Galatians 3:13

Galatians 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 Father's 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 benefit ‘Redeemed,' delivered (by one act accomplished, once and for all) by a ransom, i.e., Christ's life offered on the cross. Comp. Matthew 20:28 (He ‘gave his life a ransom for many'); 1 Timothy 2:6; 1Cor. 5:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23; Titus 2:14; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 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 Leviticus 16:5. ff.). Comp. 2 Corinthians 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 Deuteronomy 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 Father's wish and will, who, far from hating his own beloved Son, delighted in His sacrifice on the cross as ‘a sweet-smelling savor' (Ephesians 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. (Galatians 3:10). That curse lay on all mankind. The other: ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree' (Galatians 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.'