53:6

2.

Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! Joh. 1:29

C.

Christ became a successful curse.

1.

Triumphing over them. Col. 2:15

2.

Condemned sin in the flesh. Rom. 8:3

D.

The scope of Christ as a curse.

1.

Christs cross delivers from the penalty of sin.

2.

Christ as Gods right hand delivers from the power of sin.

3.

Christ at His coming will deliver from the presence of sin.

Observe that everything that Christ did was for us!

for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree

1.

This is a quote from Deu. 21:22-23

2.

Ordinarily we say stoning was the Jewish method of capital punishment and hanging on a cross was the Roman method.

a.

Thus Jesus was put to death by the Roman method.

b.

It was of course by Jewish request.

3.

The following is a history of hanging:

a.

The Egyptians practiced this before the Romans.

1)

Pharaoh . . . shall hang thee on a tree. Gen. 40:19

2)

But he hanged the chief baker. Gen. 40:22

3)

. . . him he hanged. Gen. 41:13

b.

The Philistines used the method.

1)

where the Philistines had hanged them.

2Sa. 21:12

c.

The Babylonians used it before the Romans.

1)

To hang Mordecai on the gallows . . . Est. 6:4

2)

The gallows fifty cubits high . . . Est. 7:9

3)

him they have hanged upon the gallows. Est. 8:7

4)

They hanged Hamans ten sons. Est. 9:14

d.

It was a Jewish method likewise.

1)

. . . and thou hang him on a tree . . . Deu. 21:22-23

2)

hanged on a tree. Jos. 8:29

3)

hanged them on five trees. Jos. 10:26

4)

2Sa. 4:12(The slayers of IshboshethDavid hanged)

5)

let him be lifted up and fastened thereon (a beam) Ezr. 6:11

6)

Judas hanged himself. Mat. 22:5

e.

Jesus was spoken of as hanging on a tree.

1)

Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree. Act. 5:30

2)

Whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree. Act. 10:39

4.

The conclusion of Pauls argument.

a.

The law brought a curse upon all men.

b.

Christ took the curse upon Himself.

c.

Now in Christ we are free, saved, redeemed; why go back to the curse?

THE CROSS 3:13

The cross is not actually stated in Galatians, but its power is taught. Paul refers to such ideas as gave Himself for our sins (Gal. 1:4) to place salvation before us.

The poet has beautifully expressed truth about the cross.

The Cross

The cross is such a simple thing,
Yet of it man may talk and sing,
It is a ladder to the skies,
On which a mounting soul may rise.
To some it is a stumbling block
That causes man to curse and mock;
To others who their sins bemoan
It can become a stepping stone.
The cross is such a simple thing,
And yet it touches everything.
We cannot feel that such a sign
Is other than a power divine.

In his book, Christian Primer, Louis Cassells tells a modern parable which seeks to explain something of the mystery of the incarnation. He describes a father who remained at home while the rest of the family went to church on Christmas Eve. I am truly sorry to distress you the man said to his wife, but I simply cannot understand this claim that God became man. It doesnt make sense to me. Later while he was reading his paper beside the fireplace, he heard a peculiar thudding sound coming from outside the living room door. He went to the door to investigate and discovered that it had begun to snow heavily and a flock of small birds were fluttering about in an effort to find shelter. I cant let those poor creatures lie there and freeze, he thinks to himself, but how can I help them? He thought of the small barn where his children keep their pony, so he opens the door and turns on the light and tries to shoo the birds inside. But they fly off in all directions. He cant make them understand he wants to help them. He thinks of food as a possible enticement so he scatters bread crumbs up to the barn door. But the birds continue to ignore his efforts. They find me a strange and terrifying creature, he thinks to himself, and I cant seem to find any way to let them know that they can trust me. If only I could be a bird myself for a few moments, perhaps I could lead them to safety. At that moment he hears the church bells begin to ring, and the inner significance of the coming of Jesus dawns on his consciousness for the first time. He sinks to his knees in the snow. Now I understand, he whispers, now I see why you had to do it. At this time of year, we reflect upon this truth of the incarnation. Jesus is our greatest gift.

REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW 3:13

Francis M. Arant developed a great sermon on the subject of Redemption which means to recover, buy back, or to restore that which was lost. His outline is as follows:

1. The Purpose: All have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and have sold themselves (1Ki. 21:20) to be servants of sin (Rom. 6:17). The purpose is to save, and a Saviour must be found.

2. The Plan: From the sacrifices of Adam, and the prophecy concerning the seed of woman to come (Gen. 3:15) the plan is unfolded in the Old Testament, but not clearly understood (Col. 1:26) until the message of the Gospel illuminates the Old Testament and makes Redemption plain.

3. The Price: No one less than the divine-human Son of God could pay the price. We are redeemed . . . by the precious blood of Christ . . . without blemish and without spot (1Pe. 1:18-19). He was willing and so was God, because of love for the lost (Joh. 3:16; Eph. 1:7, Php. 3:5-11).

4. The Power: All may be justified by His blood (Rom. 5:9) if willing to believe, repent and be baptized (Mar. 16:16; Act. 2:38). That power in the gospel is unto salvation (Rom. 1:16) and never lessens (Heb. 13:8) and is unto the uttermost (Heb. 7:25).

5. The People: All the redeemed are added to the church by God Himself (Act. 2:47). They become a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28), and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. (Mat. 16:18).

So what shall we do? Accept Christ with a whole heart, work faithfully in His Church, be a Christian! Here lies our only hope and it is the abundant life!

WORD STUDY 3:13

To redeem (exagorazoex ah goh RAHD zo) is to buy back at personal expense. The simpler form agorazo is often used of buying slaves. We have sold ourselves as slaves to sin, and Christ had to buy us back (1Co. 6:20; 1Pe. 1:18-19). The price was not paid to Satan, but to divine justice to satisfy the debt.

COMMENT 3:14

that upon the Gentiles might come the blessings of Abraham

1.

The promise was, In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Gen. 12:3

2.

To become a blessing to all, Christ had to become a curse for all.

that we might receive the promise of the Spirit

1.

This may refer to the following relationships:

a.

the spirit of adoption. Rom. 8:15

b.

the gift of the Spirit. Act. 2:38

c.

he shall give another comforter. Joh. 14:16

d.

if I go, I will send him (the comforter) unto you. Joh. 16:7

2.

Does he mean that we might receive the Spirit or the promise of the Spirit?

a.

Many commentators ignore this question as though it is not present.

b.

It is likely the promise of the spiritual blessings is referred to.

3.

This promise is not stated explicitly to Abraham but implied. Gen. 22:17-18

4.

It is expressly mentioned by the prophets.

a.

I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed . . . Isa. 44:3

b.

I have poured out my Spirit. Eze. 39:29

c.

I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh . . . Joe. 2:28

through faith

1.

Remember, O foolish Galatians, it is obtained through faith in Christ.

2.

Faith in Christ would not only save them for eternity but from foolishness.

RECEIVE THE PROMISE 3:14

Gods grace can apply only to those who want it.
When one hears the redemption story and rejects it, then Gods grace will not apply to him. Perhaps we can see this principle more clearly in a legal case which took place in Pennsylvania back in 1829. In that year a condemned murderer named George Wilson refused the pardon offered to him by President Andrew Jackson. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court reluctantly made this ruling: If (pardon) is refused, it is no longer a pardon. George Wilson must die.
The point is, of course, that God loves us and wants us to love Him in return. But He will not force anyone to enter into union with Him. Jesus invitation still applies: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

STUDY QUESTIONS 3:13, 14

299.

Were all men under the curse of the law, or just the Hebrews?

300.

Is this verse applicable to us, if he is speaking of the law of Moses?

301.

Who all is meant by the word us?

302.

What enables us to escape the curse?

303.

Does this mean that we live Christs way perfectly although we could not live perfectly in accord with the simple ten commandments?

304.

How then does God consider us righteous?

305.

Define the words redeem and ransom.

306.

Why would Galatians go back to the thing that they were redeemed from?

307.

What did Christ become for us, as expressed in this verse?

308.

Did Christ become a curse, actually?

309.

Was all the sin of the world laid upon Christ? Cf. Isa. 53:12; 2Co. 5:21

310.

Did Christ serve as the sacrifice as though he were guilty?

311.

Is it possible for one person to be guilty in place of another?

312.

Is assuming ones punishment the same as assuming ones guilt?

313.

Is the how Christ did it as important as the fact of it?

314.

Was Christ a successful curse for us?

315.

Name three areas in which Christ was a successful curse as indicated under scope.

316.

What text is quoted by Paul to back up his teaching concerning a curse?

317.

Why would Moses refer to hanging when the common Jewish method of punishment was stoning?

318.

Give evidence that Jews were also hanged.

319.

Does Paul teach here that the curse was for Jews only?

320.

Did Christ become a curse for all in order to be a blessing for all men?

321.

Does he teach that the curse also brought the Spirit?

322.

Was the Spirit promised to Abraham?

323.

Did the prophets foretell the Spirit?

324.

How is the Spirit obtainedby law or by faith?

325.

Why would men seek the law, when it cannot produce the Spirit?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(13) Christ hath redeemed us.Better, Christ redeemed us. The opening of this verse without any connecting particle lends sharpness and emphasis to the contrast. The Law brought a curse. There it stopped short. That was all it could do. The first thing that Christianity does is to undo this result of the Law by deliverance from the curse.

