Christ
Has Redeemed Us from the Curse of the Law
During a recent Bible study, one of my teachers noted the
following Bible verses from Galatians Chapter Three:
“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:
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.”
These verses prompt many Christians to want to better understand
the “curse” and the “law” that have played a role in bringing us the “blessing
of Abraham”. The earlier verses of the chapter and Verse 14 explain the phrase
“blessing of Abraham” in that he was declared to be “righteous” in God’s eyes
because he had the faith to believe what the LORD had told him. (See also
Hebrews 11: 8-10) When we Christians believe the Gospel of Grace today (1
Corinthians 15: 1-4; Romans 10: 9-13), we also are declared to be “righteous”
and receive the Holy Spirit as a sign of our Salvation.
Even so, the definitions of the “curse” and the “law” require further
explanations if we are to more fully appreciate what our Lord Jesus
accomplished when He suffered and went to the Cross on our behalf. So we ask, “how
should the ‘law’ be defined?...and why is there a ‘curse’ associated with ‘hanging
on a tree’?”
The Law:
The broadest and most widely accepted
definition of the Law is that used by the Nation of Israel in referring to the
first five books of their Scripture, called the Torah or the Pentateuch. (See: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1426382/jewish/Torah.htm#:~:text=The%20definition%20of%20the%20word%20Torah%20is%20literally,the%20foundation%20of%20all%20Jewish%20instruction%20and%20guidance.)
The Torah / Pentateuch / Law is one of the three parts of Israel’s complete Scripture,
called the Tanakh, which also contains sections termed “The Prophets”, and “The
Writings”. (See also: https://www.gotquestions.org/Pentateuch.html ;
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible )
In referring to the specific section of
the law noted above, the Apostle Paul cites a seldom discussed section of the Torah
found in Deuteronomy 21: 18-23:
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If a man have a stubborn
and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice
of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto
them: |
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Then shall his father
and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his
city, and unto the gate of his place; |
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And they shall say unto
the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not
obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. |
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And all the men of his
city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away
from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. |
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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: |
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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
Curse:
Our Lord Jesus in no way committed the
sins of the wayward son described in the scripture above. However, I ask that
you make special note of the clause in Verse 23, saying: “for he that is hanged
is accursed of God;” By allowing Himself
to be sacrificed on Calvary’s Cross (hanged on that “tree”) for our sins,
He met the Nation of Israel’s standard of punishment for someone deemed to have
been worthy of death. Further, the public hanging of His body would set an
example for others who would commit sins that the Nation’s elders determined
had warranted being under “God’s curse”. They had determined that they could
and were speaking for God. [As an aside, according to our Strong’s Expanded
Concordance, this is the only occurrence of the scriptural use of the phrase
“accursed of God”,]
Now I’d like to add a different perspective
to the setting of this Bible study.
Remember one of the important principles
of study is to heed the words of Myles Coverdale. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myles_Coverdale
) He advised students to consider several factors, among which were: “who is
writing to whom”; and “what went before and what followeth after.” Although
this discussion began by focusing on the specific Verses 13 and 14 of Galatians
Chapter Three, the context began to take form at the beginning of the Chapter,
reaching the verse most critical to this discussion in Verse Ten:
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“For 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.” Here
the Scripture clearly points out the definition of the “curse” under
discussion, and to whom it applies. Again, it is critical to remember
“context” when we study and examine various parts of the Bible, even as we
consider Scripture in its entirety. Whether the words came from the LORD through
Moses to the Nation of Israel (Deuteronomy 27: 26; 28: 15), or from the Holy
Spirit through the Apostle James to those Israelites who had been scattered from
Jerusalem many centuries later (James 1: 1, 2: 10), they carried the same authority and weight of
God. The Law had to be obeyed completely. Remember,
in the Torah in Exodus Chapter 19, the LORD had chosen the Nation of Israel to
be His “kingdom of priests and an holy (set-aside) nation.” The stipulation
was that they would have to obey His voice and keep His covenant. All the
people responded: “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.” Without even
hearing the specific details to which they were committing, all the people of
the Nation seemed assured they could do whatever the LORD would ask of them. As we
would later learn, Israel’s “self-righteousness” would prove to be an
obstacle to their serving as a role model towards evangelizing the rest of
mankind (the Gentile world). The only one who could fully keep the law was
our Lord Jesus. Israel’s failures to keep the Law as described above would
serve to demonstrate that man alone was not capable of achieving “righteousness
in the eyes of God”. The Law was given to Israel to provide man with the
knowledge of “sin”. (Romans 3: 19-20) Man
needed a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. However, it was through Israel’s failures
that God would turn more directly to the Gentiles through the Apostle Paul with
His pathway to man’s salvation through our Lord Jesus. (Romans Chapter
Eleven; Acts 9: 1-15) That is why we so value and have faith in the Gospel of
Grace. (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4; Romans
10: 9-13; Hebrews 11: 1) The
key message for Christian believers today is that we are no longer under the
curse for failing to do all the things that were written in the Law /
Torah. Through His shed blood and
death on Calvary’s Cross, our Lord and Savior has paid the penalty for our sins.
Through His Resurrection and victory over death, He has secured our eternal
salvation and the many other blessings we currently enjoy. Dr. W.
A. (Bill) Robinson |
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