Our Cursed Christ (A Good Friday Sermon)

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”-so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10-14)

The point of this sermon is very simple: for us to understand what Jesus was doing on the cross.

Jesus died. That’s what we remember today. He died as a convicted criminal on a Roman cross on a Friday afternoon in the first century on a hill outside Jerusalem. Those are the facts. But what was the meaning of his death? Why do Christians sing songs about a bloody cross? Why did the cross become the universal symbol for Christianity? What happened there on the instrument of execution?

It’s possible, likely in fact, that you have come here with positive thoughts about the cross, even warm feelings about the cross. You see Jesus hanging there and see a wonderful example of compassion and sacrifice. You find in the death of Jesus an inspiration to forgive and be kind to others. You may think of the cross as a powerful testimony of how much God loves the world. And for others, the overriding emotion in your heart in pity. You feel sorry for Jesus. You think about what a good man he was, and how young he was, and how mistreated he was. It’s common for people to turn the cross into nothing but a sad martyrdom or a sentimental statement about God’s unconditional love or how God feels our pain or how suffering is sacred or how we need to be courageous and principled like Jesus.

But brothers and sisters, these sentiments do not begin to explain the cross.

I dare say that most folks in this town know something about Good Friday, but many do not know the truth. At least not all of it. Or if we know the truth, we’ve forgotten it. Or its’ been crowded out by lesser things. Or maybe we’ve become ashamed of what we once knew, embarrassed by what the Scriptures actually say about Jesus’ death. Or perhaps we assume we’ve heard it all before and we already know all there is to know about what happened on this day.

Well here’s what happened: on the cross Christ set us free from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Now, that’s not all we can say about the cross. But there is nothing we can say about the cross apart from this. Whatever else this day is about, whatever else we remember on Good Friday, whatever else you find moving or inspiring or motivational or spiritual about this day-none of it matters and none of it holds together unless this is true: that on the cross Christ redeemed from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

Death through Self-Reliance

Here’s our problem as human beings. It’s stated in verse 10: “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.” Now the law of God is not bad. The law is a reflection of God’s character. It is holy and right and good. We ought to obey God’s commands. We ought to pursue righteousness and justice and holiness. The problem here is not with the law or with a desire to obey the law. The problem is with those who rely on the law. And we are all hard-wired to rely on the law.

Paul is talking about a religious approach that does not work. If you think you are going to get to God or get right with God or have a relationship with God traveling down this road marked “law” you are going to fail. You may think that you succeed. You may feel like a good person. You may imagine yourself to be a rather decent fellow because you are not like other really bad people. But the Bible tells us that if you rely on works of the law you will be cursed.

Why? Because we cannot keep the law. You may keep some laws. You may be keep them better than other people. You may improve in some areas. But you and I cannot keep the law of God. Do you really love God with all your heart and all you soul and all your strength and all your mind? Can you really say there is nothing you ever want or love more than God? Can I say that I truly love my neighbor as myself? That I am always tuned in to other people’s needs and desires more than my own. That I always treat people how I would want to be treated. That I am always fair and honest and truthful and kind and never judgmental, selfish, and proud? Can I say that?

“Well,” you say, “I know I’m not perfect. But I’m not that bad. I don’t deserve any kind of punishment.” But what happens when you break one of the laws of the State of Michigan? If you get pulled over for speeding can you get out of your ticket because you did not murder someone? If your company poisons the water supply will it be let off the hook because it follows zoning requirements? If you kick someone in the gut and steal his wallet is it no big deal as long as you paid your taxes?

The problem with each one of us is that we are worse than we think. We do not keep all of God’s commands Not even close. And even the ones we think we keep we do not keep with the right motives or for the right reasons. So we are going to be in a heap of trouble if we rely on works of the law. That’s why Paul quotes from the Old Testament in verse 10: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Some of the Galatians would have been surprised to hear Paul talk this way. They knew the book of Deuteronomy and knew the verse Paul was quoting. But they believed that was about other people. That was about pagans, about Gentiles. But here Paul says it is also about them. The curse is upon everyone and anyone who does not do everything that God commands. No one can be justified, none can be acquitted, none can be declared innocent, no one will go free, no one can be right before God based on this principle of lawkeeping. Whoever relies on the law for his religion is under a curse.

Now, you may not like this idea of curses. You may not think of God that way. You may want a God who does nothing but bless and affirm and encourage. But if you think about it for just a minute, such an idea hardly makes sense. What kind of parent would you be if all you did was affirm and encourage? What kind of coach would Tom Izzo be if all he did was pat people on the back and say “Atta boy!” (He wouldn’t be Tom Izzo that’s for sure.) Well, what kind of God never judges? What kind of God has no standards? We may all like the idea of a God without judgment for us, but such a God becomes monstrous when we think of everyone getting away with everything. A God who simply gives a wink and a smile to corrupt dictators and racial bigots and murderers is not a God worthy of worship. Such a deity would be out of step with all semblance of justice. Deep down, we want a God with laws. We want a God who makes things right. We want a God who smiles on righteousness and is angry with wickedness. We just don’t want a God who could be angry with us.