This deliverance is represented under the form of a ransom. Christ bought off the human race from the penalty of its sins, the price paid being His death. Comp. 1Co. 6:20; 1Co. 7:23, Ye are (were) bought with a price; 2Pe. 2:1, The Lord that bought them; Rev. 5:9, Thou wast slain and hast redeemed (bought) us to God by thy blood; Rev. 14:4, These were redeemed (bought) from among men. The word used in these passages, as well as in that before us, is the general word for buying. But that the buying intended is that more definitely conveyed by the idea of ransom appears from the use of the special word for ransom in Mat. 20:28 ( = Mar. 10:45), The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many; 1Ti. 2:6, Who gave Himself a ransom for all. The word commonly translated redemption (Rom. 3:24; 1Co. 1:30; Eph. 1:7; Eph. 1:14; Eph. 4:30; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15) also contains the same special idea of a ransoming.

Us.In the first instance, the Jews, but not to be confined too strictly to them. The Apostle is writing to a Gentile (though Judaising) Church, and he does not wish to exclude any of his readers. Though the Gentiles do not come directly under the curse of the Law, they came under Gods condemnation. From this they were released, and the blessings of the theocracy hitherto annexed to the Law were thrown open to them by the death of Christ.

From the curse of the law.From that curse which the Law pronounced upon all who failed to keep its precepts.

Being made a curse.Being treated as if He were accursed. Comp. 2Co. 5:21, For he hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sini.e., treated as sinful One who was not sinful. The idea is somewhat strengthened by the use of the substantive for the adjective. The curse identifies itself with its object: seizes, as it were, upon the person of its victim.

For usi.e., on our behalf, for our sakes, not in our stead. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that St. Paul, like the rest of the Apostles, regarded the sufferings of Christ as undergone in our stead. The idea is, indeed, distinctly expressed in this very passage; but it must be gathered from the context, not from the use of the preposition. The preposition which means instead is found in Mat. 20:28; 1Ti. 2:6. (See Note on Gal. 1:4.)

As it is written.The way in which the curse of the Law fell upon Christ was through His death. The ignominious death by which He died was one to which the curse of God specially attached. The Law expressly declared that that criminal who died upon the cross or gibbet was an object of the divine wrath. Christ died as such a criminal, and so came under the curse.

It is to be observed, in considering the doctrinal bearings of this passage, that the curse which fell upon Christ was not the same curse as that described above as the consequence of human guilt in failing to keep the requirements of the Law. It is not the accumulated penalty for the whole mass of human disobedience, but rather an incidental defilement, contracted by an in-voluntary breach of a particular ceremonial precept. The death of Christ involved a curse because the manner of it was by suspension from a cross. Nothing more than this is said. Christ, the sinless One, died for sinful men. If He had not died they must have died. And His death acted (in some inscrutable way) so as to propitiate the wrath of God. But it is not said that the actual load of human guilt was laid upon Him. It is not said that His death was the actual punishment of that guilt. The death of Christ removed the necessity for the punishment of men, but it could not be regarded as a punishment in relation to Christ Himself. In this respect it would seem as if the symbolism of the scapegoat (which is sometimes adduced in explanation of the present passage) was imperfectly applicable. In the case of the scapegoat, the high priest was to lay his hands upon his head, and to confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat; and the goat was to bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited (Lev. 16:21-22). No such process as this really took place in the case of our Lord; nor is it applied to Him even in 1Pe. 2:24, otherwise than in vague and general metaphor. The literal application derives no countenance from the present passage, but is rather contradicted by it. It expressly distinguishes between the curse which fell upon Christ and the curse which was due to the sins of men, though the incurrence of the one led to the abrogation of the other.

Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.From Deu. 21:23. The Hebrew and LXX. insert of GodHe that is hanged is cursed of Godwhich St. Paul instinctively omits. The reference in the original is to the exposure of the body upon a stake or gibbet after death.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(13, 14) The Law brought a curse, but the Christian is delivered from that curse. How? Christ has taken it upon Himself. The Crucifixion brought Him under the curse of the Law. At the same time, it abolished the dominion of the Law, and threw open the Messianic blessedness to Gentiles as well as Jews: in other words, to all who gave in their adhesion to the Messiah by faith.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13, 14. How do we get from Moses and law to Abraham and faith? Christ, by bearing the curse of the law for us, lets the blessing of Abraham come on us.

The promise In its fulfilment.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

13. Redeemed The Greek word signifies to buy off; to redeem, as from slavery. Here we are said to be redeemed out from ( ) the curse of the law. Us Some commentators (including Alford) limit this us to the Jews, inasmuch as the law here quoted is Mosaic law. But the Mosaic law was the moral universal law brought out with particular manifestation. The decalogue was the absolute universal law itself, and all the Mosaic enactments were either special points of the decalogue, or special provisions for giving the decalogue efficiency. Hence the curse is of the universal law, and the us is all mankind.

A curse The object cursed, as being an embodiment of the condemnation, is energetically called the curse itself. See note, 2Co 5:21. Very probably, as Prof. Lightfoot remarks, the fewness of adjectives in the Hebrew produces this using the noun for the adjective.

Written Deu 21:23. Moses there enacted that when a malefactor was first executed and his body afterwards hung on a tree, he should be taken down and buried before night, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God.” Prof. Lightfoot gives upon this expression a very interesting but extended note. The word “accursed,” being susceptible of an active force, is by most Jewish authorities rendered maledictory, or insulting to God. Paul’s rendering is derived from the Septuagint, and accords with Jdg 9:57. Lightfoot conjectures that the other rendering obtained currency in later times, when the Jewish patriots were often impaled by the Syrians or crucified by the Romans, and kept exposed until they putrefied and disintegrated on the cross. The literalism of the Jews would require, by the Septuagint translation, that all these were cursed; and the other rendering was adopted to avert such appalling consequences. Still later, this last rendering served against Christians, as it enabled the Jews to hold that the crucified Jesus was an insult to God. Nevertheless, notwithstanding Lightfoot’s putting of this last point, Paul’s translation would seem as suitable to the reproachful purpose of the Jews as the other.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree”.’

And now Paul gets to the essence of the salvation provided in Jesus Christ. It comes about by Christ taking our place in order to set us free. It is by Christ acting in power to redeem us because of what He has done for us. By His very dying on the cross Christ has revealed Himself as bearing a curse. Deu 21:23 refers to those who hung on a tree, which was the fate of criminals, but the Jews of Jesus’ day also applied the idea to anyone who was crucified. To be crucified was clearly evidence that they had come under the curse of God. (That is why later they referred to Jesus derisively as ‘the hanged one’). The Jews, and no doubt Paul himself in earlier persecuting days, made much of the fact that Jesus died on a cross and had thus come under a curse.

But Paul now seizes on the fact and makes it something glorious. This curse, he points out, did not arise from His own deserts. Rather it arose because He went to the cross to take our curse upon Himself. Through His death on the cross He has ‘redeemed us’, bought us out from under the curse by the sacrifice of Himself. He became our substitute, taking our place. He acted as our representative, going there on our behalf. He went as the One Who represented us to die on our behalf and in our stead. And because He died we can live, for the curse of the Law has been removed from us and has been borne by Himself. As Paul says elsewhere, ‘He who knew no sin, He made to be sin for us’ (2Co 5:21).

Some do not like the idea of substitution but it is written plainly here (and in Mar 10:45). And it is unavoidable. Not as sometimes put crudely by some, but certainly as a reality. For we have sinned, and He the sinless One has suffered for sin in our place, and we are redeemed precisely because He took our place. On the one hand He was our representative, going there for us, and on the other He was our substitute, taking our place.

‘Christ has redeemed us.’ That is, He ‘has given Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity’ (Tit 2:14). Redemption in Scripture always results either from the expenditure of special costly effort or from the payment of a ransom. In this case Christ has done both. He has given Himself as a ransom ‘instead of’ (anti) us (Mar 10:45), redeeming us through His blood (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:12; Heb 9:15; 1Pe 1:18-19), and He has exercised His power at great cost in defeating the forces that are against us, triumphing over them in the cross (Col 2:15) and bearing our sin as He became a sacrifice for sin. He has taken what is on record against us and has nailed it to His cross, evidence that it has been paid. Indeed He has blotted out the Law (the handwriting of ordinances) which condemned us (Col 2:14).

The clear result is then that we are no longer under the Law’s jurisdiction. Neither Jew nor Gentile who is in Christ is any more responsible to struggle to keep the ordinances of the Law. For they have been crucified with Christ. They are therefore set free to live to God by the power of the indwelling Christ (Gal 2:20), using that Law as a guide and not as a judge. It is no longer a fearful condemning finger, but a guide book to life (as it was originally meant to be).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Gal 3:13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, The curse of the law, from which Christ hath redeemed us, was that which doomed us to eternal misery; whence it has been justly inferred, that the law of Moses, which is included in this expression, was established on the sanction of future punishments. But, further, it is evident, that the course of the Apostle’s argument here implies, that all true believers are redeemed from the curse, and, consequently, that he speaks of a curse to which all, as sinners, were liable: whereas the Gentiles, being under no obligation to the Mosaic lawat all, could not possibly be affected directly by its curse, nor could, indeed, be at all affected by it, otherwise than as the word law in this place includes the law of nature, or the Adamic law, as well as the Mosaic, as it undoubtedly must.

