Christ Made a Curse

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Part of a sermon from John Calvin’s Sermons on Galatians

If our only hope of salvation rested upon the condition that we fulfill our duty, we would all be condemned; for we have all fallen short in many different ways and are, therefore, guilty in the eyes of God. Indeed, even the holiest amongst us can never claim to have reached a state of perfection, never again to fall, and free from all infirmity! We are, therefore, led to conclude that we will all be lost and condemned when God calls us to account. This is man’s true condition, despite the high regard he may have for himself! Therefore, we need some means of escape from the curse we are under. Otherwise, what good will it do us to have our ears daily assailed by the Word of God? It will only push us closer towards eternal death. Thus, in order that the Word of God should profit and assist us to find salvation, we have to find a way of escape from the sentence of judgment pronounced upon the human race. Paul points out the way of escape to us here: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” He shows us that it was not in vain that our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the tree; for He suffered to bear the curse of all those He would call to salvation.

As we have said, we are all under this curse, which means it was necessary for our Lord to take our burden of sin upon Himself. In the law of Moses it is written, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Our Lord commanded that the bodies of the dead should be removed from sight, because it was a disgrace to see a human body thus defiled, and therefore He desired it to be taken away. Yet, when God pronounced this curse upon all who hung upon a tree, He knew only too well what was going to happen to His only Son. For the Lord Jesus Christ did not suffer such a death by accident, nor according to the whim of man. Whilst it is true that He was crucified by unbelievers, it had been ordained by the will of God (Acts 2:23; 4:28). As it is written, God so loved the world that He did not even spare His only Son, but delivered Him up to death for us. Indeed, if His death had been determined by Judas alone, who had Him wickedly and forcibly led away, this could not be the foundation for our salvation at all! We must remember that God had appointed it thus, as Peter expounds in greater depth in Acts 2:23, where he states that the wicked hands that crucified our Lord Jesus did no more than God had previously determined in His will. Thus, when we read that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, we must remember that it was all for our salvation, because by this means God was seeking to reconcile us to Himself. Therefore when God said, “Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree,” He was not ignorant of what was going to occur, for all had been settled and predetermined.

How precious to Him we must have been for Him to allow Himself to experience such extreme suffering for our redemption! If we could but taste something of what this implies, we would forever magnify the unspeakable grace which surpasses all human understanding.

These two facts must be carefully held together—that God has said that whoever hangs upon a tree is cursed, but that it was His will for His own Son to suffer thus. Why was this? He took our burden upon Himself, as our Substitute, and made Himself, as it were, the chief of sinners on our behalf. Jesus Christ became a curse in order to deliver us from the curse of the law. It may seem harsh and strange at first sight that the Lord of Glory, He who has all sovereign authority, and before whom all the angels of heaven tremble and prostate themselves, should be subject to a curse. But we must call to mind what Paul wrote in the first letter to the Corinthians, that is to say, that gospel teaching is foolishness to the human race, who regard themselves as wise (1 Corinthians 1:18,23).

Indeed, in this way God humbles us for our folly. For there is enough wise and good instruction, if we care to heed to it, in the heaven and earth around us; yet we are blind and shut our eyes to God’s wisdom displayed in nature. This is why He has opened up a new way to draw us to Himself—through something which we deem foolish! Thus, we must not judge what we read here, concerning the curse to which the Son of God was subject, by our own reasoning. Instead, we should delight in such a mystery and give glory to God that He loved our souls so much that He redeemed them at such inestimable cost to Himself. Far from detracting from the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, or obscuring the glory which the Holy Scripture attribute to Him, this teaching provides occasion to glorify Him even more.

Indeed, may we all do so, for here is our Lord Jesus Christ refusing to consider it robbery (as Paul expresses it) to reveal Himself in His infinite glory (Philippians 2:6). He willingly emptied Himself; He not only took upon Himself a human nature and became a man, but He also submitted to a most shameful death in the sight of both God and man. How precious to Him we must have been for Him to allow Himself to experience such extreme suffering for our redemption! If we could but taste something of what this implies, we would forever magnify the unspeakable grace which surpasses all human understanding. However, although we cannot comprehend it fully, and can only fathom the hundredth part of it, it delights us to know that we can grasp something of its meaning, however small! Yet how this exposes the malice and perversity that is in man! For when Paul declares that our Lord Jesus Christ became a curse for us, it washes over us. There are even those who are so depraved that they will see this as an occasion to behave scandalously, abandoning the gospel altogether when they hear of the way in which Christ has redeemed us. Such people say, “What! Can it be that the Son of God, the fountain of all that is good, and the One who sanctifies us, has been cursed?” To their way of thinking, God has acted in an unreasonable and disorderly fashion! But (as I have been saying), God had to stoop to this “folly” because we did not respond to His wisdom, though the way was clearly evident; thus He exposes our own ignorance! We can only wonder at the mysteries of God, for their significance may be obscure to us and seem strange; for in the face of such wonders, our intellect fails and our powers of reasoning are unfounded!

The fact that the Son of God became a curse for us demands a fuller examination of our sinful state. Indeed, we begin to realize that we are detestable in the eyes of God, that is, until our sins and iniquities have been cleansed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For even if all the angels of heaven were to be made answerable for us, the price they would pay would be insufficient. The only One able to make satisfaction for our sins is the Lord Jesus Christ. But, when He came to this world, it was not by a display of divine and heavenly power that He paid our debt of eternal death. How, then, did He come? In weakness; indeed, not only so, but He was accursed. If this had not been the case, our burden would have crushed us and all would have perished in the abyss. When we understand that the Son of God, the Lamb without blemish, the Mirror and Fountain of all righteousness, that this One was cursed for us, should we not be horrified at the thoughts of all our sins and engulfed in despair until God rescues us in His grace and infinite mercy? Therefore, let us be aware that when God says He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, it is to bring us to a state of complete humility. We can never be humble unless we are first stripped of self-confidence and become ashamed of what lies within us. Then we are frightened and lost, knowing that the wrath of God hangs over us until the remedy is applied to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, our whole life is detestable in God’s sight and there is no means of reconciliation with Him apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the curse which is upon us and bears it Himself.

Now, each time that we read this passage, we should arise and present ourselves before the judgment seat of God, aware that there is a pit waiting to swallow us up if we remain as we are. Let us feel our lost condition and be ashamed before God. Furthermore, let us magnify the grace bought for us by the Son of God, and be careful not to detract from His worth in any way whatsoever, even though He became a curse. This ought, rather, to stir us to render all the praise that He deserves, for He has proved our salvation to be so precious to Him.

Moreover, let us properly appreciate such a pledge of our salvation and display of the love God has for us, and let us not doubt that we are acceptable in God’s sight when we approach Him. For He has redeemed us at such a cost, as Peter shows us in his first epistle—not with silver or corruptible things but with the Lord Jesus Christ who became a ransom for us (1 Peter 1:18). Therefore, we must trust that whenever we come in His name to ask for mercy, it will be bestowed upon us. But if we come believing that we have a scrap of merit, what good is it? We know how much the Father loves the Son, and how precious His death was in His sight. For this reason, we can have full confidence that God will forgive us and be favorable and kind to us if we cleave to what Paul shows us here: namely, that our Lord Jesus Christ spared nothing for us, even to the point of bearing our curse.

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