Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Galatians 3:13

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:" — Galatians 3:13 (ASV)

If these principles are true and if they support the topic sentence of v.10, then the condition of humankind under law is obviously hopeless. If there is to be hope, it must come from a different direction entirely. Abruptly, therefore, Paul introduces the work of Christ through which the curse of the law has been exhausted and in whom all who believe find salvation.

This is the first time Christ has been mentioned since the opening verse of the chapter, but now both he and his work are prominent. Christ is the only possible means of redemption. Since the “curse” of v.10 implies the idea of divine disapproval of the entire human race, the “us” in “Christ redeemed us” refers to both Jews and Gentiles. Paul goes on to show that the purpose of Christ’s death was that the blessing given to Abraham might come upon both Jew and Gentile.

To “redeem” (GK 1973) means “to buy out of slavery” by paying a price.

Christ paid this price by dying (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18–19). An alternate way of saying the same thing is to say that Christ became “a curse for us,” which Paul does. In what sense did Jesus do this? Paul’s quotation from Dt 21:23—“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—suggests that Jesus passed under the law’s curse in a technical way by virtue of the particular means by which he was executed. Thus, having violated the law in one part—through no fault of his own —he became technically guilty of all of it and bore the punishment of God’s wrath for every violation of the law by every person. But the curse of the law was not merely a technical thing; it was real. Jesus bore this real curse on our behalf when he died in our place. This can be understood in part both through the illustration of OT sacrifices (cf. the scapegoat taking away the curse of sin in Lev 16:5ff.) and in Christ’s cry of dereliction from the cross—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).