How do you interpret Galatians 3:13?

[PMV]

Christ rasomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,”…Galations 3:13.

Is it referring to the law of man? Also, how was Christ a “curse for us”?

 

[asteroid]

This protestant commentary makes some good points:

studylight.org/com/bnn/view.cgi?book=ga&chapter=003

You’ll have to cope with the writer loving Luther - but he does point out that Luther was very wrong about this verse, and made a big mistake that has reocurred in some of the modern prosperity preaching.

Here’s the final few lines from a very long discussion of the verse:

But what made the atonement so wonderful, so glorious, so benevolent, what made it an atonement at all, was, that innocence was treated As IF it were guilt; that the most pure, and holy, and benevolent, and lovely Being on earth should consent to be treated, and should be treated by God and man, As IF he were the most vile and ill-deserving. This is the mystery of the atonement; this shows the wonders of the Divine benevolence; this is the nature of substituted sorrow; and this lays the foundation for the offer of pardon, and for the hope of eternal salvation.

Here’s the same commentary on Deut21:23 which Paul is quoting in Galatians: **He that is hanged is accursed of God - **i. e. “Bury him that is hanged out of the way before evening: his hanging body defiles the land; for God’s curse rests on it.” The curse of God is probably regarded as lying on the malefactor because, from the fact of his being hanged, be must have been guilty of a especially atrocious breach of God’s covenant. Such an offender could not remain on the face of the earth without defiling it (compare Lev_18:25, Lev_18:28; Num_35:34). Therefore after the penalty of his crime had been inflicted, and he had hung for a time as a public example, the holy land was to be at once and entirely delivered from his presence. See Gal_3:13 for Paul’s quotation of this text and his application of it.

Hope Barnes is of some help in answering questions about the meaning of the verse.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The law Paul is referring to the law of Moses, which identified sin but because men are not able to keep it without the spirit of Christ, the law became a curse for men though in itself the law is is good and holy. (See Romans 7:7-12)

Isaiah 53 may help you understand the passage about Jesus become a curse…

Jesus used the occasion of his being unjustly executed by being hung upon a tree (crucified) as a cursed sinner, though he himself was really sinless, to offer up his life in sacrifice to his heavenly Father as an atonement for the sins of men.

 

[TOME]

A couple of things about this passage. First, remember that Paul is writing to a primarily gentile community who were facing the pessures that was effecting the whole Church, namely, did being a Christian mean one had to accept the Mosaic law or not. Paul said no, however, those who were from the Church of Jerusalem, following the teachings of James said yes they in effect had to become Jews just as Jesus ministry was to the Jewish people and was the fulfilment of the prophets and the Law (consider the Transfiguation as presented in Matthew, who appeared with Jesus but Moses [Law] and Elijah [Prophets]. Paul is battling this thought partly by pointing out how the Law failed to bring freedom to the Jews (the Holy Land was under Roman domination) and how the practice of the law had become so regulated and worse an end to its self rather than a means of coming to know the Will of God that the Law was the true curse which had enslaved the Jews. Thus, in Jesus’ dieing on a cross as a criminal seemed to be a curse to the Jews because they had been so blinded by their keeping of the Law they did not recognized where there freedom was coming from. Gentiles, not having the “Baggage” (my words) of the Law were not only Atoned (put into the right relationship with God) by Christ’s Paschal Sacrifice but they, the Gentiles, would become the examplars for the Jews as had been the choosen role for the Jews for all nations.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

PMV:

Christ rasomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,”…Galations 3:13.

Is it referring to the law of man? Also, how was Christ a “curse for us”?

See Deuteronomy 21.23:​

Deut 21:22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
Deu 21:23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.

He was also “made sin for us” - so St.Paul says: not Luther. What Our Lord did and was on the Cross, can be expressed only by straining language to the utmost, and by talking in paradoxes: for the Life of Christ is paradox upon paradox. As C.S. Lewis notes somewhere, “He saved us because we were not worth saving”.

God forgives sin - which is unforgiveable: the whole point about sin, is that it is committed without any excuse; where there is excuse, there is no blame.
We were “enemies of God” (Paul again) - therefore, God loved us.
Jesus radicalises the OT: He saves, not the righteous (as in the OT); but the unrighteous.
He saves Israel, not by destroying the Romans and other Gentiles, and gaining for Judaea an empire like that of Solomon; but by saving both Jews and Gentiles from death and sin, the enemy of both. Far from doing far less than the Messiah promised to Israel, He does far more: that is why He was not recognised for what and Who He was.

So here as well: He is “holy and undefiled” - so, “for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” [2 Cor. 5:21]

What St. Paul says is sheer blasphemy - it is also part of the Gospel, which is a tissue of blasphemies; yet it is the Good News of salvation nonetheless.

This is the only way of expressing the utter irrationality of God’s Love - we are not talking about justice, which is rational and is built on giving to each what he deserves - for we are receiving, not what we deserve, but something we very definitely do not deserve at all: that is, the grace of God. Grace is not reasonable, for it utterly transcends reason. Grace is an expression of God’s Love - of God Himself; as Love is unconditional, so is grace. #

 

[Scotty_PGH]

This is a timely discussion. I just today had someone use this verse as an argument against signing one’s self with the Cross, or using the Cross as a symbol of one’s Christianity. The extension of the argument is that crossing oneself is the same as cursing oneself.

 

[TOME]

Scotty, I would suggest to your friend that he may be missing the point of Galatians 3:13 included. One of the points Paul was trying to make to them was we have become God’s own, not through the Mosaic Law, rather directly through Christ. The curse is for others who reject this (namely the jews who rejected Jesus as the true Messiah). Paul expands on this in other Letters especially to the Corinthians and ultimately in his letter to the Romans. In reality then, the Cross, and thus the sign of the cross, becomes a curse for those who do not believe.