Christ was made a curse for us, by enduring the penalty which our sins had deserved; for such was the death which he bore in our stead, not only when considered as a capital punishment, which universally implies something of this kind, but as thus stigmatised by the express declaration of the law, Deu 21:23.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Gal 3:13 . Connection: “ Through the law no one becomes righteous (Gal 3:11-12 ); Christ has redeemed us from the curse.” See on Gal 3:11 . The asyndeton renders the contrast stronger. Comp. Col 3:4 . Rckert (comp. also Flatt, Koppe, Schott, Olshausen) reverts to Gal 3:10 , supplying in Gal 3:10 , and in Gal 3:13 . This is incorrect, for finds its appropriate antithesis in the words immediately preceding; and, as in general it is a mistake thus to supply and , it is here the more absurd, because in Gal 3:10 has expressly received in its reference to what precedes it. Against Hofmann’s interpretation, that Gal 3:13 is apodosis to Gal 3:11-12 , see on Gal 3:11 .

] applies to the Jews; for these were under the curse of the law [126] mentioned in Gal 3:10 , and by faith in Christ made, themselves partakers of the redemption from that curse accomplished by Him, as Paul had himself experienced. Others have understood it as the Jews and Gentiles (Gomarus, Pareus, Estius, Flatt, Winer, Matthies). But against this view it may be urged, that the Gentiles were not under the curse of the Mosaic law (Rom 2:12 ); that a reference to the natural law as well (Rom 2:14-15 ) is quite foreign to the context (in opposition to Flatt); that the law, even if it had not been done away by Christ, would yet never have related to the Gentiles (in opposition to Winer), because it was the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:14 f.); and lastly, that afterwards in Gal 3:14 is placed in contrast to the , and hence it must not be said, with Matthies, that it so far applies to the Gentiles also, since the latter as Christians could not be under obligation to the law, which, besides, would amount to a very indirect sort of ransom, entirely different from the sense in which it applied to the Jews.

] Comp. Gal 4:5 ; 1Co 6:20 ; 1Co 7:23 ; Eph 1:7 ; 2Pe 2:1 ; Mat 20:28 ; Rev 5:9 Diod. Exc . p. 530. 4; 1Ti 2:6 ; Polyb. iii. 42. 2. Those who are under obligation to the law as the record of the direct will of God, [127] are subject to the divine curse expressed therein; but from the bond of this curse, from which they could not otherwise have escaped, Christ has redeemed them, and that by giving up for them His life upon the cross as a paid to God the dator et vindex legis , having by His mors satisfactoria , suffered according to God’s gracious counsel in obedience to the same (Rom 5:19 ; Phi 2:8 ), procured for them the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7 ; Col 1:14 ; Rom 3:24 ; 1Ti 2:6 : Mat 20:28 ; Mat 26:28 ), so that the curse of the law which was to have come upon them no longer had any reference to them. This modus of the redemption is here expressed thus: “ by His having become curse for us ,” namely, by His crucifixion, in which He actually became the One affected by the divine . The emphasis rests on the , which is therefore placed at the end and is immediately to be vindicated by a quotation from Scripture. This abstract , used instead of the concrete , is purposely chosen to strengthen the conception, and probably indeed with reference to the , Deu 21:23 ; comp. Thilo, ad Protev. Jac . 3, p. 181. But is used without the article , because the object is to express that which Christ has become as regards the category of quality

He became curse , entered into the position, and into the de facto relation, of one visited with the divine wrath; it being obvious from the context that it was in reality the divine curse stipulated in the law, the accomplishment of which He suffered in His death, as is moreover expressly attested in the passage of Scripture that follows. Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol . p. 321, d ; Kahnis, Dogm . I. p. 518 f., III. p. 382; Delitzsch, Z . Hebr . p. 714. The idea of as the curse of God obvious of itself to every reader forbids us to explain away (with Hofmann) the “becoming a curse” as signifying, not that God accomplished His curse on Christ, but that God decreed respecting Christ that He should suffer that which men did to Him as fulfilment of the curse of the law , which was not incurred by, and did not apply to, Him. The exact real parallel, 2Co 5:21 , ought to have prevented any such evasive interpretation. And if Paul had not meant the curse of God , which Christ suffered , as no reader, especially after the passage of Scripture which follows, could understand anything else, he would have been practising a deception. Christ made sin by God , and so suffering the divine curse that is just the foolishness of the cross, which is wiser than men (1Co 1:25 ). Comp., besides, Rich. Schmidt, Paulin. Christol . p. 81, who, however, regards the contents of our passage and of 2Co 5:21 under the point of view of the cancelling of sin (sin being viewed as an objective power), and thus comes into contact with Hofmann’s theory.

] That , as in all passages in which the atoning death is spoken of, does not mean instead of (so here, Bengel, Koppe, Flatt, Rckert, Reithmayr, following earlier expositors; comp. also Lipsius, Rechtfertigungsl. p. 134f.), see on Rom 5:6 . Comp. on Gal 1:4 . The satisfaction which Christ rendered, was rendered for our benefit ; that it was vicarious, [128] is implied in the circumstances of the case itself, and not in the preposition. The divine curse of the law must have been realized by all, who did not fully satisfy the law to which they were bound (and this no one could do), being compelled to endure the execution of the divine on themselves; but for their deliverance from the bond of this curse Christ intervened with His death, inasmuch as He died as an accursed one , and thereby, as by a purchase-price, dissolved that relation to the law which implied a curse. Comp. 1Co 6:20 ; 1Co 7:23 ; Col 2:14 . This effect depends certainly on the sinlessness of Christ (2Co 5:21 ), without which His surrendered life could not have been a (Mat 20:28 ), and He Himself, by the shedding of His blood, could not have been a (Rom 3:25 ), because, with guilt of His own, He would have been amenable to the curse on His own account, and not through taking upon Him the guilt of others (Joh 1:29 ); but utterly aloof from and foreign to the N.T. is the idea which Hilgenfeld here suggests, that the curse of the law had lost its validity once for all, because it had for once shown itself as an unrighteous curse. The death of Christ served precisely to show the righteousness of God, which has its expression in the curse of the law. See on Rom 3:25 .

. is not an epexegesis to . . . . (Matthias, who writes , ), but is a parenthesis in which the , which had just been said of Christ, is vindicated agreeably to Scripture, by Deu 21:23 , freely quoted from the LXX. [129] Accursed (visited with the wrath of God) is every one who (according to the LXX., in which the article is wanting, every one, if he ) is hanged on a tree . The original historical sense of this passage applies to those malefactors who, in order to the aggravation of their punishment, were after their execution publicly hung up on a (probably cross-shaped) stake, [130] but were not allowed to remain hanging over the night, lest such accursed ones should profane the holy land (Deu 21:23 ; Num 25:4 ; Jos 10:26 ; 2Sa 4:12 ). See Lund, Jd. Heiligth . ed. Wolf, p. 536; Saalschtz, Mos. R . p. 460 f.; Bhr in the Stud. u. Krit . 1849, p. 924 f. Now, so far as Christ when put to death hung upon a stake (comp. Act 5:30 ; Act 10:39 ; 1Pe 2:24 ), the predicate applies also to Him; and this furnishes the scriptural proof of the preceding .

[126] Which is not to be turned into a subjective condition, as Bhr ( Stud. u. Krit . 1849, p. 922) wishes, who explains it as the state of spiritual death , in consequence of his erroneous view of in ver. 8.

[127] For in the apostle’s view everywhere, and here also, the law is this , and ver. 19 is not at variance with its being so (in opposition to Ritschl in d. Jahrb. f. D. Theol . 1863, p. 523 f.). Comp. on Col 2:15 .

[128] As is expressly stated in Mat 20:28 , 1Ti 2:6 , by . Comp. Thomasius, Chr. Pers. u. Werk , III. 1, p. 88 ff.; Gess, in the Jahrb. f. Deutsche Theol . II. 4, III. 4. The less satisfactory is it, therefore, with Schweizer in the Stud. u. Krit . 1858, p. 425 ff., to find that the essential import of our passage only amounts to this, that the Mosaic law had been set aside on the appearance of Christianity, and that this setting aside was decisively evinced by the death on the cross. See, on the other hand, Baur in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschrift , 1859, p. 226 ff., and in his neut. Theol . p. 156 f.

[129] The LXX. has . The is also expressed in the Hebrew. Jerome accuses the Jews here also of intentional falsification of the text, alleging that in an anti-Christian interest they had inserted the name of God into the original text. Bhr, in the Stud. u. Krit . 1849, p. 928 ff., is of opinion that Paul purposely omitted , so as not to represent Christ as cursed by God (with which Hofmann agrees); that He was called cursed only because, through His death, He appeared as cursed before all to whom the law was given. But this is incorrect, because the expression is not Paul’s, and because, so interpreted, the whole proof adduced would amount only to a semblance , and not to a reality . Christ has certainly averted from men the curse of God which was ordained in the law (ver. 10), by the fact that He, as the bearer of the divine curse, died while hanging on the cross. Having thus actually become , He became the propitiatory sacrifice for those who were subject to the law, whom He consequently redeemed from the definite divine curse of the law (ver. 10), so that on the part of God the actus forensis of justification now commenced; and for this reason, although the crucified One was , Paul could elsewhere represent Him as (Eph 5:2 ). Luther aptly remarks: “ Si vis negare eum esse peccatorem et maledictum, negato etiam possum, crucifixum et mortuum .” The cause of the non-adoption of cannot be that Paul, under the influence of a subordinate value assigned to the law as not directly given by God, had the passage imprinted on his mind without (Ritschl, l.c . p. 526), for he did not entertain any such estimate of its inferior value. We must, in fact, simply abide by the explanation that he quoted the passage of Scripture from a free recollection (as is already shown by and the addition of ), and in doing so, having in view only the “ cursed ” as the point of the passage, left unnoticed the entirely obvious . In a similar way, in ver. 11, in the quotation Hab 2:4 , he does not adopt the of the LXX.

