The redemption plan is the apex of God’s Creation. It’s the great mystery: God becoming man. (1Ti3:16) I’ve heard it said and I believe it to be true: the Gospel can be preached simply, but there is no such thing as a simple Gospel.
The Gospel – the life, death, and rising of Christ – is incredibly deep. It was just this Sunday while in Church and we were contemplating the crucifixion of Christ, the idea came back to my mind of the significance of why Christ was crucified. Granted, there are many reasons, but there was one that gripped my mind that day: Jesus Christ had to be crucified because it signified what he literally became: a curse.
Let me explain quickly before I give my text. One of the reasons Christ had to die by crucifixion was because of what it signified. Jesus would be lifted OFF the earth. It was equivalent to being hung from a tree, fixed as it were, between Earth and Heaven, worthy of neither, offered up for judgement to the Heavens. I’m not just saying that because it sounds nice. It is written, Cursed is he that hangs from a tree.
Deu 21:22-23 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
In this week as many will contemplate Christ’s sacrifice, it is worthy to understand the significance of the cross and why it had to be that way. From the times of old it had been understood that if one was hanged, it signified that they were cursed. How that actually came about, I don’t know for sure, but God saw it that way in the Law.
Maybe it has something to do with offering up the offense to Heaven for judgement? Perhaps it related to the idea that the cursed was not worthy of being on the earth? Either way, we know for certain that Christ hanging on the cross was intentionally because He was to be a curse as this very idea is mentioned in Galatians 3:13.
The tree was already dead. It had been hewn down, but it was still a tree of sorts. Perhaps there was no rope involved, but hang did the Christ. We know He hung from the methodology of crucifixion where one had to ‘lift’ themselves up in order to breath. It was an advanced form of hanging if you please.
As we head further into a week where many will look at the cross and miss the depth and the legality of it all, take some time to ponder this: Christ, the God-man, the man without sin, became a curse for you. He voluntarily offered himself in the place of the condemned. It was not simply metaphysical. It was played out literally. That’s one of the many reasons why Christ had to be crucified: because it was His life’s purpose to become a curse that those who had done the deed could be set free. Hanging there, as He cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me??’ came there on Him who knew no sin the wrath of God that only He could bear and come out alive. He was cursed so you and I could be blessed.
Talking Bible 
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