What Does Galatians 3:13 Mean?

(13, 14) The Law brought a curse, but the Christian is delivered from that curse. How? Christ has taken it upon Himself. The Crucifixion brought Him under the curse of the Law. At the same time, it abolished the dominion of the Law, and threw open the Messianic blessedness to Gentiles as well as Jews: in other words, to all who gave in their adhesion to the Messiah *by faith.* (13) **Christ hath redeemed us.**—Better, *Christ redeemed us.* The opening of this verse without any connecting particle lends sharpness and emphasis to the contrast. The Law brought a curse. There it stopped short. That was all it could do. The first thing that Christianity does is to undo this result of the Law by deliverance from the curse. This deliverance is represented under the form of a *ransom.* Christ “bought off” the human race from the penalty of its sins, the price paid being His death. Comp. 1Corinthians 6:20; 1Corinthians 7:23, “Ye are (were) bought with a price;” 2Peter 2:1, “The Lord that bought them;” Revelation 5:9, “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed (bought) us to God by thy blood;” Revelation 14:4, “These were redeemed (bought) from among men.” The word used in these passages, as well as in that before us, is the general word for “buying.” But that the “buying” intended is that more definitely conveyed by the idea of “ransom” appears from the use of the special word for ransom in Matthew 20:28 ( = Mark 10:45), “The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many;” 1Timothy 2:6, “Who gave Himself a ransom for all.” The word commonly translated “redemption” (Romans 3:24; 1Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 4:30; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:15) also contains the same special idea of “a ransoming.” **Us.**—In the first instance, “the Jews,” but not to be confined too strictly to them. The Apostle is writing to a Gentile (though Judaising) Church, and he does not wish to exclude any of his readers. Though the Gentiles do not come directly under “the curse of the Law,” they came under God’s condemnation. From this they were released, and the blessings of the theocracy hitherto annexed to the Law were thrown open to them by the death of Christ. **From the curse of the law.**—From that curse which the Law pronounced upon all who failed to keep its precepts. **Being made a curse.**—Being treated as if He were accursed. Comp. 2Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin”—*i.e.,* treated as sinful One who was not sinful. The idea is somewhat strengthened by the use of the substantive for the adjective. The curse identifies itself with its object: seizes, as it were, upon the person of its victim. **For us**—*i.e.,* “on our behalf,” “for our sakes,” not “in our stead.” It is impossible to escape the conclusion that St. Paul, like the rest of the Apostles, regarded the sufferings of Christ as undergone *in our stead.* The idea is, indeed, distinctly expressed in this very passage; but it must be gathered from the context, not from the use of the preposition. The preposition which means “instead” is found in Matthew 20:28; 1Timothy 2:6. (See Note on Galatians 1:4.) **As it is** **written.**—The way in which the curse of the Law fell upon Christ was through His death. The ignominious death by which He died was one to which the curse of God specially attached. The Law expressly declared that that criminal who died upon the cross or gibbet was an object of the divine wrath. Christ died as such a criminal, and so came under the curse. It is to be observed, in considering the doctrinal bearings of this passage, that the curse which fell upon Christ was *not* the same curse as that described above as the consequence of human guilt in failing to keep the requirements of the Law. It is not the accumulated penalty for the whole mass of human disobedience, but rather an incidental defilement, contracted by an in-voluntary breach of a particular ceremonial precept. The death of Christ involved a curse because the manner of it was by suspension from a cross. Nothing more than this is said. Christ, the sinless One, died for sinful men. If He had not died they must have died. And His death acted (in some inscrutable way) so as to propitiate the wrath of God. But it is not said that the actual load of human guilt was laid upon Him. It is not said that His death was the actual punishment of that guilt. The death of Christ removed the necessity for the punishment of men, but it could not be regarded as a punishment in relation to Christ Himself. In this respect it would seem as if the symbolism of the scapegoat (which is sometimes adduced in explanation of the present passage) was imperfectly applicable. In the case of the scapegoat, the high priest was to lay his hands upon his head, and to “confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat;” and the goat was to “bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited” (Leviticus 16:21-22). No such process as this really took place in the case of our Lord; nor is it applied to Him even in 1Peter 2:24, otherwise than in vague and general metaphor. The literal application derives no countenance from the present passage, but is rather contradicted by it. It expressly distinguishes between the curse which fell upon Christ and the curse which was due to the sins of men, though the incurrence of the one led to the abrogation of the other. **Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.**—From Deuteronomy 21:23. The Hebrew and LXX. insert “of God”—”He that is hanged is cursed of God”—which St. Paul instinctively omits. The reference in the original is to the exposure of the body upon a stake or gibbet after death.