[130] Analogous to our former custom of fastening criminals on the wheel, in order to aggravate the punishment.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2062
REDEMPTION BY CHRIST

Gal 3:13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

THE law, which subjects all mankind to a curse, is the moral law; that is principally intended in the passage before us [Note: It is that law, from the curse of which Abraham and the Gentiles were redeemed, ver. 10; and consequently, though the ceremonial law be not entirely excluded, the text must be understood principally in reference to the moral law.]: it remains unalterable in its demands of obedience or punishment. But in the Gospel a remedy is provided for transgressors: this remedy is proposed to us in the text.

I.

Clear up some points relative to redemption

The most important truths of Christianity are often denied; but we must be established in them, if we would receive the blessings of redemption. We should know clearly,

1.

What is that curse from which we are redeemed

[Many suppose it to be annihilation, or at most a temporary punishment; but the Scriptures represent it in a far different light: we cannot precisely declare the exact quality of it; it consists, however, partly in banishment from God [Note: 2Th 1:9.], and partly in inconceivable anguish both of soul and body [Note: Luk 16:23-24.]. Its duration certainly will be eternal; it will continue coeval with the happiness of the righteous [Note: Mat 25:46. is used respecting both.]; neither the curse shall cease, nor sinners cease to endure it [Note: Our Lord repeats this no less than five times in six verses, Mar 9:43-48.].]

2.

Who is it that redeems us from it

[It is thought by many that we must deliver ourselves by repentance, &c. But it is impossible for fallen man to deliver his own soul: he cannot by doing, because he cannot perfectly obey the law in future; and if he could, his obedience would not atone for past sins [Note: The ceasing to increase a debt will not cancel a debt already incurred: see Luk 17:10.]: he cannot by suffering, because the penalty of one sin is eternal death. Nor could the highest archangel redeem the world; if he could, God needed not to have sent his own Son. None but Christ was sufficient for so great a work; but his obedience unto death has effected our redemption; he made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness [Note: Dan 9:24.].]

3.

Who they are that shall enjoy the benefits of redemption

[Many imagine that, because Christ has died for all, all shall be saved; but redemption is by no means so extensive as the curse. With respect to heathens we know little how God will deal with them; but we know what will be his conduct towards the Christian world: they who believe in Christ, and they only, will be finally saved [Note: Mar 16:16. The faith here spoken of is not a mere assent to the truths of Christianity, but a living, operative, and purifying faith, Act 15:9. Jam 2:20; Jam 2:26.]; such alone were comprehended under the term us.]

These points being cleared up, we shall,

II.

Shew by what means we are redeemed

By the Mosaic law persons hanged were deemed accursed [Note: Deu 21:23.]. Hence Christ, in his death, was made a curse or held accursed [Note: See the words immediately following the text.]. In becoming a curse, he was our substitute

[Christ did not die merely for our good; he endured the curse in our stead. This was typically represented under the Mosaic law [Note: Lev 16:7-10; Lev 16:21-22. It is impossible not to see in this passage that the scape-goat had the iniquities of the Jewish nation transferred to him, while the goat that died made atonement for them.]: the prophets concur in establishing this truth [Note: Dan 9:26. Not for himself, Isa 53:5.]; the Apostles confirm it in the plainest terms [Note: 2Co 5:21. 1Pe 2:24; 1Pe 3:18.] His curse indeed was not the same with ours, either in quality or duration; yet it was fully adequate to all the demands of law and justice; and it was such as God appointed for him, and accepts on our behalf.]

This substitution of Christ was the mean of effecting our redemption
[God ordained it for this very end [Note: Rom 3:25.]. He was pleased with it in this view [Note: Eph 5:2.]. He was reconciled to man on account of it [Note: Rom 5:10.]. Our redemption is expressly ascribed to it [Note: Eph 1:7.]. Our deliverance from the guilt and power of sin is effected by it [Note: Heb 9:13-14.]. It was the price paid for the salvation of the church [Note: Act 20:28. with 1Co 6:20.].]

Infer
1.

How great was the love of Christ towards our fallen race!

[That he who was happy in the bosom of his Father should become a curse! That he should submit to such misery in our place and stead! Well might that anathema be denounced against the ungrateful [Note: 1Co 16:22.]Let us then study to comprehend the heights and depths of his love.]

2.

What folly and impiety is it to seek justification by the law!

[When the moral law was once broken, it was absolutely impossible that any man should be justified by it [Note: Gal 3:21.]. There remained no way of escaping its curse but by embracing the Gospel [Note: Gal 3:22.]. What folly then is it to reject salvation when it is freely offered, and to seek it in a way in which it cannot be found! Nor is the impiety of the conduct less than the folly. It declares that the sacrifice of Christ was unnecessary, or ineffectual. This conduct proved destructive to the bulk of the Jewish nation [Note: Rom 9:31-32; Rom 10:3.]. May we never imitate them to our eternal ruin!]

3.

How strong are the Christians obligations to holiness!

[Christ did not die to deliver us from the curse only, but from sin also [Note: Tit 2:11.]. Shall we hope to attain one end of his death while we defeat the other? We should reject such a thought with the utmost abhorrence [Note: Rom 6:1.]. Let every one then strive to attain the disposition of St. Paul [Note: 2Co 5:14-15.]]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Ver. 13. Christ hath redeemed us ] As man he bought us, as God he redeemed us, saith Jerome. For to redeem is properly to buy some things back that were mortgaged. Qui redimit, emit quod suum fuit, et suum esse desiit.

Cursed is every one that hangeth ] The tree whereon a man was hanged, the stone wherewith he was stoned, the sword wherewith he was beheaded, and the napkin wherewith he was strangled, they were all buried, that there might be no evil memorial of such a one, to say, This was the tree, sword, stone, napkin, wherewith such a one was executed. a Constantine abolished this kind of death out of the empire. But what an odd custom was that of the Tiberenes to hang their best friends in courtesy, Longasque ex iis literas facere quos charos habebant? The death on the tree (saith one) was accursed above all kinds of death; as the serpent was accursed above all beasts of the field. Both for the first transgression, whereof the serpent was the instrument, the tree the occasion. (Sphinx Philos.)

a Casaub. ex Maimonide.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 .] But this curse has been removed by the redemption of Christ. The joyful contrast is introduced abruptly, without any connecting particle: see an asyndeton in a similar case in Col 3:4 . The is emphatic, and applies solely to the JEWS. They only were under the curse of Gal 3:10 , and they being by Christ redeemed from that curse, the blessing of Abraham (justification by faith), which was always destined by God to flow through the Jews to the Gentiles, was set at liberty thus to flow out to the Gentiles. This, which is Meyer’s view, is certainly the only one which suits the context. To make refer to Jews and Gentiles, and refer . . to the law of conscience, is to break up the context altogether.

. ] See, besides reff., 1Co 6:20 ; 1Co 7:23 ; 2Pe 2:1 ; Rev 5:9 . Ellicott remarks, ‘the – need not be very strongly pressed, see Polyb. iii. 42 2, . . . The tendency,’ he continues, ‘to use verbs compounded with prepositions without any obvious increase of meaning, is one of the characteristics of later Greek: so Thiersch, de Pentat. vers. alex. ii. 1, p. 83.’

The form of the idea is, the Law (personified) held us (Jews) under its curse; ( out of this ) Christ bought us , BECOMING (emphatic, standing first) a curse (not , concrete, but , abstract, to express that he became not only accursed, but the curse, coextensive with the disability which affected us) for us (the JEWS again. Not, as many older Commentators, and Rck., Olsh., Peile, &c., ‘ instead of us ,’ but ‘ on our behalf .’ It was in our stead; but that circumstance is not expressed by used of Christ’s death for us see reff. and Ellic.’s note; and Usteri, Paulin. Lehrbegriff, p. 115 ff.).

. . . . is a parenthesis, justifying the formal expression . . . . The citation omits the words of the LXX. They were not to the point here, being understood as matter of course, the law being God’s law. The article is not in the LXX. The words are spoken of hanging after death by stoning ; and are given in I. c. as a reason why the body should not remain on the tree all night, because one hanging on a tree is accursed of God. Such formal curse then extended to Christ, who died by hanging on a tree.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Gal 3:13 . The Law pronounced a blessing and a curse; but since it made no allowance for human infirmity, the blessing proved barren in result; while the curse, which invoked the just wrath of an offended God for the punishment of the guilty, proved, on the contrary, fruitful in condemnation.

From this hopeless state of just condemnation Christ delivered us by revealing the infinite mercy of an Almighty Father, and so reviving hope and thankful love in the heart of the condemned sinner by faith in His love. . The figure of a ransom, which this word conveys, is doubly appropriate in this connection. Men needed a ransom, for the Law had left them prisoners under sentence of death, and Christ had Himself to pay the price. He had to become a man like His brethren save in sin, and to endure the penalty denounced on malefactors and hang on the accursed cross, as if He had been guilty like them. . Hebrew thought tended to identify the man on whom a curse was laid with the curse, as it identified the sin-offering with the sin, calling it (Lev 4:21-25 ). Hence the scapegoat was regarded as utterly unclean by reason of the sins laid upon it. This passage is quoted from Deu 21:23 with one significant alteration. In the original the criminal executed under sentence of the Law is pronounced , so that the Law is affirmed to be the voice of God, carrying with it the fulness of divine sanction. But here the words are omitted, inasmuch as the new revelation of God’s mercy in Christ has superseded for Christians the previous condemnation of the Law.

