The apostle Paul’s epistle to the Galatians is a dynamic letter to say the least. The words seem to come from a fiery preacher, one who is zealous for the truth and jealous for the people he is writing to. The church in this region was in danger of abandoning the message preached to them by the apostle, the gospel of Jesus Christ. False teachers had crept in and persuaded the people to turn away from Christ alone as their hope to keeping the ceremonial laws of the Jewish people - laws commanded by God but laws that were types and shadows of the Christ who was to come and fulfill them. It seems that these “Judaizers” were not denying Jesus as the Messiah but were adding requirements to the churches in Galatia that they may be fully included with the people of God. They had come to God through the door of Jesus Christ, only to find themselves in the vestibule of Judaism.# This is what we typically call legalism, seeking to gain or keep a right standing with God by virtue of our own law keeping. It was good that the Galatians had come to faith in Christ, now they only needed to be pushed farther if they “really” wanted to be joined to God’s covenant people. Usually we think that this view of the law is too high, but the opposite is true. In fact, legalism is actually holding too low a view of God’s law. Why? Because the Judaizers thought it was possible for sinners to actually keep it. Paul’s argument against them was that “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’” (Galatians 3:10). Here he quotes from Deuteronomy, a passage we viewed previously.
Due for Collision
Due for Collision
It seems that we have been speaking of the “curse” theme for quite some time, but do you remember the note we began on? Blessing, the blessing of God defined in Scripture as coming through Abraham. Being blessed by God we saw is justification, a right standing in the sight of our Creator. This is the context that the apostle himself is speaking in. Those included in Abraham’s blessing, his true sons, are those who have received this blessing through faith in the promise of God to bless just as Abraham received it. Abraham did not receive the ten commandments. The Galatians need not follow the logic of the Judaizers in receiving the sign of circumcision and keeping the festivals and holy seasons of the Jews. “So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith….if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Galatians 3:9, 18). It is by faith and not law that one is blessed by God, being freely justified. However, this does not at all solve our dilemma. The law remains written on tablets of stone by God himself, the same God who blessed Abraham without law, and this God curses those who are guilty of transgressing it. The tension could not be greater for “it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Galatians 3:11), while at the same time “the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them’” (Galatians 3:12). The difference between cursing and blessing can be defined in the distinction between law and gospel. The gospel or promise brings blessing for it comes from God, the fount from which all true blessings flow but the law can only give a curse for every thought, word, and deed of man is tainted with sin.
How can this dilemma ever be solved? How can the blessing of Abraham and the curse of the law ever be reconciled? These two seem to be striving against one another for supremacy in the redemptive story, they are bound for a head on collision and they finally meet in the cross of Jesus Christ. In the cross the blessing of Abraham and the curse of the law finally come together. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” How could the Christ be accursed, wouldn’t this finally prove that he was not the long awaited for deliverer after all for “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13)?
The Hero Emerges
The main character of the redemptive drama is Jesus Christ. Like all stories, the leading role is not always directly in view, but he remains from cover to cover central in the plot line. He comes on the scene as the one long awaited, the one who will make all things new, deliver his people, and destroy the serpent of old. It is clear that a new day has arrived in Jerusalem, a voice cries in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Matthew 3:3) and it is announced that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Jesus inaugurates the kingdom of God. He comes preaching and teaching and healing, his works authenticating his words. He fulfills prophecy as only the Messiah would, the gospel writers and his apostles interpret the sacred writings in light of him. Jesus emerges as the second Adam, as the true Israel. “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15) is said to refer to Jesus, who’s parents were forced to flee with him to Egypt from the wrath of a wicked ruler and then returned to Israel. He, like Israel, was baptized in the river (I Corinthians 10:2) and driven into the wilderness to be tested - not for forty years, but for forty days. The deliverance and testing of Israel prefigured the Christ who was to come and prevail over sin and Satan where Israel failed. “To obey is better than sacrifice” (I Samuel 15:22) and finally an obedient Israelite has come, a true law-keeper! There is no fault to be found in him, he has come to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). He has come to fulfill the words of Jeremiah:
“Behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’”(Jeremiah 23:5-6).
Jesus is the hero who emerges onto the scene. He is to be crowned king of Israel and establish the kingdom of God on the earth. But wait; if this is so then why is he crowned with thorns and suspended on a Roman torture stake to die? The Messiah wins, he is to rule forever. He cannot die, especially not in this way for the one hung on a tree is cursed by God. What a dilemma! A cursed Christ? No, this cannot be. The Messiah is to be blessed by God not cursed, and furthermore this Jesus has earned the full blessing of God as an obedient man born under the law. It is no wonder that the apostle Paul called the message of Jesus a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek. Christ’s crucifixion proved that he was accursed by God. The Scripture is clear. How can anyone believe or preach a cursed Messiah? This was truly a scandalous message to the ears of the first century Jew. It was a foolish message to the first century Greek. One of the earliest known pictorial representations of Christianity is a graffito drawing on a wall in Rome of a human figure hanging on a cross with the head of a donkey. Another male figure is also in the picture with one hand raised toward the figure on the cross. The inscription reads Aleximenos worships his god. To the world, the cross is utter folly. Deity would never stoop to the level of humanity to get its hands dirty, much less to hang on a cross. To worship someone who died on a cross, that instrument of death reserved for the dregs of society, was the equivalent of worshiping a jackass. The world cannot comprehend a God who comes in weakness. We can understand to a degree the difficulty of preaching this message for the apostles of Jesus Christ. Who would believe the scandal and folly of such a message? And yet, this message is the power of God to deliver and save (Romans 1:16).
