Jesus Became A Curse

What Did Jesus Do?

Christ redeemed us by becoming a curse for us.
Galatians 3.13

(Thanks to my friend Richard White, who preached on Galatians 3:10-14 at the Montreat Presbyterian Church, EPC, on November 6, 2011, and planted the seed of this WDJD.)

It’s cliché, that most men have a hard time saying, "I love you.” Personally, I don’t know why women, or men for that matter, put so much stock in hearing those words. After all, talk is cheap. It is one thing to say you love someone, even love them a lot, and quite another to show your love for another. Now, the Father did something extraordinary to show how much love he has for us—he sent his beloved Son to become a curse for us. And, here’s the thing, the Son was willing to become that curse!

Just so we’re on the same page, let’s make sure we are all talking about the same thing. A curse, according to the dictionary, is “the expression of a wish that misfortune, evil, etc., befall another,” or, “the cause of evil, misfortune, or trouble.” Is that what was in the Father’s heart when he sent the Son? By no means! The truth is, the world, every life, has more than enough misfortune, evil, and trouble all on our own. There is no need for God, or anyone, to lay a curse on another. So what was the Father up to, making his Son become a curse?

Well, in his typical, turn-things-upside down, confound all-worldly-logic style, the Father employed the Son to transfer and to transform. The transfer involved taking the curse/penalty that rightfully was laid upon all who sinned (That would be you, me, everybody), and putting it on the One who alone was innocent of any evil/sin deserving of the curse/penalty (That would be Jesus, the spotless and unblemished Lamb of God): “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we should die to sin.” (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus, the servant of the Lord foretold in Isaiah, received all that was meant for us in order that we would receive all that he alone deserves (Isaiah 53). The transformation involved the One who alone was righteous becoming as one who was unrighteous, so that many sinners would be accounted righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). Both the transfer and the transformation were wrought upon the cross/tree whereby Jesus occupied the place of one cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23). In other words, Jesus, though he didn’t deserve it, became a curse in order that we could be blessed, though we don’t deserve it.

There is no other way at all that we can obtain the Father’s blessing than simply to believe in the Son, and in what he accomplished on the cross. No striving on our part, no amount of works, no offering or sacrifice can avail to begin to remove the curse our sins deserve, or evoke the slightest blessing, much less the incredible blessing of forgiveness and eternal life. As odd as it sounds, when someone asks when we were saved, the answer is, “When Jesus became a curse.”

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4