The original passage refers to criminals executed under the Jewish Law, and commands the speedy burial of their dead bodies before sunset in opposition to the vindictive practices prevailing in Palestine among the surrounding nations of nailing up unburied bodies in public places ( cf. 1Sa 31:10 , 2Sa 21:10 ). It made, of course, no reference to crucifixion, which was a Roman mode of execution, not a Jewish.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Christ. App-98.

redeemed. Greek. exagorazo. Elsewhere, Gal 4:5. Eph 5:16, Col 4:5.

from. Greek. ek. App-104.

being made = becoming. (Emph.)

for. Greek. huper. App-104.

on. Greek. epi. App-104. Quoted from Deu 21:23.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13.] But this curse has been removed by the redemption of Christ. The joyful contrast is introduced abruptly, without any connecting particle: see an asyndeton in a similar case in Col 3:4. The is emphatic, and applies solely to the JEWS. They only were under the curse of Gal 3:10,-and they being by Christ redeemed from that curse, the blessing of Abraham (justification by faith), which was always destined by God to flow through the Jews to the Gentiles, was set at liberty thus to flow out to the Gentiles. This, which is Meyers view, is certainly the only one which suits the context. To make refer to Jews and Gentiles, and refer . . to the law of conscience, is to break up the context altogether.

.] See, besides reff., 1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23; 2Pe 2:1; Rev 5:9. Ellicott remarks, the – need not be very strongly pressed, see Polyb. iii. 42 2, … The tendency, he continues, to use verbs compounded with prepositions without any obvious increase of meaning, is one of the characteristics of later Greek: so Thiersch, de Pentat. vers. alex. ii. 1, p. 83.

The form of the idea is,-the Law (personified) held us (Jews) under its curse; (out of this) Christ bought us, BECOMING (emphatic, standing first) a curse (not , concrete, but , abstract, to express that he became not only accursed, but the curse, coextensive with the disability which affected us) for us (the JEWS again. Not, as many older Commentators, and Rck., Olsh., Peile, &c., instead of us, but on our behalf. It was in our stead; but that circumstance is not expressed by used of Christs death for us-see reff. and Ellic.s note; and Usteri, Paulin. Lehrbegriff, p. 115 ff.).

. … is a parenthesis, justifying the formal expression . . . . The citation omits the words of the LXX. They were not to the point here, being understood as matter of course, the law being Gods law. The article is not in the LXX. The words are spoken of hanging after death by stoning; and are given in I. c. as a reason why the body should not remain on the tree all night, because one hanging on a tree is accursed of God. Such formal curse then extended to Christ, who died by hanging on a tree.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Gal 3:13. , Christ) Christ alone. This is an abrupt exclamation without a conjunction, and with some degree of indignation against the doers of the law. There is an Asyndeton not unlike this, Col 3:4 : where the apostle is likewise speaking of Christ.-, us) The curse chiefly pressed upon the Jews; for the blessing also was nearer to them. The antithesis is, on the Gentiles, Gal 3:14 : comp. Gal 4:3; Gal 4:6.-, hath redeemed) He set us free by purchase from the state in which we were held. The same word occurs, Gal 4:5.- , from the curse) under which they lie, who trust either to the law, or the works of the law.- , being made a curse for us) We have here the abstract, not the concrete noun. Who would dare without the fear of blasphemy so to speak, if the apostle had not led the way? The word curse, , means more than anathema, Rom 9:3 : for the curse is inflicted by another, the anathema is spontaneously incurred. In like manner , , shall be cut off, is said of Christ, Dan 9:26 : comp. Gal 3:24 with the annot. of C. B. Michaelis. , for, instead of, is also used here with the utmost propriety; for Christ became the curse, which we were, in our stead, that we might cease to be a curse.-, it is written) Deu 21:23, .- , on a tree) between heaven and earth. Our mother-tongue calls it the gallows. The apostles, in treating of redemption, mention the cross, rather than the agony on the Mount of Olives, 1Pe 2:24. Had not the punishment of the cross been long ago abolished, the stupendous power of the cross of Christ would be more obviously before our eyes.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Gal 3:13

Gal 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us;-As all under the law are under condemnation of the law for violating it, and as the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but only rolled them forward and suspended the condemnation of the law from year to year until Christ came and suffered under the law and to finally take away their sins. [Christs death was that of the most abandoned criminals. By the combined verdict of Jew and Gentile, of civil and religious authority, endorsed by the voice of the populace, he was pronounced a malefactor and blasphemer. But this was not all. The hatred and injustice of men are hard to bear; yet many a sensitive man has borne them in a worthy cause without shrinking. It was a darker dread, an infliction far more crushing, that compelled the cry: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mat 27:46). Against the maledictions of men Jesus might surely at the worst have counted on the Fathers good pleasure. But even that failed him. There fell upon his soul the death of death, the very curse of sin-abandonment of God! Men did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. (Isa 53:4). He hung on the cross abhorred of men, forsaken of his God; earth all hate, heaven all blackness to his view. Are Pauls words too strong? God did in truth make him a curse for us. By the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Act 2:23), Jesus was set in the place of condemned sinners, and allowed the curse of the wicked world to claim him for its victim. The Jewish Sanhedrin fell upon him for the purpose of declaring him accursed, they thus stigmatized him. They made the Roman governor and the heathen soldiers their instrument in crucifying their Messiah. Pilate in his extremity cried out: Shall I crucify your King? (Joh 19:15). But they cried out exceedingly, Crucify him. (Mar 15:14). It was the desire of the Sanhedrin to lay on the hated Nazarene an everlasting curse.]

for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:-This saying attached in the Jewish mind a peculiar loathing to the person of the dead thus exposed. Once crucified they thought the name of Jesus would surely perish from the minds and lips of men; no Jew would hereafter dare to confess faith in him. His cause could never surmount this ignominy. [This sentence of execration Paul has woven into a crown of glory. Paul freely admits that Jesus was hanged on a tree, crushed with reproach, and accursed, as his enemies said, but he was the long-expected Messiah and Savior. But the curse he bore was ours. His death, unmerited by him, was the price of our redemption to ransom us from the curse of sin and death. We know that we were condemned by the law; that the sinless Christ came under the laws curse, and taking the place of sinners, he was made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2Co 5:21). He bore the inflictions incurred by our sins, and due to ourselves. Paul says, Christ redeemed us,” thinking of his Jewish kindred, on whom the law weighed so heavily-it was offered to the Jew first, but not to him alone, nor as a Jew. The time of release had come for all men.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Chapter 15

Christ Our Redeemer

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

(Gal 3:13)

In Galatians 3 Paul is showing us that salvation is entirely the gracious and sovereign work of God, upon the merits of the shed blood of Christ, apart from any human effort. He makes what must be to all legalists a very astonishing and grating statement in Gal 3:10. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. When a man tries to save himself by doing good, by keeping laws and commandments, he is cursed in his very effort. Such a statement is in direct opposition to the natural opinion of man, and all other forms of religion. Men, by nature, assume that Christianity should address itself to men and say, You ought to do good. Do this and that and thou shalt live. Obey these commandments and you will have eternal life. But the revelation of God says just the opposite. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

The Law

The giving of the law was an awesome and terrifying event. Mount Sinai burned with fire. It was covered with thunder and lightning and thick darkness. The giving of the law was accompanied by the blast of a trumpet. It sounded like the day of doom, of damnation, of destruction. So awesome and terrible was that sight that Moses said, I do exceedingly fear and quake. It was such a fearful time that if so much as the hand of a beast were to touch the mountain it was to be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.

The awesomeness of that drama was concluded by the law of God being given to man upon two huge tables of stone. The law is hard, unbending, and impersonal. It was written on rock, heavy rock that cruses us to powder. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Paul shows us that no man can stand before God and claim salvation upon the footing of his own works, because his very works are a curse to him.

In verse thirteen he tells us how sinners are saved. They cannot be saved upon their own merit, but they can be saved upon the merits of Another. Jesus Christ, the Representative Man, is the only one whose righteousness God will accept. And He graciously accepts as righteous all who are in Christ.

Sin is an accursed thing. The holy Lord God must curse it. His righteousness demands that he punish all sin and punish men for sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Son of the Everlasting Father, became a man and suffered in his manhood the curse, which was due his people. In the sacrifice of his own Son as our Substitute, God has satisfied his justice in the punishment of sin, and bestows his boundless mercy, love, and grace upon all who trust his Son, receiving salvation at his hand.

Our Ruin

All men are guilty of sin and under the curse of the law (Gal 3:10). You and I have broken Gods holy law (Exo 20:1-17). The mere reading of the law should be enough to convince us of our guilt. We have all broken the law continually, from our youth up. No sinful human being is capable of keeping even one of the commandments. You may think, But the Lord knows, I have done the best I could. But that very thought is itself a lie; and you know it. No man has ever done the best he could do. It is ever our nature to choose evil. Yet, even if it were true, the best that we can do is but sin. Gods law demands perfect obedience, inwardly and outwardly, without a break.

Some try to find comfort in the supposition that, though they have sinned, they are no worse than others. But that will be no solace when God sweeps nations into hell. In that terrible day the wrath of God will be felt by every sinner as though he alone were damned. Unless you have kept the whole law of God perfectly, from the dawn of your life to the end of it, you are guilty before God.

