Galatians 3:10-14, Christ a Curse in Our Place

Deuteronomy 21:22,23 says:

22 If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

“Under the Mosaic Law, those who were hanged on a tree were cursed. The law made it illegal to leave the body hanging overnight. This law applied to Jesus, who was executed on a tree, although He had done no wrong. Jesus’ dead body was removed from the cross on the same day of His death and was buried.” (GotQuestions.org) Jesus was under a curse in order to deliver us from the curse. Paul uses this biblical evidence to warn the Galatians away from the false teachers who had taught them a false gospel.

10 For whoever is relying on works of law is under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue doing all the things that are written in the book of the Law. 11 And that by the law no one is justified before God is clear because, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” 12 Indeed, the law is not of faith, but rather “the one who does these things will live by them.”
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse in our place. Because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 Christ redeemed us in order that the Gentiles might come to the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10-14)

Deuteronomy 27:26 asserts that whoever does not do all that is written in the Law is cursed. So, Paul says, whoever is relying on works of law for salvation or justification (being declared righteous by God) is under a curse. There are two ways in which you could fail to “continue doing all the things” written in the Law of Moses: 1) You could contradict the teachings of the Law, and 2) you could fail to keep every single law all the time. The false teachers were guilty of both of these. They had failed to teach the Law faithfully by suggesting that Abraham was justified by being circumcised and keeping all God’s laws, whereas, as Paul has demonstrated, Abraham was justified by faith (Genesis 15:6), not by law-keeping. And, of course, the false teachers, like everyone else, could not perfectly keep all the Law all the time.

And so Paul’s powerful conclusion: By the law no one is justified before God! Rather, as Habakkuk 2:4 made clear, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” This is the teaching of the Law of Moses about salvation. The Law itself is not “of faith,” in the sense that it requires complete obedience, which, if a person were to do that, they would be in no violation before God and thereby justified (declared righteous). But because no one can do that (only Jesus ever has), mankind was in quite a dilemma, until God came to the rescue.

God sent the Messiah, Jesus, to take the curse upon himself. He was the only one who could do it because he was the only sinless individual who didn’t need atonement. He became a curse “for” us. This inevitably means he became a curse in our place. He took the curse, the penalty for which is death, and paid it for us. In theological terms, he made a penal substitutionary atonement for us. He suffered the penalty as our substitute, thus atoning for our sin. Now Jews and Gentiles alike can be redeemed, purchased back from slavery to sin and death, and be given the Holy Spirit and his salvation by faith. Abraham has indeed become a blessing to all nations (including Gentiles) in that the Messiah who came from him purchased salvation for us that was freely acquired by faith, not works.