13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Redeeming from a curse with a curse—that is God’s plan. In verse 10 we saw that being under the law and not keeping the law perfectly results in a person being under the curse of the law. A standard definition of a curse is “a directly expressed utterance which brings harm by its very expression to the one against whom it is directed.” In this case, the curse is brought by God, and pity the person to whom this applies! The magnitude of this is great, that’s why Paul in chapter 1 doubly stresses that anyone who preaches that the law needs to be added to faith in order to be justified, is “anathema” (which is sometimes translated “accursed”). That message leaves a person to remain under the curse of the law—so the good news is really just the same old news, with no hope for being justified before God.
The surprise of eternity, which even the angels had previously longed to see (1 Peter 1:12), was how God would be able to justify sinners, those under the curse. Now Paul makes it absolutely clear, God did it by having the Lord Jesus Christ stand in our place, on our behalf, becoming a curse for us. How that happened came through His death on the cross. Paul here refers to Deuteronomy 21:23 where the word “tree” is used for the cross. In OT culture, when a person sinned and was executed, and his body fastened to a tree for public display, he was cursed by God. But, Christ released us from that curse by becoming a curse for us. Elsewhere we read, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
The purpose of all this was so that non-Jews could share in the blessing promised to Abraham long ago, which came by faith. The law stood in the way of that blessing. Not the law per se, but man’s failure to live by the law, the perfect standard of God’s holiness. And Gentiles and Jews are put on common ground in terms of the righteousness of God. It comes through faith—that is the promise of the Holy Spirit.
What better news can there be but that through Christ’s death on the cross, we have been set free from the curse of the law! We cannot keep to God’s righteous standards, but through faith the Spirit has fulfilled the promise of justification and blessing to Abraham in us. What a magnificent plan for our salvation!
Lord, thank You for releasing me from the curse and giving me the blessing of righteousness before You and forgiveness for my sin.
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