Though it is impossible for us to keep Gods law because of the corruption of our hearts, were it possible to do so, we are still guilty. We all sinned and fell in Adam (Rom 5:12). We were all born in sin (Psa 51:5; Psa 58:3). We do not become sinners by what we do. We do the evil that is in us because we are sinners. We were born that way. Our very nature is evil (Mar 7:20-23). Therefore we all live by nature after the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh (Eph 2:1-3).

Our Curse

Because we have broken Gods holy law, we are under the curse of his law (Deu 27:14-26). What is the curse of the law, but the curse of God? It is a completely just and righteous curse, a curse we have earned (Gen 2:17, Eze 18:4; Rom 6:23). And the curse of God is indescribably great (Nah 1:2-6; Mal 4:1). He who destroyed the world once in water will soon purge it with fire. He who rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah will pour out the unquenchable fire of his holy wrath and the everlasting brimstone of torment upon every sinner who is found by his avenging justice outside Christ, the only City of Refuge.

But let no one imagine that the wrath of God is something that may fall upon them sometime in the future. The wrath of God is presently upon the unbelieving (Joh 3:36; Deu 28:15-19). Eternal hell is the place where that wrath shall be forever executed, without abatement, upon the ungodly.

Redemption

But there are some people in this world who are no longer under the curse of the law, who are no longer condemned, and can never be condemned. Let every believing sinner rejoice and sing. Christ our Mediator has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (1Co 12:3; Deu 21:22-23; Jos 10:24-27).

The Word of God declares that there is only one way of redemption Substitution. The only way God can or will forgive sin is by the sin-atoning death and justice satisfying sacrifice of a Substitute of infinite worth and merit. The Lord Jesus Christ is that Substitute. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Co 5:21). The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was made to be sin for us. When he was made sin, the Lord God poured out all his infinite, holy wrath upon him. And, with one tremendous stroke of his glittering sword, justice was satisfied. The sword of justice that would have tormented us forever was swallowed in our holy Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.

With one tremendous draft of love,

He drank damnation dry!

Yes, he redeemed us from the curse of the law by his one great sacrifice for sin.

The Redeemer

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Our Redeemer is Christ, the Son of God, who was appointed and called to this work by his Father. He agreed to be our Redeemer and became our Redeemer in eternity, in the everlasting covenant. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was spoken of in Old Testament prophecy as our Redeemer, and was typified as our Kinsman Redeemer both by the law and by Boaz. In the fulness of time he came, not to become our Redeemer, but as our Redeemer. And he has, by the sacrifice of himself, obtained eternal redemption for us. Our Lord Jesus is abundantly qualified to be our Redeemer. As man, he is our near kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belonged by the law. As God, he was able to accomplish the great work.

The Redeemed

Those who have been redeemed by Christ are “us,” Gods elect (2Th 2:13-14), the objects of his eternal love (Jer 31:3; Rom 8:28-30). They are a people scattered through all the world, a peculiar people, the peculiar and distinct objects of grace. They are the people of Christ, his people, whom he came into the world to save (Mat 1:21), those the Father gave to him before the world began (Joh 6:39). Those who were redeemed by Christ are his sheep (Joh 10:11-16), those for whom he made and makes intercession (Joh 17:9; Joh 17:20). Surely, no reasonable person can imagine that the Lord Jesus would lay down his life for those for whom he refuses to pray! Those Christ redeemed are those who are, in fact, redeemed. Is it not ludicrous beyond comprehension to imagine that the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed some who are not redeemed? All those redeemed by Christ are us who in time are brought by grace to believe on Christ. Our faith in him in time is the result of the redemption he accomplished at Calvary.

By his death upon the cursed tree, by the infinite merit and efficacy of his blood, the Lord Jesus Christ effectually redeemed Gods elect (all for whom he died); and the blessing he obtained for them is eternal redemption (Heb 9:12). When Paul says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, his meaning is At one time in the past, by a finished, once for all act, Christ bought us out of the curse of the law and delivered us from it to himself, by a price. And the price of our redemption was his own lifes blood (1Pe 1:18-20). We were his before he died by the Fathers gift. Now, we are his by lawful ransom. He purchased us with the price of his own blood and delivered us “from the curse of the law,” its sentence of condemnation and death, and from the execution of it in eternal wrath. That simply means that all who were redeemed by Christ have been so thoroughly and effectually delivered from the curse of the law, so that, as John Gill puts it, they shall never be hurt by it, he having delivered them from wrath to come, and redeemed from the second death, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.

Made A Curse

How did our Savior accomplish this great work? The Holy Spirit tells us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. That does not mean that he was simply made to be like one who is cursed by the law. It does not merely mean that he was looked upon by the men of his day as an abominable, wicked man, or that God merely looked upon him as though he were such.

There is much more here than a supposed curse. When our all-glorious Substitute was made to be sin for us, he was made to be a curse for us. As our Surety the Lord Jesus was made under the law. He stood before God in our place legally as our Representative. Having all the sins of all his people imputed to him, and having assumed total responsibility for us as our Surety, he stood before God as to one answerable for them, the only one answerable for them. The law, finding our sin on him, charged him with them and cursed him for them.

When the Son of God was made to be sin for us, justice executed upon him the full measure of Gods infinite wrath and fury, until it was fully satisfied with the payment received from him. God the Father himself, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us, awoke the sword of his angry justice against him, and commanded his death, even the horrid, ignominious, accursed death of the cross. Thus, he was made a curse: “made a curse,” by the will, counsel, and determination of the eternal God. And as our great Savior and the Fathers righteous Servant, the Lord Jesus freely consented to the work. He freely laid down his life for us. He voluntarily gave himself for us. He made his own soul an offering for sin in full agreement with the Father, because of his great love for us.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. It is so written in Deu 21:23. He that is hanged on a tree is accursed of God. That phrase in Deu 21:23 is translated in the margin, He that is hanged on a tree is the curse of God. Stronger words could not be used to describe our Redeemers agony, the magnitude of his sacrifice, and the efficacy of his work upon the cursed tree.

When he hung on the cross, in our room and stead; the Lord of Glory was made a curse, not for himself, or for any sins of his own, for he had none. He was made a curse, the curse of God for us, in our room and stead, because of our sins that were made to be his. He was made the curse of God to make atonement for us. The curse of God fell upon his darling Son as our Surety. His own Father, who made him to be sin for us, made him the curse of God for us, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law.

Gods holy law requires a penalty against sin. The penalty is death. That is its curse. The only way anyone can ever be delivered from the curse of the law is by enduring its curse, death, to the full satisfaction of justice. But no man can ever do that. Indeed, whatever hell is, it is eternal, precisely because all the damned suffering the wrath of God in hell can never satisfy its infinite curse.

Here is the great beauty, wonder, and glory of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he was made the curse of God for us and all for whom he died endured the curse of God in him to the full satisfaction of justice, for when he died, we died in him. Now, upon the grounds of justice satisfied, both the law of God and the grace of God demand the eternal salvation of all for whom Christ died. Because Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, God is both just and the Justifier of all who trust his Son (Rom 3:24-26). There is no other way in which he can be, as he declares himself to be, A just God and a Savior (Isa 45:20).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

redeemed: Gal 3:10, Gal 4:5, Isa 55:5-7, Isa 55:10-12, Dan 9:24, Dan 9:26, Zec 13:7, Mat 26:28, Rom 3:24-26, Rom 4:25, Rom 8:3, Rom 8:4, 2Co 5:21, Eph 5:2, Tit 2:14, Heb 7:26, Heb 7:27, Heb 9:12, Heb 9:15, Heb 9:26, Heb 9:28, Heb 10:4-10, 1Pe 1:18-21, 1Pe 2:24, 1Pe 3:18, 1Jo 2:1, 1Jo 2:2, 1Jo 4:10, Rev 1:5, Rev 5:9, Rev 13:8

being: 2Ki 22:19, Jer 44:22, Jer 49:13, Rom 9:3

for: Deu 21:23, 2Sa 17:23, 2Sa 18:10, 2Sa 18:14, 2Sa 18:15, 2Sa 21:3, 2Sa 21:9, Est 7:10, Est 9:14, Mat 27:5, 1Pe 2:24

Cursed: Jos 10:26, Jos 10:27

Reciprocal: Gen 22:9 – bound Gen 40:19 – hang thee Exo 32:30 – an atonement Lev 4:20 – an atonement Lev 8:17 – General Lev 15:28 – General Lev 16:22 – bear upon Lev 27:28 – no devoted Num 28:30 – General Deu 11:26 – General Deu 30:15 – General 2Sa 18:9 – taken up Est 8:7 – him they have hanged Est 9:13 – let Haman’s ten sons be hanged Psa 37:22 – cursed Psa 88:16 – fierce Psa 107:2 – Let the Psa 119:21 – cursed Isa 35:9 – but Isa 41:14 – saith Isa 42:21 – he will Isa 53:4 – he hath Isa 53:10 – he hath Dan 9:27 – confirm Mat 20:28 – and to Mat 25:34 – Come Mat 26:38 – My Mar 10:45 – and to Mar 15:24 – crucified Luk 10:26 – General Luk 22:37 – And he Luk 23:33 – they crucified Joh 1:29 – which Joh 5:46 – had Joh 10:15 – and I Joh 11:51 – that Jesus Joh 12:32 – if Joh 18:32 – what Joh 19:18 – General Act 5:30 – ye slew Act 10:39 – whom Act 10:45 – they Act 23:12 – under a curse Rom 7:4 – ye also Rom 7:6 – But Rom 8:1 – no Rom 8:34 – It is Christ 1Co 1:30 – redemption 1Co 6:20 – ye 1Co 12:3 – accursed 1Co 15:3 – Christ Gal 1:8 – let Gal 2:16 – but Eph 3:18 – able Phi 2:8 – the death Col 1:14 – whom 1Th 1:10 – Jesus 2Pe 2:1 – bought

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

Gal 3:13

The Cross of Christ sheds light upon some of those darker problems of existence which have from the beginning perplexed the minds of men.

