Paul's use of the word "exagoradzo" in Galatians 3:13-14 to describe our redemption from the curse by Jesus, shows what we were bought out of -- the curse of the law, and what we were bought for -- to receive the blessings of Abraham, which are the Gospel blessings of salvation and eternal life through the promised seed, the Lord Jesus.
But what was the price paid by Jesus to buy us out of the curse? Paul says, it was Jesus being made a curse for us!
Since Jesus is the 2nd person of the Godhead, He was not under the law, because He made the law for man. But in the incarnation, He was born of a woman, and made under the law. Thereby, He submitted Himself to be placed under the law as a man, though He is God Himself.
Not only so, but He was made man so that He might suffer death for His loved ones! But how could He be subject to the curse of the law, the judgment for lawbreaking, when He was perfect and kept all the law? He was entitled to the blessings of keeping the law, and not the curse for breaking it!
That is why He was made a curse FOR US. Our curse for sin was shifted onto Him, and He bore the awful judgment in our place at Calvary.
This was the price required to free sinners from the curse, the promise of judgment for sin. For Justice had to be done, so it was done in Jesus when He died for us.
He owned our guilt in His own body, that we might be loosed from the curse we deserved.
The law declared whoever was hanged upon a tree was cursed by God. Thereby we know that our curse really was shifted onto Jesus, because God saw Him hanging on the cross and turned away from Him there in sorrowful judgment and abandonment.
Thereby He set us free! |
