He Took Our Curse Upon Him

Galatians 3:12-14Expanded Bible (EXB)

12 The law is not based on faith. ·It says [L Rather; On the contrary], “A person who ·obeys [does; practices] these things will ·live because of[gain life by/in] them [Lev. 18:5].” 13 Christ ·took away [redeemed us from; bought our freedom from] the curse ·the law put on us [L of the law]. ·He changed places with us and put himself under that curse [L …by becoming a curse for us]. [L For; Because] It is written in the Scriptures, “Anyone ·whose body is displayed [L who is hung] on a tree is cursed[Deut. 21:23; C an executed man’s body was hung on a stake or tree for humiliation and warning; Paul here applies it to Christ’s crucifixion as the curse/judgment for our sin].” 14 Christ did this so that God’s blessing promised to Abraham [Gen. 12:2–3] might come through Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. ·Jesus died so that by our believing […so that by faith] we could receive the Spirit that God promised.

Expanded Bible (EXB)

The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.

"He changed places with us and put Himself under that curse..."

When man was first created, God set him in a Garden.  Everything he needed was in the Garden, including the Tree of Life.  When he sinned, the environment changed.  "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat of the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:17b-19)

Thorns

Adam and Eve were "naked and unashamed" in the Garden of Eden.  There were many plants, including trees.  Except for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there were no plants in the Garden that would harm them.  Thorns are the result of sin.  Part of the curse was that Adam would have to cull the thorns and plow the ground, and grow his own food.  Briars and thistles would tear at his skin, and require him to be covered in protective clothing.

Now think of Jesus, "one who knew no sin became sin for us." (2 Corinthians 5:21).  When He humbled Himself and allowed Himself to be arrested and tried in a sham trial to be sentenced to death, the Roman soldiers mocked Him--they placed a purple robe upon Him (a color of royalty), and fashioned a crown of thorns to be placed upon His head.  He had already been whipped and was bleeding, and the thorns (the symbol and result of Original Sin) were jammed down onto His head, piercing his brow.  After they had mocked Him, they stripped Him bare and hung Him on a cross.  He was exposed, unprotected from the curse of sin.

Herbs

Back in Genesis 3, when God placed a curse on mankind for Adam's sin, He mentioned plants.  "And you will eat the plants of the field." (Genesis 3:18b).  How is this a curse?  Weren't they already eating fruit from the trees in the Garden?  Aside from having to toil for sustenance (if a man will not work, neither let him eat--2 Thessalonians 3:10), I believe this has a deeper meaning.

The word used for "plants" is also the word used elsewhere in Scripture, translated "herbs".  Men were to eat herbs, some of which were bitter tasting.  You may recall that when God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, He commanded them to prepare a Passover Lamb (a lamb without blemish, none of whose bones were to be broken--definitely a Messianic prophecy!) to be eaten with bitter herbs.  The bitter herbs were to remind them of the slavery and bondage in Egypt. The plants most often used today in the Passover meal are horseradish, or Romaine lettuce.

You will recall also that Jesus took the Passover with His disciples, which we now commemorate in Communion, or the Lord's Supper (depending upon your denomination).  John 13:26 describes Jesus taking the bread and dipping it into a broth of bitter herbs and handing it to Judas, who was to betray Him.  Jesus is the Bread of Life.  He was willing to be immersed (or baptized--see Mark 10:38) into the curse of bitterness (the herbs), beginning with the betrayal by Judas and ending with His burial.  

Therefore the bitter herbs in the Passover not only look back to the bondage of slavery that Israel escaped, but also looked forward to the curse of sin under which the Messiah would voluntarily go.

Sweat

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food." (Genesis 3:19)  Again, the curse of sin meant that man was destined for work all the days of his life.  This concept of works under law pre-dates the Mosaic Law by some 1500 years, yet it is much the same concept.  If you work faithfully, you will do well.  If you do not, then you abide under the curse.  It is only by God's grace that the curse can be broken.

We can work up a sweat by being active in a warm climate.  The sweat evaporates in the breeze, and cools us off.  Some of us have experienced a sauna (or the interior of a hot car) where no expending of energy is necessary.  The heat produces sweat.  When extreme heat is applied to something, it is sterilized--made clean, sanitized, decontaminated.

Let us look now to Jesus. Just prior to His arrest, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane--O, that Adam had done the same in the Garden of Eden!  "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44).  The medical condition is called hematidrosis, and it is a real thing--being so extremely anguished that the capillaries surrounding the sweat glands burst and a person literally bleeds through the sweat glands in his skin.  This was the first blood that Jesus shed for our sins.  It was after this that He was flogged, and the crown of thorns was put on His head.  The final drops of blood were spilled as He was crucified.

It is by this blood that we are made clean.  Revelation 1:5 says, "And from Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.  To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood." (NASB).  Some translations say, "Washed us from our sins by His blood."  We are washed, made clean, and released from the power of sin because of the blood that Jesus shed, beginning in the Garden and ending at the Cross.  On top of all that, He was raised from the dead and now lives in us to perfect His power within our lives.  Hallelujah!