I. One of the most momentous of these questions finds a solution there and not elsewhere. It is this: How shall a man be just with God? The only satisfactory solution of these questions is to be found at the Cross.

II. God alone can give peace, light, cheer.But sin has disturbed mans relations with God, towards Whom he entertains aversion and enmity, for the carnal mind is enmity against God. At times conscience upbraids the sinner; it brings him in guilty before that tribunal at which he must stand one day to give in his account. Something whispers within, You are not what you ought to be, and what you might have become. He is constrained to make efforts to do better and to become better.

III. The religion of Christ differs from all other religions mainly in this, that it begins where they end, with the sinners reconciliation to God and the forgiveness of his sins, whereas they place these things at the goal, as the result of lifelong efforts and struggles. What shall God render unto me for all that I am doing to secure His favour in this life? This is the spirit of the devotee of all merely human systems. What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath done unto me? This is the cry of the Christian soul which has been redeemed from the curse of the law. Love must inevitably be its constraining motive.

Rev. F. K. Aglionby.

Illustration

A venerated clergyman of our Church who passed away towards the close of the last century used to tell of some words spoken to him in his early ministry by Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, whom he met at the house of a friend. Having been asked to conduct family worship, as the custom was, he expounded the passage of Scripture which he had read. Some time afterwards Mr. Simeon took him aside and said to him, My young friend, you do not understand the uses of the law. They are three: (1) It convinces men of sin; (2) it leads them to Christ; and (3) it becomes their rule of life. Thus we see that the law of God is magnified and made honourable when it fulfils these, its true functions, in their due order.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Gal 3:13. -Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. There is no connecting particle, and the abruptness of the asyndeton gives vividness to the expression. Compare Col 3:4; Dissen, ad Pind. Excur. ii. p. 277. Olshausen needlessly supposes a in Gal 3:10 and a in this verse to be left out. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse-Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. There is no doubt, whatever general truth may be inferred from the passage, that the are specially or primarily, if not solely, Jews. If the law, as seems clear, be the Mosaic law or the published law of God, then its curse lay upon the Jews who were guilty of violating it, and to them the threatening of Gal 3:10 applies. The also stands in contrast to , who are not included in it. Freed from the curse through faith in Him who bore it, why should they be so rigid and undutiful in enjoining that law on the Gentiles? That law did not originally include the Gentiles under its sway,-it in fact severed Israel and non-Israel, Jew and Gentile. The us and the we are, therefore, properly those who in Gal 3:23 are said to be , and also in Gal 4:5, and not heathen also (Pareus, Winer, Matthies, Baumgarten-Crusius). The law of Moses is wrongly affirmed by Winer to have authority over the heathen. The apostle gives a different view of the heathen world in Rom 2:14-15, and states a contrary doctrine-that they are without law. So far, indeed, as the Mosaic law is unnational, or so far as it is a proclamation of earlier moral law springing out of those essential and unchanging relations which creatures bear to God and to one another, it must bind all races.

The aorist verb -bought us out, redeemed or ransomed-corresponds very much to the other terms employed elsewhere-, . The preposition in a compound verb in the later Greek is not to be unduly pressed, as Ellicott remarks, and as Thiersch has illustrated, De Pent. vers. Alex. p. 82. The simple verb occurs 1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23; 2Pe 2:1; Rev 5:9; Rev 14:3-4. The idea is deliverance by ransom. See under Eph 1:7; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:25; Col 1:14. The curse of the law is its penalty of death, under which it holds us in terrible bondage. The mode in which the action asserted by the verb was done is told by the following participial clause-

-having become a curse for us, having the stress upon it. The noun is the abstract, and without the article points out that the curse which He became was full-not circumscribed or modified-wide as the curse of the law. 2Co 5:21. Cursed is every one who has not kept the law–Christ became -not an accursed one, but curse. No element of the that fell on the sinner is beyond the sphere or influence of the which He became; -not under the curse originally, but filled with blessedness, the law having no claim on Him derived from previous or personal violation of any of its statutes.

He became a curse , for us. See what is said under Gal 1:4. While signifies primarily on behalf of, or for the good of, it may here bear in combination the meaning of in room of, as certainly in Joh 13:37-38, 2Co 5:20, in Phm 1:13, and in Plato, , Gorgias, 515, D, Opera, vol. ii. p. 305, ed. Stallbaum. Compare Usteri, Paulin. Lehrb. p. 117. If substitution be not formally expressed, it is certainly implied in this striking declaration. He became the curse that lay upon us, and thus ransomed us out of it.

A quotation is introduced as proof of the last statement by , it has been and it stands written, as in the Textus Receptus; but the has in its favour A, B, C, D1, F, with the Vulgate and several of the Latin fathers.

-Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree. The quotation is taken freely from Deu 21:22-23. The Hebrew of the clause is -for he that is hanged is accursed of God; the Greek, . The whole place is given in our version thus: And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. The clause and he be to be put to death, is properly he be put to death, for crucifixion was not a Hebrew punishment. The common version of the clause under consideration is the correct one-the curse of God; though another rendering has been sometimes given-He that is hanged is an insult to God- ,-the rendering of him whom Jerome calls Ebion ille haeresiarches semichristianus et semijudaeus. The rendering of the Peshito, of the Targum of Jonathan, and of the Greek translators Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, is a modification of this view. Jerome also makes allusion to an altercatio between Jason and Papiscus-a controversy referred to also by Celsus and Origen-in which the words in dispute are rendered . See Prof. Lightfoot’s note on the subject. The words are omitted in the quotation, and is added from the previous verse. Lightfoot says that the words are instinctively omitted by Paul; but they are really implied in the citation-the criminal having broken God’s law bore God’s curse; and in their application to Christ, it is still God’s law whose curse was borne by Him, though the fades into the background, as it is not essential to form a result of the present argument. Bhr and Hofmann suppose the words to be omitted on purpose to keep out the idea expressed, as, among other grounds, it might be a stumbling-block to the unsettled Galatians. The citation is thus made as to sense-a citation the force and truth of which his readers must at once admit. Suspension from a stake (though in later Greek and in the New Testament signifies also a living tree) was a posthumous degradation awarded to certain classes of criminals put to death probably by stoning. Crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment, but the dead criminal was exposed on a stake by the hands. A man so hanged was a curse, and was not on that account to remain exposed all night, because the land had been consecrated to God. So the very means of Christ’s death showed it to be an accursed death. His being hanged on a tree proved that He was made a curse. The manner of the death, besides being in consonance with prophecy, was a visible proof and symbol of its real nature; for He bore our sins on His own body on the tree. He bore the curse of a broken law, and the mode of His death signally showed that He became a curse, for, by being suspended on a stake, He became in the express terms of the law a curse. Act 5:30; Act 10:39; 1Pe 2:24. And this declaration was a continuous stumbling-block, as Jerome testifies, and as may be seen in Tertullian, Adversus Judaeos, 10, Opera, vol. ii. p. 727, ed. OEhler; in Justin Martyr, Dial. cum Tryph. 96, Opera, vol. ii. p. 327, ed. Otto; and in Aristo Pellaeus, some fragments of whom may be found, with annotations, in Routh’s Reliq. Sac. vol. i. p. 95, etc. Jewish contempt styled the Saviour the hanged man, as may be seen in the second chapter of the first part of Eisenmenger’s Entdeckt. Judenthum, on the slanderous names which the Jews give to Christ. Eisenmenger did with a will this work, which is a curious, erudite, and ponderous indictment against the Jewish nation.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Gal 3:13. The particular curse meant here is that of hanging on a tree, which was accomplished by crucifixion. By giving us a system that does not require such physical punishments, Christ took away that kind of curse. And He was able to bring about the change only by going through such a curse himself on our behalf, which is the reason He had to be crucified.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Gal 3:13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. One of the strongest passages for the doctrine of a vicarious atonement Christ, out of infinite love and in full agreement with the Fathers eternal plan of redemption, voluntarily assumed, bore and abolished, by His death on the cross, the whole curse of the outraged law in the stead and in behalf of sinners. The vicarious efficacy lies not so much in the preposition for, as in the whole sentence. What He did and suffered for men, He did and suffered in their stead, and what He suffered in their stead, He suffered for their benefitRedeemed, delivered (by one act accomplished, once and for all) by a ransom, i.e., Christs life offered on the cross. Comp. Mat 20:28 (He gave his life a ransom for many); 1Ti 2:6; 1Cor. 5:20; 1Co 7:23; Tit 2:14; Rev 5:9; Rev 14:4.By becoming a curse, stronger, and yet milder than accursed. Christ was the voluntary bearer of the entire guilt of the whole race, yet without any personal guilt. The curse is transferred from the guilty sinner to the innocent victim (as in the case of the typical scape-goat Lev 16:5. ff.). Comp. 2Co 5:21 : Him [Christ] who knew no sin He [God] made to be sin [stronger than sinner] for us (or, on our behalf); that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.For us, on our behalf, for our sakes.

