Galatians 3:13 says that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.” But what does this mean, to be redeemed from the curse of the law?

 

By the death and resurrection of Jesus, He paid the price for you and for me. He Himself became the sacrifice for our sins. He Himself died so that we could live. He bore our sicknesses so we could have health. He redeemed us from the curse of the law of sin and death.

 

The law as described in the New Testament is usually considered to be the Pentateuch, or more clearly the first five books of the Bible. In these first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the curse or punishment for breaking God’s law is broken down into three basic categories.

 

#1 the curse of poverty

#2 the curse of sickness

#3 the curse of spiritual death

 

In Deuteronomy 28:15 the Bible says, “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you.” Then it lists curses all the way to verse 60 -- forty-five verses of sicknesses and financial disasters that would happen if the law was not kept. Then in verse 61 the list concludes by saying that not only would these things that were listed happen, but any sickness, disease or catastrophe that was not listed would happen also.

 

In other words, not keeping the law was disastrous and even worse, it was nearly impossible to keep the law. So, poverty, sickness and spiritual death were virtually assured.

 

But today, I have good news. When it seemed like there was no hope, God made a way. And that’s just like God. He always makes a way of escape for those who seek Him.

 

Jesus became our Redeemer. He made a way of escape from poverty, sickness and spiritual death.

 

However, some Christians do not understand that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. They accept sickness and poverty as part of the Christian lifestyle. This should not be. We have been set free from the curse of the law. We need to start acting like it.

 

When you take a coupon to the grocery store, you use it instead of using money. In other words you redeem the coupon. It takes the place of your money. Your money becomes redeemed because the coupon was the redeemer. Well, that’s what Jesus did.

 

We had a debt. That debt was the curse of the law. But the problem was, we could not pay the debt. It required a perfect sacrifice. It required a sacrifice that was pure before God. We were not pure. Our debt was impossible to pay.

 

But then Jesus came to earth as a man and died in our place. He took stripes on His body for our sicknesses. He redeemed us. He paid the debt we could not pay.