Reading: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”—Galatians 3:13
Pause and contemplate the unspeakable mercies contained in those precious words. However little you have regarded them, yet they contain the whole blessings of the gospel. It is Jesus, in this one glorious act of his faith, that the sinner should be continually looking to. There, the believer should say, hangs my hope, my joy, my confidence. Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law, being made a curse for me.”
Now, observe how Jesus accomplished this great mercy. Whatever Christ redeemed the sinner from, He became that for him. In the act of redemption, by substituting himself in the sinner’s place, He redeemed him from that place, by standing there Himself. Hence, as the sinner stood before God, accursed of sin; so Christ, by taking the sinner’s sin upon himself, and standing in his stead to answer for it, was made a curse also. If, therefore, Christ will come under the law for sinners, that law will have as much to demand of him, as of sinners.
If Jesus, from His boundless love and mercy, will take the sinner’s curse on himself, the law will speak as harsh to him as the sinner that is under the curse: and not only speak, but exact from him all that could be demanded from the sinner.
Pause then, and ask, did Jesus, thus stand for me and was He made a curse for me? Did he really, truly suffer the cursed sinner’s punishment, and die, the just for the unjust, to bring sinners to God? Look to it then, my soul; he has bought you out, paid the full ransom, and taken away both sin and the curse of sin, by the sacrifice of himself. Shout, my soul, rejoice and shout, “Salvation to God and to the Lamb!”
Taken from The Poor Man’s Evening and Morning Portions by Rev. Robert Hawker, Works, Vol. 8; 1830. Edited by Aaron Dunlop for thinkgospel.com ©2013.
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