But you know what—it’s not our place to make God the way we want him to be. He is God. He made us and we will one day stand before him. The essence of human rebellion is that we would put God on trial instead of us. But the Bible says it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Heb. 9:27).

So the question is how can we be confident on that day of judgment. Galatians 3 says we are under a curse if we try to stand before him on the basis of our lawkeeping. We can’t do it. We can’t be justified by trying to be good people-whether that means keeping the Sabbath like a good Jew would in the first century or caring for the poor like a good person would in our century. We are sinners, fundamentally flawed in our thinking, our feeling, and our doing. That’s our problem. And that’s bad news.

Life through Execution

But here’s the good news: there is an answer for our problem. On the cross Christ set us free from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. You’ll notice that Paul quotes from the Old Testament again in verse 13. He actually quotes from Deuteronomy again, just like he did in verse 10. According to Deuteronomy 21:23 everyone hanged on a tree was cursed. That makes sense. If you see someone hanging from a tree, they’ve been executed. And if they’ve been execute they must been an especially nasty criminal. So of course criminals are cursed. That’s not a controversial.

But then notice, Paul has the audacity to apply this verse to Jesus. He hung on a tree, on a wooden cross, just like a condemned criminal. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say “Christ became a curse for us.” If this weren’t in the Bible we’d have a hard time saying it: we worship a cursed Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians 12:3 sometime. Paul there is explaining that some people say by the Spirit “Jesus is Lord” and other people say, not by the Spirit, “Jesus is accursed.” It seems that one of the things the opponents of Christianity said was, “Look, you don’t worship the true God. How can you believe Jesus is any kind of Lord? He died on a tree. He was executed as a criminal. Jesus is not Lord. Jesus is accursed.” It was a blasphemous thing to say, as they mean it. Jesus was not some wicked imposter who deserved to die. And yet, there is another sense in which we do worship an accursed Christ. Galatians 3:13 says so. That Christ became a curse is what makes Good Friday good.

And that’s always been the scandal of Christianity. Even today, even among many professing Christians, even among many people and institutions that fancy themselves evangelical, we find an embarrassment (if not an outright rejection) of this idea that Christ was our substitute, bearing our penalty, facing the wrath of God that should have been ours.

Blessing through Cursing

What did it mean to be cursed? Think of the scene in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. After taking a bite of the forbidden fruit Adam is cursed, Eve is cursed, the serpent is cursed, the ground is cursed. The curse is God’s just punishment for lawbreaking sinners.

Or think of the promise in Genesis 12. God promises to bless Abraham and make him a blessing and bless those who bless him. But whoever opposes Abraham and his family God will curse. To be cursed was to be outside the line of God’s chosen people, apart from God’s family. To be cursed was to have God turn everything for your ill, instead of using everything for you good.

Or think of Deuteronomy 28. Moses first announces all the blessings that will come upon Israel if they obey. They will have good harvests and fruitful wombs and military success and peace and prosperity. “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out” (v. 6). And then Moses announces all the curses that will come upon Israel if they do not do all that he commands. They will have pestilence and disease. They will be defeated by their enemies. They will have drought and famine. They will experience “extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sickness grievous and lasting” (v. 59). “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out” (v. 16). This is what it meant to be under the curse of God. And this is what Jesus became for us.

At the end of our worship services I stand in the back and give a benediction to close the service. It’s a blessing on the people. The most common one is the priestly blessing from Numbers 6. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” That’s the best description of blessing in the Old Testament. To be cursed is to have just the opposite of this benediction: “The Lord curse you and forsake you. The Lord make his face frown upon you and be angry with you. The Lord turn his back upon you and give you wrath.”

This was the experience of Christ on the cross. He was not a victim and God was not an abusive Father. The plan of redemption was carried out in complete unison-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We must not think God was taking out his frustrations on Jesus. But in love, God punished his own Son for our sakes. And in love, Christ redeemed us free from the curse by become a curse for us. “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes were are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Everyone knows the cross is about the love of God. But it is no cheap, sentimental, look-at-how-special-we-are kind of love. It is a costly, deep, rich, free, wrath-sustaining, burden-bearing, grace-saturated, in-my-place-condemned-he-stood kind of love. 1 John 4:8 says God is love, and then verse 10 explains what this love is like. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [the curse-bearer, the one to turn away the wrath of God] for our sins.”

That’s what happened on the cross. Do you get it? Do you believe it? Do you cherish it? Works do not work. The only way to be right with God is to lay hold of Christ. God acted in Christ to save us, and therefore we must be in Christ to be saved. Works do not work. But as Galatians 3:11 tell us, “The righteous shall live by faith.” The good news of the gospel is that faith is able to receive what the law could never accomplish. Trust in this Christ who died on the cross. Don’t trust in your unimpressive obedience. Don’t trust in your good intentions. Don’t trust in your religious habits or heritage. Don’t even trust in your trusting. Just trust in the one hanging on the tree. All the blessings of the Garden of Eden and of Abraham and of Israel and of Number 6 are found in Christ alone. It is only in worshiping this cursed Christ that you and I can be set free from the curse we justly deserve.