Galatians 3:13

-Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us". In Galatians 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 becamethe 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 2 Corinthians 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 sinfor 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 (Leviticus 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 Isaiah 53:5-6; Mat 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14.

Light is thrown by this passage on the narrative of the Brazen Serpent (Numbers 21:7-9), which our Lord declares to be a type of His Crucifixion (John 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 (Genesis 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 (Deuteronomy 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" (Ephesians 5:2; comp. Genesis 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.