So which is it, did Jesus merit the promised blessing by fulfilling the righteous standard or was he cursed by God on the cross? The answer is Yes. Both are true. The hanging of Christ on the tree proved that he was indeed cursed by God. The one Israelite to whom was due blessing received the curse. He was the righteous man of the first Psalm. It was all his to claim that it go well with him, that he be overtaken by covenantal blessings, that he be crowned with a diadem, and be raised on the throne of David to reign forever. This is what Israel expected their Messiah to do. The government was to be upon his shoulder, the enemies of God’s people were to be placed under his feet. He was to throw off the oppression of the Roman empire. Instead he ascends a bloody throne with a crown of thorns driven into his skull and nails piercing his hands and feet. Behold the accursed man on the wretched tree! But oh the wisdom, beauty, and power of that tree when we see the design of it all! “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Tim. 1:15). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). What causes us to go from confusion to awe and what causes the cross to become beautiful in our eyes is to understand that Christ did not become a curse for his own sake but for ours. We were the accursed underneath the wrath of God. It was in our place that he stood condemned. It was because of us that he became as a detestable thing in the sight of the Father. The curse that we were under, the wrath that we deserved fell upon the Blessed One. When Jesus, the great hero of the redemptive drama finally arrives he should hear the great benediction pronounced upon him, instead he receives the ultimate anathema.
Reversing the Great Benediction
Israel’s great hope was the presence of God with his people. He was to be their God, they were to be his people and Yahweh, the Lord, was to dwell with them. His presence was in the tabernacle and in the temple prefiguring the day when God would tabernacle among them in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). As R.C. Sproul has so helpfully pointed out in his book The Truth of the Cross, the hope of the Israelite was ultimately to see God. This is reflected in Moses’ request to the Lord “Please, show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18) and in the great Aaronic blessing of Numbers chapter six.
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24:26).
This is what Jesus deserved to hear, not only because the Father is gracious as he was to pronounce this upon his people, but because Jesus merited this blessing. He was the great law keeper. He upheld the glory of the Father on the earth, loving the Father with all that was within him and loving his neighbor as his own self. He was zealous for the house of God, chasing the money changers out of the temple and overthrowing their tables. He spoke the words of God, himself being the eternal word of God imaging forth the Father to the people. But for Jesus being suspended between heaven and earth on the cross, the opposite of this benediction was true. Instead, as Sproul would say, Jesus heard,
“The LORD curse you and forsake you;
the LORD cause darkness to come upon you and pour his wrath upon you;
the LORD turn his back on you and give you hell.”
On the cross the Blessed Son of the Father was cursed. He who had enjoyed fellowship with the Father for eternity, who was face to face with God (John 1:1) in the beginning, cried “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His being forsaken was confirmed by silence from Heaven. On the cross Jesus was cursed. He did not hear “God bless you” but rather “God damn you.” No worse words can be uttered or heard than these and on the cross they were directed toward Jesus on our behalf in order that we might be blessed. In his body he absorbed the full fury of God’s wrath toward us because of our sin, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. Speaking of the coming Christ who would suffer before his reign for sins of his people, the prophet Isaiah said “he was crushed for our iniquities…it was the will of the LORD to crush him” (Isaiah 53:5,10). C.J. Mahaney is right to say that reading John 3:16 with Isaiah 53 in mind causes us to say “For God so loved the world that he crushed his only son.” The cross does not demonstrate our worth, rather it demonstrates our depravity that such a cost was demanded for our reconciliation. It cost the Son of God his life for us to be blessed. Christ became our guilt offering to free us from guilt. He became a curse for us, redeeming us from the curse of the law, “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Here we find how the great dilemma is solved. How could God promise to bless a people who proved to be under his curse? Is it by works, by keeping his holy law? Yes indeed, but not by our own law keeping, it is by Christ’s own law keeping. He fulfilled the law, merited the blessing, and bore the law’s curse in our behalf that the blessing might come upon us! The sinless son of God became sin for the sinful sons of men. There is nothing left for us to do but to cling to Christ in faith for he has accomplished all with his definitive cry “It is finished” (John 19:30). We enter the redemptive drama by faith in Jesus Christ and by faith his righteousness is imputed to us because on the cross our sin was imputed to him. He was not a sinner but was declared to be one on the cross as he suffered the curse. We are by no means righteous but are accounted so in the Father’s sight because of the active and passive obedience of Christ in his life and death. This is the gospel in its simplest form that Jesus Christ died in our place to bring us to the Father. God is now both just and the justifier of the one who trusts in Jesus. He is just in upholding his righteous demand by punishing sin in Jesus Christ and he is the justifier of those who rest in him by faith as he declares them righteous for Jesus’ sake.
I hear the Savior say, ‘Thy strength indeed is small,
child of weakness watch and pray, find in me thine all in all.’
Lord, nothing good have I whereby thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe,
sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
A necessary question arises at this point: how can we be sure what the New Testament says of Christ’s death is true? How do we know he wasn’t a lunatic who got himself crucified and proved to be a blasphemer under God’s curse for his own transgression by being hung on the tree? The answer is found in his empty tomb. Of course, not everyone believed that Jesus had risen from the dead but there was one thing the Jewish and Roman, Christian and non Christian historians agreed on: there was a controversy over an empty tomb and the missing body of Jesus. His resurrection is the vindication of his death. It demonstrates God’s approval of his life and offering of himself on the cross “for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). Christ “was declared to be the Son of God in power…by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). He goes before his people assuring them of their bodily resurrection by virtue of his own.
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