Jesus Came under the Curse for Us

Open the Bible UK Daily

They crucified him.

Mark 15:24

Why crucifixion? Why did Jesus die this way rather than another way? No one was crucified in the Old Testament. Among the Jews, capital punishment was by stoning.

The Old Testament had one rite that helps us to understand the meaning of crucifixion: "If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God” (Deut. 21:22-23).

But if execution in the Old Testament was by stoning, why would anyone be hung on a tree? Because hanging someone from a tree was not a form of capital punishment, but of humiliation, since it followed death. Publicly exposing an executed person like this branded him as one who was cursed by God.

The New Testament takes up this theme: “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"' (Gal. 3:13). So, when Mark says, "They crucified him,' people who knew their Old Testament would immediately think: “He was under the curse of God!”

A condemned man was put to death and then hung on a tree. But Jesus was hung on the tree before His death. He was consciously, publicly under the curse of God, and He did this for us.

Why would the sinless Christ come under the curse of God? The Bible tells us that He was bearing our sins: “For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin…” (2 Cor. 5:21). What happened when Jesus died? He came under the curse for us. He was nailed to a tree. They crucified Him.

Jesus was under the curse of God, and He did this for you. How do you make sense of this in your own mind? What does this mean to you?