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 upon a tree (Gal. 3:13).
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
Some people
appeal to this text to argue that Christ was “hated” by God. Others use it to
overthrow the absolute immutability (unchangeableness) of God by saying “Christ
was once made a curse for us, but now He is not. Isn’t that a ‘change’ in God?”
(I)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
The reference of the apostle Paul in this verse is,
very obviously, to the role that the law played in the old dispensation. This
is evident from the apostle’s quotation from Deuteronomy 21:23.
The law of God as delivered from Mount Sinai to
Israel was an expression of the will of God for the nation. As is true of the
law, given already with the creation, and as an expression of God’s will for
his creature, the law can only do two things: It can give life to those who keep
it, and it curses (i.e., kills) those who disobey it.
This is always true of God’s law for all his
creation. The law for a tree is that it be planted in the soil, receive light
and oxygen. As long as that law is observed, the tree lives. When that law is
broken, the tree dies. The law for a bird is that it fly in the heavens, and
the law for a fish is that it swim in the sea. In every case, a breaking of the
law results in death.
The law of God for man is no different. But because
man is a rational-moral creature, the law for him is essentially to love the
Lord his God and to love his neighbour as himself. To keep that law results in life;
to break that law results in death.
Just as life is essentially fellowship with God and
God’s blessing (John 17:3), so death is essentially separation from God and God’s
curse (Ps. 73:27).
When man fell in Paradise, he died (Gen. 2:17). He
came under the curse of the law. But this curse of the law, this death which man
suffered, was spiritual as well as physical. And his spiritual death was his
total depravity; i.e., in becoming totally depraved as a result of God’s curse
upon him, he lost all ability to keep God’s law in any respect and deprived himself
of God’s blessing.
Because of his inability to keep God’s law, he,
from that moment on, came under the curse of the law. The law could not give
life nor bless (Gal. 3:21). It could only curse.
When God gave Israel the law from Mt. Sinai, He did
not give that law in order that Israel might, in the keeping of it, acquire the
blessing of God and live. Then, as Galatians 3:21 expresses it, righteousness
would have been by the law. Nor could the law annul the promises of God, for
the promises were made much earlier than the giving of the law and the law
could not take the place of the promise (Gal. 3:17-18).
Why was the law given?
Paul answers that question too. In Gal. 3:19, he
explains that the law was added because of transgressions, till the seed
(Christ—v. 16) should come (3:19). More specifically, he writes that the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith
in Christ Jesus (3:24).
This was true for believing Israel who lived in the
hope of the promise. They, in the consciousness of their inability to keep the
law, groaned under the law’s curses (Deut. 28:15-68), for the law, imposed on
them, could only curse. But, and this is Paul’s idea here, God intended this to
be so, that the people of Israel might learn, not to seek righteousness out of
the law, but in Christ. The curses of the law, raining upon them, drove them to
escape that curse by fleeing to Christ.
Thus, the curse, which rightfully belongs to us,
was now placed on Christ in our stead. He became a curse for us by assuming all
responsibilities for the law.
That He became a curse for us is the specific Word
of God in the cross. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21:23 here to demonstrate this. One
who hung on a cross was accursed. The very cross itself, which suspended a man
between heaven and earth, spoke of the fact that God did not want such a man
either in heaven or on earth. The only place for him was in hell. This was the Word of the cross.
Christ never broke that law of God and was not put
under the law (Gal. 4:4) because He was a sinner; He came under the law to take
the place of His people. And so He bore the curse of the law on the cross. He
became the object of God’s wrath and was driven in God’s anger from God’s
presence. He was driven to hell itself by that curse, far from God—as far as He
could possibly go. And so He bore the law’s curse.
But there is something wonderful here.
He always kept the law! He loved the Lord His God
perfectly. He loved His God when God drove Him into hell with the horrible
blows of the law’s curses. From hell’s pit, when He was so far from God that He
could no longer understand (Matt. 27:46), He still said, “I do not know; it is
so black here that I know only Thy awful wrath. But, oh my God, I love Thee
still.”
And so He bore the curse for us and took it away so
that the law can no longer curse us.
And so we are redeemed!
And so the law still serves to drive us to Christ where
we may find refuge beneath His cross!
And so we are justified, not by the works of the
law, but by faith!
We are redeemed from the curse of the law!
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(II)
More to come! (DV)
(II)
More to come! (DV)
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