For it is written, etc. A parenthetic justification from Deu 21:23 (Sept.) of the startling expression just used. The passage refers to those criminals who after being stoned were hung up on a stake (probably on the form of a cross), but were not permitted to remain in this position over night, lest the holy land should be desecrated. Our Saviour fulfilled the legal curse by hanging dead on the cross. Paul significantly omits the words of God which are in the Septuagint and in the Hebrew. For Christ was not Himself accursed of God, but only in a vicarious sense, that is, by the voluntary self-assumption of the curse of others, and in full harmony with the Fathers wish and will, who, far from hating his own beloved Son, delighted in His sacrifice on the cross as a sweet-smelling savor (Eph 5:2), and in the execution of His own eternal purpose of redeeming mercy. Riddle: Two curses are mentioned by Paul. The one: Cursed is every one that continueth not, etc. (Gal 3:10). That curse lay on all mankind. The other: Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Gal 3:13). This curse Christ took that He might redeem us from the first. Both were curses in and of the law. The one specifies the guilt, the other the punishment. Christ bore the accursed punishment, and thus took away the accursed guilt. He stood for the every one who continueth not, by becoming the very one who hung upon the tree.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

This is the apostle’s fifth and last argument, to prove that we are justified by faith; and that notwithstanding the threats of the law, a believer is freed from the curse and malediction of the law, by Christ’s bearing the curse for him. Christ hath redeemed us, &c.

Where note, 1. The believer’s happy discharge from the most dismal and dreadful thing imaginable; namely, the condemnatory sentence and curse of the law, whereby a sinner is bound over to death, even to death of soul and body.

Note, 2. The person that doth, and only can deliver the sinner from this condemnatory curse and sentence, and that is Jesus Christ. He discharges the believer from his obnoxiousness to wrath, dissolves his obligation to punishment, looses all bands and chains of guilt: so that the curse of the law has nothing and shall have nothing to do with him for ever.

Note, 3. The way and manner in and by which Jesus Christ effecteth all this for us; namely, by his being made a curse for us; not that Christ was made the very curse itself, or changed into a curse, but he took the curse upon himself, our sin became his by voluntary susception of the punishment; and Christ underwent that death, the death of the cross, which by the law was accursed, to free us from the curse of the law; as Christ was made sin for us, so was he made a curse for us. Now as he was made sin, not by contracting the guilt of sin, but by suffering the punishment of sin; so he was made a curse, by undergoing that death which the law styles accursed.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Gal 3:13-14. Christ Christ alone; the abruptness of the sentence shows a holy indignation at those who reject so great a blessing; hath redeemed us Or, hath bought us off, whether Jews or Gentiles; from the curse of the law The curse which the law denounces against all transgressors of it, or the punishment threatened to them. Dr. Whitby proves, in his note on this verse, that the violation of the law given to Adam was attended with a curse, as well as that given to the Israelites by Moses, and that it is the more general curse. Nearly to the same purpose speaks Dr. Macknight, thus: That the persons here said to be bought off from the curse of the law, are the Gentiles as well as the Jews, is evident from Gal 3:10, where the apostle tells us, As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for the proposition being general, it implies that the Gentiles as well as the Jews are under the curse, and need to be bought off. This appears likewise from the purpose for which Christ is said (Gal 3:14) to have bought us off; namely, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations, that is, on both Jews and Gentiles. Next, the curse of the law, from which all are bought off by Christ, is not a curse peculiar to the law of Moses. For as the Gentiles never were under that law, they could have no concern with its curse. But it is the curse of that more ancient law of works, under which Adam and Eve fell, and which, through their fall, came on all their posterity. Also it is the curse of the law of nature, under which all mankind, as the subjects of Gods universal moral government, are lying for having broken that law. These curses are called by the general name of the curse of the law; not as being peculiar to the law of Moses, but because they were published in the law of Moses. From this curse of the law of works, Christ hath bought us off, by becoming a curse for us. For in the view of his death, to be accomplished in due time, God allowed Adam and his posterity a short life on earth, and resolved to raise them all from the dead, that every one may receive reward, or punishment, according to the deeds done by him in the body. Further, being bought off by Christ from the curse of the law of works, mankind, at the fall, were bought off from law itself; not indeed as a rule of life, but as a rule of justification; and had a trial appointed to them under a more gracious dispensation, in which not a perfect obedience to law, but the obedience of faith is required in order to their obtaining eternal life. Of this gracious dispensation, or covenant, St. Paul hath given a clear account, Rom 5:18. The same writer observes further here, Christs dying on the cross is called his becoming a curse; that is, an accursed person, a person ignominiously punished as a malefactor: not because he was really a malefactor, and the object of Gods displeasure, but because he was punished in the manner in which accursed persons, or malefactors, are punished. He was not a transgressor, but he was numbered with the transgressors, Isa 53:12. That the blessing of Abraham The blessing promised to him; might come on the Gentiles also; that we Who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles; might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith As the evidence of our being justified by faith, and of our being the sons of God, Gal 4:5-7. This promise of the Spirit, which includes all the other promises, is not explicitly mentioned in the covenant with Abraham, but it is implied in the promise, (Gen 22:17,) In blessing I will bless thee; and is expressly mentioned by the prophets, Isa 44:3; Eze 39:29; Joe 2:28.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 13

The curse of the law; the terrible penalty of the law.–Being made a curse for us; in the condemnation, sufferings, and death, which be endured for us.–Cursed, &c.; Deuteronomy 21:23.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

Week Six: 3:13-27 Paul Contrasts Abraham’S Promise To The Law

Last study we saw that we were tied completely to the law if we were to try to keep any of it. Verse twelve was quite clear on the subject.

Rom 10:5 Adds to this thought. “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”

The Romans text is a reference to Lev 18:5 “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.”

In this study we see that Christ freed us from all those bonds and ties.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:

The term redeemed has many thoughts. It can mean to buy with ones own belongings something from another for ones own use. It can be translated ransom – a price paid to another to gain something back from domination.

In this context it relates to Christ buying us back or paying the price to free us from the domination of the law. Before, the law and it kept, was our only possible salvation, now that Christ has fulfilled that law, and given his life as atonement, we are free from the laws dominion and rule over us.

The fact that this redemption is in an aorist tense means that it was done at a point in time, that it is no longer going on. There is no further redemption being provided on a continuing basis, there is no cross on a continuing basis and there is no need for offering Christ on a continuing basis. It was done in the past, on the cross and it remains done for all time.

The verb “is written” is a perfect tense, something that was written in the past, something that remains written even now, and something that will always be written into the future to a time of completion. Rather well describes the eternality of the Word of God doesn’t it.

The passage referred to is Deu 21:23 “His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God 😉 that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.”

The “us” to some commentators relates specifically to the Jews in Paul’s audience as well as himself, however it also extends to the gentiles in that, a way had to be made for the gentiles to be blessed through Abraham. We will see a little more on this in the next verse and find that this idea of “us” is not necessarily true.

Christ being made a curse speaks to the substitutionary aspect of the atonement, He was cursed for us – we need not suffer death as did Christ since He already suffered and paid the price.

A couple of verses in Deuteronomy picture this portion of Christ’s ministry to us on the cross.

This passage pictured what He would go through hundreds of years before the fact. Deu 21:23 “His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.”

The second passage relates to the curse upon any that does not follow the entire law. Deu 27:26 “Cursed [be] he that confirmeth not [all] the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.”

Just a little freebie here, the first Deuteronomy passage is a great illustration of how the Old Testament helps us know and interpret the New Testament. Many are the passages of the Old that open the secrets of the New.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

3:13 {14} Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: {15} for it is written, {h} Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:

(14) A preventing of an objection: how then can they be blessed whom the Lord pronounces to be accused? Because Christ suffered the curse which the Law laid upon us, that we might be acquitted from it.

(15) A proof of the answer by the testimony of Moses.

(h) Christ was accursed for us, because he bore the curse that was due to us, to make us partakers of his righteousness.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

If the Law shows every person to be under God’s curse, how can we escape God’s wrath? Paul reminded his readers that Christ paid the penalty for our sins and made justification possible for every person. He voluntarily took the wrath of God directed toward us upon Himself; He became the object and bearer of God’s curse (2Co 5:21).

"He neutralized the curse for them, so that they, on whom the curse rightfully falls because of their failure to keep the law, now become free from both its demands and its curse. . . .

"Verse 13 thus represents Christ’s death as a vicarious bearing of the curse of the law which delivers his people from the same curse. This is in simple terms Paul’s Christian interpretation of Christ’s death on the cross." [Note: Fung, pp. 149-50.]

"Christ has done all that is necessary and his death is the means of making sinners free." [Note: Morris, p. 106.]

The proof that Christ became a curse for us was the fact that His executioners hung Him on a tree. Under the Law this was the fate of criminals whom God had cursed. Note that God did not curse Christ because He hung on a tree, but Christ hung on a tree because God had cursed Him. Paul again quoted Deuteronomy (Deu 21:23).

"The curse of the Law" is the curse pronounced on the law-breaker by the Law (Deu 27:26; cf. Gal 3:10).

"By bringing these two texts [in Deuteronomy] together and interpreting the latter [Deu 21:23] in terms of the former [Deu 27:26], Paul understands Jesus’ death on the cross (to which a curse was attached according to Deu 21:23) as a bearing of the curse of God incurred (according to Deu 27:26) by all who fail to continue in obedience to the law." [Note: Fung, pp. 147-48.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)