God’s Word for You

Galatians 3:13-14 Justification

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, July 10, 2024

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 He did this so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the Spirit whom God promised us.

To “redeem” someone in Greek is the idea of buying back a captive, such as with a ransom payment. This is what Christ did, buying us back with his own blood rather than silver or gold (1 Peter 1:18-19), purchasing our freedom from the curse.

The curse is this: Man stands condemned by God for sin, and sin is made known through the law (Romans 3:20, 7:7). By failing to keep God’s will, expressed in the law, we are cursed. But now Paul explains just how Jesus took our curse on himself and in our place. He redeemed us, which means he bought us back by paying the price of our condemnation. “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:4), but Jesus became the one who died, even though he never sinned. He is just, righteous, and innocent, but he took our sins on himself so that they might all be thrown upon him, on his account, on his shoulders, upon his own body, that he might endure the punishment for them: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), and John calls him “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). So in the judgment of God, Christ was considered to be sin, and also he was cursed (2 Corinthians 5:21). And Paul also supplies this verse from Moses, who said: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23).

How will a translator handle this verse? Will he say, “hangs, “is hanged,” or “is hung”? It’s worth taking a moment to explore these three possibilities and notice Paul’s actual Greek word. Paul quotes Moses using the Greek participle ho kremámenos (ὁ κρεμάμενος).

The past tense words “hung” and “hanged” do not have the same meaning in English. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says: “The standard rule for the past tense of hang is this: in almost all situations, you should use the word hung. Use hanged when referring to a person being suspended by a rope around the neck until dead.” The issue then is whether “hanged” would be appropriate for the Lord to say to Moses, since this verse is applied in Old Testament cases where there was not necessarily an execution by hanging (that is, with a rope), but where a dead body was hung on a tree. This might have been the case with the King of Ai (Joshua 8:29). Also, Saul’s headless corpse was fastened to the wall of Beth Shan (1 Samuel 31:10), a wall that may have been wood at that time (therefore a “tree”) and not stone.

More importantly, we know that Christ was not hanged, but hung, that is, nailed, to the cross. Of course, this is a problem in English, but not in Greek, where the same word is used no matter how the criminal was executed. However, some English translations try to avoid the problem by bringing the verb into the active voice rather than the passive, and they can simply say “who hangs on a tree.” While this is a valid translation choice, it might cause confusion as to the exact meaning of “hangs.”

Christ allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, but he did not participate by helping the soldiers accomplish their gruesome task. His death stands in place of all our deaths in the judgment of God. He paid the price so that we owe nothing for our salvation. God’s purpose of placing the curse on Christ was so that all people might be justified by Christ, and so that we might have the Spirit of God promised to us. We call this “objective justification.” This term means that all people were declared justified, not guilty, at the moment in time when Christ died for our sins on the cross and was raised again from the dead (Romans 5:18, 4:25; 2 Corinthians 5:19). Professor Gerhard writes: “Christ obtained for us the grace of justification with his completely holy merit.” There is also a subjective justification, which happens to the individual sinner, such as when the tax collector appealed to God’s grace and mercy (Luke 18:9-14). These are not two different doctrines, but the very same doctrine seen from two different points of view. The work of Christ in God’s divine courtroom and on the cross won objective (or universal) justification for all mankind. When the individual person comes to faith and believes and trusts in Jesus, this is subjective (or personal) justification. Problems arise in understanding when subjective justification is emphasized over objective justification. But when we remember that “we are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when we believe” (Augsburg Confession, Article IV:2), both of these are applied to the Christian at the same time. “Justified for Christ’s sake” refers to the act in the days of Pontius Pilate when this took place: our objective justification. “Through faith when we believe” refers to the act in the believer’s own lifetime when this was apprehended by the Christian: your subjective justification. Notice also how I just used the words “our” and “your.”

This is what our churches believe, teach, and confess together. This is what our Lord wants us all to believe and to trust. Through this faith, you have a place with Jesus forever in heaven.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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