“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)

Paul here explains that when the Lord Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice on the cross, He did what was required to rescue any sinner from the curse of the law. Two connections add poignancy to this divine rescue operation.

The first connection involves the first created couple. They ignored the words of their Creator and listened instead to this false promise: “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened” (Genesis 3:4,5). They ate. The death Curse came.

They would not have eaten that fruit if they did not believe that doing so would add something desirable to their lives. We’ve known since then that “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

But the Father broke our Curse by sacrificing His Son, who was “made a curse for us” (our text). What, then, remains to be done? Though Adam and Eve ate a physical fruit, we must take in a spiritual food—the fruit of Him who hung on a tree for us.

The Lord Jesus instituted a regular supper to remind His followers of His sacrifice for them. “And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave it to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body” (Mark 14:22). When we take and eat that symbol of the Lord’s body, we remember that He was “wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5) in general and for each one of us in particular. BDT